Greetings, friends, and welcome to another Advisor Tech Talk—and don’t stop me if you’ve heard this one before—it’s a busy week for wealthtech.
Before we get to our headlines, though, let’s have a discussion about a news item not appearing below in our list of wealth management technology items. Dynasty Financial Partners and Nasdaq Private Market announced a strategic partnership that will help funnel Nasdaq’s private company shareholders towards Dynasty’s advisors.
Such “strategic partnerships” are common these days in wealth management, especially among the largest firms. There’s a tremendous side industry focused solely on lead generation for financial advisors. A lot of money is being spent trying to capture money on the move, either through marketing or through such strategic partnerships, and it should continue to do so.
However, the wealth management industry is also at a crossroads when it comes to technology and next-generation clients. Attracting and keeping new, younger, wealthy clients is not going to be as easy as opening the lead-generation spigot via strategic partnerships or marketing arrangements or working with a lead generation website.
Dynasty’s partnership is likely to be a win, at least in the short term, but as private market access becomes more technologically oriented (and hopefully more coherent), it will become more difficult for traditional human financial advisory firms to fish from the pool of private market investors. Thus, there may be diminishing returns over time.
On balance, I believe that financial advisory firms are too focused on finding ways to funnel prospects and leads their way and not focused enough on how they are going to stay relevant to clients through the ongoing generational wealth transfer and the technological transformation of the greater financial services industry.
For one thing, we need to recognize the continual shift in the ways people look for goods and services. For the past 20 years, the shift has been towards the internet and online communities. Digital advertising and social media presence has been looked at as where wealth management firms can go to get new prospects and clients.
But digital ads are losing their effectiveness, and people are less trusting of social media than they were a decade ago as they recognize how emotions and opinions are being manipulated by certain commercial, political and social actors. Today, people are not only tuning out digital ads (which, for many internet users, are now being blocked with software), but they’re also questioning the wisdom of crowds (and of crowdsourcing wisdom) as they recognize the biases and blind spots within their online and social media communities. As a result, a more think-for-yourself, do-it-yourself mentality is emerging.
Remember also that many of wealthy next-gen prospects came of age during the global financial crisis and eye traditional financial services—including human financial advisors—with less trust than their elders, instead placing more faith in themselves and their technology.
The most promising channel for finding prospects and capturing new clients is now embedded finance. Wealth management is becoming embedded in the financial services that wealthy young Americans now receive via software. As many young people have eschewed traditional banking and self-directed investing relationships for tech-oriented providers, they’re increasingly going to be captured by the embedded wealth offerings these technology providers have built or are actively building.
Perhaps the traditional financial advisor relationship is increasingly going to be replaced by a technological financial advisor relationship: Think Vanguard Personal Advisor services on AI-infused steroids, but built for the high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth cohort.
Let’s get to some headlines.
Apex Fintech Solutions
Apex Fintech Solutions Inc. (“Apex”), an innovation launchpad for the global investment ecosystem, and Advyzon, a comprehensive technology platform and portfolio management solution for financial advisors and investment managers, are thrilled to announce the expansion of their strategic partnership focused on integrating with Advyzon Investment Management (“AIM”), an investment solution provider under the Advyzon umbrella.
Through this partnership, advisors can leverage the straight through processing that Apex provides and utilize AIM’s Nucleus model marketplace and rebalancing solutions to streamline investment management processes. For clients, this new integration between Apex and AIM gives advisors the option to outsource or make better use of technology to handle day-to-day investment management operations helping modern advisory firms spend more time on the goals they have for their businesses.
This partnership expansion builds on the initial partnership announcement in February 2024 and reinforces Apex and Advyzon’s commitment to innovation and delivering modern solutions tailored to the needs of financial advisors. It will help enable future innovations as both companies continue to collaborate closely to enhance the advisor-client experience.
Arta Finance
Arta Finance (“Arta”), a digital wealth platform transforming the way people grow, protect, and enjoy their wealth, has today announced the appointment of Melissa-Ann Chan to the role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), to lead the company’s global marketing and member engagement as it experiences exponential growth.
This appointment comes as Arta continues its global expansion. Following a successful launch in the U.S. last year, where the platform onboarded thousands of clients and grew assets under management (AUM) to hundreds of millions of dollars, Arta recently extended its presence globally through its launch in Singapore. By targeting accredited investors in Singapore and those managing wealth through the City-State, Arta is solidifying its position as a global leader in digital wealth management.
In her new role as CMO, Melissa-Ann (Mel) will oversee global marketing, brand and advertising strategy, and go-to-market execution. As a member of the leadership team, Mel will drive the company’s vision by leading initiatives that span brand positioning, growth, client experience, and market expansion.
CAIS
CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform for independent financial advisors, today unveiled a series of new trade capabilities that will be made available to the over 2,000 wealth management firms that utilize the CAIS alts operating platform. The new solution, which features a more intuitive and flexible investment experience, was designed to simplify the alternative investment lifecycle for financial advisors.
The announcement comes on the heels of the launch of CAIS Compass, a portfolio construction tool that allows advisors to create and analyze asset allocations with alternative investments within the CAIS platform, as well as the launch of CAIS Advisors. Financial advisors can look to engage with CAIS Advisors for custom alts model portfolios, and access CAIS Advisors’ anticipated suite of funds through the CAIS platform.
Conquest Planning
Conquest Planning Inc. (“Conquest”), a technology platform modernizing financial planning with customized and consumable advice, today celebrates a significant milestone after recently surpassing 1 million financial plans. This accomplishment is bolstered by its continued expansion into the United Kingdom and the United States, along with its recognition as one of 10 companies to win Manulife and the World Economic Forum’s Prospering in Longevity Challenge, among other notable accolades.
Originally founded in 2018 by Dr. Mark Evans, an industry veteran with over 30 years experience, Conquest’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software empowers institutions to offer financial advice at scale, from mass-market clients to ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Conquest serves financial advisors, banks, brokerages, wirehouses, insurance firms and pension providers, offering a platform that meets the unique demands of a diverse customer base, across the entire wealth continuum. Leveraging its Strategic Advice Manager (SAM), an AI-based engine that performs thousands of complex calculations around every piece of client information, advisors and clients are able to quickly and accurately understand the impact of different scenarios on clients’ goals and recommend the next best financial decision.
With its AI-powered platform, Conquest is working to make best-in-class financial guidance more accessible to people around the world. The firm’s recent recognition as a winner of the “Prospering in Longevity Challenge,” where it was named one of only three top innovators, highlights its focus on delivering innovative, accessible solutions aimed at enhancing quality of life for people worldwide. This challenge was designed to recognize organizations with forward-thinking approaches to helping people live longer, healthier lives. Conquest believes all people, whether they are in the borrowing, accumulation or decumulation phase of life, deserve a flexible, dynamic financial plan that adapts to life’s changes and accounts for extended lifespans.
d1g1t
d1g1t, a leading wealth management technology company today announced an integration with Flyer Financial Technologies to streamline equity, mutual fund, and ETF trading. Through the integration, advisors using the d1g1t enterprise wealth management platform can now submit trades through a FIX network for real-time trade execution and allocation across multiple brokers.
With the integration of d1g1t’s centralized Order Management System and the Flyer Trading Network, an advanced multi-asset trading network, wealth management firms like RIAs and Multi Family Offices can seamlessly execute trades with multiple custodians and brokers.
Several clients are currently using the proven integration to streamline their trading activities.
F2 Strategy
F2 Strategy (“F2”), a leading wealth management technology and marketing services consultancy, today announced the appointment of industry veteran Ryan Beach as chief executive officer. The recruitment of Beach represents the latest in a series of strategic personnel additions that include Laura Korbel as president and Jay Halbert as chief financial officer.
F2 has undergone a period of rapid expansion in the past 18 months, following a majority investment from private equity firm Renovus Capital Partners (“Renovus”). This growth has necessitated the strategic addition of top industry talent to the leadership team to sustain F2’s strong momentum. In the latest executive appointment, Ryan Beach will succeed co-founder Doug Fritz as CEO. Fritz will transition to the role of executive chairman, allowing him to focus his efforts on strategic initiatives and client engagements.
At Orion, Beach served in executive leadership roles in both technology and wealth management while executing on Orion’s M&A initiatives. During his nearly 13-year tenure at Orion, he advanced through several leadership positions to become chief operating officer and eventually president of Orion Wealth Management. His C-suite experience includes driving strategic growth and expanding service offerings through a servant leadership style that emphasizes team development and fosters a culture of empowerment, collaboration and accountability.
Fiduciary In a Box
Fiduciary In A Box (FIAB), the leading SaaS platform for ERISA health and retirement plan compliance, has announced a groundbreaking partnership with Homa Health, an innovative AI company. This collaboration brings the power of artificial intelligence to plan sponsors and fiduciaries, enabling seamless, automated contract reviews to ensure compliance with ERISA regulations and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA).
Through this partnership, FIAB users can now have their uploaded plan contracts reviewed by Homa’s advanced AI system. The resulting report provides a detailed evaluation of compliance with federal requirements, including the critical prohibition of gag clauses under the CAA. Gag clauses restrict transparency around cost and quality information, a practice explicitly barred by the law.
The announcement comes at a pivotal time for plan sponsors, as Gag Clause Prohibition Compliance Attestations are due by December 31st, 2024. The Department of Labor is ramping up enforcement efforts and high-profile class-action lawsuits against companies like Johnson & Johnson, the Mayo Clinic, and Wells Fargo are bringing renewed scrutiny to fiduciary practices. FIAB and Homa Health’s solution empowers plan sponsors to stay ahead of these challenges, avoiding costly penalties and reputational damage.
iPipeline
Protective Life Corporation (Protective), a U.S. subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc. (TSE:8750), today announced that it has collaborated with iPipeline®, a leading provider of digital solutions for the life insurance and wealth management industries, to streamline the order entry process for its network of financial professionals. With iPipeline’s Laser App solution, Protective can now offer its financial professionals the ability to digitize, streamline, and automate financial documentation to improve productivity and increase efficiency across the life and annuities product lifecycles.
With iPipeline’s Laser App — an industry-leading financial forms automation solution — Protective will be able to offer its financial professionals a central platform featuring the industry’s largest library of more than 33,000 up-to-date and intelligent forms, which can be pre-filled using data from various CRM systems. For Protective’s financial professional network, this integration will now eliminate manual workloads and reduce data entry time by 80%, leading to a faster, more efficient, and easier sales process.
This partnership also enables iPipeline’s expanded network of more than 100,000 financial professionals to now immediately access Protective’s financial products – beginning with its recently enhanced flagship product, Protective® Aspirations variable annuity – for a quick and seamless process for completing digital forms that makes doing business with Protective easier than ever.
Luma Financial Technologies
Luma Financial Technologies (“Luma”), a global leader in structured products and insurance solutions, has partnered with Advantage Insurance Network (“AIN”), a national marketing organization network of affiliated independent third-party brokerage distribution firms, to advance the life, annuity and asset-based long-term care insurance experience. This collaboration marks an industry first by introducing Luma’s advanced technology into AIN Essentials (AIN’s proprietary resource platform) in a single sign-on environment, providing all AIN Affiliates with instant access to an unparalleled suite of resources.
Through this partnership, AIN Affiliates can implement Luma’s end-to-end digital solutions, designed to simplify the management and transaction processes for annuities today, and life insurance in the not-too-distant future, in their respective agencies. Affiliates using the platform can efficiently compare products, analyze performance data, and leverage predictive analytics to tailor offerings that align with their agents’ unique goals. In addition, Luma’s integrated electronic applications, e-signature capabilities, and automated pricing technology are available to interested individual Affiliate Firms to further enhance efficiency, freeing AIN Affiliates from manual tasks and allowing them to focus on delivering exceptional service.
The unique, industry-first integration of Luma into AIN Essentials ensures that AIN Affiliates have access to multi-carrier annuity quoting in a single sign-on environment, allowing them to stay ahead in a fast-changing marketplace and deliver tailored solutions that resonate with today’s discerning clients.
Nitrogen
Nitrogen (formerly Riskalyze), the software company revolutionizing how wealth management firms scale the delivery of personalized advice, today announced the availability of Nitrogen for Asset Managers. The offering makes an asset manager’s products visible, credible, and proposable within Nitrogen’s industry-leading risk tolerance, investment analytics, and proposal generation advisor workflow. It also delivers a suite of reporting on product adoption, competitive positioning and advisor behavior, offering valuable insights to inform distribution strategy. More than twenty leading firms already use the product to drive growth and market intelligence.
Nitrogen for Asset Managers gives firms comprehensive access to Nitrogen’s ecosystem, from dedicated Partner Store presence to Risk Number® scoring across their entire product suite. Beyond product placement, asset managers receive integrated field marketing and promotional support, Nitrogen advisor software licensing, and access to a suite of reports that deliver insights into advisor engagement, wallet share opportunities, and competitive positioning.
Nitrogen for Asset Managers represents a product distilled from the feedback of more than twenty asset management firms already partnered with Nitrogen for distribution. The platform offers tiered service levels to meet varying asset manager needs, from core product adoption analytics to comprehensive distribution support.
OneVest
Addenda Capital, a leader in sustainable investment management has selected OneVest, a cutting-edge wealth management technology company as its wealth management software provider. This decision aligns with Addenda Capital’s focus on expanding and enhancing its Private Wealth division.
Addenda will benefit from OneVest’s full-suite platform, including onboarding, client and advisor portals, portfolio management, fees and billing, reporting, and more. OneVest’s configurable platform will provide Addenda’s Investment Counsellors with a digital experience, enabling them to spend less time on administration, and more time supporting clients in achieving their financial goals.
This collaboration reflects a shared vision for innovation and client success. By combining Addenda’s expertise in sustainable investing with OneVest’s technological leadership, the partnership is poised to set new benchmarks for excellence in wealth management.
Orion
Orion, the premier provider of transformative wealthtech solutions for financial advisors and the enterprise firms that serve them, today announced the appointment of Chris Shutler, CFA, as Head of Strategy. In his new role, Chris leads the development and execution of corporate strategy, including market analysis and growth opportunities. Chris also serves as a trusted advisor and thought partner to the executive leadership team, facilitating effective decision-making and communication while overseeing special projects. He reports to Orion Chief Financial Officer Mark Mayo.
With more than 20 years of experience in strategy, finance, and market intelligence, Chris brings a wealth of relevant expertise to Orion. He most recently served as Head of Strategic Development & Market Intelligence for Envestnet, where he provided industry and competitive insights to inform the corporate roadmap, evaluated merger and acquisition opportunities, and led strategic projects. His prior experience includes more than 13 years with William Blair & Company, where he focused on equity research for the wealth management, asset management and financial technology sectors. Earlier in his career, Chris held analyst roles at Credit Suisse, Bank of America, and InteCap.
A seasoned financial services executive, Chris holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and earned his Bachelor of Business Administration with honors in finance and business economics from the University of Notre Dame.
Pocketnest
Pocketnest, the woman-founded financial wellness platform, announces its partnership with GenWealth Financial Advisors, an Ark. and La.-based retirement and investment planning firm, with securities offered by LPL Financial.
Dedicated to empowering financial institutions with innovative technology that helps digitally-native communities achieve financial independence, Pocketnest aligns with GenWealth’s vision and commitment to its diverse clients.
GenWealth selected Pocketnest as its fintech partner for its ability to revolutionize financial services, making financial planning accessible, engaging, and almost addictive for the digital generation. By integrating Pocketnest into its suite of services, GenWealth enhances its offerings in retirement and financial planning, individual money management, investments, and more.
Sandbox Wealth
Sandbox Wealth, a turnkey banking solution for non-bank financial institutions, announced today the successful pre-seed fundraise of $1.25 million in capital, led by NextGen Venture Partners, with participation from Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, gener8tor, and RevTech Labs. The investment validates Sandbox’s vision to provide RIAs and Family Offices access to deposits, lending, and enterprise-grade analytics through its open architecture banking platform.
The new capital will support Sandbox’s efforts to attract top engineering talent and further R&D related to building out its three-sided marketplace for advisors, bankers, and their clients. The company seeks to provide a seamless experience for advisors, who would be partners and support their ability to drive organic growth, provide a full suite of private banking solutions, and deepen client relationships. For lenders, it provides an attractive channel to grow their deposits and lending base with lower-risk borrowers, including High-Net-Worth Individuals with stable financial profiles.
Multiple trends are playing out in the wealth management industry that support the launch and future growth of the Sandbox Wealth offering. These include innovations in artificial intelligence, open finance, and global instant payment networks that are shaking up the banking industry. This confluence of factors has the potential to empower independent advisory firms, which manage over $8 trillion, according to LLR Partners, with an alternate driver of organic growth. Sandbox is building a solution for a segment that needs access to holistic liquidity solutions while banking partners can grow high-quality lending and deposit portfolios.
Smarsh
Smarsh, the global leader in communications data and intelligence, today announced the launch of Echo Cancellation, a new Professional Archive capability that intelligently filters the “echoes” in email threads to reduce overall supervision queues and save time for customers.
Available to all Professional Archive Gold and Platinum package customers, users can activate Echo Cancellation from the Policy menu. Once enabled, Echo Cancellation is applied to all messages that meet the specified policy criteria. These messages will be marked as Auto-Reviewed and tagged with an “Echo Cancellation” label.
SMArtX Advisory Solutions
SMArtX Advisory Solutions (“SMArtX”), a leading innovator in managed accounts technology, has announced the addition of 24 new strategies from eight leading asset management firms to its Manager Marketplace. SMArtX’s continuously growing platform now offers 1,537 strategies from 322 distinguished asset management firms.
Newcomers, The Leuthold Group and Third Avenue Management added a core strategy as well as international value and small cap value strategies, respectively. Allspring Global Investments, Ativo Capital Management, Fidelity Institutional, Janus Henderson, Morningstar, Inc., and WestEnd Advisors also expanded their current offerings to respectively include international core, small cap concentrated, growth, large cap, small cap, fixed income, indexes, and large cap core.
Uptiq.AI
Uptiq.AI, a leader in AI-powered solutions for the financial services industry, proudly announces its acquisition of UpSwot, a cutting-edge provider of financial data integration technology. This acquisition significantly enhances Uptiq.AI’s ability to deliver innovative, AI-driven applications tailored to the needs of wealth management firms, banks, credit unions, fintechs, and non-bank organizations.
The acquisition aligns with Uptiq.AI’s vision of building a vertically integrated enterprise AI platform. UpSwot’s Financial Data Gateway—known for seamlessly integrating with third-party SaaS software across key categories like Accounting, Banking, Payroll, ERP, and CRM—will now power Uptiq.AI’s AI Workbench. This integration enables Uptiq.AI’s agents to query and embed data from these essential sources, further differentiating Uptiq.AI from other “Agent Developer Platforms” in the market.
For UpSwot’s existing customers, this would mean that AI agents will act upon UpSwot’s insights, and thus, Uptiq’s core AI capabilities paired with UpSwot’s rich business insights, will deliver a differentiated experience to their commercial clients.
Vanguard
Vanguard today announced that Karin Risi, managing director and head of Strategy, Product, Marketing, and Communications, intends to retire from the firm at the end of 2024 concluding a successful career of more than 27 years of dedicated service. Most recently, Ms. Risi has guided Vanguard’s business development and corporate strategy, and strengthened the firm’s global investment product lineup, brand, and reputation.
Joining Vanguard in 1997, Ms. Risi has led revenue-generating businesses and enterprise strategic functions across the firm’s corporate, institutional, and individual investor divisions. Upon joining Vanguard’s senior leadership team in 2015, she was appointed managing director of Vanguard Personal Investor, responsible for business strategy, client experience, and brokerage and wealth management services for Vanguard’s individual investors. Ms. Risi led Vanguard’s disruptive entry into the scalable advice market with the launch of Vanguard Personal Advisor, the firm’s pioneering advisory offer that is improving investor access to affordable wealth management.
Ms. Risi has long been a role model for aspiring female leaders. She was instrumental in the launch of Vanguard’s Women’s Initiative for Leadership Success more than 15 years ago, and sponsors Vanguard’s talent oversight efforts aimed at strengthening and developing the firm’s future pipeline of diverse leaders. Ms. Risi has been recognized by Barron’s as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Finance for five consecutive years since the award’s inception.
Voya Financial
Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) announced today that it is collaborating with Orion, a premier provider of transformative wealthtech solutions for financial professionals, to launch a new and enhanced technology platform for its Voya Financial Advisors (VFA) business. Voya WealthPath will provide VFA’s financial professionals with an integrated experience of holistic in-plan and retail and advisory solutions, including financial planning and client relationship management tools. The new platform offers a more efficient, streamlined experience for the firm’s network of financial professionals to help them better manage their business, service and retain clients, and grow their practices.
Voya WealthPath comes at a time when Voya is focused on investing in its financial professional platform and accompanying retail presence. The new solution builds on Voya’s continued enhancements in technology and value-added services that support financial professionals and their clients.
Through the Orion end-to-end platform, Voya WealthPath offers a new set of integrated technology solutions, product offerings, and resources to help VFA financial professionals further connect the workplace and retail needs of individuals — both in and out of one’s retirement plan.
Wealthbox
Wealthbox, the highest-rated CRM software for financial advisors, today issued a press release announcing an enterprise CRM agreement with IFG Advisory, an Atlanta-based financial services firm supporting independent financial advisors across multiple states. With this agreement, 81 users will gain access to Wealthbox to improve client management and streamline workflows.
This partnership highlights Wealthbox’s commitment to serving large advisory firms with tailored CRM solutions. By providing an intuitive platform equipped with advanced features, Wealthbox enables firms like IFG Advisory to enhance collaboration among their advisor networks, centralize client data, and foster growth through efficient operations. The implementation underscores how enterprise agreements with Wealthbox can transform the way firms manage advisor-client relationships at scale.
