Are low fees a kiss of death for robos and advisory firms?

THE failure of robo advisory MoneyOwl, announced late last week, raises afresh a knotty question: Is a low-fee business model that’s good for investors and clients necessarily a path to failure for the service provider?

Is this gap intractable?

More than 10 years ago, I was a member of a panel put together by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, called the Financial Advisory Industry Review (Fair), which sought to address some key issues, including how the industry could lower distribution costs and promote fair dealing.