The investing world has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades. What was once reserved for the wealthy has now become available to everyone thanks to the proliferation of WealthTech and digital investing tools.
Digital trading platforms like Robinhood and WealthSimple have enabled more people to plan for their future by creating portfolios. Whether it is through newly popularised models like ETFs or getting involved with stock market indexes, individuals can now load up a mobile app and allocate funds to invest, with some allowing minimum investments from just $1.
Retail investors are quickly becoming a sizable market. A report from CoinLaw claims retail investors in the US account for around 20% of the daily US equity trading, up from 10% a decade ago.
Investing can be daunting and many retail investors are going to opt for the easiest entry point, especially for those with limited free time. One that allows them to quickly decide how much they wish to invest and have the app automatically handle the allocations. However, there are a rising number of people that are looking to take full control of their future.
Self-serve or DIY investing is becoming a popular method of managing finances. A recent study in Canada by the B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) found that 43% of Canadian investors have some DIY investments and 64% have an advisor. However, a third of those with an advisor also self-manage some of their investments.
Speaking to FinTech Global, Ralf Heim, founder and co-CEO fincite, believes self-service investing will become a core aspect in the future of wealth management. He said, “Self-service investment tools will be a cornerstone of the future of wealth management.”
He attributed this to the rise of client demand for greater transparency, control and participation in the investment journey. This isn’t just limited to self-directed investors; all levels of services, from execution-only mandates to fully advised and discretionary portfolios, are experiencing this.
“The real “alpha” of the future won’t just come from outperforming benchmarks—it will come from helping clients reach their personal goals,” he added. “That’s why customer experience will soon matter as much as portfolio construction.”
While traditional wealth management often relied on quarterly advisor meetings, nowadays clients want to interact with digital tools multiple times a week. “This shift opens up major opportunities for wealth firms: Higher retention through ongoing engagement, greater perceived value via real-time insights and education, and significant advisor efficiency as software scales the human touch. In short, self-service tools won’t replace advisors—but they will become essential in delivering the hybrid, goal-based advice model that clients increasingly expect.”
Fredrik Davéus, CEO and co-founder of Kidbrooke shared a similar view on their growing importance. He said, “As client expectations evolve, the demand for autonomy and flexibility in financial decision-making is accelerating. Self-service investment tools are no longer just a nice-to-have, but they are becoming foundational to modern wealth management strategies.”
Why a rise in popularity?
The increased level of autonomy is a large driver for self-service investing. Friedhelm Schmitt, Founder & Co-CEO fincite, described, “Control is the new trust. Clients today don’t just want to be advised; they want to participate.”
Access to self-service capabilities allows them to have a level of agency over their financial futures. Staying on a similar theme, Schmitt added, “Transparency is power. Modern investors want to understand how decisions are made and what’s happening behind the curtain. That demand for visibility is a key driver of self-service adoption.”
While the desire for greater control and transparency helps give some understanding to the interest in self-directed investing, it doesn’t give the full picture. Gaining greater transparency can be provided through a clear dashboard for a portfolio and doesn’t necessarily require someone to take full control of where their money goes.
Sarlota Hohwald, director, wealth data solutions at LSEG, believes the popularity comes down to convenience.
Hohwald explained, “The continuing influx of younger and more digital-savvy investors has brought a step change in investor behaviours and driven the need for investing services to become convenient, approachable, affordable and frictionless – services that cut out the intermediaries and don’t require a trip to the local family advisor or bank branch and services which can be accessed anywhere, anytime within power apps just like users are accustomed to accessing their favourite movies, social channels or music on smartphones.
“Modern, digital-first online platforms have led the charge in self-directed investing by simplifying investing, often gamifying it, lowering fees substantially into low/no fee models, and have made investing accessible to the masses. These platforms have stretched the traditional data boundaries for investment research and in conjunction with technical advancements, there is now general access to much more organized and personalized information (data), cutting out noise and empowering the self-directed market to make confident, independent decisions.”
Another factor attracting people to self-service tools could be the fact they seem less imposing than searching for the right advisors to work with or picking between portfolios. Davéus said, “Self-service tools are gaining traction because they offer a less intimidating and more empowering experience for clients. Many users perceive assisted channels as sales-driven or biased, whereas self-service tools give them space to explore options without pressure.
“We consistently see in customer data that end-clients value the opportunity to experiment and educate themselves. These tools give clients a “safe zone” where they can ask seemingly “stupid” questions and deepen their understanding before making any commitments. While final decisions are often made in assisted channels, where emotional support or confirmation is desired, that first self-directed step is critical. This makes it essential for wealth management firms to offer high-quality, intuitive self-service tools that genuinely support decision-making, not just navigation.”
The pros and cons of self-service
As with anything, there are pros and cons to self-investing and investors will always need to decide what side outweighs the other.
On the pros side, Hohwald highlighted self-service can be cost effective and transparent, allowing investors to retain more of their returns by avoiding advisory fees or commissions. Secondly, it also provides real-time access to portfolios and information, empowering real-time decisions without waiting for human interventions. Finally, it allows greater alignment with investor values, goals and interests.
Adding to these, Davéus also noted they allow investors to self-educate and explore markets at their own pace. Other pros include the ability to boost confidence and improve user satisfaction through low-friction access to information and functionality.
Rounding off the pros, Schmitt noted a pro for the firm. He said, “Empowerment scales. Self-service tools allow firms to reach more clients efficiently, and clients feel more confident when they have direct access to information and action.”
On the reverse, the speakers all pointed to several cons that arise from self-service investing. Schmitt noted that without any form of guidance or guardrails, investors could fall into behavioural traps that could cost them. For instance, they could make emotional decisions, follow trends or avoid necessary rebalancing, ultimately ending in bad investments.
As for Davéus, he noted three common problems with self-service. The first of these was a risk of misinformed decisions if the tools are poorly designed or lack sufficient guidance. Similarly, if a client doesn’t fully understand products or strategies they are picking, it is risky to be over-reliant on self-service tools. Finally, to effectively implement self-service tools, firms need a high standard of UX and error-prevention mechanisms to avoid poor outcomes.
Finally, Hohwald added a couple more cons. “If not properly managed and appropriately filtered, there can be too much data available which can be overwhelming, especially for beginners and it can be difficult without professional advice to manage long term and complex financial needs/goals like tax optimization, estate planning and retirement strategies.”
How important for firms to implement self-service?
Something all the speakers agreed on was the importance of wealth management firms to explore self-service tools.
Hohwald said, “Self-directed tools are incredibly important for wealth firms to adopt into their offerings to ensure they stay relevant and enable them to capture and retain investor populations who expect these capabilities as well as scale their advisors. Firms need these capabilities to help them scale to service a diverse client base more cost effectively.”
They continued by stating these tools will allow firms to open more collaboration channels with investors and educate them on products and services. In turn, this will boost interactions, trade activity and AUM.
If self-service is implemented effectively, it can even help boost trust in the institutions, establishing a stronger relationship and provide levers to bring clients into advisory-led models as their life-needs and financial means change or mature. Hohwald added, “Finally, given that retention of human capital (advisors) is becoming more challenging to wealth firms they can lean on technology in conjunction with self-service models to find ways to increase operational and human scale, perhaps by automating routine tasks freeing up advisors’ time to focus on high-value interactions.”
Echoing this, Davéus said, “It’s critical. Our usage data shows that once clients are onboarded, convenience becomes a dominant factor. Clients expect to access information in real-time and perform actions, from portfolio reviews to product switches, without delays. Self-service capabilities also serve as a gateway to engagement. They reduce operational burden on advisors while still creating meaningful touchpoints for clients. In a competitive market, the absence of these capabilities will increasingly be seen as a service gap.”
One final reason for why firms should look to implement self-service, according to Schmitt, is that it could cost them new clients. He noted that in the future success within the sector will be based on the best customer execution, not the better financial products. This means firms will need to ensure they provide the best journeys for their clients, and part of this is self-service.
“Serve the silent majority. Many clients don’t reach out until they’re dissatisfied. Self-service capabilities keep them activated and engaged long before that moment comes. At a strategic level, self-service tools have become the minimum viable offering. Without them, you’re invisible to an entire generation. But the firms that win will go further: offering not just control, but context. Not just dashboards, but direction. And not only for self-executors but for advisory and discretionary mandates as well.”
The role of AI
If wealth firms explore self-service investing tools, artificial intelligence (AI) could be an important pillar in the service. It can allow the firm to offer some guidance and support to investors, while still giving investors full autonomy over their investing.
“As an example, the integration of chat assistants can help self-directed users to quickly query company and market data and receive synthesized responses in natural language responses, turning what used to take hours or days of research into minutes or less with actionable signals or actions as an output,” Hohwald explained.
On top of this, AI-powered analytics and insights can help to synthesise large quantities of historical data with upcoming economic and company events to help predict fluctuations, market volatility and risks. This can give pro-grade perspectives to self-directed investors, they added.
Davéus noted that while AI isn’t a necessity, it allows for a level of personalisation that is hard to get elsewhere. It can make user experiences more adaptive with tailored language, tone and suggested actions. Rather than static FAQ pages, it can also dynamically adjust to a user’s need, providing them with nudges, clarifications and insights when needed. “This creates a more human-like, empathetic self-service experience, one that supports both exploration and decision-making without overwhelming the client.”
On a final note, Schmitt concluded, “Ultimately, AI is the key to transforming self-service from transactional to transformational. It enables a wealth experience that is always available, always learning, and always aligned with the client’s evolving financial life.”
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