Only those platform providers prepared to change will survive, research shows.

Without further refinement, a substantial portion of robo-advisors will struggle to be successful in the long-term, according to a new report by MyPrivateBanking Research.

The report, entitled Benchmarking the current automated investment landscape and mapping the road ahead, is based on an analysis of 30 robo-advisors worldwide. It found that no providers are even coming close to offering an end-to-end consistent level of excellence.

“We see that most robo-advisors are good at some features, but at the same time missing out completely on other important ones,” said Francis Groves, senior analyst of MyPrivateBanking Research. “While this was tolerated by clients at the start of the robo-advisor breakthrough, they now demand a top-performance throughout the full process, from comprehensively explaining the services to superior portfolio reporting.”

Specifically, too many gaps were found in robo-advisors’ onboarding processes to guarantee a steady stream of new clients. With regards to client assessment, less than half of the evaluated advisors failed to explain the purpose of their questions. Additionally, only 50 per cent checked financial understanding adequately and only 53 per cent included a comprehensive check on a prospective investor’s attitude toward risk.

Analysts found that advisors provided to their prospects either good information about the product and process or good knowledge content, but rarely both. Meanwhile, almost a quarter of advisors were found to be shirking responsibility for sustaining their own clients’ ongoing investing activities by the provision of relevant, easily digestible education and knowledge or even, in some cases, providing dedicated social media, MyPrivateBanking found.

“Too many automated investment services target the same, growing - but still not sufficient - client segment to nurture all or most of them. Too few of the automated investment services see their platform through the eyes of a first-time user, while many are losing sight of the need for sustaining a customer experience that will – ideally – last for years,” said Groves.

In the firm’s ranking of the robo-advisors, the highest scores were awarded to the following three platforms: Schwab Intelligent Portfolios (USA), which scored 43 points out of 60; Indexa Capital (Spain), which scored 42 points; and Nutmeg (UK), also with 42 points.

Earlier this month, this publication exclusively reported other findings by MyPrivateBanking Research, identifying UBS, BNP Paribas and DBS as front-running wealth management firms as far as digital outlets.