On August 14, 2026, DriveWealth announced it is powering IOL Privé, a new digital-first private banking platform from IOL Group, a Latin American brokerage with more than two million customers and 25 years in the market. The launch gives affluent investors advisory, international market access, and wealth planning through a single app, replacing what DriveWealth CEO Naureen Hassan called the "complex onboarding processes and disconnected technology channels" that have historically defined private banking. The timing is not coincidental. Cornerstone Advisors research finds more than $2 trillion has already moved out of banks and credit unions into fintech investing platforms, and fintechs captured 56% of new checking account openings in 2025, up from 49% the year before. This article examines why goal-based robo advisory has become a retention strategy for banks and neobanks, not just a private-banking upgrade, what the shift means for institutions competing for the same deposits, and how forward-thinking firms are embedding the capability rather than building it from scratch.
Why Banks and Neobanks Are Embedding Goal-Based Robo Advisory Now
Goal-based robo advisory is spreading among banks and neobanks because investing has become the first product customers take elsewhere when their primary bank does not offer it. IOL Privé, powered by DriveWealth's embedded brokerage infrastructure, packages dedicated wealth advisory, international investment access, and fully disclosed U.S. accounts into one digital experience for IOL Group's affluent clients. "Through our partnership with IOL Privé, we're helping modernize private banking by providing the infrastructure to deliver seamless investment experiences in a digital platform clients already know and trust," said Hassan in the announcement. IOL CEO Diego Pizzulli framed it as a 25-year-old institution's answer to a newer generation of client expectations.
Goal-based investing: An investment approach that measures success by how well a portfolio tracks against a client's specific stated objective, such as retirement income or a home purchase, rather than by performance against a market benchmark.
The pressure behind moves like this is structural, not cosmetic. Cornerstone Advisors research found Americans rate their primary checking account a lukewarm 7.8 out of 10, and more than a third of Gen Z and 40% of millennials say they would be "very likely" to open a new account elsewhere if they could invest directly from it. Consumers, the research notes, are unbundling their financial lives and assembling best-in-class products across providers and investing is one of the first things they take elsewhere.
What Deposit Displacement Means for Banks, Private Banks, and Neobanks
Banks and neobanks face a version of this pressure that compounds with each generation of new customer. A Cornerstone Advisors and InvestiFi report found that 66% of zillennial investors have already reduced their deposit balances in favor of investing activity on fintech platforms, framing the gap as a product shortcoming rather than a marketing one. The same report found fintechs' share of new checking account openings climbed from 49% in 2024 to 56% in 2025, meaning banks and neobanks are now losing the primary banking relationship itself, not just a secondary investing account, before it is ever established.
More than $2 trillion has moved from banks and credit unions into fintech investing platforms, and fintechs now capture 56% of new checking account openings, up from 49% just one year earlier.
For neobanks, the exposure is sharper still: a customer's first banking relationship increasingly is a fintech app, and the CFA Institute's Next-Gen Investors report found Gen Z investors are more likely than older generations to receive financial guidance through workplace plans or robo-advisors in the first place. A bank or neobank without a credible goal-based investing experience is not just missing a fee opportunity; it is ceding the primary relationship to whichever app got there first.
How Banks Can Implement Goal-Based Investing Without Starting From Scratch
The banks and neobanks closing this gap are not all building brokerage and advisory infrastructure in-house. IOL Group's own launch depended on DriveWealth's embedded infrastructure rather than an internal build, and that pattern holds across the sector: the Research and Markets Robo Advisory Market Report 2026 puts the global robo advisory market at $18.7 billion in 2026, up from $14.25 billion in 2025, growth increasingly captured by institutions embedding a proven platform rather than building one from scratch.
This is the gap InvestSuite's Robo Advisor is built to close for banks, private banks, and neobanks. It is configurable under an institution's own brand, with goal tracking, risk-based glide paths, and rebalancing logic already engineered to work together, rather than requiring separate procurement for each piece.
The Banks That Embed Goal-Based Robo Advisory Now Will Keep the Next Generation of Customers
IOL Privé is one institution's answer to a pressure every bank and neobank now shares: investing is the product customers reach for first when deciding whether their primary bank still fits their life, and Cornerstone's data shows that decision is already going against traditional institutions. The banks and neobanks that embed a credible, goal-based investing experience now, rather than after their most valuable customers have already unbundled their finances elsewhere, will be the ones still holding those relationships as the next generation of depositors comes of age. The firms that move now will define the next decade of wealth management.
If you are evaluating how to bring goal-based robo advisory into your own bank or neobank app, reach out! We would be glad to talk through what Robo Advisor can do for your team.
