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Bank of America is embarking on a major expansion of its self-directed and robo platforms at a moment when digital operations are coming to occupy a bigger part of the wealth management marketplace.
The bank's plans include opening 600 new investment centers by 2020 and hiring an additional 300 financial advisors by year-end, increasing the reach of Merrill Edge, which is a mashup of robo advisory and human help. Bank of America is also adding more features to its robo advisor, Merrill Edge Guided Investing, which was introduced a year ago.
The bank has added automated research to the software, and a new feature, Stock Story provides data and digests of investment analyst reports to help clients research individual companies.
“It takes what has historically been a lot of investment language and jargon and makes it into a much simpler, almost storybook way for an investor to dig into and research a company,” said...