Morgan Stanley is getting into the “robo-advice” business, where software manages funds instead of people. The service, Access Investing, is aimed at younger investors, and helps them put their money with the businesses they’re most interested in.
“Forty percent of our clients have chosen to invest in a theme, and the most popular ones [are] robotics and artificial intelligence,” Naureen Hassan, Chief Digital Officer for Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley, told Cheddar.
The financial firm rolled out its Access Investing division, which focuses on advising clients online, in December. Hassan says that her team has seen a lot of engagement with from people 45 and under.
Robo-advisers, or digital investment portfolios, are not very new. The field has competitors, such as Betterment or Wealthfront, that have been making strides in the sector.
But Morgan Stanley says it’s betting on its legacy to differentiate itself in the industry.
“We think it’s the Morgan Stanley investing expertise that really differentiates it,” Hassan said. “That’s why we are offering clients choice, it just isn’t only a passive portfolio, we believe in a mix of assets.”
The gaming headset maker Turtle Beach smashed revenue expectations in the second quarter, earning $60.8 million ー up from $19.1 million the year before. To build on growing sales in the console market, CEO Juergen Stark says Turtle Beach is introducing a new headset built for PC gamers.
Avis, the car-rental company, has a fleet of 100,000 connected vehicles and new partnerships with Airbnb, Lyft, and Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Alphabet. It's part of a strategy to provide "mobility on demand for the global traveler," says Arthur Orduna, Avis's chief innovation officer.
In a converted Brooklyn warehouse, dozens of developers are the next internet of apps on the Ethereum network. Their work may be the foundation of all future transactions, says Joseph Lubin, the billionaire Ethereum co-founder behind the incubator Consensys. Cheddar went behind the scenes with Lubin to see how the future of the internet is being built on blockchain technology.
Teens whose families earn $30,000 or less a year are more likely to rely on Facebook for homework help than their wealthier peers, according to Pew Research Center study. This shows how students who may have less access to resources, "use Facebook to kind of get ahead," says Hanna Kozlowska, a reporter at Quartz.
Jessica Rolph, the co-founder and CEO of Lovevery, a subscription service for children's toys and books, says her company was borne out of her wish "meet my child where they were." The subscription service sends boxes every other month with age-appropriate items to help new parents and their babies get through those early, clumsy years.
The SEC has subpoenaed Tesla over CEO Elon Musk's tweets to take the company private, according to multiple media reports. John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting, and a former SEC enforcement attorney told Cheddar that there’s not enough information at this point to tell whether or not Musk intended to drive up the stock price by tweeting last week that he wanted to take Tesla private.
WOW! ー Wide Open West ー is a video, internet, and phone company that is a "challenger brand for every market," says the CEO Teresa Elder. Available in about 20 markets in the American South and Midwest, WOW! recently announced a content deal with Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need2Know for Wednesday, Aug. 15.
Saudi Arabia's interest in funding a buyout of Tesla shareholders is far from certain, said Maureen Farrell of the Wall Street Journal. But it's unclear, she told Cheddar, if the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund would have the capital to secure such a deal for the electric carmaker's CEO, Elon Musk.
As users disengage with social media, advertisers would be wise to shift their focus to mobile games, where consumers may be more receptive, says Adam Cohen-Aslatei, vice president of marketing at Jun Group. "People report being more focused, relaxed and more engaged in a mobile game as compared to people on social media," Cohen-Aslatei says.
