I saw an ETF once when I was a kid, and now they’re everywhere.
Of course, that’s a reworking of a classic line from The Shawshank Redemption, and this is another edition of Advisor Tech Talk, where we have a solid lineup of financial advisor and wealthtech news to run through.
But first, it’s been within my lifetime that a good number of pretty respectable and influential people thought that ETFs were a preposterous idea—naysayers believed that ETFs were either superfluous and unnecessary or outright dangerous to investors. They’ve (mostly) been proven wrong, ETFs offered attributes that previously existing fund structures did not, and by and large investors have not used them any more irresponsibly than they have used any other form of investment.
That brings us to cryptocurrency. We’ve long said that cryptocurrencies—and the concept of cryptocurrency—may rise and fall, or come and go—but that blockchain was going to be with us for a long time. We were kind of hedging our bets on cryptocurrency, and we felt like our view fell in the middle of the road between crypto enthusiast and outright skeptic.
It’s probably past time to amend that view. It’s not just blockchain that has staying power. Cryptocurrencies, including the major cryptocurrency tokens with us today, are going to be around for a very long time.
And it’s not only because a lot of individuals have invested a very large amount of money into cryptocurrency, it’s because institutions and financial advisors have adopted these tokens.
We offer as evidence the latest news from Bitwise Asset Management below. Bitwise’s business is primarily with financial advisors and other intermediaries—that growth isn’t coming from the do-it-yourself communities on Reddit and the crypto boards.
For years, institutions like Bitwise, Coinbase and the DACFP have sponsored polls finding scant growth in advisor recommendation and low adoption of cryptocurrencies across the wealth management industry.
That seems to have changed this year, where a string of surveys over the winter and spring found significant growth in the number of wealth managers recommending cryptocurrency to their clients or signaling an intent to invest in cryptocurrencies.
And as far as investing in cryptocurrencies is concerned, we’re still convinced by the logic that at least one of the most popular tokens relies on the “greater fools theory” of investing to support its price.
However, we’ve adopted an abundance mindset when it comes to greater fools: There is no shortage in greater fools, and nature seems to just keep making more of them.
Let’s get to your headlines.
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Alchelyst
Alchelyst, a leading full-service fund administrator for alternative asset managers, and Lyra Client Solutions (“Lyra”), a technology-enabled client servicing organization spun out from Apollo (NYSE: APO), today announced a merger to form a next-generation private markets servicing platform purpose-built to transform the investor experience across the institutional and global wealth channels. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.
Backed by Motive Partners, a private investment firm exclusively focused on financial technology, and Apollo, the combined organization will provide differentiated capabilities across fund administration and client servicing.
As the private markets industry continues to grow rapidly, managers are facing heightened expectations to provide operational excellence, integrated fund administration, and technology-driven client service capabilities. The new platform will meet this challenge by delivering innovative servicing capabilities, intelligent automation, and real-time transparency at scale for General Partners (GPs) seeking to remain at the forefront of client service while balancing cost and efficiency pressures.
Alto
Alto, the self-directed IRA platform for private market and alternative assets, today announced the addition of two seasoned executives to its leadership team: Tomek Siergiejuk has joined as Chief Financial Officer, and Tom Eidt has joined as General Counsel. These appointments underscore Alto’s commitment to scaling its operations with strong financial oversight and legal governance as interest in and access to private market investing continues to grow.
Investor demand for alternative assets is rising, and self-directed IRAs are gaining traction as a vehicle to access real estate, private equity, private credit, and other alternatives, such as crypto, within a tax-advantaged retirement structure. To meet this growing interest and ensure the company continues to lead with innovation, Alto is investing in top-tier leadership with deep financial and legal expertise.
Tomek Siergiejuk joins Alto after more than a decade at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, where he served as Managing Director and CFO. With over 20 years of experience in global financial services, Tomek has led organizations through periods of rapid growth and complexity. He started his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse, advising financial institutions on M&A, IPOs, and capital raising. At Alto, he is responsible for overseeing the company’s financial operations, driving strategic planning and forecasting and ensuring a scalable foundation to support long-term growth.
Bitwise
Bitwise Asset Management, a global crypto-focused alternative asset manager, announced today that the company recently surpassed $15 billion in client assets across its suite of more than 40 investment products. Alongside this milestone, Bitwise has expanded its team by 20% this year, now totaling 111 professionals with offices in San Francisco, New York, and London.
Bitwise has seen strong global investor demand in 2025, following unprecedented regulatory clarity for the crypto industry. Since the start of the year, over 550 wealth management teams and firms have invested in a Bitwise solution, alongside endowments, corporations, family offices, asset managers, banks, and individuals. Bitwise products have also been approved for use at five bank and private bank wealth management platforms across the U.S. and Europe.
Earlier this year, Bitwise announced a $70 million equity raise, fueling the continued expansion of its best-in-class team and the development of industry-leading capabilities. The round included participation from MassMutual, Electric Capital, MIT Investment Management Company, Highland Capital, Haun Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Blockchain Coinvestors, and Nikesh Arora, among others.
Cache
The wealth management industry has long reserved its most sophisticated tools for the ultra-wealthy. For the growing number of investors with concentrated stock positions, often the result of successful equity compensation or investment gains, the traditional options remained limited: hold and bear concentrated risk, or sell and face significant capital gains taxes. Exchange funds offered a third path, but these tax-efficient diversification tools required million-dollar minimums and came with prohibitive fees. Cache is changing that equation.
Today, the company announced it has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Bill Trenchard at First Round Capital, with participation from solo investors from across technology and finance.
The funding comes as Cache has demonstrated exceptional market traction, surpassing $625 million in total assets just over a year since launch, while approaching profitability.
Cambridge Investment Research
Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. (“Cambridge”), a leading independent financial solutions firm, has announced the successful implementation of an agentic-AI-driven tool designed to fully execute direct account openings at the firm. The new tool delivers in 17 minutes what previously took a small team over nine days to accomplish – without compromising accuracy or precision – according to internal testing.
In developing this technology, Cambridge took the same measured approach it has used to successfully deploy its existing internal generative AI tools. The firm utilized its comprehensive associate training program and oversight procedures to ensure the tool’s performance aligns with its high standards for providing consistent and accurate results.
While the firm’s digital associates are currently limited to direct account opening, Cambridge is at work expanding their agentic-AI capabilities, with brokerage account opening functionality nearing completion. The firm’s goal is to deploy an integrated team of human and digital associates that will work together to elevate service and support across the organization.
Compound Planning
Compound Planning, a leading digital family office reimagining wealth management for next-generation advisors and clients, today announced that it has surpassed $4 billion in assets under management (“AUM”), marking a significant milestone in its latest phase of growth.
The landmark achievement has been fueled by both organic and inorganic growth. Since January, Compound has added 17 advisors across 10 states, welcomed 640 new clients, and expanded adoption of its proprietary Compound Dashboard (“Dashboard”), which now serves more than 10,000 users.
In eclipsing the $4 billion AUM benchmark, Compound Planning has achieved a 269% increase in assets since announcing its merger in September 2023.
eMoney Advisor
eMoney Advisor (eMoney), a leading provider of technology solutions and services that help people talk about money, today announced the agenda for the 2025 eMoney Summit, the top virtual conference for financial professionals, which will be held Oct. 20- 22, 2025. In celebration of its 25th anniversary, eMoney introduces this year’s theme for the event, “Tomorrow’s Planning, Today,” highlighting its fintech leadership and ongoing impact on the future of financial planning.
Financial planning is entering a new era—driven by innovation and a renewed sense of purpose. Over the past 25 years, it has evolved into a vital, human-centered discipline. Over the three-day event, attendees will explore this transformation with insights from industry leaders and a vision for what is possible when technology and empathy work together.
With 1,300 registrants anticipated, Summit will feature a full agenda with the opportunity to choose from up to 24 continuing education credits through 21 sessions that have been approved by the CFP Board – eMoney’s highest offering to date. In addition, attendees can experience one-on-one consultations and hands-on learning opportunities with expert coaches, live breakout sessions that cover in-depth planning topics and industry trends, and panel discussions featuring the industry’s top advisors. Participants can also interact with like-minded peers in the Networking Lounge and visit the eMoney Experience, designed to offer a deeper dive into the firm’s products and services with employees available to answer questions.
Freckie Capital
British fintech innovator Freckie Capital today announced the official launch of its flagship platform, the NAT Intelligent Strategy System, alongside an ambitious global expansion initiative. Designed to democratize access to professional-grade investing, the NAT system represents a fundamental shift away from traditional, advisor-driven finance toward a transparent, logic-based, and user-controlled model.
For decades, wealth management has been portrayed as a service for the privileged few. The reality, Freckie Capital believes, is that the traditional model is riddled with barriers.
The NAT Intelligent Strategy System is built on three core pillars: automation, logic and personalization. The system executes strategies 24/7 without human delay. Every recommendatiion is backed by data, models and transparent reasoning. The system adapts to each user’s risk profile and financial goals. Unlike traditional advisory services, NAT empowers users to control execution, review transparent strategy logic, and make adjustments in real-time—without relying on an advisor’s interpretation or availability.
Freckie Capital
Intelligent wealth management platform Freckie Capital today announced its official entry into the United States, marking a milestone in the company’s global expansion strategy. At the heart of this launch is Freckie Capital’s proprietary NAT System (Nova Alpha Terminal) — a next-generation investment engine that combines structured thinking, advanced analytics, and behavioral finance to deliver sustainable, intelligent wealth management.
Guided by an investment philosophy that begins with understanding the world, Freckie Capital seeks to replace market speculation and emotion-driven decision-making with a rational, systematic approach.
The original vision for Freckie Capital was inspired by co-founder Nicholas Hawthorne’s belief in finding order amid market chaos and creating structure in uncertainty. As global markets become increasingly volatile and emotionally driven, he recognized that traditional wealth management approaches could no longer meet the demands of a fast-changing era.
Fynancial
Fynancial, the digital client experience platform, has partnered with Mission Wealth Management, LP (“Mission Wealth”) to help launch the firm’s new mobile app, MissionForward. Investors will have access to investment accounts, budgets, and a full picture of their goals while working directly with a dedicated Certified Financial Planner at any time.
Through this partnership, Mission Wealth will equip its advisors with a modern, hyper-personalized client communication tool that fully integrates with the firm’s tech stack, creating a streamlined process that aligns with what the investor of the future expects. By engaging with Fynancial, the firm is serving tech-savvy professionals who want faster, high-touch financial advice.
Through a fully integrated platform, Mission Wealth’s advisory team is able to quickly answer the call from families working on short-term goals, younger professionals starting to build wealth, or entrepreneurs seeking a trusted partner who can adjust to their busy lifestyles.
Inclined Technologies
Inclined Technologies, the leading technology platform helping consumers maximize the living benefit of the cash value in their whole life insurance policies, today announced the close of its $8M Series B funding round, led by HSCM Ventures. Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, the venture capital arm of Northwestern Mutual, also participated alongside other new and existing investors. The round values Inclined at a premium to its $16.5 million Series A in September 2022 and reflects its continued growth, scale, and impact across the $5 trillion+ whole life insurance market.
While policyowners have historically been able to access their accumulated cash value, the process has often been difficult to navigate. With its proprietary technology platform, Inclined makes this process fast, digital, and seamless, thereby unlocking the full potential of whole life policies as flexible financial assets.
Inclined works in partnership with whole life advisors to offer policyowners a secured, revolving line of credit known as the Inclined Line of Credit (“iLOC”), which is collateralized by the cash value in their policies. Advisors can easily initiate an application and enable their clients to activate liquidity for a wide range of needs at a competitive rate. Policyowners can draw or repay funds at their convenience, with no fees on the Inclined platform. The entire process of applying for an iLOC is fully automated and typically takes less than 15 minutes.
K1x
K1x, the fintech company behind the industry-leading K1 Aggregator®, has appointed Sunil Bheda as Chief Product Officer (CPO) and expanded its team with 11 strategic hires across product, engineering, and client success. Together, these new hires add over 100 years of combined tax experience, underscoring K1x’s commitment to domain-specific innovation and client-focused product development.
Bheda brings more than two decades of experience leading SaaS, compliance, and data platforms. As CPO, he will drive product strategy and innovation as K1x continues scaling its AI-powered tax automation suite, which serves over 40,000 organizations, including institutional investors, fund administrators, private foundations, and top accounting firms.
Bheda most recently served as Chief Data Officer at Alpine Software Group and has held executive roles at Predictis, ComplySci, LRN, and McGraw-Hill. His background blends technical expertise with strategic vision, consistently delivering high-impact results across product and data initiatives.
Lincoln Investment Planning
Lincoln Investment Planning, LLC (Lincoln Investment) announced the addition of two new employees to its executive leadership team effective July 28, 2025. Jason Estes was named Chief Information and Technology Officer and Dan Alexander was appointed Chief Business Development Officer.
Estes is responsible for leading the firm’s technology strategy, overseeing digital transformation initiatives and modernizing IT platforms to support the continued growth of Lincoln’s financial professional network and client base.
Estes brings over 20 years of leadership experience in information technology and digital innovation, with deep expertise in financial services, consulting and enterprise-scale transformation. Most recently, he served as Chief Information and Digital Officer at First Command Financial Services, where he led infrastructure, application development, enterprise architecture and cybersecurity efforts supporting a complex ecosystem of bank, RIA, insurance and broker-dealer entities.
MSCI
MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) and PNC Bank have entered into a strategic collaboration to provide financial advisors of PNC with access to MSCI Wealth Manager – a fully integrated digital platform with robust analytics, portfolio management tools, institutional-grade research and solutions to help advisors create more personalized experiences for end-investors.
From high-net-worth and emerging-affluent individuals to large, sophisticated institutional investors, asset and wealth managers are increasingly asked to create customized portfolios that reflect their end-clients’ unique financial goals, risk tolerance and values. MSCI Wealth Manager was designed to support advisors’ efforts to provide tailored financial advice to a wider range of clients by unifying portfolio construction, model management, analytics and client proposal generation within a single solution.
MSCI Wealth Manager connects advisors and investment teams through a unified ecosystem built on MSCI’s multi-asset class (MAC) risk model. The solution is designed to quickly illustrate risks in a client portfolio by identifying assets that are outliers based on the clients’ risk appetite. Furthermore, advisors can compare, align and personalize their clients’ portfolio around recommended asset allocations on the MSCI Wealth Manager platform.
Orion
Orion, a premier provider of transformative wealthtech solutions powering the growth of financial advisors and the enterprise firms that serve them, and GiftingNetwork, a leading provider of comprehensive philanthropic solutions, today announced an integration partnership that empowers Orion advisors to offer personalized, white-labeled donor-advised fund (DAF) solutions that drive deeper family engagement, align wealth with values, and retain assets across generations.
Unlike traditional DAF offerings, GiftingNetwork enables Orion advisors to create their own firm-branded DAF experience, backed by a growing network of DAF sponsors and charities and supported by cutting-edge, mobile-first technology. Advisors gain full control over the philanthropic journey, offering clients a values-based extension of their financial plan with potential tax benefits, such as donating appreciated assets without incurring capital gains taxes and securing immediate charitable deductions.
Client expectations are shifting toward personalization and purpose-driven planning, with 71% of high-net-worth individuals expecting their advisor to help align wealth with personal values, and 83% of millennials wanting their financial plans to reflect their beliefs.1 Advisors who offer charitable planning see significant benefits, including higher client loyalty and increased assets under management.
TradeStation
TradeStation Securities, Inc. (“TradeStation”), an award-winning†, self-clearing online brokerage firm for trading stocks, options, futures, and futures options, today announced its integration with MultiCharts, a professional trading platform that offers advanced charting, backtesting, and automated trading features for traders and analysts across global financial markets.
TradeStation’s integration with MultiCharts expands TradeStation’s advanced trading capabilities, giving traders even more flexibility to customize and automate their strategies. Traders can now access MultiCharts’ high-definition charting, built-in indicators and strategies, high-precision backtesting, and multi-broker automated trading tools while executing trades through TradeStation. The integration offers free equities trading, plus custom API pricing for futures at $0.85 per regular contract and $0.50 for micro contracts. With seamless access to stocks, ETFs, options, and futures, this integration aims to deliver the power, flexibility, and affordability active traders demand. Trading any asset comes with risks, so only invest money you can afford to lose, as there’s a chance you could lose your entire investment.*
This integration underscores TradeStation’s commitment to empowering clients who were born to trade with advanced technology, competitive pricing, and seamless market access. By integrating with MultiCharts, TradeStation continues to expand its ecosystem of professional-grade tools, supporting traders to execute their complex trading.
