It seems like independent advisors at RIAs and other providers of wealth management counsel are slowly shedding their heretofore simplistic views (i.e. either you’re a robot or you’re real life) around automated investing, and considering the opportunities the that automation can offer them. Automated investments platforms empower the real life advisor by allowing her to spend more time on her most valuable clients, while also reaching out to underserved prospects and clients. These could be high potential Millennials, retirees in the de-accumulation phase, wealthy people unwilling to put more than a limited share of their eggs in one basket, or the mass affluent generally. Simply put, automation is a secret weapon for scaling the practice. Until this year, automated and real life investment advice lived on separate planets that only occasionally collided. The recently announced partnership between portfolio reporting system provider Orion and automated advisor Jemstep, coming in the wake of the acquisition of Upside Advisor by Envestnet, is proof put that these worlds are converging. I’ll go into the details of the deal in my next post. Suffice it to note for now that automation already spans the wealth management enterprise platform, from back office document sharing to account opening on the front end. Why shouldn’t it support the advisor?