True Potential has said it is one of the nine chosen by the Financial Conduct Authority to work with the advice unit.
Yesterday (22 September) the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition Christopher Woolard said the regulator had chosen nine firms to work with its specialist unit looking at automated advice.
True Potential’s managing partner David Harrison said the company had applied to work with the FCA to help close the advice gap.
He said: “We service tens of thousands of auto-enrolment client, many of whom fall into the advice gap, so robo-advice is one way of helping them achieve better outcomes.
“We can provide quality advice at a lower cost, to people who ordinarily wouldn’t speak to a financial adviser.
“We have the capability to create a robo-adviser unlike any other firm in the industry.
We have the capability to create a robo-adviser unlike any other firm in the industry.David Harrison“Due not only to our size and the data we collect, but also the skills of out in-house development team and data scientists, we can explore options which are years away from our competitors.”
Mr Woolard said 19 firms had applied to work with the advice unit, which was set up following the Financial Advice Market Review.
Mr Harrison said True Potential had to have a “solid plan” in place to demonstrate to the FCA it could deliver what it had promised.
He said: “We’re working closely with the FCA to discuss this in more detail and to get some preliminary feedback on our robo-adviser.
“We want to make sure we can improve the outcomes for consumers from the beginning.
“Once we’ve engaged with the FCA and discussed the regulatory challenges, we can focus on the technical challenges.”
The advice unit will focus on helping firms develop fully or partly automated online services and other models that use technology to deliver low cost advice.
The FCA is currently advertising for the position of the advice unit's manager.
