Here we are, celebrating another big week of wealth management technology headlines in Advisor Tech Talk, at what may be an inflection point for markets, the economy and geopolitics, and thus, an inflection point for financial services, fintech and wealthtech.
After a wild 100 days—really, a wild nearly 200 days if you want to go all the way back to election day—financial markets seem to be calming down a little bit, even posting a win streak in the U.S. Economic indicators, on the other hand, are mixed at best.
Amid the turmoil, wealth management and wealthtech remain active spaces for investment and dealmaking.
No matter which directions financial markets move in and what trajectory economic growth takes, we should expect consolidation to continue, because consolidation is being driven in part by longer cultural, demographic and technological trends that are immune from market and economic cycles—and much of the dealmaking we’re seeing now, and we’ll be seeing in the future, is driven by consolidation.
Demographically, advisors skew older, with the average financial advisor being a 50-something, with a wave of 60- and 70-something advisors entering or facing retirement. From an operational and technological perspective, it makes sense for smaller firms to combine and share and pool resources, as it is becoming more difficult for smaller firms to keep up with the technological demands of clients.
Also on the demographic side of things, we are in the midst of a huge intergenerational wealth transfer where the management of private wealth is almost sure to change in the majority of cases. More money is moving into the hands of younger generations who are more comfortable using technology to manage assets and finances, and many traditional wealth management firms will either have to change the way they do business, or face obsolescence. All that and we didn’t even mention artificial intelligence and its potential technical superiority over human advisors in asset and wealth management.
That’s one of the reasons we’ve given space to wealth management M&A activity, capital raises and people moves in our introductions to Advisor Tech Talk over the past few months—we view much of this activity as intrinsically linked to technology and our wealthtech focus.
Let’s get to your headlines.
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401GO
401GO, a next generation retiretech innovator, and Apex Fintech Solutions Inc. (“Apex”), an innovation launchpad for the global investment ecosystem, have entered into a strategic collaboration. Through this alliance, 401GO will leverage Apex’s advanced technology solutions to transform and expand its service offerings, delivering a retirement planning experience that is designed to rival a full-service investment platform.
The collaboration will launch with mandatory retirement plan distributions, commonly known as automated force-outs, and will quickly expand to include embedded IRA rollovers, emergency savings solutions, and a broad range of investment brokerage services. 401GO will serve as the client-facing entity, providing direct support and services to plan sponsors and participants, while Apex delivers the underlying technology, execution, clearing, and custody infrastructure that powers these solutions.
Initially focused on servicing small and medium-sized businesses, 401GO has evolved to accommodate companies of all sizes. Apex’s cutting-edge technology and its ability to support accounts of any size align faithfully with 401GO’s mission of delivering tech-forward and frictionless retirement savings solutions to the entire market.
Apex Fintech Solutions
Apex Fintech Solutions Inc. (“Apex”), an innovation launchpad for the global investment ecosystem, is thrilled to announce the launch of its advanced Direct Indexing solution, empowering advisors and fintech platforms to deliver personalized, tax-efficient investment strategies with unprecedented control and flexibility. This cutting-edge solution is available via intuitive user interfaces as well as through Apex’s suite of APIs.
Direct Indexing allows users to craft tailored investment portfolios by directly purchasing the individual constituents of an index. This approach unlocks opportunities to optimize tax outcomes, integrate impactful themes like sustainable and socially responsible investing, and deliver more precise control over portfolio construction to align with individual client goals. Apex Direct Indexing is designed to support allocations as small as $10,000, making it accessible to a wider range of investors. With preloaded benchmarks for tracking large, mid, and small-cap stocks, advisors and fintechs can offer mass-customized investment strategies with greater ease.
The solution is tailored for platforms aiming to differentiate their offerings by providing users with unprecedented levels of personalization. Sophisticated quantitative techniques underpin the technology, ensuring portfolios can closely track indices while allowing for targeted tilts toward client-defined preferences such as social responsibility factors or divestment from specific industries that don’t align to investor preferences. Advanced tax-loss harvesting strategies round out the offering, with technology that minimizes manual operational work for advisors.
Ascensus
Ascensus announced a new strategic partnership with Janusea to deliver a financial technology solution that streamlines IRA and health savings account (HSA) administration for financial institutions. Janusea’s product creates a direct integration between Ascensus’ technology platform and banks and credit unions, eliminating manual, dual entry of IRA and HSA transactions.
Ascensus currently offers full-service IRA and HSA administration as well as related services for approximately 5,500 financial organizations through its Retirement Products & Solutions (RPS) line of business. The new partnership combines Ascensus’ position as the leading provider of IRA and HSA services in the industry with Janusea’s deep experience bridging the gap between financial institutions and innovative fintech solutions.
Docupace
Docupace, the premier provider of back-office software to streamline operations of wealth management enterprises and financial advisors, today announced the appointment of Mary Nelson as chief client officer. As chief client officer, Nelson will oversee all post-sale functions including onboarding, client success, support and professional services. Her leadership will be instrumental in advancing Docupace’s mission to eliminate friction and empower advisors to spend more time with clients.
Nelson joins Docupace with more than 20 years of experience leading high-performance teams at growing SaaS companies including Alkami and Aircall. She is recognized for transforming client success organizations, shaping strategies that scale with client needs, and creating measurable business impact.
Her appointment comes at a time of continued momentum for Docupace, which recently acquired Hubly — a powerful workflow management platform — and welcomed J.T. Petrilli to lead mergers and acquisitions. In 2025 alone, the company has celebrated both double-digit internal promotions and new hires, underscoring its commitment to investing in people and performance.
Empower
In a new move set to reduce the cost of investing in retirement plans, Empower today announced the launch of the first-ever zero-fee index fund designed specifically for retirement investors.
The new fund, the Empower S&P 500® Index Separate Account, offers broad market exposure with no management fees — a first in the industry. By eliminating fees entirely, Empower aims to give retirement plan participants the full power of compound growth potential to help close the retirement savings gap for millions of Americans.
The fund will be available to all investors saving for retirement through defined contribution (DC) plans, including 401(k), 401(a), 457(b), and defined benefit plans as well as other qualified retirement accounts. This fund seeks investment results that track the total return of the common stocks that compose the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index and is sub-advised by BlackRock.
F2 Strategy
F2 Strategy (“F2”), a leading wealth management technology and marketing services company, announced today that it has acquired MD Solutions LLC (“MDS”), a Florida-based financial technology, software and operations provider. This is F2’s second transaction in the past year and its third in the past two years, following a strategic growth investment from Renovus Capital Partners and subsequent acquisitions of Oakbrook Solutions and SKY Marketing Consultants.
Founded in 2004 and led by Steve Mars and Bill Navarro, MDS is a wealth management technology and operations managed services provider that offers a wide range of investment operations and technology solutions. The firm has a strong history of collaboration with F2, and together they will seek to partner with best-in-class wealth management technology providers for implementation and ongoing outsourcing services.
This acquisition is a key component of F2’s go-to-market strategy, further enhancing its platform of technology, marketing and business services offerings to the wealth management industry. It also strengthens F2’s presence in the emerging registered investment advisor (RIA) and single-family office (SFO) markets. Effective immediately, all employees and projects will integrate into F2.
Flourish
Flourish, a WealthTech platform that helps registered investment advisors (RIAs) grow by evolving from holistic advice to holistic implementation, today announced a significant expansion of Flourish Annuities, its digital end-to-end RIA-centric annuities platform for advisors. The enhanced offering adds to the types of annuities available and broadens its carrier network, further empowering independent advisors to more effectively incorporate protection solutions into client portfolios.
Building on the success of its Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities (MYGAs) offering, Flourish Annuities is now expanding its marketplace of fee-based annuity products to include Registered Index-Linked Annuities (RILAs), Fixed Indexed Annuities (FIAs), and Variable Annuities (VAs). For clients seeking lifetime income options, guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWBs) can be added to eligible annuity contracts for a fee, giving clients the option to receive a “paycheck for life.”
The platform now boasts offerings from five highly-rated insurance carriers including new partnerships with Equitable and Jackson National Life Insurance Company® (Jackson®). They join existing carrier partners Aspida, Corebridge Financial, and MassMutual Ascend.
Hexure
Hexure, a leading provider of sales and regulatory automation solutions for the life and annuity industry, announced Wichita National Life Insurance Company (WNLIC) has successfully launched its new Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuity (MYGA) products, Security 3 (6% guaranteed rate) and Security 5 (6.15% guaranteed rate), on the FireLight platform, streamlining annuity sales processes while ensuring quick access for advisors. This implementation empowers a simplified, digital-first experience that optimizes efficiency, accelerates growth, and makes it easy to do business with WNLIC.
iCapital
MAI Capital Management LLC (“MAI”), a registered investment advisory firm focused on empowering clients to simplify, protect, and grow their wealth, today announced a partnership with iCapital1, the global fintech platform driving the world’s alternative investment marketplace for the wealth and asset management industries. Through the integration of iCapital’s technology into MAI’s custom platform, MAI’s in-house investment team can easily view, manage, and administer clients’ existing and future alternative investments.
iCapital’s end-to-end technology provides MAI’s advisors with a solution to simplify the process of reconciling alternative investment and fund data, streamline document management and fund finance activities, and enable more efficient workflows. MAI’s investment team will also have the capability to create custom portfolios and complete related due diligence for clients. iCapital will manage the associated oversight functions and support ongoing operations and efficiencies for MAI’s advisors and clients, and iCapital has also agreed to manage a set of existing funds currently managed by MAI as part of the partnership.
With more than 50 years of advising high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients, including iconic athletes and entertainers, MAI specializes in comprehensive financial planning and investment management for individuals and families. It delivers financial and estate planning, investment management, tax planning, insurance, accounting, and philanthropic strategies. MAI’s private markets platform comprises alternative funds across various strategies including real assets, private equity, private credit, venture capital and hedge funds.
intelliflo redblack
intelliflo redblack today announced that Focus Financial Partners Inc. has adopted intelliflo redblack as a strategic trade and rebalance technology solution, extending its capabilities across the organization’s firms.
Focus Financial Partners is an interdependent partnership of wealth management, business management, and related financial services firms. intelliflo redblack and Focus have enjoyed a successful relationship for years.
Pontera
Pontera, the fintech company enabling financial advisors to securely manage workplace retirement plan assets for participants, and World Investment Advisors, LLC (World), a leading financial advisory firm and one of the nation’s foremost providers of retirement plan focused advice today announced a strategic technology partnership.
As part of the agreement, World’s extensive network of over 350 financial advisors will now have access to Pontera’s platform, allowing them to manage seamlessly, trade and report on clients’ held-away 401(k)s and other workplace retirement accounts. The partnership demonstrates World’s commitment to providing its advisors with the tools they need to give clients a comprehensive wealth management experience.
The announcement comes as 401(k)s and other workplace defined contribution plans have increasingly become a cornerstone of financial security for millions of Americans, with one report showing that such plans held $12.4 trillion at the end of last year.1 Amid heightened market uncertainty and volatility, many individuals increasingly need professional guidance regarding those assets. Pontera’s secure, client-permissioned platform addresses that need, enabling World advisors to more easily incorporate a client’s workplace retirement plan holdings into their personalized portfolios and financial plans.
RISR
RISR, a leading business owner engagement platform for financial advisors, today announced its partnership with Integrated Partners, a national financial planning and registered investment advisory (RIA) firm serving more than $21 billion in assets under advisement (AUA). This collaboration empowers Integrated Partners’ network of advisors, and its accounting and CPA partner firms, to leverage RISR’s innovative technology for advanced financial planning with holistic solutions tailored to the unique needs of business owners.
The partnership will drive deeper, more comprehensive client relationships by integrating RISR’s cutting-edge tools into Integrated Partners’ advanced planning deck. RISR’s platform will equip financial professionals with the ability to consolidate critical data—from tax returns to business financials—into a single, actionable plan. This integrated approach offers business owners the clarity and strategic guidance they need during uncertain market conditions, while also simplifying the complexities of tax and financial planning.
The integration of RISR’s platform is particularly timely, as business owners continue to face uncertainty in the wake of market volatility. RISR’s tools will enable Integrated Partners’ advisors to engage more frequently and effectively with UHNW business owner clients, offering personalized insights and strategic planning to help them navigate both current challenges and long-term goals.
SEI
SEI® (NASDAQ:SEIC) today announced that Summit Wealth Group, a fast-growing enterprise advisor practice, has selected SEI to support the firm’s vision and evolution for strategic growth. The transition to a registered investment advisor (RIA) model provides Summit Wealth Group improved flexibility and greater control over the business’ future, while enabling enhanced capabilities and solutions for clients.
Headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO and currently operating 10 offices across five states, Summit Wealth Group was founded by CEO Randy Morris in 1985 as Executive Financial Planning, Inc. The firm specializes in taking a planning-first approach to client relationships, and after assessing industry trends and future opportunities, Summit made the strategic decision to breakaway and establish an independent RIA to provide an improved client experience and help drive organic growth.
Supported by SEI’s dedicated Business Transition team, Summit Wealth Group expects to migrate approximately $2.1 billion in assets to the SEI Wealth PlatformSM. In addition to critical custody and technology services, the firm will leverage SEI’s enterprise capabilities across investment management and portfolio solutions, as well as advanced planning capabilities to support tax and income optimization for Summit Wealth Group’s clients.
TIFIN
Give, a TIFIN company, has sold its Giving Place product, a leading platform for family office giving programs and private foundations, to Foundation Source, a recognized leader in philanthropic technology solutions.
This strategic move allows Give to sharpen its focus on expanding its donor-advised fund (DAF) offerings—an area where it sees significant potential for innovation and growth. Give remains deeply committed to advancing philanthropy by delivering cutting-edge, scalable solutions that enhance the giving experience for clients, wealth enterprises, and advisors.
Foundation Source’s acquisition of Giving Place strengthens its capabilities and further solidifies its leadership in providing modern, fintech-powered solutions for private foundations, donor-advised funds, and planned giving programs.
UBS
UBS today announced plans to modernize and expand its Workplace Wealth Solutions business in the US, enhancing service and capabilities for corporate equity plan clients supported by insightsoftware, a leading provider of equity management solutions.
UBS’s Equity Plan Services Plan Admin Pro is a cloud-based, flexible equity awards administration platform that enables corporate clients of all sizes to manage their equity awards. Combining the advanced technological capabilities of insightsoftware with UBS’s deep understanding of corporate client and plan participant requirements will provide a robust and customizable solution to meet the growing demands and complexity of global equity plan issuers.
UBS Workplace Wealth Solutions (WWS), a core business within UBS Wealth Management in the US, is a leading provider of wealth management and recordkeeping services for corporate equity plans and delivers both education and advice to all levels of employees. Together, the three businesses that make up WWS—UBS Equity Plan Services, UBS Retirement Plan Services and Financial Wellness—serve nearly 3 million plan participants and over $180 billion in assets.
Webull
Webull (NASDAQ: BULL), an online investment platform, today announced the expansion of its advisory services through the launch of BlackRock model portfolios. This new offering delivers enhanced investment options, giving US-based investors access to professionally managed, diversified portfolios tailored to a broad range of financial goals and risk profiles through Webull Advisors.
Webull users now have access, through Webull Advisors, to a range of diversified portfolios spanning multiple asset classes, including alternatives and digital assets, tailored to meet varying risk appetites and financial objectives.
This new offering is available directly through the Webull app under the advisory section, giving users a seamless and intuitive way to access personalized investment portfolios. Designed with the needs of today’s investors in mind, the solution caters to individuals who are comfortable with technology, value low-cost investing, and seek convenient, automated portfolio management.
YCharts
YCharts, a leading investment research and proposal generation platform, is expanding its presence in the Canadian wealth management market with a new integration with Aviso Wealth, a leading Canadian wealth management firm serving financial institutions and independent advisors. This integration enables seamless proposal generation, portfolio analysis, and investment research for Canadian advisors, enhancing their ability to drive client engagement and grow assets under management (AUM).
With the increasing demand for customizable, compliance-friendly proposals, Canadian firms are looking for modern solutions that streamline client communications and drive business growth. YCharts has become the go-to platform for financial advisors, empowering them to present clear, data-driven investment strategies that resonate with clients. Through this integration, YCharts is now embedded directly into the tech stack of a major Canadian wealth management platform, allowing advisors affiliated with Aviso to generate powerful, client-ready proposals with ease.
Beyond its integration with Aviso, YCharts has been expanding its reach in the Canadian market through strategic partnerships with Designed Securities and other wealth management firms.
