A robo-adviser is attempting to profit from UBS SmartWealth's closure by offering clients cut-price fees.
Tiller, which launched in July, has offered a 20 per cent discount to all clients leaving UBS’s soon-to-be-closed robo advice service if they move to its platform before November.
Last week UBS revealed it was closing down the SmartWealth service and selling it to a California-based fintech firm because the short-term potential of the business was "limited".
Ian Cadby, chief executive of Tiller, said: "The news that UBS SmartWealth is shutting down its robo-advice service came as a surprise to us. All the evidence suggests that the robo-advice market will continue to grow.
"There is no doubt that there is an ‘advice-gap’ - people who have saved thousands of pounds still don’t have enough money to access investment advice. Tiller exists to solve this problem.
"We offer both passive and active fund options, as well as thematic investing, we believe we are an ideal choice for the UBS investors seeking both choice and personalisation."
Like UBS SmartWealth, Tiller has a higher minimum investment than most robo-advisers, with £10,000 needed to open a Tiller account compared with £500 for Nutmeg.
But Tiller's fees are lower than UBS's, with a charge of 0.75 per cent to invest in a portfolio of ETFs, but 0.9 per cent to invest in active funds or a personalised portfolio by adding themes such as ethical investing.
UBS SmartWealth had a minimum investment of £15,000 and was one of the most expensive robo-advisers on the market, charging up to 1.29 per cent for investments at the lowest end of portfolio size.
UBS has not revealed how successful its robo-adviser had been, in terms of assets under management or clients, but it is understood these numbers were both "relatively small".
damian.fantato@ft.com
