By: Gerelyn Terzo
The wealthtech hills are alive with hirings, retirings, investments and good ol’ pro bono work.
- Advisor360°: Weston, Mass.-based Advisor360°, which is behind a wealth management platform, has nabbed Cynthia Stephens as VP of marketing. Stephens is a seasoned B2B marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience and joins from Mass Mutual, which recently deployed Advisor360°. According to the announcement, “Stephens is a leader in the creation of strategies and programs that drive growth for software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms.” Stephens says she is looking forward to showing “broker-dealers and roll-up RIAs” how to “simplify their enterprise transformation to drive revenue growth.”
- Altium Wealth Management: NY-based RIA Altium, which focuses on high-net-worth individuals and families, has rolled out Altelligence, its proprietary investment management platform for high-growth RIAs, to the wealth management industry and accountants. Altelligence is designed to support RIAs across key functions such as “strategic asset allocation, opportunistic rebalancing, and building diverse, risk-based, low-cost, and tax-efficient portfolios.” Efficient tax investing is more important than ever, with rate increases potentially on the horizon. Now advisors can tap into “Altium’s proprietary direct indexing strategies” which are known to “generate significant tax alpha” via the firm’s “CIO services and TAMP-like offering.” Altium uses a hybrid approach comprising trading algorithms and portfolio managers.
- Hightower: Chicago-based wealth management firm Hightower has made a strategic investment in Denver-based wealth management firm Investment Security Group (ISG), which boasts $800 million in AUM. ISG will harness Hightower’s “business acceleration services, infrastructure and middle- and back-office services” to bolster growth. ISG CEO Mitch Power said the firm chose Hightower for its comprehensive offering across technology and compliance, investment ideas, trust services and digital marketing support, all of which will help the Denver-based wealth management firm to expand.
- iCapital Network: Fintech platform iCapital Network recently strengthened its relationship with Ray Dalio’s hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. As a result of an agreement, RIAs and family offices using iCapital’s tech solution will gain access to Bridgewater’s strategies designed for “ultra-high-net-worth clients in the U.S.” iCapital is behind an offering that “digitalizes the subscription, administration, operational and reporting processes of alternative investments,” making it easier to access alternative strategies for uncorrelated returns.
- LPL Financial: Broker-dealer giant LPL Financial has suffered a defection now that CIO Burt White is retiring, effective March 2022. White has played a key role in the overhaul of LPL’s tech stack, according to reports. LPL is on the hunt for White’s replacement. For his part, White has been a part of LPL since 2007 and in addition to CIO served as managing director of Investor and Investment Solutions where he has been overseeing “LPL’s research, marketing, products and investment platforms.”
- Orion Advisor Solutions: Omaha, Neb.-based Orion Advisor Solutions, which is behind wealthtech solutions for advisors, is making its Orion Planning tool available at no charge to advisors serving pro-bono clients. Orion Planning is an “intuitive, modern financial planning tool for advisors,” and it supports themes that are relevant and unique to pro-bono clients across budgeting and cash management, debt management, stability and financial goals, and clear actionable next steps. Orion has seen a surge in demand for this tool since the pandemic and will offer it to users and non-users of Orion’s wealthtech platform alike.
