I came of age in the era of alternative music, and now I’m muddling through my middle age years in the era of alternative investing.
Welcome to another week of Advisor Tech Talk where, yes, we had a lot of wealthtech happenings, but also more specifically, there were a lot of alternative investment happenings.
But first, let’s talk alternative music, which was initially foisted upon the world by upstarts like Janes Addiction and Pearl Jam. Of course, in the end, wasn’t really an alternative to anything as it came to dominate airwaves both on radio and televison at a time when a somewhat unified mass culture was still possible.
As a young, maturing listener, we came to ask who the alternative was for—and what it was an alternative to.
Now, as someone who writes about money and technology, we have to ask who all of this momentum towards alternatives is for.
In recent weeks we’ve seen major announcements in the alternative investing and alternative investech spaces from Cetera, Opto Investments, Morningstar, SoFi, CAIS and others. We’ve seen an $820 million capital raise and an integration with Orion announced by iCapital.
This week, the news items from AssetMark and SEI stand as evidence that the large TAMPs are moving quickly to incorporate alts. Other alt news include Allocate’s announcement that it has acquired The Coterie’s private markets platform, and Franklin Templeton’s news that it has added managed options strategies to its custom indexing platform shouldn’t be ignored, either.
To be fair, the news we find most fascinating dropped as we were writing this—FNZ’s AI partnership with Microsoft probably has more implications for wealth management in the long term than all the news around alternatives combined.
But there’s just so much news around alternatives. Advisors, wealthtechs, asset managers, fintechs, discount brokerages, retirement plan providers—it seems like a strong plurality of every segment of the industry wants to expand access to alternatives and, by doing so, mushroom the private markets and make the private markets less… private.
And yes, there are signs of growing investor demand for alternatives. Affluent investors are increasing their alternatives allocations, according to recent research from HSBC. Retail investors are poised to allocate up to $1.3 trillion to alts, according to an analysis from Lansons Team Farner. Policymakers are moving towards lowering the regulatory barriers gating access to most alternatives from all but relatively wealthy investors. Alternatives are even gradually making their way into retirement accounts.
But, who is all of this really for? We have our doubts that much of the recent demand for alternatives has really sprouted from the ground up. Is it result of years of publicity and marketing from the financial services industry, or does it signify an actual desire and need within the greater investing public?
We love democratization, in our heart we believe all people should be able to access all financial tools. But do people investing for retirement really need access to esoteric private investments in their 401k?
Is this something technology and financial services companies are doing to democratize the markets, eliminate the exclusivity premium surrounding these asset classes and level the playing field, or under the surface is it really more about extracting fees from more middle-of-the-road, mass affluent and mom-and-pop investors that we’re couching in aspirational language?
Is all of this really in an advisor’s end-clients’ best interests, or is it more for the betterment and enrichment of the investors in the financial services industry?
Not to mention, if any investor can access alternative investments via any platform, are they really alternative anymore, or are they kind of like 90s pop music dressed up in pre-ripped blue jeans and unbuttoned flannel?
Let’s get to your headlines.
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Alix
Alix, a first-of-its-kind wealth transfer platform, today announced a $20 million Series A funding round from Acrew Capital, Charles Schwab and Edward Jones Ventures*. Existing investors Initialized Capital, Scribble, Magnify, Ziegler Link•age Funds, and Cameron Ventures also participated in the oversubscribed Series A round. This additional funding will support the company’s growth strategy, bringing the power of AI-enabled estate settlement to more families in need.
Alix is the first and only automated wealth transfer solution designed to simplify the estate settlement process. With today’s announcement, Alix has now raised a total of $30.65M. To date the company has been focused on demonstrating proof of concept, customer acquisition and brand awareness, and setting up its partnership infrastructure that brings Alix into distribution partners throughout the US. The new financing will supercharge its agentic AI strategy, enabling Alix to scale its product and onboard new executors faster, create a more seamless experience for customers and build new integrations that further connect estate settlement to the rest of the financial value chain. Additionally, Alix will expand its workforce, adding new AI-focused product and engineering talent, and strengthening its sales teams. Alix is also opening a San Francisco office to capitalize on the Bay Area’s primacy in AI, driving the company’s product development and innovation goals this year.
As the nearly $124T Great Wealth Transfer continues over the next two decades, services like Alix will become more critical. The burden of managing an estate currently takes 12-18 months and up to 900 hours following someone’s death. Alix has cracked the code for how to simplify this inherently complex process by providing an AI and automation-assisted partner that guides executors from start to finish. Alix is future-proofing wealth management strategies for the next generation.
Allocate
Allocate, building the operating system for private market investing, today announced that it has acquired the technology and platform assets of The Coterie, a fintech leader focused on making private markets more efficient and transparent for fund managers and their investors. This asset acquisition marks a significant milestone for both companies and accelerates Allocate’s mission to deliver modern digital infrastructure for private market participants.
With the acquisition of The Coterie platform, Allocate continues toward a unified platform that enables wealth advisors, family offices, and investors to access, manage, and oversee private investments more easily. It enhances Allocate’s capabilities in digital onboarding, fund administration, document management, capital call and distribution processing, and real-time reporting — expanding its product suite and reinforcing its mission to deliver a modern, digital, and inclusive experience for all private market participants.
april
april, the embedded, AI tax platform, has closed $38 million in a Series B funding round led by QED Investors, with participation from Nyca Partners and Team8, bringing the company’s total funding to $78 million.
The raise follows a number of key milestones for the company. In early 2025, april became the first new company in over 15 years to achieve national e-file coverage, a major milestone that only approximately ten other companies have achieved. During the 2024 tax season, april was available to millions of Americans through more than 50 partners, processing hundreds of thousands of tax returns. Year to date, the business has tripled in size, reflecting the demand for embedded tax within financial institutions.
This season also marked an expansion of april’s filing capabilities. In addition to its self-service offering, april launched pro-assisted and pro-led tax filing services, enabling partners to support a broader set of tax needs directly within their own platforms. april’s AI powered tax infrastructure integrates federal and state filing into a single flow and leverages partner data to pre-fill forms, reducing median time to file to 22 minutes, compared to the IRS average of 13 hours. The platform also boasts an exceptional Net Promoter Score (NPS) of over 60, reflecting strong user satisfaction and trust. Partners saw refund deposit rates over 98%, underscoring the business impact of integrating tax functionality directly into financial platforms.
AssetMark
AssetMark, a leading provider of innovative wealth management solutions, today announced its upcoming expansion into alternative asset classes, with new capabilities expected to launch in Q4 2025. This strategic initiative will integrate private assets into AssetMark’s managed solutions and discretionary programs – powered by its modern technology platform – designed to help advisors deliver more resilient, personalized portfolios in a rapidly evolving investment landscape.
AssetMark’s private markets strategy builds on its firm foundational pillars: rigorous due diligence, thoughtful asset allocation, and a digitally enabled, advisor-first experience. The firm is currently conducting due diligence on private credit, private real estate, and private equity funds – asset classes that offer differentiated return streams and potential for enhancing long-term outcomes.
A portion of AssetMark’s discretionary strategies will be allocated to private markets, enabling advisors to access professionally managed exposure to these asset classes through integrated models. In addition, AssetMark’s dynamic UMA accounts and Adhesion Wealth platform will provide advisors with the ability to invest in diligenced, semi-liquid private funds in a single custody account alongside other public security allocations, an approach designed to streamline advisor workflow and enhance the investor experience.
Axxcess Wealth Management
Axxcess Wealth Management, a leading TAMP platform purpose-built for high-net-worth clients and the advisors who serve them, today announced the appointment of Deron T. McCoy, CFA®, CFP®, CAIA®, AIF® as Chief Wealth Officer. This move signals a major step forward in Axxcess’ mission to provide personalized strategic insight at scale for advisors navigating today’s complex investment landscape.
McCoy brings over two decades of institutional asset management experience, having helped scale investment programs from $200 million to more than $20 billion AUM. In his new role, he will serve as a vision-setter and public-facing voice for Axxcess’ growing advisor network, delivering investment strategy, macroeconomic interpretation, and customized portfolio architecture that blends traditional and tax-aware investing. His leadership will shape the delivery of Axxcess’ enhanced strategies that prioritize after-tax net worth—a shift from conventional portfolio optimization to true tax-efficiency and personalization at scale.
The firm’s newly launched Enhanced Wealth Management service offering sits at the center of this vision, giving advisors access to tax-efficient direct indexing, personalized harvesting strategies, and long/short overlays—all delivered within a unified UMA framework. With McCoy’s guidance, Axxcess is advancing a platform that delivers personalized investing with institutional depth—without the operational drag.
Conquest Planning
Conquest Planning Inc. (“Conquest”), a technology platform modernizing planning with customized and convenient advice, today announced a strategic partnership with BMO. Together, the firms have built My Financial Progress, a digital, self-serve experience available in the bank’s Mobile Banking app and Online Banking platform to help BMO’s clients take control of their financial journey.
BMO’s My Financial Progress leverages Conquest’s proprietary planning technology to help users set financial goals, monitor their progress and build a comprehensive snapshot of their financial health. At the centre of this partnership is Conquest’s Strategic Advice Manager (“SAM”). SAM models financial scenarios and suggests optimized strategies that balance the client’s immediate needs with their long-term goals. By handling complex calculations and clearly explaining recommendations, SAM empowers informed decision-making for clients in all phases of life.
As part of My Financial Progress, BMO clients will benefit from interactive planning features that identify gaps, opportunities and risks within their plans—offering proactive recommendations to help sustain progress and optimize strategies. Users can easily see how different strategies impact each goal and their overall plan, with automatically updated visuals that highlight goal and plan health. As life events unfold, plans will adjust in real time, presenting alternative paths to help clients stay confident and prepared for whatever the future brings.
Eton Solutions
Eton Solutions, a global leader in WealthTech solutions, today announced an exclusive partnership with Asas Capital, a prominent multi-family office with a strong presence in the UAE and newly licensed operations in Saudi Arabia. This collaboration will launch the Middle East’s first “Family Office as a Service” platform, combining Asas Capital’s regional expertise with Eton’s cutting-edge ERP technology to transform wealth management for ultra-high net worth (UHNW) and high net worth (HNW) families.
Asas Capital, headquartered in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), brings over 15 years of investment advisory expertise in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). With a strong track record in private equity, pre-IPO investments, asset management, and corporate advisory, Asas Capital is now leveraging its deep regional networks and market intelligence to pioneer a transformative “Family Office as a Service” model in the Middle East. This offering aims to meet the evolving needs of Ultra and High Net Worth families by combining institutional-grade financial solutions with bespoke advisory services. Anchored in ethics, transparency, and stakeholder-first values, Asas Capital is set to redefine the family office landscape in Saudi Arabia—one of the world’s fastest-growing private wealth markets. Their focus on late-stage, technology-enabled investments and commitment to innovation further strengthens their ability to offer integrated, high-performing wealth solutions across the region.
The Middle East, home to some of the world’s most dynamic UHNW markets, presents a significant opportunity for innovation in family office services. With this partnership, Eton Solutions reinforces its commitment to global expansion, adding Saudi Arabia to its roster of international markets like the UK, Switzerland, UAE, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. The company’s AtlasFive® platform currently manages over $1 trillion for 800 families worldwide, processing 14.2 million transactions annually.
FNZ
FNZ, a leading end-to-end wealth management platform has today announced a global, five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to transform the wealth management industry through technology, innovation and AI-driven digital solutions.
The partnership combines FNZ’s industry-leading technology, wealth management expertise and global reach with Microsoft’s advanced AI capabilities, cloud infrastructure and engineering excellence.
By integrating Microsoft Azure AI Foundry at the heart of its platform, FNZ is redefining how financial institutions, advisors and their clients interact by delivering more personalized, intelligent and resilient digital wealth management experiences. This collaboration with Microsoft accelerates this transformation by helping FNZ bring new solutions to market faster, enhance client outcomes, boost advisor productivity and drive innovation across industry.
Franklin Templeton
Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN], a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton, today announced the addition of managed options strategies to its custom indexing platform, Canvas. This latest enhancement will provide financial advisors a single account solution to implement options programs that add risk-management guardrails, target income generation, and/or diversify away from concentrated stock risk.
The new strategies will be managed by the Franklin Managed Options Strategies Team (MOST), pioneers in the “risk-managed” options business with over 30 years of options investing experience.
Drawing on the fundamentals of direct indexing, Canvas is an end-to-end multi-asset investment platform for advisors to easily automate tax management, simplify portfolio transitions, and personalize and manage accounts at scale. Over the past year its asset allocation choices have significantly expanded to include fundamental active equity strategies, municipal bonds, and active fixed income strategies, building on its core passive, factor, and custom indexing capabilities.
Greenlight
Greenlight®, the award-winning money and safety app for families, that partners with more than 150 financial institutions, today announced an integration with Q2’s Digital Banking Platform, via the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program. Q2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: QTWO) is a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for the banking and lending industries. As part of the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program, financial institutions can offer their account holders Greenlight’s debit card and mobile app experience directly within their Q2 digital banking application.
According to a recent Greenlight survey, financial literacy is the number one concern among families1 — yet many parents lack the tools to teach it effectively. Greenlight’s integration with the Q2 Digital Banking Platform allows financial institutions to deliver a valuable financial education and personal finance experience directly within their digital banking apps.
This integration will provide financial institution account holders with access to Greenlight’s financial literacy tools, enabling kids and teens to earn, save, spend wisely, give, and learn. It will also equip families to protect their finances, providing parents with tools that allow them to monitor transactions, automate allowances, and control spending.
GReminders
GReminders, a leading end-to-end meeting and automation management platform for financial advisors, announces the launch of its fully autonomous “Do Anything” assistant. The new features mark a major leap forward in agentic artificial intelligence (AI) for the wealth management industry, moving from reactive prompt-based AI to proactive execution across the full lifecycle of client meetings.
Building on the “Ask Anything” assistant released in March of this year, “Do Anything” takes the next step forward by no longer waiting for advisor input. Now, the GReminders solution proactively anticipates upcoming meetings, curates relevant information and automates meaningful action.
“Do Anything” builds on the GReminders mission to simplify and automate day-to-day operations for financial advisors by putting their own data to work. The assistant operates entirely within the firm’s existing systems, helping to ensure that every action is both context-aware and compliance-ready.
Kwanti
Kwanti, a leading portfolio analytics solution aiding financial advisors and investment managers with prospect conversion, client retention, model management, proposal generation, and more, recently announced the launch of groundbreaking enhancements to its PDF report cover page customization. This industry-first functionality provides advisors with unparalleled control over branding and presentation, fundamentally transforming how they deliver client reports and proposals.
These advanced enhancements build significantly on Kwanti’s existing capabilities, offering a level of design flexibility and brand integration previously unavailable in the market. The update directly addresses the critical need for advisors, particularly within large enterprises, to maintain stringent brand consistency and compliance across all client-facing deliverables.
The enhanced cover page customization is available within Kwanti’s PDF report generator, where users can find the expanded design options in the cover page settings when creating a new report. All customization features are available to new and existing users at no additional cost.
Orion
Orion, a premier provider of transformative wealthtech solutions powering the growth of financial advisors and the enterprise firms that serve them, today announced two major growth milestones: surpassing both $5 trillion in assets under administration and $100 billion in wealth management platform assets.
Fueled by advisor-driven growth, Orion has seen an over 15% year-over-year increase in technology accounts for three consecutive years. Today, the firm supports more than 7.5 million technology accounts, 326,000 wealth management accounts, and 25,000 firms. Orion now services $5.2 trillion in assets under administration (a 35% increase since 2023) and manages $102.7 billion in wealth management platform assets as of June 30, 2025.
Underscoring the drivers behind this growth, Orion also shared insights from its 2025 Advisor Growth Survey. The survey reveals that in 2024, Orion clients achieved an organic asset growth rate that was nearly 10% higher than that of non-Orion clients.1 Separately, an Orion analysis of Fidelity data shows that Orion clients led deals representing 75% of 2024 M&A activity in the wealth management space, based on assets.2 These findings underscore Orion’s role as the growth partner of choice for RIAs, enterprises, and hybrid firms across all advisory models.
PNC Bank
PNC Bank today announced a strategic partnership with Coinbase aimed at expanding access to trusted, secure, and innovative digital asset solutions to PNC’s banking clients and institutional investors. PNC will also provide select banking services to Coinbase, reflecting both companies’ commitment to a more resilient digital financial system.
This partnership brings together PNC’s legacy of client service and innovation with the institutional-grade infrastructure of Coinbase’s Crypto-as-a-Service (Caas) platform to power secure, scalable crypto access for PNC’s clients. PNC and Coinbase will work together to develop an initial offering that will allow clients to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.
SEI
SEI® (NASDAQ: SEIC) today announced the addition of 17 fund managers to SEI Access™, a platform designed to provide an end-to-end investment experience and increased access to alternative investment products for wealth managers and financial advisors.
SEI Access aims to provide a public markets experience for private markets by offering wider access to in-demand alternative investment products across a variety of asset classes and fund managers through a digital marketplace. SEI Access is broadly available to all registered investment advisors, wealth managers, and broker-dealers in the U.S., subject to applicable eligibility and regulatory requirements.
Since the platform’s inception in 2019, SEI Access has had more than 23,500 subscriptions and processed more than $5.1 billion in alternatives transactions.
SEI
SEI® (NASDAQ:SEIC) today announced that Karin Risi and Tom Naratil have been appointed to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. They join Executive Chairman Alfred P. West, Jr. and current directors Jonathan Brassington, William Doran, Carl Guarino, CEO Ryan Hicke, Kathryn McCarthy, and Carmen Romeo. Stephanie Miller has resigned as a member of SEI’s Board of Directors, effective July 22, 2025, to take a leadership role in the industry.
Risi is an Independent Director for HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets investment firm. She brings 30 years of experience leading revenue-generating businesses and strategic enterprise functions. She spent a majority of her career at Vanguard, where she most recently oversaw enterprise strategy, global investment product development, marketing, and communications. As a member of Vanguard’s executive team, Risi also led the firm’s $2.5 trillion Personal Investor and Wealth Management businesses and was responsible for the design and launch of Vanguard’s hybrid advisory platform. In addition to her board responsibilities, Risi will serve as a member of the Compensation and Nominating & Governance Committees.
Naratil is an Operating Partner to Lightyear Capital, a private equity firm investing in the nexus of financial services and technology, healthcare, and business services. He is also a Finance Senior Fellow at the United States Military Academy, where he works with the Finance and Economics faculty to train future officers through scholarship, research, and discipline, focusing on teaching, coaching, and mentoring soldiers on personal finance. Prior to joining Lightyear Capital, Naratil’s 39-year career at UBS included serving as a member of UBS’ Group Executive Board, Co-President of Global Wealth Management and President of Wealth Management Americas, Group Chief Financial Officer, Group Chief Operating Officer, Chairman of UBS Americas Holding LLC, UBS Bank USA, and UBS Financial Services Inc. He will serve as a member of the Audit and Legal & Regulatory Oversight Committees in addition to his board responsibilities.
Symetra Life Insurance Company
Symetra Life Insurance Company, a national provider of life, retirement and employee benefits insurance products, today announced the launch of a new web-based resource dedicated to providing women of all ages with valuable tips and information. Empower Her Future aims to help women navigate their financial journeys, addressing the unique challenges and opportunities they face throughout different life stages.
Women currently control over $10 trillion of U.S. household financial assets. That figure is expected to climb to $30 trillion in the next 3-5 years, and by 2030, women will hold nearly 67 percent of the nation’s wealth.1,2 Yet research consistently indicates that women, despite increasing participation in the economy, often encounter a financial literacy gap and may lack confidence in managing certain financial areas, such as investing and retirement planning.
To help address the knowledge gap, Empower Her Future offers a robust, accessible platform to assist women in building their financial knowledge and confidence.
