Wells Fargo Finally Launches Its Robo-Advisory Service

The Wells Fargo robo offering is "designed to meet today's younger investors where they are — online," said Jon Weiss, the head of Wealth and Investment Management, in a Q&A published on the bank's website. "It delivers what they want — a convenient, low-cost way to participate in the markets and pursue wealth over time."

Roughly 20 million of the bank's 72 million customers are millennial and Gen X clients who don't have investment accounts at the bank.

The robo offering, developed with SigFig, includes nine different portfolios, ranging from conservative income to aggressive growth, each consisting of eight to 14 ETFs and charging a typical fee of 15 basis points.

In addition to online investment profiling and phone access to financial advisors, Intuitive Investor offers automated rebalancing and optional tax-loss harvesting and single sign-on integration with the bank's online and mobile banking services, plus personalized communications. Those services are typical of most robo offerings. 

(Related: Merrill Edge Exec: What New Technology Means for Clients)

The fees and minimums of Intuitive Investor, however, are generally higher than those of other robo-advisory services, including those from other banks and brokerages. Merrill Edge Guided Investing, for example, has a $5,000 minimum and charges 45 basis points annually, and Betterment requires no minimum and charges 25 basis points annually.