A new roboadvisor wants to close the retirement savings gap for people of color

Saving for retirement is hard no matter what, but it's especially challenging if you're part of a group that has been historically disadvantaged in income, wealth and investing.

Finhabits, a new retirement savings platform, hopes to close the wealth and investing gap in retirement savings for black and Latino investors.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, 74 percent of Hispanic families and 59 percent of black families in 2013 had no retirement savings. For white families, that number was only 35 percent.

For black and Hispanic families that did have savings marked for retirement, the median amount was $22,000, compared to $73,000 for white families.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Carlos Garcia, a veteran of the asset management industry, founded Finhabits after reflecting on his experience growing up in El Paso, Texas.

"Some advantage we have over traditional financial services is that we understand better where people are coming from," Garcia said. "It's an access problem we're trying to solve. The other problem is a cultural problem. There are tons of Hispanics, and we're all hardworking individuals. My parents taught me the value of working hard, but they never taught me how to do financial planning."

To close the savings gap, Finhabits is trying to make investing as easy as possible. Investors can sign up in English or Spanish on desktop or mobile, and invest a minimum of $5 per week. Finhabits then creates customized investment portfolios based on users' retirement or savings goals and investment experience. Those diversified portfolios are usually made up of U.S. equities, non-U.S. equities, government bonds, corporate bonds and real estate.

The savings option is available both to consumers and to small business owners who want to provide retirement plans to their employees.

Finhabits' ultimate goal is to close the retirement savings gap and make sure vulnerable first-time investors avoid investment products with high commissions and high fees.

Compared to other roboadvisors wooing investors from their traditional financial planners, Finhabits is focusing on simplicity and access.

"The other roboadvisors are going after investors who already own investment accounts and already understand how to invest," Garcia said. "We're trying to make it simpler and better, focused on introducing investments and habits to an entirely new audience, starting with minorities."

Finhabits charges $1 a month for accounts under $2,500 and 0.5 percent a year for accounts over that amount.

Finhabits began testing its program in June in a few cities in Texas, Florida and California. Ninety percent of the users who signed up were new to investing, and 80 percent started making recurring deposits to their accounts. Most customers saving for retirement signed up for Roth IRAs and contributed an average of $40 a week. New investors in their 30s have been the core of Finhabits' user base so far.

“I see technology as the great equalizer that’ll help us close the wealth gap that exists in our country today," Garcia said.