In what’s becoming an annual tradition while attending the Schwab IMPACT® conference, I once again connected with John Connor, VP of Digital Advisor Solutions with Charles Schwab to tour a sampling of the vendors participating in the “Tech Alley” in The Exchange.
Join us as we engage six advisor technology vendors during our tour to learn how each of them helps advisors be more efficient when offering services to clients. Tour stops include:
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.
If you want a financial plan, but don’t have a hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, there’s a new company that wants to help, as Baltimore-based Facet Wealth recently raised $33 million dollars in funding to offer financial plans by CFP professionals to Americans nationwide. Facet Wealth charges a flat fee for financial planning services that range from $480 a year to $5,000 per year based on the complexity of the plan. Facet Wealth also said it will use some of its funding to transition certain clients from other financial advisers that don’t meet that firm’s ideal client profile.
RightCapital Announces Strategic Partnership with Betterment for Advisors
Continuing with the financial planning theme, earlier this week, RightCapital announced that the financial planning software provider has secured a strategic partnership with Betterment for Advisors. The partnership builds on an integration that was rolled out last year, and means that RightCapital will help advisers streamline the process of managing investment accounts with Betterment for Advisors, and advisers using Betterment for Advisors will be able to launch Right Capital software and access its planning features all under one login.
PIEtech Unveils MoneyGuidePro Version G5
And finally, MoneyGuidePro, one of the industry’s largest providers of financial planning software to advisers, announced the launch of G5, the fifth generation of its planning software. G5 features enhanced planning for anticipated health care expenses, custom rate-of-return estimates for assets outside the adviser’s management, a cash reserve bucket strategy, and sophisticated life insurance needs analysis illustrations.
Here’s executive vice president Kevin Hughes with more details on G5
Our customers view MoneyGuidePro less as a financial planning tool and more as an integral part of their business model. G5 builds on that successful collaborative experience helping advisers position their advice and motivate their clients to implement their recommendations.
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.
Welcome to the FPPad fintech briefing, here are the top fintech stories you need to know today brought to you by Orion Advisor Services, helping advisors experience integrated independence so you can enjoy your business again.
Personal Capital Releases “Retirement Paycheck” Feature
Optimizing retirement income just got a little easier for some investors, as Personal Capital recently announced the introduction of a feature called Retirement Paycheck to its popular online Retirement Planner tool.
Retirement Paycheck is designed to optimize how money can be withdrawn from a mix of investment and retirement income accounts which includes pensions, 401(k)s, traditional and Roth IRAs, social security benefits, and even rental and freelance income, so you get the most dollars in your pocket and pay the least amount in taxes.
Retirement Paycheck is available exclusively to Personal Capital’s advisory clients which requires a minimum account balance of $100,000 dollars.
Right Capital Adds Student Loan Planning Capabilities
The financial planning software from Right Capital recently expanded its functionality to include capabilities around student loan repayment plans. Financial advisers using Right Capital with their clients will be able to illustrate a variety of student loan repayment scenarios based on different loan types, income-driven repayment plans, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and more.
The student loan capabilities expand on Right Capital’s popular tax planning features with the ability to generate hypothetical 1040 federal tax forms for any client with a financial plan.
Fuse 2018 Begins in Miami This Week
And finally, I’m headed to Miami this week to be a judge once again for this year’s Fuse fintech innovation event hosted by Orion Advisor Services. This will be my fifth year judging the fintech submissions, and I’ll hope to capture some of the key innovations and commentary to include in my future flash briefings.
(Disclosure: RIA in a Box and Orion Advisor Services have engaged Bill Winterberg for consulting and/or marketing services over the past 12 months. Full updated disclosures are always available here fppad.com/disclaimer)
Welcome to a new FPPad fintech briefing, here are the top fintech stories you need to know today brought to you by Morningstar, register today for the 2018 Morningstar Investment Conference coming June 11 in Chicago.
RIA in a Box Gets Acquired
In compliance news, RIA in a Box, a leading provider of compliance solutions to registered investment advisers, announced it has been acquired by New York private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. RIA in a Box serves approximately 2,000 investment advisers in the country with compliance solutions ranging from initial business registration, online compliance calendar and reporting programs, as well as automated employee trade monitoring. According to a press release, Aquiline plans to help RIA in a Box pursue organic growth initiatives as well as an acquisition strategy in the wealth management software and compliance industry.
Alexa is NOT Spying on You
Is your Alexa spying on you? A Seattle news channel reported that a Portland, Oregon couple’s Echo device surreptitiously recorded a private conversation and sent it to a random person listed in their contacts. While the story quickly stoked backlash among the see-I-told-you-so crowd online, Amazon was quick to reply that the couple unintentionally activated their Echo’s wake up word followed by the phrase “send message,” which activated the Echo’s built in messaging feature. It’s the smart speaker equivalent of a butt dial. Nevertheless, however unlikely the string of events may be, Amazon said that the company will continue to evaluate options to make cases such as this one less likely.
Orion Advisor Services May 2018 Release Details
And finally, Orion Advisor Services released its May 2018 Software Update that includes updates to fee billing for one-time financial planning engagements, new integrations, and additional compliance automation. Here’s Orion’s Director of Technology Support, Joe Leyboldt with more details:
Today we announced the details of our May 2018 Tech Release. The most impactful updates are new billing functionality enabling advisers to generate bills for financial planning and advice, the addition of a tool called Supervise to Compass, our compliance app. We’ve also strengthened Compass’ AML screening capabilities. Finally, we’ve launched an integration with BlackRock’s iRetire and updated our Salesforce integration to run on the new Salesforce Lightning user interface.
To see all the detail of the Orion Software update, 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.
Orion Advisor Services is one of my consulting clients. See my full disclosures at fppad.com/disclaimer
Welcome to the FPPad fintech briefing, I’m back from spring break, so here are the top fintech stories you need to know today
Marcus by Goldman Sachs® Acquires Clarity Money
Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks in the world, is becoming a bigger player in the personal financial management space as it just completed its acquisition of a budgeting app called Clarity Money. First reported by Bloomberg back in February, the acquisition rolls in Clarity Money’s one million users into Goldman Sachs’ direct to consumer financial services brand that goes by the name Marcus, which currently offers no-fee fixed rate personal loans and high-yield savings accounts to consumers.
Terms of the the deal were not disclosed, but Clarity Money reportedly raised $14.5 million dollars in two rounds from its investors since 2016 according to data from Crunchbase.
United Capital Financial Advisors Introduces FinLife CX
United Capital Financial Advisors, the nationwide $20 billion dollar rollup firm, announced an update to its FinLife technology platform called FinLife CX that will allow financial advisers to use the proprietary platform without having to migrate from the CRM software they already use. Introduced in mid-2016, the FinLife platform heavily leverages Salesforce and the Heroku cloud development platform, so advisers traditionally had to convert their existing CRM data to Salesforce in the first few months of adopting the FinLife platform. With the introduction of FinLife CX, United Capital hopes to reach a wider segment of advisers interested in the the firm’s consolidated portfolio reporting, client portal, and advisor dashboard tools.
Orion Advisor Services Parent Company Acquires FTJ FundChoice
And finally, Orion Advisor Services is in the news once again as its parent company, NorthStar Financial, announced the acquisition of FTJ FundChoice, a turnkey asset management firm with approximately $10 billion in assets under administration. The deal will allow Orion to complement its technology platform with a mature asset management provider under a single contract and service agreement. For more information on the acquisition, I connected with Orion Advisor Services CEO Eric Clarke:
Thank you Bill. At NorthStar and especially at Orion, we’re excited to announce the acquisition of a decade-long client partner of ours, FTJ FundChoice. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Dean Cook and his team to bring FTJ’s managed account capabilities to our Orion advisors and enterprise-level prospects.
Orion Advisor Services is one of my consulting clients, so visit fppad.com/disclaimer for my full conflict of interest disclosure, and visit fppad.com/flashbriefing to get the links to all of 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.
Orion Advisor Services is in the news once again, as the company announced the launch of a new compliance application for advisers called Compass. The new app includes an Audit Tool that retrieves portfolio and trading information from Orion and formats it in a way that meets common regulatory requests from auditors during an SEC examination, and also a Verify Tool that facilitates anti-money laundering screening with an integrations with LexisNexis® Risk Solutions. These new compliance apps can help advisers recover days of lost productivity when preparing for a compliance exam, according to the company’s press release.
In behavioral finance news, DataPoints recently announced the launch of its behavioral assessment tool called Investor Profile. According to a company press release, the Investor Profile assessment gives advisors a scientific way to assess psychological risk tolerance of investors and use a consistent framework to guide clients towards recognizing and correcting for their unique investing behaviors. The Investor Profile measures five unique characteristics, including confidence in investment decision-making, behavior during times of wild market swings, willingness to try new strategies or take new chances, and more.
Conga Acquires Orchestrate
And in industry acquisition news, Conga, a provider of document automation solutions for Salesforce users, announced it has acquired Orchestrate, a workflow automation provider with a focus on financial professionals that use Salesforce in their business. The acquisition will add Orchestrate’s expertise with RIAs and wealth management firms to Conga’s suite of enterprise-grade Intelligent Document Automation solutions. With more on that, here’s Orchestrate President and Co-CTO, Joshua Van Heukelom.
At Orchestrate, our mission is to enable best-of-breed efficiency for firms that are on the Salesforce platform. So we were born out of an RIA, so we know the language, we know the industry, we know what people need. We’ve been in wealth management for a number of years, and so our tools really help solve problems we know these people have.
To watch my full interview with Orchestrate, head over to fppad.com/flashbriefing to get 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.
Welcome to the FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.
Fidelity® Announces Advisor Technology Initiatives for 2018
Fidelity, one of the top institutional custodians for financial advisers, recently announced the planned introduction of several new technology solutions for financial advisers. In a recent press release, Fidelity said it will introduce a new account aggregation tool called Consolidated Data, a business analytics tool called Insights + Analytics, new Advanced Modeling & Rebalancing capabilities for its Wealthscape software platform, and the launch of a digital app store called the Wealthscape Integration Xchange.
Pilots of several of these new tools are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2018, and no guidance on pricing was provided for any of the new tools announced, so expect quite a bit more concrete information over the coming months as these tools get closer to production.
Orion Advisor Services Launches Alternative Investment Platform
From Orion Advisor Services, the company announced the release of its Alternative Investment Platform tool, allowing financial advisers to offer better reporting to their clients around alternative investments like private equity, venture capital, non-traded real estate, and more.
The company press release also highlighted an update anticipated for May that adds automated data gathering for alternative assets from DTCC and other alternative data vendors.
Captain401 Rebrands as Human Interest, Raises $11 Million Series A
And Captain401 has a new name and new funding, as the company said it’s changing its name to Human Interest on the heels of raising an additional $11 million dollars in a Series A round last week.
Founded in 2015, Human Interest says it helps over 10,000 employees save for their retirement with a focus on the small business retirement plan marketplace, where it will find competition from other providers like Betterment for Business, America’s Best 401(k), as well as large incumbents like Vanguard and Financial Engines.
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.
(In the past 12 months, I have been hired by Orion Advisor Services for technology consulting services. See my full disclosures)
Welcome to the FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.
TD Ameritrade Teams Up with FeeX for 401(k) Fee Analysis
Do you really know how much you pay in fees in your 401(k) account? According to a new survey by TD Ameritrade, 37 percent of investors mistakenly believe they don’t pay any fess. So that’s why TD Ameritrade just announced it’s teamed up with fintech startup FeeX to help investors quickly analyze the fees in their 401(k) accounts. 401(k) fee analyzer tools are nothing new, as other companies like Personal Capital, America’s Best 401(k), and even FeeX have offered these tools to everyday investors, but TD Ameritrade claims its one of the first online discount brokerage firms to offer free 401(k) fee analyzer tools to their customers.
Wealthfront Introduces Home Buying Illustrations to Path
In financial planning news, Wealthfront announced an update to its Path software which now includes a new planning feature for a future home purchase. Path allows Wealthfront customers to see whether their goals of buying a home are comfortable, manageable or a stretch. Customers can see average home prices across multiple zip codes and see how their monthly savings requirements change and what kinds of accounts to use to save based on a number of factors.
Orion Advisor Services Announces Project ASTRO for Direct Indexing
And making headlines in advisor portfolio management, Orion Advisor Services announced the launch of Project ASTRO, short for Advisor Strategy and Tax Return Optimization, scheduled to go live in March of this year. One of the most significant features Project ASTRO supports is the ability to conduct direct indexing, where individual securities that make up a stock index are purchased directly in client accounts as opposed to purchasing Exchange Traded Funds that a designed to track a particular index. Here’s Orion Advisor Services CEO Eric Clarke with more details.
At Orion, we’re super excited about the launch of our ASTRO offering, allowing our advisors to create customized separately managed account portfolios for their clients faster and with less expense than ever before. Our advisors can build tax-efficient non-qualified accounts, replicate indexes with customized tilts, incorporate legacy stock positions into model portfolios with ease, and accommodate environmental, social, and governance requests, and receive notification when an account is out of tolerance, all with built-in automated tax-loss harvesting.
Astro is scheduled to go live in March with a fixed annual fee of $50 per account.
To get links to all 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.
Welcome to the FPPad fintech briefing, here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.
Outsourcing investment management just got a little bit easier for advisors using TD Ameritrade Institutional, as this week the company announced the introduction of its Model Market Center. The Model Market Center features 62 different investment models from eight investment managers, with notable managers including Meb Faber’s Cambria Investments as well as WisdomTree Investments, who made fintech news a few weeks ago with its investment in AdvisorEngine’s acquisition of Junxure. Model Market Center joins a growing market of outsourced investment management solutions which includes Orion Advisor Services, Riskalyze, and Morningstar, and others.
Online 401(k) manager blooom is helping investors protect their accounts against fraudulent activity with its new Suspicious Activity Alerts feature. Investors can connect their 401(k)s and other employe-sponsored retirement accounts to blooom which continuously monitors for withdrawals or loans on account funds, notifying clients via text message when blooom detects any suspicious activity.
And tickets are selling fast to the 2018 Fearless Investing Summit brought to you by Riskalyze, which blends the latest in investment trends and fintech innovation in its three-day agenda. Last year’s inaugural summit eventually sold out, so you need to act quickly to make sure you don’t miss out on this year’s event. Secure your tickets today by visiting fppad.com/flashbreifing for the links on today’s stories.
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.
