Welcome to a new FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.
Introducing Free Financial Planning from Wealthfront
Today’s update is all about financial planning software, with the first story coming from Wealthfront, the Silicon Valley-based automated investment service with over 220,000 clients. This week the company announced it will now offer free access to its propriety financial planning software called Path with no investment account required.
Originally launched in February 2017, Path allows customers to illustrate the hypothetical growth of stock market investments, estimate home affordability, calculate projected college tuition costs, and more. Prior to the announcement, investors needed $500 to open a Wealthfront investment account in order to use Path, so the minimum fee to access the service was 25 basis points of $500, or just one dollar and twenty five cents.
SEI Strengthens Automated Workflows through Strategic Partnership with Advizr
Next up is news about Advizr, as SEI Investments recently announced an integration with financial planning software from Advizr to expand the company’s BusinessWise Program for financial professionals. SEI works with over 7,500 financial advisers under its SEI Advisor Network, which was recently rebranded to Independent Advisor Solutions by SEI, and the addition of Advizr to the BusinessWise Program is intended to offer financial professionals the choice of implementing a focused, modular financial plan or a completely holistic plan when engaging clients in the planning process.
See the New RightCapital/Advyzon Integration in Action
And finally, in news from from RightCapital, the financial planning software provider announced a new integration with Advyzon, a cloud-based wealth management platform for investment advisors. Soon advisors will be able to leverage data and portfolio account information maintained in Advyzon to quickly and efficiently populate an initial financial plan inside RightCapital without the need to duplicate data entry.
The companies will demonstrate the new integration in an upcoming webinar held on Tuesday, December 11, so be sure to visit FPPad.com/flashbriefing for a link to the webinar as well as all the links to today’s top stories.
I’m Bill Winterberg, and those are your fintech headlines for today from FPPad.com. Check back in with me later for more fintech news.
On today’s broadcast, LPL Financial hooks up with BlackRock’s FutureAdvisor, Riskalyze and Advizr integrate their platforms, and bots might be the future of financial technology.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Twenty Over Ten, providers of beautiful, tailored, mobile responsive websites specifically for Financial Advisors.
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[Now on to this week’s top story which comes from LPL Financial, as the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer announced it will use BlackRock’s recently-acquired FutureAdvisor platform to power an online automated investment offering. LPL first hinted at its plans for a “robo advisor” back in the summer of 2015 at its annual Focus conference, which was roughly one month before BlackRock made its FutureAdvisor acquisition.
While the announcement sure generated some buzz, no details on specific pricing or availability were provided. What the press release did say is that the model portfolios will be provided by LPL’s research department, so at least initially, advisors and reps will not be able to create their own custom allocations.
The press release also said the automated solution will be integrated with LPL’s custodial platform, but it didn’t say if that was the existing BranchNet platform or the much-anticipated ClientWorks, which as far as I know, has still not been officially released.
So at least we now know what LPL’s robo strategy will be, but with so many forward-looking statements, we don’t know when that strategy will be ready for use by LPL’s financial advisors.] Leading retail investment advisory firm and independent broker/dealer LPL Financial LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA), today announced it will use BlackRock Solutions’ (BRS) FutureAdvisor platform to support a digital advice platform for use by LPL’s financial advisors and institutions and their clients.
[Next up is news from Riskalyze and Advizr, as the two companies announced a new integration to streamline financial advisor workflows. The new integration will import Riskalyze model portfolio sets into the Advizr financial planning software, allowing advisors to recommend the most appropriate asset allocation according to their client’s personal Risk Number.
Not only that, both companies offer effective lead generation tools for advisors, with Riskalyze offering prospects the opportunity to determine their own Risk Number, and Advizr offering a quick financial plan illustration with Advizr Express.
The combination of the two will help advisors gain more information about prospects’ risk tolerance and the building blocks of a complete financial plan.
The companies called the integration “a match made in heaven” because both of them are winners of the Best Client Facing Technology award announced right here on FPPad.
So as a result, and I am now officially accepting endorsements for matchmaking on my LinkedIn profile.] Advizr, the financial planning software recognized as the Best Client Facing Technology of 2015 by Bill Winterberg’s FPPad, and Riskalyze, the world’s first Risk Alignment Platform recognized for the same award in 2014, are integrating their award-winning products to provide an elegant, intuitive and seamless solution to financial advisers.
[And finally, this week’s top story comes from the future, oh wait, “THE FUTURE!” as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at this week at F8 conference and detailed the company’s roadmap for the next 10 years.
My best takeaway for you is the launch of the Messenger Platform that includes automated messaging powered by bots, no, not that bot, these are automated messenger bots.
With bots in messenger, you can make online clothing purchases, receive weather forecasts, view top headlines and more.
I can totally see bots making their way into your technology. Imagine if you could ask your Redtail bot when you next client meeting is scheduled, or your Orion bot how your AUM has grown over the past year, or even allow clients to ask the MoneyGuide Pro bot for their updated retirement confidence meter. How cool is that?!?
And if vendors eventually integrate bot into existing services, I bet that they’ll also include message archiving and retention so you can confidently use bots without violating your compliance requirements.
Oh, did I just give those vendors a little more work to do? I’m sorry!
Unfortunately there’s no word yet from FINRA or the SEC whether your bot has to be fingerprinted and subject to a background check. Thank you, I do two shows a night!] We’re excited to introduce bots for the Messenger Platform. Bots can provide anything from automated subscription content like weather and traffic updates, to customized communications like receipts, shipping notifications, and live automated messages all by interacting directly with the people who want to get them.
Here are stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:
Less than one month after an investment round that doubled its private valuation to around $700 million, the robo-adviser Betterment is adding a former top executive from Charles Schwab, John S. Clendening, to its board.
That’s why starting today, we’re introducing Goals in Google Calendar. Just add a personal goal—like “run 3 times a week”—and Calendar will help you find the time and stick to it.
Orion Advisor Services, LLC (“Orion”), a premier portfolio accounting service provider for financial advisors, has announced it is now integrated with FactSet, a leading provider of financial data, analytics, and service, to offer its advisor clients easy access to portfolio research and analytics.
2015 was a massive year in advisor technology, with shocking headlines dominating the airwaves! Mergers and acquisitions, robo advisors, cybersecurity, and social media.
So get ready, the Best Technology of 2015 begins now!
Thank you, thank you everyone, welcome to the show, I’m your host Bill Winterberg, and we’re here tonight to recognize the “best of the best” in financial advisor technology.
This is my sixth year highlighting top technology for financial advisors, and just like in previous years, I break down award winners into three categories: the best back office technology, the best client-facing technology, and the best overall innovation of the year.
Best Back Office Technology
So let’s begin with the Best Back-Office Technology award winner, which is a product or service that boosts the overall efficiency and productivity of your back office and makes a direct impact to your bottom line.
The Best Back-Office Technology of 2015 goes to:
Riskalyze Autopilot!
Clearly, automated asset management has dominated the headlines this year, but many of you just aren’t certain what your strategy will be when it comes to offering low-cost investment management.
Autopilot wins this year’s award because it is purpose-built for advisors, and not cobbled together from a retail offering.
And with tighter relationships with custodians, like the end-to-end process I’ve seen soon to debut with Trust Company of America, Autopilot is well positioned for those of you who want to move forward with offering an automated platform for your emerging clients.
Unfortunately I’m being told that Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein just boarded a flight with United, so he doesn’t have inflight WiFi to accept this award virtually. Am I right, Michael?!?
Oh, well then..
Best Client-Facing Technology
Next up is the award for the Best Client-Facing Technology. The winning solution significantly enhances the client-facing elements of your business and facilitates your interactions with clients.
If you’re looking to differentiate your business and offer deeper financial planning services to clients, you can’t go wrong with this year’s Best Client-Facing Technology award winner,
Advizr
Now Advizr has only been around for a little more than a year, but they’ve gained some very good traction early on by allowing advisors to easily engage clients with a financial plan.
Clients and prospects can create their own high-level plan using Advizr’s user friendly interface, and then engage an advisor to further refine their plan based on their unique goals and circumstances. As this year’s Best Client-Facing Technology, Advizr is worth a look for those of you who want to give each and every client the benefit of having a financial plan.
Innovation of the Year
And finally, our last category for this year’s awards is the Innovation of the Year, which goes to a product or service that introduces a completely new business practice or service experience that has never been possible or practical before.
The award for Innovation of the year goes to:
Periscope
So before Periscope was introduced, there really wasn’t an easy way for you to broadcast content live in real time to your audience. Some of you have used webinars or Google Hangouts before, but for those, you’re typically confined to your desktop or laptop computer in your office.
Periscope opens up an entirely new way to connect with your clients and prospects using nothing more than your mobile phone.
It’s incredible to consider the possibilities and potential of an app like this, so don’t let compliance create any excuses for you NOT to use something so revolutionary and well-deserving of Innovation of the Year.
So as this year’s awards come to an end, I want to take a moment to recognize all those who supported me through my career, because without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today, so honey, this is for you, I love you, and Dan, you’re an awesome son and you make me a proud dad, and, oh, I don’t want to forget my executive producer, Steve Biermann, I forgive you forcing me on the VooDoo ZipLine in Las Vegas, I’m ready to be friends again, and to my cat … ok ok!
Thank you everyone, hope you enjoyed the show, I’ll see you in 2016!!
Watch the Best Technology of 2015 for Financial Advisers
On today’s broadcast, it’s survey time. Find out about this year’s winners and losers in the annual Financial Planning Magazine technology survey.
So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.
Ok, this week’s coverage is all about the 2015 Financial Planning Magazine technology survey, analyzed every year by tech expert Joel Bruckenstein. This year’s survey consisted of just 600 responses, of which roughly 200 were from firms that identify themselves as independent RIAs.
Now I have to admit, this sample size is a lot lower then the peak back in 2011 when the survey collected over 3200 responses, but Financial Planning Magazine changed its survey methodology to prevent ballot stuffing, and insists that the current data is still statistically significant. So, now that we have that out of the way, you can draw your own conclusions from this year’s survey results.
Technology Spending
First up: technology spending. Survey says: Over 90% of advisors spent the same or more on technology this year. But honestly, I don’t see how spending on technology guarantees your firm will be any better in the long run, it just means you spend lots of money on technology.
I care whether you’re gaining efficiency and scalability from the technology you do purchase, which leads us to the next item. CRM software.
Top CRM Software
So what’s the top CRM in use? Survey says! None.
Seriously, none?!? Yeah. Among independent RIAs, 22.9% say they don’t use a formal CRM. Oh wait, I know what CRM they use: Cranium Relationship Management, because It’s All Right Here. Ugh.
But for those of you who DO use a CRM, top survey responses include Salesforce, Junxure, and Redtail, with Wealthbox doing a respectable job closing the gap with the top three.
Top Financial Planning Software
So what about financial planning software: Survey says! MoneyGuidePro takes the top spot, with eMoney in the runner up position for the sixth straight year. Eight other providers battle it out for the remaining solutions, with Advizr being one to watch with its quality showing after just one year in the marketplace.
Top Portfolio Management Software
And moving on, the next category is portfolio management software, with the top provider being, oh that’s right, survey says! PortfolioCenter.
Morningstar, Albridge, Envestnet and Orion round out the top five, as their numbers are fairly consistent with the tech surveys over the last few years. But, I’m fairly sure Envestnet and Orion are a lot closer to one another in marketshare than this survey shows, with Envestnet probably commanding a slight lead, so remember what I said earlier about statistical significance and sample size.
Top Online Advice Solution
Alright, we’re in the home stretch now, as the top online advice solution is: Survey says: Wealth Access? Huh.
So now I’m confused, because Wealth Access provides portfolio reporting, monitoring and aggregation services, but not online advice. So that leaves a Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ as the true top online advice solution, with nine other providers battling it out for at least some meaningful traction among advisors. I can tell there’s a lot more work to be done here.
Top Client Portal
And finally, I’m wrapping up with the top client portal, so, survey says! Broker-dealer or custodian provided. Ugh. That’s not a portal, that’s online account access! Anyone with an account has that! Seriously.
At least with eMoney, which claimed third place, clients can securely upload documents, see all their financial assets using account aggregation, and more. If all you offer is read-only account access to client, you are not leveraging the potential of a real client portal.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a little depressed after digesting this year’s tech survey. There is a lot of work left to be done.
But here’s the silver lining: this survey covers the technology that some advisors are using up until today, but it’s not indicative of the cutting-edge solutions that have the potential to grow your business in the near future.
For that, you’re going to have to watch next week’s episode on my picks for the Best Technology of 2015.
On today’s broadcast, Envestnet acquires account aggregation provider Yodlee, Advizr makes two announcements to close the gap among financial planning software, and find out why automated investing services might be losing their competitive advantage.
Today’s episode is brought to you by eMoney Advisor, host of the eMoney Advisor Summit coming October 19th through 21st in Orlando.
Take a deep dive into the emX strategies that help you Connect, Engage and Win with your clients. Plus, everyone watching this show can take advantage of a one hundred dollar discount off your registration, so visit fppad.com/emoneysummit15 today and use promo code FPPAD100. That’s FPPAD100.
[This week’s top story comes from Envestnet, as the wealth management technology and service provider announced it is acquiring Yodlee in a deal valued somewhere around $660 million. Now most of you know Yodlee for account aggregation, but Yodlee really doesn’t sell services directly to advisors.
Instead, some advisors benefit from Yodlee aggregation through third-party integrations, with MoneyGuidePro being the most well know,after announcing a Yodlee integration to much fanfare last year, priced at a dollar per day. You can get more details on that in episode 120 that I linked over here.
So let’s cut to the chase: is this good or bad? If you’re an Envestnet technology user, this is really good. Aggregating clients’ held away accounts gives you better visibility on what clients actually own, how they’re allocated, and in some cases, how they manage their cash flow. This information can only make the advice you give better, and that’s a fantastic thing for everyone!
BUT, if you compete with Envestnet and/or take advantage of Yodlee aggregation today, the future isn’t so clear. It’s way too early to speculate what’s going to happen to Yodlee’s pricing and availability, but if efficient account aggregation is a cornerstone of your business, it might be time to keep alternatives like Aqumulate, ByAllAccounts, or Quovo in mind.] Envestnet, Inc. (NYSE:ENV), a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to financial advisors, and Yodlee, Inc. (Nasdaq: YDLE), the leading cloud-based platform driving digital financial innovation, today announced that the Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Envestnet will acquire all of the shares of Yodlee in a cash and stock transaction valued at $18.88 per share, or approximately $660 million on a fully-diluted equity value basis.
[Next up is news from Advizr, an up-and-coming financial planning software provider, who this week made two announcements. First is the introduction of a prospecting tool called Advizr Express, allowing you to attract prospects by offering a super-simple retirement readiness illustration either on your website or for use with prospects during an initial meeting. Advizr Express is in beta testing today with an official release anticipated later this month.
Advizr’s second announcement is a new integration with Orion Advisor Services to import client portfolio holdings to avoid manually entering that information by hand. This adds to an existing integration with Blueleaf, and should be a preview of what to come with connections with many of the leading custodians. Wink wink.
So while Advizr is still a ways away from offering the number of integrations found in category leaders like Advicent, eMoney, and MoneyGuidePro, updates like these should help Advizr close the gap and offer you more choice in the tools you use to deliver financial planning.]
[And finally, I want to wrap up this week’s broadcast with an article from Harvard Business Review titled Automation Won’t Replace People as Your Competitive Advantage. For two years and seventy episodes of Bits and Bytes, the chatter about automated investment services and algorithmic rebalancing has reached a fever pitch, but scroll down to the end of that article and you’ll read a striking statement:
“Once smart machines are built to solve problems in asset efficiency (or indeed any area of operations) they very rapidly spread and become pervasive across an industry. Therefore, they cease to provide a competitive advantage.”
I think this perfectly describes what’s happening today in automated investing. Sure, six years ago, Wealthfront and Betterment attracted attention because there was nothing out there like their automated services. Their exclusivity was their competitive advantage. But fast forward to today where automated services are available from Schwab, Vanguard, Future Advisor, Blooom, and even LPL Financial having announced their own plans for an automated service. Automated investing is becoming pervasive.
But what that also says to me is that if you don’t have some kind of low-cost automated service to offer, it may actually be viewed as a disadvantage because they’re so common in the industry. It’s like telling clients you won’t communicate with them via email. It’s so pervasive, who DOESN’T use email?] Geoff Colvin’s primary argument is that there are some unique human capabilities, like empathy and storytelling, that will keep people employable even as automation chips away at the content of most jobs.
On today’s broadcast, Michael Kitces highlights a roadmap for location independent advisors, several new tech tools emerge that are worthy of your attention, and what are all these videos about something called FPPad Tech Tour?
Today’s episode is brought to you by Laser App Software, host of the Laser App Financial Services Conference coming this August in San Diego.
This year’s conference is all about adoption, delivering strategies for broker-dealers, enterprises, and more to increase stakeholder adoption and get the most out of their technology platform. Space is limited, so secure your free registration today by visiting fppad.com/laserapp2015.
[Now on to this week’s top story which comes from Michael Kitces over at Nerd’s Eye View, as Kitces writes about the growing trend of location-independent financial advisors. This business model of the virtual financial advisor is still relatively new, enabled by the nearly ubiquitous access we all have to the Internet coupled with technology solutions based exclusively in the cloud. It wasn’t that long ago that most of us couldn’t even read business email while out of the office!
So in his post, Kitces highlights an eBook called “The Virtual Advisor” written by XY Planning Network co-founder Alan Moore. By the way, Kitces is the other co-founder of XYPN. Anyway, the 41-page eBook is loaded with dozens of technologies, apps, and solutions that can help you work from anywhere along with several profiles of XY Planning Network members and the systems they use to run a location-independent business.
Now you don’t have to be an advisor to Gen X and Gen Y clients or even meet the age criteria of Gen X or Gen Y to benefit from these tools and techniques. I think you should take a look at the resources in this book and see if anything can complement or outright replace some of your existing legacy systems to improve the way you work.
The best news is that The Virtual Advisor eBook is free provided you’re willing to give up your email address, so you can head over to fppad.com/168 to get the link to download the ebook today.] Yet the rise of technology is creating a new service model for financial planning – the “virtual” advisor, who uses web-based tools and technology to serve clients, regardless of where the client (or advisor) happens to be.
[Next up is news from Dave Grant of Finance for Teachers, as Grant recently highlighted five smart tech tools for advisors in his column for Financial Planning magazine this month. Some of these tools I’ve mentioned on the show before, including Advizr from episode 146, which Grant complimented for it’s attractive, easy to use basic financial planning capabilities, and Schwab Intelligent Portfolios from episode 153, as Grant mentioned the potential time savings from the low-cost automatic allocation and rebalancing solution.
But Grant covered three other solutions that I haven’t covered before, leading off with MyPlanMap. This tool takes your action items and todos from your planning meetings and places them on a timeline so clients can see what’s ahead, and they can also see what you’ve done for them in the past. I think that’s pretty cool.
Second is Twenty Over Ten, a website provider that offers a variety of attractive themes that are responsive for all kinds of devices, simple editing tools, and a built-in archiving for compliance. At $49 a month after a one-time setup fee, it’s definitely an attractive option.
And finally, Grant highlights ClickDesk which is a plugin for your existing website that reveals a chat box for your website visitors. If your website visitor wants to ask you a question, they can start a live chat right from your website, and completed chats are emailed to you so you can save the record for compliance. I covered a similar service called Olark two years ago in one of my columns for Morningstar, which I’ve linked to over at the FPPad website.] I am always on the lookout for new technology to use in my practice. Here are some of the platforms that have recently caught my eye.
[And finally, you might have seen a few videos from me this week about something called FPPad Tech Tour. That’s right, starting Monday, I’m going on tour!
FPPad Tech Tour kicks off next week with an epic three week road trip from Atlanta to New York City and back, stopping in seven cities along the way. My executive producer Steve Biermann and I are going on tour to capture the stories of people who are working so hard to build technology solutions for you, the financial advisor, so you can run a better, more effective business.
There’s already a lively discussion happening on Twitter using the #fppadtechtour hashtag, so I invite you to join us and follow along as we work to capture the passion each individual has to make you a better advisor.
Make sure you’re subscribed to FPPad newsletter for updates from the tour.]
On today’s broadcast, Advizr launches its eponymous financial planning software. Will its easy-to-use interface win adoption from advisors? iQuantifi actually wants to be known as a robo advisor. Find out how soon you might be using this automated planning tool in your business. And, we’ve all seen our fair share of awful PowerPoint slides. Learn about the new app Microsoft is releasing that can inject some inspiration back into your presentations.
This week’s episode of Bits and Bytes is brought to you by Total Rebalance Expert, the industry’s largest, privately owned portfolio rebalancing software provider.
TRX features tax-efficient rebalancing, an easy to use interface, and more, all at an affordable price. Learn how you can gain a half a million dollar return on your technology investment by downloading their latest white paper at fppad.com/trx
Before I get to the links to this week’s top stories, first answer this live poll:
Now here are the links to this week’s top stories:
[This week’s top story comes from who else, Joel Bruckenstein, as he reviewed a new entrant to the financial planning software space called Advizr. In his November column for Financial Planning magazine, Bruckenstein offers an overview of Advizr’s easy to use interface, designed to make a financial plan from start to finish in about 20 to 30 minutes.
Now Advizr is not the most comprehensive planning software on the market, but that’s by design in order to make the data intake and plan calibration process as straightforward as possible. One desirable characteristic is that you can send a link to clients who then enter their own information into a plan using the Advizr wizard. Advizr automatically creates a preliminary financial plan for you that you can review, customize and tweak to create the finished plan along with action steps for clients.
Note: The new myMoneyGuide Lab from MoneyGuide Pro uses a similar strategy, so watch the video to learn more. And look for the chicken!] Over the past several years, few new players in the financial planning space have developed innovative software. Instead, innovation has mostly come from more established names, such as MoneyGuidePro, Finance Logix and Advicent (which makes NaviPlan). So it’s refreshing to see a small startup, Advizr, enter the fray with a somewhat fresh approach to financial planning.
[Next up is news of another financial planning software solution called iQuantifi, but what makes iQuantifi different is that the company enthusiastically embraces the robo advisor moniker. I first connected with iQuantifi founder Tom White when he demoed an early version of his software at Finovate Spring 2012 in San Francisco.
Since then, White has made significant updates to the platform, attracted some early-stage venture capital, and just recently announced plans to introduce a version of iQuantifi for use by advisors.
But like Advizr that I mentioned earlier, White says that iQuantifi deals with “level one financial planning,” and not the complicated needs of high net worth investors. But for less than $100 a year for consumers, iQuantifi is an attractive bridge between the custom financial plans created by advisors for a few thousand dollars and no plan at all. Nevertheless, iQuantifi deserves a spot on your radar if you’re interested in delivering basic, scalable planning to emerging clients at an affordable price.] Tom White used to be a human financial advisor. Now he runs a fully automated virtual advisor called iQuantifi, and he’s embraced his new role. “We consider ourselves to be the only true robo advisor. We’re not afraid of that word because we’re here to help,” he said earlier this autumn during his allotted seven-minute presentation at Finovate, a conference in New York City showcasing the future of financial and banking technology.
[And finally, all this talk about financial plans makes me think of how you use presentations to convey information to clients. If you’re guilty of committing death by PowerPoint, there are a number of alternative tools out there like Prezi, SlideShark, and Haiku Deck, but Microsoft isn’t going to let those products take users away from it’s bread-and-butter presentation software.
So this week, Microsoft started offering preview invitations to Sway, a new app you can use to easily create elegant presentations that work across most devices. Sway is a web-based app that uses photos, videos, and files from your computer, social media accounts, YouTube, and cloud storage services. If you’re ready to migrate away from uninspiring PowerPoint templates but don’t want to leave the Microsoft ecosystem, Sway might just be the app you’re looking for.] We can’t even remember the last time we saw someone under 30 fire up a PowerPoint instead of a Prezi when giving a talk. Microsoft hopes to put the kibosh on that with Microsoft Sway, its new presentation app.
Here are the stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:
There were a number of announcements that came out of the recently concluded Advent Connect conference, but the one that intrigued me was the news surrounding the next version of Black Diamond’s Blue Sky platform.
