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Bank of America has put dozens of employees to work on an automated investment prototype for Merrill Edge, which targets accounts under $250,000. The firm intends to unveil the service next year, joining mutual fund giants like Charles Schwab Corp., Vanguard Group and BlackRock Inc., who have all created their own offerings.
“That is a real threat to our business, because we are disproportionately full-service, high-value-added, person-to-person activity, which isn’t for everybody,” John Shrewsberry, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer, said in June. “There’s generations of tomorrow’s investors coming up today who may be more attracted to something less person-to-person and more technologically enabled.” Bank of America sees an opportunity “for a robo-advised offering that could complement the advice and guidance offered by our financial solutions advisers,” said Anne Pace, a company spokeswoman.
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