I met with Drew DiMarino, SVP of eMoney Advisor, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.
After speculation about management changes and potential conflicts following Fidelity’s acquisition of eMoney, DiMarino used the opportunity to address the attendees and set the record straight.
“eMoney Advisor will remain an independent company. Period,” said DiMarino.
He added that the eMoney Advisor platform will continue to be accessible to non-Fidelity clients.
As of November 2015, roughly 75% of eMoney users have custodial relationships outside of Fidelity.
Another rumor DiMarino addressed is the sharing of investor information between eMoney and Fidelity.
DiMarino added, “eMoney has privacy laws against Fidelity accessing and using independent advisor data.”
After the sudden departure of eMoney founder Edmund Walters, DiMarino said that the company is currently searching for a successor CEO, and in the meantime is hiring more developers to deliver “a five-year roadmap in two years.”
On the product roadmap, DiMarino previewed a new client experience that he said will be launching in Q1 2016 that offers easy client onboarding and self registration options for investors.
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, Quovo raises $4.75 million to take on account aggregation, Advicent announces it will integrate Quovo into its planning software, and the industry is shocked as Edmond Walters suddenly announces his resignation as eMoney Advisor CEO.
So get ready, a Periscope edition of FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!
Quovo, the leading financial data science company that addresses the needs of the wealth management industry, today announced that it has closed a $4.75M funding round.
Today Advicent Solutions, the leading provider of SaaS technology solutions for the financial services industry, announced its partnership with Quovo, an innovative financial data science company that addresses the needs of the wealth management industry. Quovo will provide account aggregation and direct custodial integrations to accelerate the integration strategy of Advicent Solutions and the convergence of personal financial management (PFM) and financial planning.
eMoney Advisor’s founder and CEO, Edmond Walters, stepping down from leadership role- Durbin, former President of Fidelity’s RIA custody unit, to oversee transition- eMoney Advisor maintains commitment to serving wide range of clients
Yodlee, known by financial advisers mainly for its data aggregation services, agreed to be acquired by Envestnet, the wealth management services and technology provider to financial advisers.
Yodlee raised $75 million in an October 2014 IPO after approximately 15 years as a private company, valuing the company around $340 million.
Financial advisers do not directly use Yodlee products or services, but many of the technology services they do use employ Yodlee account aggregation services (see below).
Fiserv’s CashEdge also performs account aggregation and the company sells an advisor-facing aggregation product called AllData Advisor®.
MoneyGuidePro has offered discounted pricing for Yodlee, but now is presented with a conflict given that Yodlee’s new owner also recently acquired Finance Logix, a competing financial planning software solution.
Who Uses Yodlee?
Noteworthy adviser technology vendors who use Yodlee include Blueleaf, CircleBlack, MoneyGuidePro (see MoneyGuidePro to integrate Yodlee for account aggregation), Orion Advisor Services, Wealthminder, Wealth Access, and Wells Fagro.
If you’re Envestnet, or if you use Envestnet products and services in your business, this acquisition is good. Very good. Envestnet now has a very broad portfolio of services that helps financial advisers run efficient businesses.
What services, you ask? They offer CRM, portfolio management and reporting, client portals, business intelligence, and mobile apps from Envestnet|Tamarac, financial planning software from Finance Logix, and now account aggregation from Yodlee.
If you’re a vendor who competes with Envestnet AND offers account aggregation to your financial adviser users, it could be bad. One of your product’s competitive differentiators, account aggregation, just got acquired by a leading vendor of financial technology and portfolio management solutions to advisers. Now what do you do?
And if you’re an adviser who doesn’t use Envestnet, your choices for an independent account aggregation solution are now smaller. Who’s left? Aqumulate, Intuit, Quovo, and Openfinance.
ByAllAccounts is owned by Morningstar (but an important note is that Morningstar doesn’t sell investment products or portfolio services, but rather adviser technology and investment research).
And Intuit is a special case, too, as once again, advisers can’t directly purchase or subscribe to Intuit aggregation. Aggregation from Intuit must be integrated by a third-party technology provider.
Openfinance is one to watch, as I was told recently that First Rate, SunGard’s main performance reporting partner, teamed up with OpenFinance to provide aggregation solutions for First Rate integration partners (e.g. Grendel CRM from Big Brain Works).
Plaid is out there too, but as far as I can tell, their bread-and-butter customers are consumer-oriented financial apps like Acorns and robinhood.
So overall, are the limited choices among aggregation solutions good or bad? I’m not entirely sure.
Some advisers choose not to offer account aggregation at all. Some do. It largely depends on how the business is structured and whether or not account aggregation boosts the overall value proposition of the firm.
A Yodlee Backstory
One of the Achilles’ heel of financial services is the forced fragmentation of where all of us keep our money.
Your monthly income and spending flows through a bank checking account.
Want a savings account that actually has an annual interest rate that isn’t zero? You’ll probably open an online savings account.
Want to invest in low-cost mutual funds? You’ll likely open an account directly with the fund company.
Want to own a few stocks? You’ll need a brokerage account for that.
Want to save for retirement? Your employer requires you to use certain retirement plan providers. Time to open another account.
Want to save for college? Again, your state might have a specific plan sponsor if you want to take advantage of state tax deductions. Boom, another account!
Seriously, why must the industry be so fragmented that consumers have no choice but to open so many discrete accounts across so many financial institutions?!?
So if you’re like most people who live on planet Earth and use money, it’s nearly impossible to see what you have one place AND keep that report up to date as your spending fluctuates and your investments rise and fall.
Enter Yodlee.
Yodlee seized the opportunity among this fragmentation to facilitate all-in-one reporting. As online financial account access became mainstream, Yodlee allows consumers to grant permission to read data from each financial account and aggregate all that disparate data into one dashboard, the Yodlee MoneyCenter. To build a buisness, Yodlee charges third-party companies (e.g. banks, insurance companies, trust companies, broker-dealers, financial apps like Personal Capital and LearnVest) to be on the receiving end of the aggregated data.
Fast forward to today and Yodlee’s market value for its business is in the neighborhood of $660 million.
And now you know the Yodlee backstory (well, as I tell it. There’s a lot more to the story, but this is what matters for you, the financial adviser).
Note: An earlier version of this post suggested that rumors indicated the Fiserv adviser-facing product AllData Advisor® was being phased out. A company spokeswoman for Fiserv wrote, “At this time, Fiserv has no plans to phase out the referenced advisor-facing product.”
On today’s broadcast, Guide Financial gets scooped up by an insurance company, Fox Financial Planning Network wants to help you with your online investment service adoption, and WealthMinder raises fresh capital to give you an edge over robo advisors.
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 now offers TRX Edge, a completely rewritten rebalancing platform optimized for the web as well as mobile devices. Sign up for a demo of TRX Edge by visiting http://fppad.com/trx
[This week’s top story comes from Guide Financial, because while I was enjoying clam chowder in a Boudin sourdough bowl in San Francisco, the company announced it was acquired by John Hancock, the life insurance, mutual fund, and retirement solution provider. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Now if you’re a regular viewer of FPPad Bits and Bytes, you should remember I highlighted Guide Financial in episode 124 when the company announced an agreement to white-label its solution for members of the Garrett Planning Network.
That was more than a year ago, and I’m told that the adoption of the white-labeled solution was below expectations. So fast forward to today on the heels of fintech acquisitions of eMoney Advisor, Upside, NestEgg Wealth, and LearnVest and you’ll quickly realize that industry behemoths like John Hancock are eager to cater to tech-savvy customers with slick, user friendly online experiences. Guide Financial is just one of the many online startups in this space building such a platform.
In the press release, John Hancock said that Guide Financial will operate as an independent group, so I can only speculate whether or not Guide Financial will remain independent or if some financial product upselling and/or cross marketing will weave its way into the solution. So stay tuned.] John Hancock announced today that it has acquired Guide Financial, Inc., a San Francisco-based software provider for financial advisors. Guide Financial builds software that enables investors to make better financial decisions and build wealth, utilizing artificial intelligence, behavioral finance, and seamless advisor integration. Terms were not disclosed.
[Next up is more news regarding online investment services, as the Fox Financial Planning Network recently announced a new program called AdvisorTouch Symphony. If you missed the news because you were out riding a cable car, AdvisorTouch Symphony is essentially a turnkey roadmap you can implement to add an online investment service to your business.
Under the program, you’ll receive step-by-step guidance on how to adopt these new tools, with Jemstep Advisor Pro being the first automated investment service of choice, and you can expect several other online services to be featured in the near future.
Pricing for firms with one to three advisors is a one-time fee of $5,500, and larger firms will be charged based on their size and need for customization.
This gets you the practice management resources, but this fee doesn’t include additional compliance guidance and resources available from National Regulatory Services, or the optional cybersecurity consulting from True North Networks which were both named in an alliance with AdvisorTouch Symphony. Whew! Got that?
So if you want someone else to show you how to add an online investment service to your business, this is one resource to be sure is on your radar.] Fox Financial Planning Network (FFPN) announced today the launch of AdvisorTouch Symphony, the only program of its kind to help financial advisory firms harness the power of combining robo-technology with practice management. FFPN created this program to demystify robo-technology for advisory firms and provide a detailed road map through every aspect of the implementation process to help firms maximize the benefits of its use.
[And finally, this week’s broadcast wraps up with news on WealthMinder, because while I was pillaging and plundering with pirates of the “you can’t say that on YouTube,” the company announced a new round of fundraising to the swashbuckling tune of $1.45 million.
WealthMinder is, surprise surprise, yet another while-labeled advisor solution for online service, only this one goes beyond basic asset allocation recommendations by incorporating goal planning. To get a deeper look at WealthMinder, coincidentally, Joel Bruckenstein reviewed WealthMinder in his column for Financial Advisor Magazine this month.
To cut to the chase, clients and prospects log in to WealthMinder and choose goals they’re planning for, they aggregate their investment accounts using an integration from Yodlee, and WealthMinder ultimately generates an initial financial plan based on some basic assumptions, and yes, the plan can include investment recommendations, too.
For you, the advisor, you can log in to your dashboard and view all the plans that clients have created, which includes their recommended actions, and then you can proactively offer your services to help clients implement the next steps. There are a reported 26 firms using the platform today, and the pricing to advisors comes in at $10 per month per client, but you can offset the cost by collecting a monthly subscription fee from clients who want to use the WealthMinder platform.] WealthMinder, a Reston-based financial marketplace that looks to connect financial advisers with people who aren’t considered wealthy, has secured $1.45 million in seed funding led by two West Coast venture capital firms — Green Visor Capital and Signatures Capital.
Here are the stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:
Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research, is working with Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) to add rebalancing functionality to Morningstar Office, the company’s practice and portfolio management system for independent financial advisors.
Consumers seem to be buying into the idea that these devices can help improve their physical health, so why not create similar mobile capabilities to track financial health?
Today’s episode is brought to you by ITEGRIA, providers of complete outsourced technology support, security, infrastructure and IT solutions exclusively for RIAs.
In their new book titled Red Flags, you’ll learn how to protect your firm from cyber-attacks, disasters, and IT compliance risks. Learn more about the Red Flags book by visiting fppad.com/itegria.
[Now you probably know that the Super Bowl of advisor technology, a.k.a. the T3 conference, was held in Dallas last week. By last count, there were over 40 press releases made at the event, but since this is just a five minute show, here are my picks for the most important stories.
First up is eMoney Advisor, as their CEO Edmund Walters took the stage with no slide deck, no apologies, and proceeded to shock the audience with a preview of emX Select, completed by a video filled with explosions.
Awesome, right?!? On everyone’s mind was the Fidelity acquisition, so Walters told the packed ballroom eMoney “had to sell” because “this tech is expensive” and he wants to “kick the crap out of the B2C” robo advisors (implosion!).
I told you, ! No apologies.
From what I’ve seen so far, emX Select resembles the Veo One™ dashboard recently announced by TD Ameritrade Institutional (you did watch my Veo One coverage, right?) but eMoney aims to have 28 integrations by September, which beats the 11 integrations planned for Veo One, one of which includes eMoney Advisor. Interesting!] On Friday at the 2015 T3 Conference in Dallas, eMoney Advisor, recently acquired by Fidelity for $250 million, gave advisors the first look at its new emX Select platform.
[Next up is Riskalyze, as CEO Aaron Klein announced a new partnership with Omaha-based CLS Investments to provide an end-to-end online investment service called Autopilot. At a high level, Autopilot is similar to Betterment Institutional, Upside, JemStep and others where clients answer an online questionnaire and can then invest directly in a recommended portfolio allocation based on their answers.
Klein also demonstrated a new tool called Meetings, a simple way advisors can conduct screen sharing with remote clients without exposing private data, embarrassing cat videos, or the random Godzilla attack (woah!) that might pop up on an advisor’s screen. Meetings comes out February 23rd, so make sure you give it a try.] Autopilot Will Offer Automated Asset Management and Risk Measurement, Embedded Into an Advisory Firm’s Existing Website.
[And let’s crush this broadcast (woah!) with a quick roundup of other news: Betterment just raised another $60 million in venture capital for a total of $105 million. What are they going to do with the cash? Betterment CEO Jon Stein says they’re going to refine algorithms to answer questions like “Am I saving enough relative to my goals?” Warning: financial planning algorithms ahead!] New York-based Betterment is closing a new $60 million round, the company is set to announce on Thursday.
[Schwab’s Form ADV for their Intelligent Portfolios robo-solution revealed the service is “technically” free, but they will use client cash, aka the “sweep allocation” for Schwab Bank activity where Schwab earns income on the spread, so Intelligent Portfolios discloses that most strategies maintain a higher sweep allocation than other providers designed to fully invest client cash. But hey, it’s “free” and consumers LOVE free!] The Charles Schwab Corp. will charge a fee of 30 basis points to clients of its robo-advisor, but those investors will not pay it out of pocket because Schwab affiliates will reimburse the client behind the scenes, according to SEC documents relating to Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.
[And finally, private equity firm TA Associates recently signed an agreement to acquire a majority interest in NorthStar Financial Services Group, the parent company of Orion Advisor Services, CLS Investments, Gemini Fund Services and six other sister companies. So you’ve been asking me, is this good or bad, specifically for Orion. I believe it’s good, and here’s why: Orion has a strong track record of growth, Orion’s leadership will remain in place, the company remains privately held, and now there’s extra cash available for strategic opportunities.] TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in NorthStar Financial Services Group, LLC, and its nine subsidiary wealth management industry service providers.
Here are stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:
Advicent Solutions announced at the 2015 T3 (Technology Tools for Today) Conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, that it is launching a new product for the North American market—the Narrator™ application builder. The product is available to buy immediately.
NorthStar has nine subsidiaries under the company, with Orion Advisor Services, LLC being the most recognizable to advisers interested in financial technology solutions for their business. Collectively, NorthStar and its subsidiaries manage and administer roughly $275 billion in assets, with Orion making up at least $180 billion of that amount (see: Orion Celebrates Fifteen Years of Serving Advisors With Record Growth from Marketwired.com)
With three M&A deals in one week, financial technology service providers are proving to be attractive targets for acquisition.
The Future of FinTech M&A
Looking to the future, these deals seem to validate two trends in the industry. First, independent advisory firms continue to seek ways to scale their operational efficiency, and trusted third party providers offer attractive solutions to achieve such goals. Outsourced portfolio management (Orion Advisor Services and Advent Software) and account aggregation, client portals, and streamlined financial planning (eMoney Advisor) give advisers the leverage they need to growth their business without having to add significant overhead or add to the headcount of the firm.
Second, independent advisory firms are poised to continue to attract business from clients and investors dissatisfied with traditional wirehouse and brokerage providers, which may lead to a significant shift in asset flows away from transaction- and product-oriented businesses to fiduciary advice offered by independent RIAs.
Since M&A activity has dramatically picked up in 2015, here’s my question to you:
On today’s broadcast, the rumors are true: eMoney gets acquired by Fidelity Investments, Advent Software gets acquired by SS&C Technologies, and the SEC reveals troubling cybersecurity issues after its first round of broker-dealer and adviser examinations.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Wealthbox CRM. Version 1.7 just released with delectable features like two-way Google Calendar synchronization, support for popular email newsletter services, an integrated Facebook feed, and more!
[This week’s top story that EVERYONE is talking about is eMoney’s acquisition by Fidelity Investments. Sources close to the deal cited a purchase price “north of $250 million” with a valuation around four times eMoney’s revenue. This deal marks the first time I can recall an institutional custodian taking ownership of a financial planning software provider. Nearly a dozen others that I listed on FPPad are all privately held with no custodial affiliation.
So the burning question is: What’s the future of eMoney? Executives from eMoney and Fidelity reaffirmed that the company will continue to operate independently, but have the financial backing of Fidelity to accelerate product development and growth. Now for me, eMoney seemed to be doing just fine on its own, always having a top spot in advisor technology surveys and having just released a big emX update two months ago, so did they really need to make a deal?
But on the other hand, if you read Michael Kitces’ take on Nerd’s Eye View, he believes Fidelity purchased eMoney primarily for its client-facing personal financial management tool, or PFM, that works a lot like Mint.com, and just happened to get eMoney’s financial planning software along with the deal. Robo-investment allocators are raising the stakes on client-facing dashboards, but buying eMoney for its PFM solution just doesn’t add up to me.
There are many other PFM options and client-facing dashboards out there like Aqumulate, Blueleaf, MoneyDesktop (MX), and even Personal Capital, who built their own, probably for a lot less than $250 million. So really, nobody knows what the future holds now that eMoney is under Fidelity’s ownership, and you can add me to the list of speculators that can only guess how this deal will influence your decision on what financial planning software you choose to use.] Fidelity Investments® announced today that it has agreed to acquire eMoney Advisor, a leading wealth planning software company, as part of Fidelity’s commitment to deliver an industry leading suite of innovative and meaningful tools and technology to its customers.
[Next up is news of another deal, as Advent Software is going to be acquired by SS&C Technologies for $2.7 billion. SS and who? I had never heard of them either until this week, because SS&C is primarily focused on institutions and enterprises, not independent RIAs.
So on the institutional side, the deal makes sense because SS&C is already the largest user of Advent’s Geneva solution, with around 2,400 internal users. But what about the Axys and Black Diamond solutions used by you, the independent adviser?
Bill Stone, SS&C’s chairman and CEO, said in a conference call that the company “did not see anything in Advent’s portfolio that we’d want to rationalise” and “killing a product is the last thing you want to do.”
Cough, TechFi.
So, Advent users, you’re in a little bit of limbo, too until we see this deal pan out, but I suspect not a whole lot will change in the near term. These are well-established companies with mature products that collectively have very high user retention.] The acquisitive US-based firm, SS&C, has expanded its presence in the wealth management software market with the all-cash acquisition of rival Advent Software.
[And finally, the SEC released its first Cybersecurity Examination Sweep Summary this week, outlining key findings from over a hundred broker-dealer and RIA examinations. Here are my most important takeaways:
3 out of 4 advisers have been the target of cyber attacks, only 1 out of 5 advisers actually have cybersecurity insurance, and very few advisers know where to identify best practices on cybersecurity. Here’s a hint: THIS SHOW is one of them!
Clearly I should dedicate a show in the future exclusively to cybersecurity, but in the meantime, download my free guide on security at fppad.com/security and connect a vendor that specializes in RIA best practices like Itegria, Envision RIA, External IT, True North Networks, Right Size Solutions, and others.] OCIE’s National Examination Program staff, recently examined 57 registered broker-dealers and 49 registered investment advisers to better understand how broker-dealers and advisers address the legal, regulatory, and compliance issues associated with cybersecurity.
Here are the stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:
Advizr, a next generation financial planning software, today announced a strategic partnership with Blueleaf, a leading client engagement, data automation and reporting platform for advisors and clients.
Independent broker-dealer Cambridge Investment Research Inc. plans to have a competitive robo-type offering that works in sync with its 3,000 advisers’ practices in 2016.
Fidelity Investments’ acquisition of eMoney Advisor makes the custodian invested in financial planning software.
Updated 7:54 AM ET, February 3, 2015 with valuation information
Fidelity Investments today announced the acquisition of eMoney Advisor, the Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based provided of popular financial planning and adviser marketing solutions.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by Fidelity Investments.
“North of $250 million”
Some sources cited a purchase price “north of $250 million” and a valuation of four times eMoney’s annual revenue in this Philly.com article.
Sources not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told me the valuation was closer to eight times eMoney’s annual revenue for a purchase price between $250 and $300 million. (Note: we’ll never know the true terms as both companies are privately held and not required to disclose the terms.)
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® will retain a minority interest in eMoney Advisor and will continue to use the solution as one of eMoney’s largest clients.
Independent Planning
Today’s acquisition marks the first time I can recall an institutional custodian has taken majority ownership of a financial planning software provider.
I’ve taken the liberty of listing many of the other popular financial planning solutions along with their respective parent company affiliation(s) where applicable.
SunGard, operating under SunGard Financial Systems, a subsidiary of SunGard Data Systems Inc., Private under ownership of Bain Capital LLC, Blackstone Group LP, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners LP, KKR & Co LP, Providence Equity Partners Inc, Silver Lake and TPG Capital LP
If you have more details regarding the providers listed or wish to add any solutions to the list, please contact me.
Accelerating Integrations
Several questions come to my mind once Fidelity Investments finishes its eMoney acquisition.
Will eMoney continue to support integrations with competing institutional custodians, or is a walled garden strategy coming for the popular planning software? Will the new ownership expand integrations and custodial support, restrict them, or simply maintain today’s status quo?
Ed O’Brien, senior vice president of Technology Platforms for Fidelity Institutional, and Edmund Walters, eMoney Advisor Founder and CEO, graciously carved out a few minutes to converse by phone regarding my questions.
“Our vision at eMoney is not just about delivering financial planning, but making the adviser’s life easier through technology,” said Walters. “Developing integrations with leading technology providers allows us to do that, and now with Fidelity behind us, we will accelerate it.”
O’Brien added by saying, “We want eMoney to continue to accelerate their role in the marketplace to deliver the best advisor experience possible, and that helps make what Fidelity does better.”
In addition, eMoney publicly assured others with similar questions that the company will “continue to operate independently as a standalone entity” in an update on the company Twitter feed this morning.
@vrbst4@KimGaxiola Not to worry, eMoney will continue to operate independently as a standalone entity. Only good things to come!
Consider, however, the perspective of other custodians serving independent financial advisers. How eager will they be to integrate and pass data to eMoney Advisor once it falls under ownership of a competing custodian?
For example, TD Ameritrade Institutional just announced at its conference last week that the new Veo One™ platform will soon integrate data from eMoney Advisor (watch Veo One preview from the National LINC 2015 Conference).
With eMoney falling under Fidelity Investments’ ownership, what’s in the future for eMoney integrations supported by competing custodians?
The question is not specific to TD Ameritrade Institutional. eMoney Advisor is used by over 25,000 financial professionals, who collectively use the institutional custody and broker-dealer services from a variety of providers, including Schwab Advisor Services, TD Ameritrade Institutional, LPL Financial, and Pershing, LLC (under The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation).
This is a developing story. Instead of email you can message me on Cyber Dust at billwinterberg
On today’s broadcast, learn about new updates from eMoney Advisor and Redtail CRM, plus, learn what four technology experts are saying about trends you need to watch in 2015.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Building Trust Online, a new business I founded with my executive producer Steve Biermann. You probably already know that videos like this can help you build relationships and trust with clients and prospects who are looking for you online, but you’re not sure how to get started and you’ve never been trained to be confident in front of the camera.
Learn more about our coaching and media skills training by visiting buildingtrustonline.com, and sign up for the free newsletter while you’re there.
[Now this week’s news you need to know comes from two popular software providers in the advisor technology marketplace. First up is eMoney Advisor which announced the release of emX back in mid-December.
emX is a radical and refreshing redesign of the original 360 and 360 Pro products from eMoney, and includes new features like mobile-friendly access for advisors, co-browsing and presentation modes, and deep integrations with many of the industry’s other leading technology providers.
One of those integrations is with Redtail Technology, which is the source of the second update you need to know. This week, Redtail officially rolled out the third iteration of its CRM software dubbed Project Tailwag. Just like eMoney emX, Redtail’s Project Tailwag modernizes the look and feel of the CRM, adds mobile-responsive design, and includes feature enhancements to notes, activities, and contact information in response to advisor feedback.]
[Rounding out news you need to know this week is a panel discussion moderated by Michael Kitces for the January edition of the Journal of Financial Planning. Industry authorities Joel Bruckenstein, Steve Lockshin, Hardeep Walia, and yours truly tackled tough questions from Michael on the technology trends you need to put on your radar right now.] Leading tech experts Joel Bruckenstein and Bill Winterberg, along with the heads of two prominent platforms, Hardeep Walia of Motif Investing, and Steve Lockshin of Betterment Institutional, discuss how technology can create better advisers.
