Reports that Tilney Bestinvest has made a foray into robo-advice are wrong, a director at the firm has told Financial Planner Online.
The Financial Planning business announced earlier in the week it would be adding new ready made portfolios for clients using its online investment service.

Although the tool is delivered online, Jason Hollands, the managing director for business development and communications said it was not, as had been suggested by some media outlets, a form of automated advice. In fact, no advice is offered at all, he stressed.

Mr Hollands said what the firm was doing “wasn’t rocket science”, merely making investment simpler because “that's what many people are after”.

He told Financial Planner Online: “We certainly wouldn’t describe these as robo-advice – indeed no advice is given at all and we don’t seek any personal information about the investors circumstances or suitability.

“The ready made portfolios provide a simple journey for execution-only investors to self-select an account type (ISA, Sipp, JISA or general account) and choose from four multi-asset portfolios based on a description of the portfolio’s objectives and riskiness of the strategy (with the ability to drill down and see more detailed information on the portfolio) and choose whether or not to purchase accumulation or income units.

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“There are no algorithms determining which portfolio an investors should purchase and the funds themselves are managed by our investment team based on their fundamental views on asset allocation and fund selection, not a computer model.”

The new function has been designed for investors who don’t believe they require advice. It is aimed at those who know what account they want to invest in and want a managed product, rather than that to build their own portfolio, he explained.

Although the tool is delivered online, investors can call and speak to Tilney staff or "live chat" if they have a query.

Mr Hollands said: “Robo advice is the latest buzzword in the industry and it certainly makes good copy for the picture desks but ‘advice’ delivered wholly by algorithms has real limitations in my view.

“To steal and twist a quote from the explorer David Livingstone, ‘reports of the death of face to face advice have been greatly exaggerated’.”

He said: “Our own view is that sound financial advice is always personalised not generic, with suitability of paramount importance. This is rightly delivered by an expert Financial Planner or investment adviser based on an understanding of the client’s needs which are best identified through a meeting as these are not always reducible to a set questionnaire.”

The four portfolios offered are: aggressive growth, growth, defensive and income. In each case the firm levies a 0.75% AMC.

Tilney said, however, as these are funds of funds it was important to look at the ongoing charges figures rather than AMC. Across the four portfolios, the average OCF is 1.53.