It’s another week, and wealthtech is bigger and busier than ever before.
And if you think wealthtech is big—we’ll refer you below to our huge list of headlines—keep in mind that this was the tip of the iceberg in wealth management news. There was so much going on in the greater wealth management industry that many interesting stories, including technology-oriented stories, likely slipped through the cracks over the past week. We’ll try to rectify that here.
Before we get to some general wealthtech news, we should do more to address an extraordinary week for wealth management and financial advisor dealmaking in general, with several big deals going off: CAPTRUST, for example, added nearly $5 billion in client assets with the acquisition of Boston Financial Management, and Waverly Advisors added $900 million AUM Buckingham Advisors, while Mercer Advisors announced a pair of acquisitions adding more than $1.6 billion AUM.
Emerging wealth management leaders were promoted or hired into new roles. For example, Deanna Strable was announced as CEO and president of Principal Financial Group, and Jorge Bernal was appointed COO at EP Wealth Advisors.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Hopefully, someone out there still has a handle on all the action in wealth management, we’ll now pivot to wealthtech, which is our specific coverage area.
We had an update this week on the growing influence of artificial intelligence in the financial services industry, which we’ve gone into more detail about in the most recent edition of AI & Finance. To summarize, however, in two different surveys, most financial services firms said that they are already implementing AI, they are planning to spend more money on technology in the coming years in order to deploy even more AI within their tech stack, and that they also expect artificial intelligence to help drive significant revenue increases in the near term. Tools like Zeplyn’s AI assistant are quickly evolving from neat little bells and whistles for firms to sine qua non for financial advisors.
DIY continues to be an advisor technology theme—tools and tech that once were solely in the hands of financial professionals are increasingly making their way directly into investor hands. The Robinhood-Daffy.org, Capitalize-M1 and SoFi announcements below, as well as the Heron Financial announcement, are evidence of this trend.
As you’ll see below, another one of the big themes this week was the announcements of technology partnerships and new integrations. Announcements included partnerships between Luma and iPipeline; Future Capital and SS&C; DPL and Envestnet; and Holistiplan and Bento Engine. In just the past seven days, the wealthtech space has become more cohesive and coherent, even as it has grown larger.
Let’s get you to your headlines.
Advyzon
Advyzon, a comprehensive technology platform and portfolio management solution for financial advisors and investment managers, today announced a new product offering from Advyzon Institutional called Auria.
Evolving from Advyzon’s all-in-one platform, Auria is purpose built for the needs of UHNW clients and unites essential capabilities – portfolio management, performance reporting, and CRM – into a single, seamless interface, while also empowering advisors to manage intricate entities, track alternative investments, provide families with a holistic view of their total wealth, and more.
Launching in Q1 2025, Auria includes all the great capabilities available in the award-winning Advyzon platform – CRM, data aggregation, portfolio management, performance reporting, trading and rebalancing, and secure document management. Additionally, the product includes new features tailored for the needs of complex clients, including enhanced net worth tracking, robust alternatives management and reporting, handling of multi-generational families and entities, and sophisticated visualization of clients and their assets via the Wealth Blueprint.
AssetMark
Members Trust Company, a leader in providing directed and delegated trust and estate administration for RIAs, broker dealers and credit unions, is excited to announce a new strategic relationship with AssetMark, a leading provider of wealth management and technology solutions for financial advisors. This collaboration aims to enhance the trust and estate offerings available to advisors that leverage the AssetMark platform, providing them with comprehensive trust solutions with a concierge level of service.
Through this relationship, Members Trust Company will join AssetMark’s Trust Connections Program which links Financial Advisors with the most Advisor-friendly firms and helps deliver the expertise and services that financial advisors need to grow, retain and serve their trust clients.
Capitalize
Capitalize, a leading platform for transferring retirement accounts, is excited to announce its new partnership with M1 Finance, a pioneer in personal finance and investing. This collaboration will integrate Capitalize’s Enterprise Rollover solution into M1’s account transfer process, streamlining the transfer of legacy retirement accounts into M1 IRAs. This integration will help clients consolidate their retirement savings more easily, setting them up for future growth.
M1 Finance is the latest addition to a growing roster of top brokerages, fintechs, and financial advisors using Capitalize’s Enterprise Rollover solution. Capitalize’s technology streamlines the process of locating and transferring legacy retirement assets, making it easier for clients to fund their IRAs and manage their retirement savings efficiently.
Communify Fincentric
Communify Fincentric, a leader in unifying the communication of market and client data through best-in-class digital experiences, today announces the appointment of Nicole Nakashian as Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective immediately.
Nakashian, recognized as one of The Top 25 Financial Technology COOs by The Financial Technology Report, brings over 25 years of operational leadership to Communify Fincentric. Most recently, she served as COO of InvestCloud, where she helped scale the platform to over $6 trillion in assets. Her expertise will be instrumental as Communify Fincentric expands to meet the growing demand for the next generation of data-rich client portals, advisor portals, market data portals and AI functionality.
Communify Fincentric’s SaaS-based product suite unifies the communication of market and client data through its library of financial applications, including Markets Apps, Client Apps, Advisor Apps and AI Apps (MIND). The platform leverages its Knowledge Base of 4,000+ unique data feeds to power advanced experiences and AI for financial automation, communication and management. Founded on decades of maturity in serving the world’s largest financial institutions, Communify Fincentric delivers scalable and secure solutions that help firms achieve operational efficiency and better serve their clients.
Daffy.org
Daffy.org, the modern platform for charitable giving, announces an integration with Robinhood. This innovative collaboration empowers Robinhood customers to effortlessly donate their crypto assets to nearly any U.S. charity through Daffy’s modern donor-advised fund (DAF).
Using Robinhood Connect, Robinhood customers can fund their Daffy accounts to make charitable donations with existing crypto in their Robinhood account, or by purchasing crypto with debit card, bank transfers, or their Robinhood balance.
The integration between Daffy and Robinhood marks a significant step forward for both the fintech and charitable giving sectors. Despite major advancements in personal finance and investing over the past decade, few new platforms have focused on making giving back as seamless as saving and investing. In 2023, individual charitable donations decreased by 2.1%, even as the crypto market surpassed $2 trillion.
DPL Financial Partners
DPL Financial Partners, the leading platform for commission-free annuities, today announced its live data integration with advisor technology provider Envestnet. The integrated feed allows DPL users on Envestnet’s Wealth Management Platforms for advisors to report on annuity and insurance products on their platforms.
The data feed from DPL into Envestnet is now live. The integration rolled out on an accelerated timeline in response to demand from DPL advisors looking for daily information, including positions and value.
Dynasty Financial Partners
Dynasty Financial Partners today announced the formal launch of Model Select, a program designed to enable members of its Network of independent registered investment advisors (RIA) to outsource the investment management to better focus on client engagement and strategic business growth.
Dynasty’s Model Select program is a turnkey solution utilizing top-down portfolio construction, pairing quantitative signals with qualitative insights to build portfolios using passive and active strategies. Guided by data-driven risk management, the program offers various trading cadences through 11 different risk tolerances, along with tax-aware and taxable fixed income options.
Dynasty has partnered with leading asset managers in this offering, allowing Dynasty to gain access to both broad market and niche exposures. It also incorporates tax overlay capabilities, which is a differentiator of the Model Select program.
Envestnet
Envestnet has rolled out a suite of highly requested custodial features in its Tamarac CRM platform to enhance the experience for advisors managing Schwab accounts. These updates reflect Envestnet’s ongoing commitment to empowering advisors to bring more value to clients while further strengthening its relationship with Schwab Advisor Services, a custodian-of-choice for many Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs).
New features include service request, where advisors can now submit Schwab service requests directly within the Tamarac CRM interface. This integration allows for secure transmission of forms and documents, minimizing errors and improving processing times. Advisors will also have access to account alerts related to money movements, client permissioned deposits/withdrawals, and digital account openings. Status updates for various service requests will also be available, including for a number of account and transaction types, helping advisors stay informed and responsive to client needs.
A new single sign-on integration enables advisors to access Schwab’s Move Money Tool directly from Tamarac’s CRM. This feature streamlines internal transfers, ACH transactions, and wires, allowing clients to approve requests quickly from their devices.
Fin.Link
Succession Link, the leading platform for supporting financial professionals’ mergers and acquisitions, succession planning, and career transition needs, is proud to announce its rebrand as Fin.Link. This strategic move reflects the company’s expanded vision and commitment to assisting in its users’ growth, scaling, and succession with innovative engagement features and a robust career marketplace.
With a community of over 73,000 registered users, Fin.Link is now the go-to resource for financial advisors and professionals seeking to accelerate their careers, expand their businesses, or plan for a seamless transition. The platform’s new features facilitate deeper connections, streamline transactions, and foster a collaborative community.
Fin.Link’s expanded features include: a completely redesigned dashboard, innovative valuation tools, partnerships with industry leaders in M&A and finance, interactive advisor chat, career job postings, and, as always, advisors looking to buy or sell their books of business.
Heron Finance
Heron Finance, a technology-first SEC-registered investment advisor, today announced the launch of its groundbreaking Heron Personalized Private Credit portfolio. This innovative investment solution provides accredited U.S. investors with unprecedented access to the growing private credit asset class.
Heron’s Personalized Private Credit portfolio uses a proprietary process to create individual portfolios that mirror portions of exposure to the world’s leading private credit funds. This high-quality, diverse exposure to hundreds, and soon to be thousands, of senior secured loans provides investors with consistent passive income.
As a fully automated solution, Heron uses an investor’s personal risk profile to construct a diversified private credit portfolio. The portfolio’s diversification strategy helps investors mitigate losses while generating consistent income. Additionally, Heron does not require a high minimum investment like traditional private credit funds. The end result is a more accessible, personalized high-yield private credit portfolio.
Holistiplan
Holistiplan, the industry-leading tax planning software, and Bento Engine, an award-winning advice engagement solution, today announced a new integration partnership that enables Holistiplan users to directly access Bento content to better serve clients during “Moments That Matter”.
The new strategic integration empowers Holistiplan customers to provide proactive advice on key age-based opportunities, including for example turning 70.5 and utilizing QCDs (Qualified Charitable Distributions), turning 62 or turning 50 and making Catch-up Contributions. For these milestones, Bento provides purpose-built materials coming in multiple formats, so that the advisor can communicate on the right topics, at the right point in time, in the right way.
InvestCloud
InvestCloud, a global leader in wealth technology, announced a strategic partnership with Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) Evoke Advisors (Evoke) to transform their digital experience. With InvestCloud’s Client Experience, Evoke’s clients, prospects, and third-party intermediaries will benefit from a significantly elevated and differentiated branded experience that features powerful, data-driven visualizations catering to the firm’s exclusive clientele.
As the top-ranked firm on Forbes’ 2024 list of “America’s Top RIA Firms” and one of the largest RIAs in Los Angeles, managing over $25 billion in assets (as of 9/30/2024), Evoke strives to set a high standard for serving institutions and ultra-high net worth individuals and families.*** Integrating Evoke’s existing solutions, including Addepar, into InvestCloud’s leading digital wealth management platform will enable Evoke to drive growth and operational efficiency while further enhancing and extending the high level of service their clients have come to expect. This strategic approach supports stronger client retention while enabling long-term organic and inorganic growth.
The partnership will focus on delivering an elevated experience for clients, prospects, and third-party intermediaries through a unified technology platform that deepens client relationships and drives operational efficiency. The platform will provide clients with access to their financial data, use of a secure document vault, mobile access, intermediary access privileges, and an enhanced prospect experience.
Kwanti
Kwanti, a portfolio analytics solution aiding financial advisors and investment managers with prospect conversion, client retention, model management, and more, recently announced two new enhancements to their platform: Risk Profiling, which enables advisors to send risk profiling questionnaires, compare client risk profiles with portfolio risk scores, and generate personalized investment policy statements, as well as xPDF, a document extraction feature that allows advisors to effortlessly upload PDF statements directly into Kwanti, which automatically extracts position details and creates a portfolio for efficient analysis, saving users countless hours.
Risk Profiling is a set of new features designed to enhance the way advisors manage client risk, starting with the introduction of a dedicated Client section in Kwanti. A Client in Kwanti is designed to help advisors better organize their clients’ data, making it easy to manage everything from risk assessments to portfolio reviews. Each Client acts as a hub for managing questionnaires, portfolios, and more, ensuring that client-specific data is organized and accessible.
With the Risk Questionnaire feature, advisors can easily send out customizable risk profiling questionnaires to prospective, new, or existing clients. The questionnaires are fully customizable to address the needs of RIAs and broker-dealers with specific compliance requirements. These questionnaires capture each client’s financial goals, risk preferences, and investment horizon. Once completed, responses are saved to their profile, providing a clear risk picture for aligning their portfolio with suitable models.
Luma Financial Technologies
Luma Financial Technologies (“Luma”), a global leader in structured products and insurance solutions, announces a collaboration with iPipeline®, a leading provider of digital solutions for the life insurance, annuities, and wealth management industries. Through this collaboration, Luma and iPipeline have developed a fully integrated solution that streamlines and simplifies workflows for Brokerage General Agencies (BGAs), Independent Marketing Organizations (IMOs), and broker-dealers, while enhancing accuracy and control. The solution is designed to drive efficiencies at every stage of the annuity and life insurance sales journey.
The integrated solution from Luma and iPipeline will simplify every stage of the annuity and life insurance process, from education and product comparison to transaction management and lifecycle support. Agents will now be able to access a comprehensive suite of tools, including error-free applications, e-signatures, and customizable configurations, designed to optimize workflow efficiency and enrich the overall client experience.
The collaboration provides advisors and agents with access to an extensive selection of standardized carrier products and advanced digital tools, all within a single, intuitive platform. Key features include a unified order entry interface that standardizes products across carriers, streamlined new business processing, and carrier-managed product rules and forms that ensure suitability for both carriers and distributors. These tools have been developed to save agents valuable time, while empowering them to deliver a higher standard of service and foster stronger client relationships.
Luma Financial Technologies
Luma Financial Technologies (“Luma”), a global leader in structured products and insurance solutions, is excited to announce its expansion into the life insurance sector. As the first platform to offer an end-to-end solution that integrates life insurance and annuities, Luma enables advisors to manage both products seamlessly through a single, comprehensive platform.
This innovative solution allows financial professionals to seamlessly manage life insurance and annuities, supporting comprehensive financial planning through a unified platform. With more than half of U.S. adults holding life insurance, Luma’s platform empowers advisors to keep their clients’ financial goals aligned throughout the entire investment lifecycle. This extension reinforces Luma’s core principles of transparency, efficiency, and intuitive design, enhancing every stage of the process, just as it has for annuities.
Luma’s platform will centralize essential life insurance functions, providing a comprehensive suite of resources including educational content, product quotes, illustrations and comparisons, seamless electronic order entry, and lifecycle to see a full book of life insurance business all in one place. By simplifying access to critical information, Luma empowers advisors to make better-informed decisions and deliver superior service, all while saving time through more streamlined processes.
New York Life
New York Life has announced the launch of Balance Wellbeing with New York Life™ (“Balance Wellbeing™”), its new financial wellbeing offering. Balance Wellbeing™ highlights New York Life’s long history of helping families build secure futures by providing access to holistic financial guidance and support designed to address employees’ financial challenges and positively impact workforce outcomes. Balance Wellbeing™ is currently available to eligible Group Benefit Solutions and Business Solutions clients.
The Balance Wellbeing™ platform leverages partnerships with leaders in financial wellness, including fintech partners, to make personalized financial wellness accessible and inclusive in the workplace, empowering employees to take advantage of workplace benefits, and guiding their next best step throughout life events. Additionally, Balance Wellbeing™ provides access to one-on-one guidance from New York Life financial professionals.
OneVest
OneVest, a cutting-edge wealth management technology company, has been selected by Westwood Wealth Management, a trusted leader in comprehensive financial services, to be its wealth management software provider. This strategic move underscores Westwood Wealth Management’s commitment to delivering an exceptional client and advisor experience by integrating OneVest’s cutting-edge, highly configurable platform.
The adoption of OneVest’s configurable advisor platform will benefit Westwood Wealth Management’s private wealth advisors through a superior digital experience that streamlines operations, enabling them to focus less on administrative work, and more on serving their clients.
With OneVest’s advanced technology, Westwood Wealth Management will also enhance the overall client journey through a modern client portal. Clients will gain access to a branded mobile application, giving them insights into their finances through an easy and intuitive user experience. The adaptability of OneVest’s platform allows Westwood Wealth Management to tailor features and functionality that align with its client-focused service model, reinforcing the firm’s dedication to innovation and customization.
Pontera
Pontera™, the fintech company helping retirement savers receive professional 401(k) account management from their trusted financial advisor, today announced a partnership with Oppenheimer & Co., Inc., a premier U.S. wealth management and investment banking firm.
Oppenheimer, a unit of Oppenheimer Holdings (NYSE: OPY), was founded in 1881 and today is one of the largest U.S. broker-dealers with 928 financial advisors and $129.8 billion in assets under administration as of Sept. 30, 2024. Managing clients’ 401(k) accounts allows financial advisors to provide holistic wealth management inclusive of a client’s complete investment portfolio.
Pontera offers an alternative to managing clients’ workplace accounts that improves on traditional advisor approaches. Certified under rigorous SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 standards, Pontera serves as a secure layer that protects client data and prevents advisors from gaining access to their clients’ 401(k)s. It is also integrated with advisors’ top portfolio management, reporting and billing tools to make 401(k) management more seamless.
SoFi
Today, SoFi (SOFI), a member-centric, one-stop shop for digital financial services that helps members borrow, save, spend, invest and protect their money, announced the launch of a new robo-advisor platform, expanding on the company’s current automated investment offering. SoFi is now one of the few automated investment platforms to provide access to alternative asset classes alongside traditional and sustainability-focused funds. These offerings, built in partnership with the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock Inc. (BLK), expose investors without significant financial resources, or a wealth manager, to new strategies and funds, some of which would otherwise require a seven-figure investment minimum.
The new robo offering comes on the heels of SoFi’s early 2024 launch of alternative investment funds. With more than 8 in 10 (81%1) of people expressing interest in alternative investments, SoFi is addressing a broader market need with a low-fee, personalized approach to investment strategies, all available on a platform that’s both intuitive and educational.
SoFi’s Robo Investing product offers the benefits of always-on automation plus expert-curated portfolios for 0.25% annual advisor fee and allows members to adjust taxable and non-taxable portfolios to meet their unique needs. Members can now select from three portfolio themes: “Classic,” which offers a balanced, low-cost mix of stock and bonds; “Classic with Alternatives,” which is one of the first to offer access to alternative asset classes (e.g., real estate and multi-strategy funds); and “Sustainable,” which offers a well-diversified mix of stocks and bond funds with favorable environmental, social, and governance practices.
SS&C Black Diamond
Future Capital, a tech-enabled registered investment advisor (RIA) specializing in personalized retirement solutions, today announced a strategic partnership and technology integration with SS&C’s Black Diamond® Wealth Platform. Through this collaboration, Future Capital’s recently launched Construct platform will be integrated into Black Diamond, providing more than 2,700+ Wealth Management firms with direct access to manage their clients’ held-away 401(k) assets.
The partnership enables seamless data flow between the two platforms and will allow advisors to access the Future Capital Solution directly from Black Diamond. Advisors will have direct access to Future Capital’s advisor portal to manage held-away assets. At the same time, clients can view their accounts via the Black Diamond Client Portal, ensuring a fully integrated experience.
For households with between $100,000 to $2 million of liquid net worth, a staggering 56% of their assets are held in retirement accounts, often out of reach for advisors.† Future Capital aims to bridge this gap, providing advisors with the tools and resources needed to manage these critical retirement assets as part of a holistic wealth management strategy.
Vega
Vega, an alternative investment technology company, founded by a team of former executives from leading hedge funds, private equity firms, and fintech scale-ups, today announced the successful closing of a $20 million Series A led by Apollo (NYSE: APO) and Motive. In addition, Vega has formed an enterprise-scale partnership with Apollo. These developments mark a significant milestone in Vega’s growth journey, as the company aims to become the industry’s leading operating system for alternative asset managers.
Growing investor demand for private markets exposure is pushing alternative asset managers to transform how they service current clients and rapidly expand their service to new segments globally. Outdated client service technology and fragmented point solutions have created friction and hindered asset managers’ ability to scale, leading to substantial inefficiencies across their client service ecosystem.
Vega AltOS will enable alternative asset managers to distribute products and serve clients through an “Alternatives-as-a-Service” framework, allowing any platform or client to connect to an alternative asset manager via API. This technology facilitates direct connection between an asset manager and clients via the client’s service or platform of choice – whether intermediary advisor platforms, technology partners, or direct-to-institutional – enhancing the integration of alternatives in client portfolios.
Zeplyn
Zeplyn, the AI assistant for financial advisors, today announced a $3M seed funding round. Led by Leo Capital, with additional investing from Converge and angel investors, the funding will be used to support the company as it rebuilds wealth management from an AI-native perspective.
Founded by two former Google engineers, Zeplyn reduces the administrative burden placed on financial advisors, improving the advisor-client experience by automating time-consuming tasks and making client intelligence more accessible. The company’s AI Meeting Assistant, designed specifically for financial advisors and wealth management firms, takes unstructured conversational data and turns it into highly accurate notes. Streamlining meeting prep, note-taking and post-meeting workflows while fulfilling compliance requirements, Zeplyn saves financial advisors an average of 10-12 hours per week.
Zeplyn provides a time-saving toolkit for advisory firms to prep for client meetings, accurately capture financial data and key client insights, and seamlessly trigger follow-up tasks – which, in turn, improves the client experience.
