Beating robos at their own game

The robo-advisor threat to human advisors is real, so it’s time for traditional advisory firms to join the digital revolution, financial technology experts say.

“I think robo-advisors will be good for us. They’re the best disruptor I’ve seen,” said Bob Curtis, chief executive and founder of PIEtech Inc., developer of the MoneyGuidePro financial-planning software for advisors.

Curtis stepped forward with his view of the future of advice delivery at the Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference for enterprises in Atlanta on Wednesday. He spoke to an audience of 280 independent broker-dealer reps, tech vendors and other players in the advisor industry, many of whom appeared eager to understand the threat from so-called “robo-advisors” — online investment platforms such as Wealthfront and Betterment — in order to better compete with them online for client share.