Motif Investing, a pioneer in ideas-based investing, announced Thursday that it has received a new injection of $35 million in funding and is launching a series of motifs as well as a flat-fee offering to help advisors compete with their automated competition.
The new Horizon motifs were released Thursday, and Motif plans to launch in June a series of smart beta motifs exclusively for advisors who use the Motif Advisor Platform.
Silicon Valley-based Motif, launched by former Microsoft executive Hardeep Walia, says the Horizon motifs provide advisors and self-directed retail investors with simple, commission-free allocation models and rebalancing as well as no added management fees, which runs counter to "robo-advisors," which can be accompanied by management fees ranging from 0.15%-0.35% of total assets per year.
"Motif Horizon is a six-asset-class allocation model in a single motif," Walia told ThinkAdvisor. It's "great for DIY investors and advisors that want to wrap an advisory fee around a free product."
Walia said that "a lot of our advisor clients say 'how do we compete'" with robo-advisors. But a "robo-advisor is a robo-allocator, they don't really give advice. We want the advisor to give advice, and now they have zero-cost" smart beta products to use.
The smart beta motifs will offer 23 asset classes through multiple motifs.
Motif also announced that it is offering a "cost-effective flat-fee offering that will empower advisors to compete more effectively against robo-advisors and fully serve clients for a fraction of the cost of many current alternatives." The service starts at $20 per customer per month.
The flat fee includes unlimited trading and rebalancing, access to the Motif Advisor Platform, and access to all motifs including the soon-to-be released smart beta models.
