Tag Archives: Envestnet

Envestnet updates from day two of the 2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit

In our day two coverage of the 2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit, we learn what’s new in the Envestnet product roadmap, hear what financial advisers want from their technology provider, learn about the new acquisition of MoneyGuide, and how Bill Crager feels the company is positioned to deliver Financial Wellness to millions of households in America.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4PcKDgLt_aI
2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit video coverage sponsored by Envestnet, Inc. Visit https://www.envestnet.com/ for more information.

Envestnet is a leading provider of integrated portfolio, practice management, and reporting solutions to financial advisors and institutions. The company’s open architecture platform encompasses a broad range of institutional-quality research, investment products, and advisory resources. The Envestnet Platform gives financial professionals the tools to conquer complexity and drive success.

In May 2019, I attended the 2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit in Austin, Texas to highlight many of the changes and announcements made over the prior 12 months. In the promotional video of day two above, I learned what’s new in the Envestnet product roadmap, heard what financial advisers want from their technology provider, learned about the new acquisition of MoneyGuide, and how Bill Crager feels the company is positioned to deliver Financial Wellness to millions of households in America.

So how do you feel Envestnet is positioned in the financial services industry to help financial professionals meet client needs? Have their recent acquisitions made you feel more optimistic about the role of technology in wealth management?

Share your thoughts and comments below!

Envestnet updates from day one of the 2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit

Join us as we give you an update on many changes from the last 12 months at Envestnet, including new leadership, new acquisitions, new products, and new features. Filmed in Austin, TX during the 2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3pTY1iP_MD8
2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit video coverage sponsored by Envestnet, Inc. Visit https://www.envestnet.com/ for more information.

Envestnet is a leading provider of integrated portfolio, practice management, and reporting solutions to financial advisors and institutions. The company’s open architecture platform encompasses a broad range of institutional-quality research, investment products, and advisory resources. The Envestnet Platform gives financial professionals the tools to conquer complexity and drive success.

In May 2019, I attended the 2019 Envestnet Advisor Summit in Austin, Texas to highlight many of the changes and announcements made over the prior 12 months. In the promotional video of day one above, I spoke with CEO Jud Bergman about ways the company is empowering financial professionals to be transformative leaders for their clients, summarized the latest enhancements to the Envestnet | Tamarac software platform for advisers, introduced new leadership roles within the company, and more.

So how do you feel Envestnet is positioned in the financial services industry to help financial professionals meet client needs? Have their recent acquisitions made you feel more optimistic about the role of technology in wealth management?

Share your thoughts and comments below!

Envestnet Yodlee acquires Abe AI: Flash briefing for January 28, 2019

Envestnet | Yodlee Acquires Abe AI to Revolutionize Financial Wellness and Wealth Management with Conversational AI from Yodlee

PIEtech, Inc. ® Expands its MoneyGuide Platform to Meet Different Advisor Needs, Adds Two Powerful New Financial Planning Solutions from GlobeNewswire

XY Investment Solutions Announces New Partnership with Orion Enterprise from PRNewswire

NOTE: Please see my conflicts of interest regarding Envestnet, Orion Advisor Services, and XY Planning Network, all mentioned in today’s briefing:
http://fppad.com/disclaimer

Welcome to a new FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.

Envestnet | Yodlee Acquires Abe AI

Envestnet | Yodlee is expanding its capabilities in artificial intelligence, as the company announced the acquisition of Abe AI for its conversational banking technology. Founded in 2016, Abe AI is best known for AI-powered chatbots used by financial institutions to engage customers with messaging platforms like SMS, Slack, and Facebook Messenger as well as the voice-first platforms of Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

According to the company press release, Envestnet will add Conversational AI to Yodlee’s financial wellness apps and APIs, other retail banking solutions, and in the future, Envestnet’s wealth management offerings.

PIETech Announces MoneyGuideOne and MoneyGuideElite

In financial planning news, PIETech, the creators of MoneyGuidePro, announced the introduction of two new products that are powered by the company’s flagship software. The first is MoneyGuideOne, a streamlined version of MoneyGuidePro, that targets advisors who have not performed financial planning in the past, to create financial plans in minutes without compromising on quality.

The second product is MoneyGuideElite, an advanced planning product that supports sophisticated illustrations for lifetime insurance analysis, portfolio and social security income modeling, and more.

XYIS Announces Partnership with Orion Advisor Services

And finally, the XY Planning Network just announced a new partnership between its XY Investment Solutions subsidiary and Orion Advisor Services. The new partnership will leverage Orion’s new Enterprise platform to offer integrated portfolio management technology and an advanced investment management experience to advisors that use XY Investment Solutions for investment management.

I caught up with XYIS director Brandon Moss to get more information.

This partnership with Orion Enterprise puts our advisors using XYIS on par with the capabilities of the biggest and baddest RIAs in the country. They’ll no longer have to worry about whether they’re missing out on something by not signing up with a robo, but even the broader aspects a large national RIA might have, all of that is there, and Orion Enterprise is giving us the same robo-sytle capabilities for front-end type activities, but all of the flexibility that advisors are truly looking for from an automated platform.

Brandon Moss, XYIS Director

For more details on this news and more, head over to FPPad.com/flashbriefing to find the links to today’s top stories.

And don’t forget to leave a 5-star review in the Alexa app if you enjoy the FPPad Fintech Update.

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.

LPL Financial Acquires AdvisoryWorld: Flash briefing for December 4, 2018

Click here to see my conflicts of interest regarding Envestnet, mentioned in today’s update.

Here are the links to today’s top stories:

Envestnet and BlackRock Enter Strategic Relationship to Enhance the Financial Advisor Experience from Envestnet.com

LPL Financial Announces the Acquisition of AdvisoryWorld from LPL Financial

Welcome to a new FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.

BlackRock Announces Strategic Relationship with Envestnet

First up is news from BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, as the company announced a strategic relationship with Envestnet, a provider of research, analytics, portfolio management, and reporting tools for financial professionals, and also announced that the company purchased a 4.9% equity stake in Envestnet for roughly $123 million dollars.

According to a press release, the new partnership will accelerate work to integrate BlackRock Digital Wealth’s technologies into Envestnet’s platform, which includes solutions such as iRetire, FutureAdvisor, and Aladdin Risk for Wealth Management. The partnership also provides Envestnet with additional growth capital, which some analysts expect Envestnet will use for strategic acquisitions in 2019.

LPL Financial Acquires AdvisoryWorld

And speaking of acquisitions, earlier this week, LPL Financial, the nation’s largest broker-dealer announced the $28 million dollar acquisition of Advisory World, an investment analytics technology provider to financial advisers.

The AdvisoryWorld acquisition will bring over 30 years of analytics and technology expertise to LPL, as the company’s tools like proposal generation, hypothetical illustrations, and digital on-boarding workflow have been widely adopted by over 30,000 financial advisors and institutions in the U.S.

I caught up with AdvisoryWorld COO Mike Wilson for his thoughts on the acquisition announcement:

This is just a great opportunity for us to continue to serve our existing clients in new ways and to deliver our capabilities to more people. Leveraging LPL’s resources will allow us to evolve our offerings, we’re going to be able to try new things and to learn from a broader base of customers which will help us deliver the most sophisticated service we can to all of our clients, both existing and new. Something completely that I must underline is LPL has this broad base of experience and knowledge that we can use to widen our offering to different types of products and to a more diverse audience.

For more information, be sure to visit FPPad.com/flashbriefing for 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.

RetireUp acquires RepPro: Flash briefing for January 11, 2018

Welcome to the FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.

Links:

Envestnet | Tamarac Introduces Enhanced Document Vault File-Storage System for its Award-Winning Client Portal

Enable Calendly for Chrome

RetireUp Acquires RepPro, Creating a Powerhouse Digital Retirement Planning Solution

Envestnet | Tamarac Enhances Document Vault

Sharing documents with clients just got a little easier for advisors using the Envestnet | Tamarac platform, as the comprehensive technology solution for advisers just released an enhanced document vault and file storage system.
Previously, advisers using Envestnet | Tamarac had to turn to third party vendors for file sharing solutions, which meant managing two different systems and some decreased efficiency. The enhanced document vault includes support for uploading files in batches, document previews right in the web browser, secure access to the vault via mobile app, and more.

New Calendly Chrome Extension

Are you tired of playing email battleship with clients when scheduling meetings? Online scheduling software Calendly just announced a new extension for the Chrome web browser, allowing Calendly users to easily copy their meeting event links from the sidebar, quickly propose meeting times for an ad hoc meeting, and manually override existing calendar events to book a high priority meeting. The new Chrome extension works best with Gmail and G Suite account, but some of the features also do work with Office 365 and Outlook.com accounts

RetireUp Acquires RepPro

And in retirement planning software news, RetireUp just announced that company is acquiring RepPro, a form automation platform that supports forms for a variety of annuity carriers as well as custodians like TD Ameritrade and Fidelity. The two companies will operate under the RetireUp brand and will be headquartered in Chicago, providing advisors a single solution to generate retirement plans for clients as well as streamline the form creation process to bring the plans to life. Here’s RetireUp President Michael Roth on the RepPro acquisition.

When we were introduced to RepPro, there was an automatic synergy between the functionality of the two platforms as well as the mission both companies shared of making retirement planning more accessible for people and more profitable to advisors. We’re incredibly proud about this partnership and believe that RepPro’s best-in-class software will continue to improve the workflow at every stage of an advisor’s planning process.

To get links to the details on today’s stories, visit fppad.com/flashbriefing

I’m Bill Winterberg, and those are your fintech headlines for today from FPPad.com, be sure to check back in with me later for more fintech news.

FinaMetrica merges with PlanPlus: Fintech updates for August 8, 2017

Here is your FPPad Bits and Bytes update for August 8, 2017.

FinaMetrica merges with PlanPlus

FinaMetrica announced its merger with PlanPlus, a Toronto-based financial planning software provider. Founded in 1998, FinaMetrica is one of the first companies to gain significant traction for its risk tolerance assessment software, though the company has seen its market share decline over the last few years due to increased competition from Riskalyze, Pocket Risk, RiXtrema, and others.

The combined company will be called PlanPlus Global, and will offer solutions for comprehensive financial planning, goals-based automated investing, and psychometric risk profiling to its 12,000 current users in over 30 countries worldwide. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Advicent adds integration with Envestnet

Advicent announced a new integration this week with Envestnet, which allows advisors to extract client demographic, investment account, and investment portfolio data from Envestnet and populate the data into the company’s NaviPlan financial planning software.

Advicent is a leading provider of financial planning software in the enterprise space, with over 100,000 financial professionals across 4,000 clients worldwide using at least one of the company’s solutions. The integration also demonstrates Envestnet’s continued expansion of its Open ENV initiative announced last year.

Here’s Envestnet President Bill Crager with more information:

So as the platform began to take on a bit of a one-size-fits-all, we realized we had to open that up. So the core engine will fire into these user interfaces that will really speak to the adviser, will speak to the home office. And not only that, we’re building APIs to integrate with the full ecosystem of an adviser’s practice, whether that’s CRM or other applications that they’re using. How do you get information into the system to, again, provide really profound and comprehensive advice for that client that is not a moment in time, but is ongoing. And that’s really our goal, and Open ENV, I think, is a strategic breakthrough and I’m very excited about it.

PreciseFP adds iOS and Android Mobile Apps

For your client data gathering needs, PreciseFP announced new mobile apps for iOS and Android, giving advisors more convenient access to client information. The new app lets advisors add new information about prospect to their PreciseFP database, send data gathering forms to clients and prospects on the spot, and review any existing client data or forms right from their phone.

And finally, if you’re looking for ways you can leverage technology to enhance your client engagement, save the date for Wednesday, August 16 at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific, as I’m hosting a webinar with two advisors who’ve doubled down on technology and seen a huge increase in their client satisfaction. Head over to fppad.com/webinar to register today, that’s FPPad.com/webinar to secure your spot

Those are the headlines for today, I’m Bill Winterberg, be sure check back in for more FPPad Bits and Bytes Updates.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 18, 2016

On today’s broadcast, Wells Fargo announces a partnership with SigFig, Cetera’s computers systems suffer a two-day outage, lessons from a hack at Lincoln Financial, and more.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by eMoney Advisor, the leading provider of digital wealth management solutions. eMoney just introduced two new Advanced Analytics products: Advisor Analytics Pro, offering advisors and support staff deeper business insights, and Office Analytics, offering never-before-seen firm-wide insights.

eMoney Advisor

Featuring a customizable Analytics dashboard, an expansive library of new and interactive data charts, and more, eMoney’s Advanced Analytics solutions will help you put your data to work and uncover more opportunities. For more information the eMoney Analytics solutions, visit fppad.com/emoneyanalytics.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Wells Fargo Goes Robo With SigFig Wealth Management from WSJ.com, and

Wells Fargo notice of an application for an exemption from certain requirements of rule 3a-7(a)(4)(i) under the Investment Company Act of 1940 from SEC.gov

[First up is news from Wells Fargo, as the bank, which finds itself in the middle of a very public firestorm over opening unauthorized accounts, announced this week that it is partnering with SigFig to release an automated investment service to customers of Wells Fargo Advisors sometime in the first half of 2017.

Other than the potential release date, there really wasn’t any concrete information on pricing or the types of investments to be used in the service. Will they be Wells Fargo mutual funds, or third-party ETFs? As of today, Wells Fargo doesn’t offer its own ETFs, but earlier this year, the company filed an exemptive relief request with the SEC, signaling some intent to enter the ETF space.

But that opens the door for potential problems with the Department of Labor fiduciary rule, highlighted by industry Nerd-In-Chief Michael Kitces, where automated investment services that recommend investments in proprietary products, Kitces calls out Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and BlackRock’s FutureAdvisor, do not qualify under the Level Fee Fiduciary exemption because of the variable compensation inherent in an allocation of proprietary ETFs!

So, this is all “industry” stuff, and not all that applicable to your business, but here’s my point. All the big banks, all the incumbent financial institutions are boarding the automated investment bandwagon. Sooner rather than later, your clients and prospects are going to get solicited by the very institutions they use today.

And clients are expecting an experience like Uber, but you’re still driving around a dirty taxi that has to be flagged down with a hand in the air that doesn’t have a functional credit card machine!] Wells Fargo & Co.’s brokerage arm is partnering with SigFig Wealth Management LLC to bring automated investment advice to clients, the latest example of how traditional wealth-management firms are working with startup robo advisers to offer new digital tools to investors.

Cetera Brokers Endure Two-Day Systemwide Crash from AdvisorHub

[Next up is news about Cetera Financial Group, as the independent broker dealer encountered a company-wide systems outage that affected 9,000 brokers as well as the company’s back-office and operations teams.

According to an AdvisorHub article, the outage started on Monday, and one broker with First Allied reported that he could not sign in to view emails, access performance reports, or even call Cetera using their standard phone number. Cell phone numbers were eventually sent out on Monday evening.

In a firm-wide conference call on Tuesday afternoon, Cetera Chief Executive Robert Moore apologized for the disruption and said systems had been fully restored, and added that no data had been compromised through hacking or any other unauthorized access.

So, let this be a reminder that if it’s been a while since you tested your business continuity plan, next week’s Thanksgiving break might be a good time to do so. It doesn’t matter if you manage your own systems or leverage the resources of a broker-dealer, you need to verify how you can perform the essential parts of your business in the event of a disruption.

Attackers are launching denial of service attacks every day against financial institutions, so it’s important that you know exactly what you need to do when the systems you depend aren’t available.] Just six months after emerging from bankruptcy, independent brokerage company Cetera Financial Group experienced a companywide systems outage Monday and Tuesday that walled off brokers at its seven operating broker-dealers from customer data, emails and other vital account management functions.

Lincoln Financial Unit Gets $650K Fine After Server Hack from Law360, and

LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE, WAIVER AND CONSENT NO. 2013035036601 at FINRA.org

[And speaking of attackers, my last story is about Lincoln Financial Securities, an affiliate of Lincoln Financial Group, as the company paid a $650,000 fine imposed by FINRA for failing to safeguard customer data stored on a cloud server used by one of its OSJs.

Sometime in 2012, hackers were able to access the could server configured by a third-party vendor and obtain records on approximately 5,400 customers. The FINRA Letter of Acceptance doesn’t say HOW the server was compromised, and didn’t identify what kind of server was in use. Was it an FTP server, a service like Dropbox, a proprietary server with remote access, or something else?

But more troubling to me is that FINRA goes on to say that the firm “failed to take adequate steps to monitor or audit the vendors’ performance.” Now hold on. One benefit of leveraging third-party vendors is that they bring expertise to the table that the firm doesn’t have, like, oh, I don’t know, cybersecurity expertise.

But for FINRA to say that the firm failed to test and verify the security of the cloud servers, that just doesn’t seem right. The firm doesn’t HAVE the expertise in cloud server security, which is why the firm hired the third-party vendor in the first place, but now FINRA says that the firm is the one that has to verify the security of the third-party vendor that it hired to bring security expertise to the firm? How is that even possible?

What I do know is FINRA just levied a heavy fine on a firm because their third-party vendor had a hole in their security that was exploited by hackers, and in my opinion, that’s a troubling precedent that has been set.] A Lincoln Financial Group subsidiary on Monday agreed to accept a $650,000 fine leveled by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and implement tighter security protocols after hackers in mid-2012 accessed its cloud server and lifted the confidential records of roughly 5,400 customers.

Here are the stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

WisdomTree Makes Strategic Investment in AdvisorEngine from WisdomTree

WisdomTree Investments, Inc. announced that it has invested $20 million for a 36% equity interest in AdvisorEngine, formerly known as Vanare, an end-to-end digital wealth management platform which enables individual customization of investment philosophies.

PIEtech℠, Inc. Unveils Integration with MX for Aggregation and Personal Financial Management Functionality from PRWeb

PIEtech℠, Inc., the creator of the industry’s leading financial planning software, MoneyGuidePro®, today unveiled a new integration with MX to deepen the availability of aggregation for MoneyGuidePro® subscribers and add personal financial management (PFM) functionality via the client portal.

Combined Envestnet and Yodlee Data Offering Supports Morgan Stanley Wealth Management from PRNewswire.com

Envestnet | Yodlee and its parent company Envestnet, today announced a partnership for the combined organization, providing data aggregation, digital applications and data reconciliation solutions to Morgan Stanley, one of the largest, most established wealth management businesses in the industry.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 18, 2016

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 18, 2016

FPPad Bits and Bytes for October 14, 2016

On today’s broadcast, one Wells Fargo broker loses her job after a client spoofing attack, Envestnet acquires Wheelhouse Analytics, and another day, another new robo advisor.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Envestnet | Tamarac, providers of Advisor Xi, an industry-leading fully integrated web-based suite for RIAs. Tamarac’s Advisor Xi unifies portfolio management, modeling, rebalancing, trading, billing, and reporting with a fully customizable client portal and enterprise-grade CRM.

envestnet-tamarac-600

On October 20th, two innovative and rapidly growing firms will share how they leveraged the Advisor Xi Suite in their business during an interactive webinar. Space is limited, so secure your spot today by visiting http://fppad.com/tamarac

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

FINRA Disciplinary Action for Kathleen Kincade (enter Kathleen Kincade in the Individual Name search field)

[Now October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, so my first story is about an unfortunate cybersecurity incident involving a broker from Wells Fargo. According to a FINRA letter released this month, Kathleen Kincade was targeted by attackers who used spoofed client emails to submit three wire transfer requests for nearly $350,000, two of which were processed before Wells Fargo became aware of fraudulent activity.

One wire transfer for $99,000 was reversed, but the company ultimately had to make the client whole for the remaining $250,000 that was transferred.

The letter goes on to say that Kincade used Wells Fargo’s forms to falsely report that she verbally confirmed the wire disbursement instructions with the client, which was not the case. Now I know you’ve heard me say time and time again that attackers are impersonating clients and are targeting you to get you to send money where it shouldn’t go.

So take this as a reminder that you need to continue to be vigilant and suspicious with respect to sporadic requests for client withdrawals, and always, ALWAYS follow a process to authenticate the identity of your client, usually with a phone call, or else you won’t allow any fund transfers to be processed.]

Envestnet Acquires Wheelhouse Analytics from PRNewswire

[Next up is news from Envestnet, as the company announced the acquisition of Wheelhouse Analytics in a move executives said will provide more insight on key performance indicators for asset managers, enterprises, and financial advisors.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and I have to admit, Wheelhouse Analytics was not on my radar at all until this announcement, so I checked out their website and learned about their solutions for data analytics, online education, and document management for sales and business development. This is more business intelligence than it is financial technology, but I can see how Wheelhouse Analytics can connect to the data stored in the Envestnet platform and ultimately deliver timely insight to financial advisors.

Also, think back to Envestnet’s acquisition of Yodlee last summer, and consider how data on client spending and consumption can generate key indicators on which clients might warrant a follow up phone call, versus those who are on a steady path to meet their goals. I think this is worth watching in the near future.] Envestnet, Inc. announced today that it has acquired Wheelhouse Analytics LLC, a technology company that provides data analytics, mobile sales solutions, and online education tools to financial advisors, asset managers and enterprises

Zacks Advantage Form ADV

Merrill Egde Guided Investing Form ADV

[And I think it’s safe to say that my broadcast wouldn’t be complete without a little robo news, so up first, Zacks Investment Management announced the launch of Zacks Advantage, an automated investment service built on the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios platform that adds a bit of active management to balanced portfolio investing. The minimum account size is $5,000, and fees are 50 basis points for accounts up to $100,000, which drops to 35 basis points for accounts greater than $100,000 according to the Form ADV.

And Bank of America offered more information about Merrill Edge Guided Investing, the company’s automated service that also has a $5,000 account minimum, but charges 45 basis points no matter how much money is invested in the account.

So, I want to ask two questions about all this robo stuff. First, if all the other financial firms have a low-cost automated investing solution, why don’t you? If the solutions are so commonplace, prospects might think that your firm is behind the times because you’re not leveraging a solution that is offered pretty much everywhere else.

But second, assuming you DO provide an automated investing solution, the next question you’ll face is why should a prospect choose your business over all the others, when they appear to do the same thing? And THAT is your opportunity to communicate why your business is different, identify your value proposition, and describe all the things you do that go far beyond portfolio asset allocation and frequent rebalancing.

No robo solution can compete with that!]

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for October 14, 2016

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for October 14, 2016

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 29, 2016

On today’s broadcast, it’s a robo free-for-all, so put on your best robo accessory, because FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Envision Consulting, providers of IT management and support, cloud computing, and cybersecurity services to RIAs. This October, Envision is hosting a cybersecurity event with Kevin Mitnick, the World’s Most Famous Hacker, where you can find out how to leverage Kevin’s knowledge of the latest hacking techniques to protect your business from attack.

Register Today!

Space is limited, so secure your registration today by visiting topsecurityshow.com, and if you use my promo code, FPPad, you’ll save 15% off the price of your registration.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Fidelity Launches Automated Investment Advice Service from WSJ.com

Fidelity Go Vs. Pokemon Go: Be A Low-Cost Investor Or AR Zombie from Investor’s Business Daily

Better Together: Automated Investing with Professional Guidance from BusinessWire

TD Ameritrade Earns $240M in Quarter; Says Retail Robo Is Coming from ThinkAdvisor

TD Ameritrade Institutional, XY Planning Network Launch Program to Cultivate Next-Generation RIAs and Investors from TD Ameritrade

Wells Fargo Plans to Start Robo-Advisory in 2017, Sloan Says from Bloomberg

Big News for the Quantopian Community: Managing External Capital from Quantopian

[Get ready for the robo news, as this week’s top stories come from Fidelity Investments and TD Ameritrade, as both financial institutions recently announced online investing solutions for the retail investor. A few days ago, Fidelity officially rolled out Fidelity Go, specifically targeting digitally savvy customers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, with investment assets in the low six figures.

When asked by Investor’s Business Daily what happens when Fidelity Go customers get older and wealthier, Rich Compson, head of managed accounts at Fidelity, responded that customers would be referred “to other services like Fidelity’s Portfolio Advisory Services.”

Ok, ok, but advisors aren’t completely left out, as Fidelity did promise details about an automated service it’s developing for financial advisers by year-end. That’s, details, by year-end.

And a few weeks ago, TD Ameritrade announced it had completed updates to its Amerivest Managed Portfolios retail offering, including a digital overhaul for better goal setting, performance tracking, and more.

In ThinkAdvisor’s interview with incoming CEO Tim Hockey, he said that the company will be using Amerivest’s tech enhancements “to launch a new robo for the self-directed client’s needs” scheduled for sometime in 2017.

When asked about referrals to RIAs who custody with TD Ameritrade Institutional, Hockey added that retail clients with $1 million dollars or more are the “target referral” for affiliated RIAs.

That comment came out at the same time the company announced a program with the XY Planning Network to provide dedicated service and no minimum asset requirement to use TD Ameritrade Institutional’s custody services. That’s good, it’s gotta be awkward knowing TD Ameritrade is going to target digitally savvy investors, aka potential XYPN clients, with their own retail robo solution.

On top of all that, Wells Fargo also announced that it, too, is entering the robo market, with a solution expected also sometime in 2017.

And if you don’t like today’s current robo solutions, you can go build your own robo algorithm with Quantopian, who just received fresh venture capital this week from hedge fund investor Steve Cohen.

That’s it, all I hear all day long is how great robos do this, or how wonderful robos do that: robo, robo, robo!]

Envestnet | Tamarac to Roll Out Client Portal 2.0 from PRNewswire

[Now in NON-robo news, how about an update from Envestnet | Tamarac, as the company released the latest version of its client portal to advisors who use the Advisor View™ application. If you watched my coverage of the Envestnet Advisor Summit earlier this year, you would have seen a preview of the updated client portal, plus the key enhancements highlighted by Brandon Rembe. So click right here so you can watch that video.] Envestnet | Tamarac has completely redesigned the client portal in its Advisor View™ portfolio management and performance reporting application. The new client portal will be implemented as part of Tamarac’s July 2016 technology release, and seeks to help RIAs create highly customizable client portal experiences to engage their clients and appeal to the next generation of investors.

MoneyGuidePro creator releases DOL fiduciary-focused software from InvestmentNews.com

[Also, MoneyGuidePro recently released a utility called Best Interest Scout, intended to gather information about client goals, expectations, and investment details in one place. This should help you from a workflow perspective, but the tool should also be helpful in identifying when you must engage in a Best Interests Contract with a client. If you’re concerned about compliance with the pending fiduciary rule from the DoL, expect more tools like Best Interest Scout to come to market.] PIEtech, the creator of financial planning software MoneyGuidePro, has built a tool to see how well clients’ portfolios are aligned with their best interests, including retirement goals and concerns, insurance needs, and health-care costs.

Now since I took a few weeks off, I just don’t have time to cover all the stories in my backlog, including news on the talent exodus at Wealthfront, the Betterment for Business 401(k) offering surpassing 200 plan sponsors and $5 billion in AUM, Quovo, Riskalyze and more, so links to those stories are below:

Talent exodus hits Wealthfront including heads of product, marketing and operations from RIABiz.com

Wealthfront, founded in 2008, is experiencing its first big talent exodus — a flurry of departures that includes some C-suite titles and a Unicorn shepherd.

Betterment for Business Surpasses 200 Plan Sponsors from PRNewswire

Betterment for Business, the only turnkey 401(k) service that includes personalized investment advice for all participants, announced today that it has successfully added 200 plan sponsors to the platform in the last six months.

Betterment Becomes First Independent Robo-Advisor to Surpass $5B of Assets Under Management from PRNewswire

Betterment announced today that it is the first independent robo-advisor to reach $5 billion in assets under management. The company now helps more than 175,000 customers intelligently manage and grow their wealth.

Apex Clearing to Offer Vanare’s Digital Advice Platform from PRNewswire

Apex Clearing Corporation will begin offering to its broker dealer and RIA clients the ability to digitally manage investments using Vanare’s digital advice platform. Vanare offers a wealth management technology platform with a highly customizable white labeled Roboadvisor.

Advisor Software, Quovo Partner to Strengthen Goals-Based Planning Capabilities for Wealth Managers from PRNewswire

Advisor Software, Inc. has teamed up with Quovo to provide wealth managers with seamless access to aggregated client financial data, which can help put together an all-encompassing financial picture for every client.

Marstone and Quovo Announce Partnership from MarketWired.com

Marstone, an innovative digital wealth company, and Quovo, a financial data science company for the wealth management industry, today announced that they have completed a partnership to enhance Marstone’s digital wealth solutions with Quovo’s industry-leading data aggregation.

Riskalyze Autopilot for Retirement Plans from Riskalyze

LastPass introduces Emergency Access from LastPass

With the Emergency Access feature, you can give trusted family and friends access to your LastPass account in the event of an emergency or crisis.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 29, 2016

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 29, 2016

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 20, 2016

On today’s broadcast, I’m on location at the Envestnet Advisor Summit. You’ll hear from Bill Crager about Open ENV, Stuart DePina on adding Salesforce integration to Tamarac, and hear how the Yodlee acquisition is enhancing the Envestnet platform.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Envestnet Unveils Open ENV from Envestnet

Envestnet, Inc. has unveiled Open ENV to offer differentiated user experiences, accelerate integrations and extend the availability of Envestnet’s solutions.

Envestnet | Tamarac Unveils A New Version of Advisor CRM® from Envestnet

Envestnet | Tamarac has rolled out a new edition of its Advisor CRM® application, Advisor CRM, which incorporates the latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 update and is compatible with Microsoft Windows 10 and Microsoft Office 2016

 

ENV thumbnail 620