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Welcome to the FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today. (Click here to watch on YouTube)

Links to today’s top stories:

SS&C to Acquire DST Systems from ssctech.com

Merrill Lynch advisors will soon be texting clients from financial-planning.com

SS&C Technologies acquires DST Systems for $5.4 billion

The merger and acquisition train continues to steamroll into 2018, with SS&C Technologies announcing a $5.4 billion deal to acquire DST Systems in an all-cash transaction. Over 100,000 financial professionals use DST Systems technology like DST FAN Mail for portfolio aggregation and DST Vision to view a dashboard of all client accounts. SS&C, which also acquired Advent software in July of 2015 for $2.3 billion, says it will leverage the DST Systems acquisition to increase automation and efficiency across all of its wealth management offerings to financial professionals and institutions.

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management adds text messaging support

Do you text with your financial adviser? In the coming weeks, Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management division will allow its 15,000 financial advisors to use compliant text messaging software as it rolls out new software this month and into February. Merrill Lynch selected CellTrust to allow advisors to send text messages to clients using a web browser, while clients can text back to their advisor using their Apple or Android devices. All messages are captured and archived for compliance purposes, meeting the regulatory requirements imposed by the SEC an FINRA.

Junxure acquisition details from AdvisorEngine

And finally, in a webinar this week, AdvisorEngine provided details on its roadmap following last week’s acquisition announcement of Junxure. Webinar attendees learned that the company plans to continue to support both the Junxure Desktop and Junxure Cloud versions of the CRM and has no plans to change the Junxure pricing structure from a user-based subscription to a fee based on assets under management. Here’s Rich Cancro, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AdvisorEngine with his comments about the alignment of culture between the two organizations:

When you take a look at the Junxure product and the people, as I got to know the management team, and then most recently the full team, the passion they have toward the Junxure client base is truly palpable, and that’s something that the team, the people, the care, and how they care for one another, there’s a lot of similarities around culture, being collaborative and helping one another and helping our clients.

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.