Robo-advisers could be looking to buy out retiring IFAs to gain their clients, a report says.

Verdict Financial’s report posits a “novel exit strategy based on robo-advisors looking for new clients”.

The prediction has been modeled on the broker consolidation trend in the UK, but substitutes cashed-up robo-advisors for the traditional broker-consolidator.

Andrew Haslip, Verdict Financial’s Head of Content for Asia-Pacific, said that with their rock-bottom fee structures, independent robo-advisers only break even with pools of client assets well above industry averages.

This is something even the most successful companies, such as Bettermint and Wealthfront, will struggle to achieve this year even in the US, the world’s largest wealth market, he said.

Mr Haslip said: “For robo-advisers looking to scale up their client assets quickly, the wave of retiring advisors, along with the current low cost of capital, offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, provided they pay for it.

“Inflows to robo-advisers, while positive, have slowed and smaller robo-advisors or those in smaller markets such as Australia will remain well below the necessary volume based on current trends.”

Verdict Financial believes high profile robo-advisers in 2017 could tap the market for the capital necessary to buy the client books of retiring financial advisors, whose generally affluent older customers tend not to have considered a robo-advisor.

Mr Haslip added: “The clients will benefit from cheaper ETF-based portfolios, while robo-advisors boost their client assets. So keep your eye out for the wealth industry’s newest trend, the robo-consolidator.”