Macquarie shuts down direct robo-advice service

In a statement yesterday on its website, Macquarie said OwnersAdvisory will no longer be providing direct advice and its automated advice offering will be integrated into the Macquarie wealth platform.

The announcement comes after founder and chief investment officer of OwnerAdvisory John O’Connell passed away last week.

"John had a long and successful career at Macquarie, starting as a senior analyst in the 1990s, before going on to be Macquarie's global head of research where he built a leading global research team," the statement said. 

"He was always at the cutting edge of new ideas, and nothing demonstrated this more than his decision to establish OwnersAdvisory to make professional grade, automated investment advice and services available online.

"To fulfil John's vision to support advisers in efficiently providing investment advice to more Australians, we will be integrating our automated advice offering into our leading wealth platform so advisers can incorporate robo-advice into their value proposition for clients.

“Given OwnersAdvisory was powered by John's personal investment philosophy and insights, unfortunately we will no longer be able to provide advice to direct investors through our website.”

Macquarie launched OwnersAdvisory in February 2016, in a move to provide a "do-it-yourself" solution directly to investors who want to manage their investments online.