Welcome to a big week in wealthtech where the news was bolstered by a couple of active industry conferences. Before we get to all these headlines, though, we’d like to beat a familiar drum.
Eventually, advisors are going to have to change.
Without retreading too much familiar ground, here’s the wealthtech-centric argument: consumers already have access to financial technology offering services and experiences as good—if not better—than they can get from the traditional financial services. The wealthtech available to the end-client is overtaking the wealthtech available to financial advisors.
Many of the technical skills of an advisor—like crafting a plan—are already competently mimicked by software. Wealthtech offers superior access to products and strategies versus traditional wealth management. Now, generative artificial intelligence is increasingly mimicking the human and interpersonal skills so key to financial advice and planning.
Technology is capable of being trustworthy in ways that traditional advisors cannot. Technology allows individuals and families to choose their level of involvement with their wealth or finances, and to change that involvement overtime without needing intermediation or permission from a financial professional. Wealth management services are also now embedded in all of a person’s other financial relationships.
Smaller wealth management firms cannot keep up with this rate of change in expectations and services. Larger firms, thus far, aren’t doing such a good job of keeping up , either, for various reasons. Advisors are having to work harder to retain clients and to replace clients lost through inevitable attrition.
Thus, to survive and thrive into the future, the business and profession of wealth management is going to have to change. But how?
Here’s a little inspiration. Recent research has suggested that there’s a dramatic slowdown in the rate at which we’re expanding the human lifespan. Recall that no more than a decade or two ago, people were predicting that the average person today would live to be 100. That’s clearly not happening.
A recently published paper in the journal ‘Natural Aging’ suggests that humans are approaching a limit to life expectancy—even with more medical advancements on the horizon, according to the paper, we’ve already achieved most of the expansion of life expectancy that is biologically possible. Consider that in some regions and locales, and among some demographic groups, lifespans are shrinking.
Most work in traditional wealth management over the years has revolved around an assumption of longer and more expensive lives—especially retirements—but what if that’s not really going to be the case? Retirement would still be very important, but maybe not as important.
Lifecycle management would be more important. Helping families maximize members’ young and healthy years would be more important. Financially managing early careers and middle age would be more important. Fertility and family planning would be more important—if more people aren’t going to be living longer, then we’re eventually going to have to find a way to make more people again.
At the same time, we’re amid or approaching a historic intergenerational wealth transfer, and more people will have to start to deal realistically with the fact that they have an expiration date, and plan accordingly.
Do you really think that they’re going to want to go through all of this in front of a computer screen?
Let’s get to your headlines.
Alphathena
Alphathena, a leading fintech platform empowering advisors and institutions to deliver personalized investment experiences through real-time direct indexing, is excited to announce a new partnership with etf.com, the single source for ETF intelligence. This collaboration aims to provide financial advisors with valuable educational content about direct indexing.
Alphathena co-founders Tushad Driver and Mohan Naidu conceptualized the platform to help advisors struggling to take advantage of personalization strategies like direct indexing.
Direct indexing, historically reserved for ultra high-net-worth clients because of its traditional time-consuming and resource-intensive nature, involves directly holding the individual stocks that make up an index. This approach, which allows advisors to build portfolios highly tailored to each client’s preferences and investment goals, is becoming more widely accessible thanks to innovative solutions like Alphathena.
Apex Fintech Solutions
Apex Fintech Solutions Inc. (“Apex”), a leader in enabling innovation and the future of digital wealth management, announced today that it has entered into an acquisition agreement with FinTron, a cutting-edge financial technology and design agency that specializes in creating high-end digital experiences for investors and advisors globally, subject to FINRA approval. This strategic acquisition will greatly enhance Apex’s digital investment solutions by incorporating FinTron’s customizable and embedded capabilities. This alliance allows Apex’s clients to deliver custom-designed user interfaces and experiences for brokerage platforms, pre-integrated into the Apex platform. As a result, clients can nimbly deploy turnkey investing experiences and front-ends within their existing digital footprint, powered by Apex’s world-class custody platform, giving clients the opportunity to stay ahead of the curve. Additionally, the collaboration benefits those launching digital first advisory services, helping to enable a swift and efficient market entry.
FinTron is renowned for its intuitive white-label and embedded components, along with its Software Development Kit (SDK) for mobile and web platforms. These tools can enable companies to more efficiently integrate self-directed and managed investing into their existing offerings. By acquiring FinTron, Apex aims to expand its services and deliver a more comprehensive and accessible investment experience to a wide array of clients, including financial advisors, fintech firms, neobanks, insurance companies, and retirement planning firms. Each component will be available not only to clients using Apex Clearing Corporation custody and clearing solutions but also as standalone services for enterprises looking to leverage specific features of the Apex platform, such as account opening and ACAT transfers. Additionally, the new capabilities support loyalty investing programs, designed to enhance customer engagement and retention.
FinTron’s technology is already integrated into Apex’s existing suite of services, providing clients with a robust range of tools and resources to optimize their investment products. These additions are designed to help streamline investment processes, enhance user experience, and make advanced investment capabilities accessible to a broader audience.
CAIS
CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform for independent financial advisors, today announced a new division, CAIS Advisors, a registered investment advisor established to assist advisors in streamlining portfolio construction with a suite of tools and solutions.
CAIS Advisors, led by Neil Blundell, Chief Investment Officer, anticipates offering advisory services, customizable alternative investment model portfolios, and multi-manager registered solutions.
CAIS Advisors will deliver customizable model portfolios, helping advisors meet diverse client needs and risk profiles, blending asset allocation guidance with alternative investments available on the CAIS Marketplace. CAIS’ enhanced technology supports the development, execution, and management of these portfolios, simplifying the allocation process for wealth managers.
Commonwealth Financial Network
Commonwealth Financial Network®, a national RIA dedicated to providing financial advisors with holistic, integrated business solutions, announced the firm’s latest investments in cutting-edge programs and tools designed to drive efficiency for advisors and their businesses and deliver value to their clients. The announcements, centered on Commonwealth’s investment platform and technology solutions, were unveiled by Commonwealth leadership at the firm’s National Conference.
On the National Conference main stage, Essele presented an ambitious, four-prong evolution of the PPS Select platform to be rolled out in 2025, introducing personalized indexing, tax transition, tax overlay service and a unified managed account structure.
In another major new initiative, Commonwealth will offer advisors a turnkey managed service offering: comprehensive outsourced IT support, including hardware management, AV, networking, and telecom services.
Conquest Planning
Conquest Planning (“Conquest”), a technology platform modernising financial planning with customised and convenient advice, announced its partnership with PlannrCRM, a next-generation back-office technology platform tailored for financial advisers. This strategic collaboration aims to streamline and enhance processes, delivering meaningful financial advice faster and more accurately to more clients.
By leveraging an API-first approach, this integration unlocks scalability, seamlessly adapting to business requirements. The partnership will benefit advisers and their clients by centralising information and communication that ensures all stakeholders have access to the most recent data, promoting a more connected work environment.
Credit Union Wealth Group
Credit Union Wealth Group (CUWG), a leading provider of digital wealth management programs for credit unions, announces the expansion of its fixed income capabilities, providing members with access to managed direct bond strategies. Members can access Treasury, TIPS, Agency, Municipal and Corporate managed bond and ladder investments as part of their portfolio.
Members are interested in direct bond investments, but complexity and high minimums have often made strategies inaccessible. Through the CUWG wealth management program, members can now partner with their financial advisor to learn about direct bond investing and incorporate a strategy to help achieve their goals. Advisors can utilize strategies to manage members’ portfolios with greater precision, mitigate interest rate risk, preserve liquidity, reduce taxes and/or generate income.
Credit unions may see a valuable opportunity to grow member wallet share by consolidating assets held at third-party brokerages and TreasuryDirect. “A large segment of members show interest in direct bond investments but are unsure of how to select, trade and manage a bond portfolio. Another segment of members already invests in bonds through external platforms. With our expanded fixed income offering, the combination of advice, low investment minimum, and professional management can create a compelling reason for members to bring those assets back to the credit union’s ecosystem,” said Evan Kulak, a financial advisor with CUWG.
Firstrade
Firstrade, a pioneer in commission-free online trading, today announced an expanded partnership with Trading Central, one of the leaders in investment decision support tools and analysis. This enhanced collaboration will equip Firstrade investors with access to Trading Central’s robust suite of tools, now available directly on the Firstrade mobile app, delivering timely data insights to traders on the go.
This expansion underscores Firstrade’s dedication to equipping traders with premier research tools, empowering investors to gain a deeper understanding of market movements.
FLX Networks
FLX Networks today announced that it has teamed up with Dasseti to launch FLX Diligence Center, a cloud-based tech solution that streamlines and revolutionizes the due diligence data management process for both asset and wealth managers.
FLX Diligence Center, Powered by Dasseti, utilizes a flexible, secure, one-to-one data exchange platform that allows asset managers to share data and other content to registered investment advisors, institutional consultants, and wealth management firms. It digitizes a historically manual process so that FLX Members can expedite and simplify the due diligence and quarterly review processes.
Foundation Source
Foundation Source, the nation’s largest provider of cloud-based solutions for private foundations and planned giving, today announced it acquired Vennfi, the financial technology company powering Charityvest, an industry-leading donor-advised fund (DAF) sponsor. Foundation Source will harness the DAF functionality to deliver modern giving experiences and create new opportunities for innovation and growth in the philanthropic sector.
The deal will broaden Foundation Source’s suite of offerings and accelerate the delivery of giving solutions across the wealth management industry through a turnkey private label platform that will make offering and administering a donor-advised fund easier and more efficient for DAF sponsors, broker-dealers, independent RIAs and other financial services organizations. The acquisition also includes a workplace program that allows employers to streamline corporate and employee giving efforts.
Through this transaction, Foundation Source reinforces its position as the leader in philanthropic technology, administration, and professional services. Building on its market-leading suite of capabilities, Foundation Source will be the only provider to deliver scalable, end-to-end digital solutions across private foundations, planned giving, and donor-advised funds, making it the optimal choice for professional advisors, and financial institutions serving wealth management and private banking clients.
InvestCloud
InvestCloud, a global leader in wealth technology, announced today that FirstCape, the leading wealth advice and asset management firm in New Zealand, has selected InvestCloud to transform the wealth management experience FirstCape delivers for advisors and their clients. A comprehensive multi-phased digital transformation journey, this technology-forward initiative is geared to redefine how FirstCape delivers financial services, focusing on boosting advisor efficiency and offering a single platform for client engagement, experience, and compliant advice at scale.
FirstCape was formed earlier this year through the consolidation of JBWere NZ, Jarden Wealth, Harbour Asset Management, and BNZ Investment Services to create the premier wealth management advisory and asset management firm serving clients in New Zealand. The new firm, which now boasts more than 120 advisors and over NZ$50bn in assets under management and advice, has embarked on a digital transformation to reimagine its client and advisor experience throughout the entire investment lifecycle.
The first phase of FirstCape’s digital transformation was the implementation of InvestCloud’s Portfolio Manager and Order Capture solutions for Jarden Wealth. These key components establish the foundation for an enhanced, fully integrated platform that empowers advisors and improves the client and advisor experience. With Portfolio Manager, financial advisors are able to monitor and manage client portfolios with deeper insights, allowing for tailored investment proposals. By streamlining the process, advisors can deliver more accurate and compliant advice at scale, all while maintaining a personalized approach for each client. Order Capture offers a seamless interface for trading across various asset classes. Boosting operational efficiency, Order Capture allows advisors to act faster and focus more on client needs, resulting in a more dynamic, responsive wealth management experience.
MyFO
MyFO, the fastest growing platform for family offices and the wealth management professionals who service them, has announced the successful closing of its oversubscribed $3.5M Seed funding round, led by Rhino Ventures. The platform simplifies and organizes financial lives by creating a comprehensive family office platform that consolidates data, documents, and stakeholder management. The new injection of funds will be used to scale its operations to meet growing demand, enhance its product offerings, and expand its team.
The family office industry is growing at a substantial pace – according to recent reports, the number of family offices worldwide has surpassed 7,000, managing assets in excess of $5.9 trillion, with North America leading with over 1,682 family offices identified in the last year and yet it faces challenges due to outdated systems and fragmented technology. Predicted to generate revenues exceeding $54.7 billion by 2032, the demand for more efficient, integrated solutions is clear. However, traditional methods often result in high cost and inefficiencies, with annual expenses reaching up to $1 million.
MyFO is addressing these issues with a platform that’s designed to be extremely secure and user friendly. While many tech companies are joining the AI-hype, MyFO remains focused on its goal of thoughtful innovation. Although the platform uses the advanced technology for tasks such as data ingestion, its primary goal is to deliver a secure and intuitive solution tailored to the unique needs of family offices, particularly those with heightened concerns about privacy and data security.
OneVest
OneVest, a leader in wealth management technology, today announced the launch of its platform capabilities in the United States. The company’s highly configurable platform is designed to empower financial institutions by enabling them to easily tailor and scale their wealth management services, ensuring a more personalized and efficient client experience. Several prominent U.S. financial institutions have already signed on as customers.
OneVest sets a new standard for configurability in the wealth management space, allowing firms to fully customize the digitization of their business needs. This comprehensive system features end-to-end capabilities, including an advisor platform, client portal, portfolio management system, onboarding, custodian integrations, and a full suite of front and middle office tools. Built from the ground up to be modular, firms can fit the features they need into their existing tech ecosystems, or deploy the full platform.
Built with a no-code infrastructure, OneVest’s platform allows firms to quickly configure and deploy digital experiences, providing them with the agility to respond to market changes and evolving client expectations. This capability means firms can create client and advisor experiences that fit their needs without going through the IT complexity.
Orion
Sound Income Strategies, a leader in income-focused investment solutions with approximately $3 billion in assets under management, is excited to announce that three of its Separately Managed Account (SMA) models are now available on Orion’s platform, a premier provider of innovative wealth-tech solutions for fiduciary advisors.
Orion Communities offers a diverse investment model marketplace, providing extensive access to strategies in equities, fixed income, and alternatives, transforming how advisors personalize portfolios for their clients. Orion Portfolio Solutions, a leading turnkey asset management program, features a robust list of investment options backed by an in-house due diligence team.
Sound Income Strategies’ SMA models are designed to provide consistent income streams, leveraging market insights and historical data to construct resilient portfolios. The strategies focus on delivering dependable income, strategic growth potential, and better protection against market volatility, helping clients achieve their financial objectives, regardless of market conditions.
Praxis Solutions
AlphaTrAI, a leading provider of tech-enabled services for the wealth and asset management industries, today announced the completion of a rebranding effort and the implementation of a strategic shift in its value proposition. The newly resulting firm is called Praxis Solutions (“Praxis”).
The reorganized firm will deliver a unified client experience built around the concepts of “Think. Make. Do.” The company’s unique approach encompasses business process experts on the front end, scientists to build algorithms and technology operations specialists to implement and integrate solutions with clients’ existing tech stacks.
The firm’s new name and direction culminate a two-year undertaking that built upon AlphaTrAI’s roots in artificial intelligence to merge the equally necessary but often segregated components of the tech creation and implementation process: ideation and execution. The name is rooted in Greek philosophy and utilized across academia—and often is simply defined as the process of thinking, making and doing.
Sanctuary Wealth
Sanctuary’s executives announced several enhancements to its platform, allowing Partner Firms to better position their practices for success in the evolving wealth management industry while continuing to service their clients with distinction. Sanctuary is excited to announce a digital asset platform that will be available to advisors by the end of the year. Built on a foundation of education, training, due diligence and research Sanctuary Wealth advisors will now be able to recommend certain ETFs, models and alternatives in the fast growing digital asset class.
At Oasis, attendees were given details of the expansion of its multi-custodial wealth management platform through a new partnership with BNY Pershing. The recently announced clearing, custody and technology agreements will provide Sanctuary Partner Firms access to BNY Pershing X’s Wove wealth management platform even with assets held with other custodians and is designed to help connect an investor’s complete financial picture in one place. Wove will allow Sanctuary to continue its growth momentum while offering elevated services to its Partner Firms.
Advisors in the Sanctuary network now have full access to Jump’s Advisor AI software to cut meeting-related admin time by up to 90% while improving the client and advisor experience. Jump’s AI tools enable an AI-enhanced client meeting cycle by putting meeting prep, notes, CRM updates, client recap emails, financial planning data, and follow-up tasks on AI autopilot.
The Sycamore Company
Leading wealthtech firm The Sycamore Company (Sycamore) today announced its new integration with Quik!, a powerful cloud app that simplifies form automation and update management. This partnership will empower wealth management firms and their advisors by enabling them to automatically populate client forms using data from the Sycamore platform, eliminating the need for manual data entry and significantly reducing the potential for errors.
Key benefits of the integration include enhanced efficiency. By allowing data to flow seamlessly from Sycamore into Quik!, advisory firms can save time on manual data entry, allowing them to focus on what truly matters – providing excellent service to their clients. With automation front and center, the chances of data discrepancies are greatly reduced. This integration ensures that data remains consistent, accurate and reliable. Additionally, the integration provides a central location for data, reducing the need to work across multiple, disjointed systems – providing users the benefit of a unified workflow.
Sycamore stands out for its commitment to maintaining the highest quality of data. The platform’s proprietary engine normalizes and aggregates data within the Sycamore organization, identifying and flagging any discrepancies between commissions and official records.
Vise
Vise, a technology-powered asset manager that delivers personalized portfolios at scale, announces a partnership with NewEdge Wealth, a Stamford, CT-based firm. This collaboration aims to transform the delivery of personalized, tax-efficient portfolios. NewEdge Wealth is a part of NewEdge Capital Group, which ranked #5 on Barron’s Top 100 RIAs in the US for 2024, and services over $55 billion in client assets as of June 30, 2024. This partnership combines NewEdge’s commitment to institutional-caliber wealth management with Vise’s cutting-edge technology.
This collaboration between Vise and NewEdge Wealth is set to redefine personalized wealth management at scale, seeking to provide better outcomes for clients, empowering advisors with advanced tools, and positioning both companies for continued growth in the evolving landscape of investment management.
Wedbush Securities
Wedbush Securities, a diversified financial services provider, is excited to announce the release of a new suite of highly functional APIs (application programming interfaces) that provide enhanced integration for its clearing clients. These APIs enable clearing clients to easily connect with Wedbush, allowing them to streamline key processes, from onboarding new customers to managing accounts efficiently.
These APIs are live and fully operational, with Wedbush clearing clients currently utilizing them to open and fund customer accounts in a matter of minutes.
Wedbush is a leader in custody, clearing, execution, and settlement. Wedbush possesses extensive industry experience and offers sophisticated, cloud-based technology that enables broker/dealers, advisors, traders, and fintech firms to automate processes, reduce costs, and drive growth. Our suite of cloud-based APIs and real-time solutions ensures seamless integration and a frictionless experience for end users.
