They replaced horses, didn’t they?
Welcome to a post-Labor Day Advisor Tech Talk, where we’re going to run down a solid chunk of wealth management technology news, but first, we’re going to return to a familiar theme in this column: obsolescence.
We’ll grant that traditional wealth managers are far from obsolete, and if they ever do become obsolete, it’s probably going to be at least a generation before that can happen.
Probably. We don’t know, our crystal ball doesn’t really exist, but it feels like there’s at least some uncertainty about what the industry looks like moving forward… even in the relatively short term. The prevailing onsultant-speak would have advisors leaning into relationships and the more human side of their business to retain—and maintain—business.
Anyway, we said something about horses. The biggest cliche about obsolescence it the old saying that buggy whip makers went out of business—the automobile made the buggy whip unnecessary, and thus those who made buggy whips were obsolete.
But that didn’t happen overnight. While internal-combustion engine cars were first mass produced just after the turn of the 20th century, it took another 40 to 50 years for horse-drawn transportation to be fully phased out of mainstream life—but, inevitably, almost everyone has adopted internal combustion or electric vehicles for everyday use.
That transition was probably very difficult for some people. We grew up around horses and horse people. For one thing, riding horses is fun and distinct from driving a car, as there are two wills at work when one rides a horse. Horses are a slower form of transportation—it’s easier to stop and have conversations on a horse, to see what is going on around us, and to even stop along the way when we’re traveling by horse.
Horse people are different. Oh sure, there are cat people, and there are dog people, and yes, they are crazy about their pets—but horse people pour an insane amount of resources into keeping their animals, whether they use them for work or for pleasure. Horse people are wild about their animals.
And, having had a few horses to our own name, we understand why. Yes, there’s the well-documented connection between horse and rider, but non-horse people don’t often realize that horses can be as affectionate, emotionally sensitive and loyal as any dog.
There are many horse people who consider their horses as full-fledged members of their family. There are some horse people who consider their horses as more important than some human members of their family.
Yet for most of the civilized world, these friendships and ties were severed over the course of a half century because it made more sense to drive a car. Valued relationships were eventually subsumed to the power and convenience of technology.
Let’s get to your headlines.
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Docupace
Docupace, the premier provider of back-office software to streamline operations of wealth management enterprises and financial advisors, today released a bold new vision paper detailing its roadmap to launch the industry’s first fully agentic AI platform purpose-built to modernize advisory firm operations from the ground up.
The paper, titled, Transforming Wealth Management Through Intelligent Automation: Docupace’s Strategic Vision for AI-Powered Advisory Services, outlines a future where AI-powered “digital teammates” automate up to 80% of manual tasks, accelerate new account processing by 85%, and cut compliance errors by 75% all while giving financial advisors more time to build client relationships.
Wealth management firms face mounting pressure from regulatory complexity, shrinking margins and rising client expectations. According to industry data, financial advisors spend more time on paperwork than with clients. Back-office inefficiencies, including account rework and NIGO issues, as well as compliance bottlenecks, are costing the industry an estimated $50 billion annually.
Eaglebrook
Eaglebrook, an investment platform that provides registered investment advisors (RIAs) with direct access to bitcoin and other digital assets, today announced it has surpassed $400 million in assets under management (AUM) while delivering $52 million in tax savings to clients since its launch in March 2021. The milestone reflects accelerating adoption of Eaglebrook’s investment platform, which was built around tax-managed separately managed accounts (SMAs) and is now trusted by 90 RIA partners who oversee $1.7 trillion in assets.
Eaglebrook’s industry-leading solution is used by top RIAs including Mariner Wealth Advisors, CAPTRUST, Dynasty Financial Partners and Savant Wealth Management. By offering direct ownership, tax-optimized strategies and secure custody, Eaglebrook has established itself as the crypto-for-advisors platform of choice.
ETF.com
ETF.com today announced the appointment of Dave Nadig as President and Director of Research, marking a significant new chapter as the company rapidly expands under its new ownership.
ETF.com, recently acquired by Matt Middleton (Founder & CEO of Future Proof) and Anil D. Aggarwal (Founder and former CEO of Money20/20 & Fintech Meetup), is moving swiftly to build on the momentum of the acquisition and accelerate its vision of becoming an events-driven, multimedia platform.
With over 30 years of experience across ETFs and market structure, Nadig brings both deep expertise and a proven track record of industry innovation. Most recently, he served as Financial Futurist at VettaFi (formerly ETF Trends & ETF Database). His earlier leadership roles include CEO and Managing Director at ETF.com, Director of ETFs at FactSet, and senior strategy positions at Barclays Global Investors (pre-BlackRock), where he played a pivotal role in developing some of the industry’s earliest ETF products. Nadig has also been instrumental in creating large-scale industry events such as Inside ETFs and Exchange ETF.
FusionIQ
FusionIQ, the leader in digital wealth management, today announced a strategic partnership with Novum Investment Management to integrate Doris, Novum’s proprietary derivatives solution, into the FusionIQ platform. This partnership is the latest step in FusionIQ’s mission to democratize all elements of digital wealth, unlocking the ability for investors to safely and securely participate wherever there are liquid options, whether stocks, indices, or crypto.
The integration of Doris into the FusionIQ platform will give financial institutions and advisors the tools to expand their offerings and meet the evolving needs of their clients. By providing simplified access to derivatives without requiring technical knowledge, FusionIQ is breaking down barriers that have traditionally held back everyday investors from engaging in this market.
The number of options trades has grown significantly—Cboe saw a record 3.7 million S&P 500 index options traded daily in Q2 2025, and zero-day options now comprise over 61% of S&P 500 volume, with retail investors accounting for 50-60% of that activity. Individual investors have embraced listed options trading, but the tools and functions that they use are often not user friendly and do not allow the investor to achieve the ends they are pursuing. With the unique solution the team at Novum has built, individuals who have wanted to invest but have otherwise been intimidated will now have a seamless and secure entry point into the options market to grow their wealth and reach their financial goals.
intelliflo
Global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) and Invesco (NYSE: IVZ), a leading global asset management firm, announced today an agreement for Carlyle to acquire intelliflo from Invesco. intelliflo is a market leading provider of cloud-based practice management software for independent financial advisors (IFAs) in the UK. The transaction includes intelliflo’s US-based subsidiaries, including RedBlack, a provider of SaaS-based portfolio rebalancing tools, and intelliflo Portfolio, a Portfolio Management software solution for US Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs).
The purchase price of up to $200 million is comprised of $135 million at closing, which is expected in the fourth quarter of this year subject to certain closing conditions, and up to an additional $65 million in potential future earn outs.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in London, intelliflo offers an end-to-end software platform used by over 30,000 professionals at approximately 2,600 advisory firms, supporting the management of approximately £450 billion in client assets. intelliflo’s platform delivers CRM, financial planning, client onboarding, compliance workflows, and reporting functionality. Its cloud-native, multi-tenanted SaaS architecture integrates with over 120 third-party applications. The transaction aims to strengthen intelliflo’s market-leading position in the UK and accelerate its growth in Australia.
iPipeline
iPipeline®, a leading provider of digital solutions for the life insurance and wealth management industries, announces the hire of Holly McGiboney as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), to spearhead talent acquisition and drive employee experience strategies that keep pace with the insurtech’s expanding growth trajectory. McGiboney will focus on elevating recruitment, strengthening business partnerships, enhancing employee engagement, and elevating the employee experience for the company’s 950+ workforce.
McGiboney, who joins iPipeline’s Executive Leadership Team, will develop relationships with functional leaders across iPipeline and drive its enterprise-wide talent strategy to align the human resources value proposition with iPipeline’s overarching business objectives and ethos. She will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Pat O’Donnell.
McGiboney has built a distinguished career with proven success in leading talent and engagement development initiatives that align with business strategies in high-growth environments across financial services, fintech, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and payments organizations. She joins iPipeline from Ministry Brands, the leading provider of software and services for faith-based, non-profit, and other purpose-driven organizations, where she was Executive Vice President of Human Resources. In that position, she played an essential role in driving enterprise transformation, enabling rapid scale, and redesigning the nearly 700-employee organization for long-term growth and resilience.
LPL Financial
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that LPL Financial has expanded its use of Amazon Business, the company’s online business-to-business store, to its financial advisors nationwide for their key business purchasing needs. LPL Financial is a leading wealth management firm in the U.S., supporting over 29,000 financial advisors and the wealth management practices of approximately 1,200 financial institutions.
Amazon Business makes business purchasing simpler by offering the same easy-to-use experience customers know and love from Amazon. Since launching in the U.S. in 2015, Amazon Business has empowered organizations of all sizes through vast selection, competitive pricing, and a convenient shopping experience. Amazon Business drives over $35 billion in annualized gross sales, and has more than eight million customers worldwide, including 97 of the Fortune 100, 66 of the FTSE 100, and 38 of the DAX-40 companies.
With Amazon Business, LPL Financial now has a single business purchasing solution for their advisor offices across the country. Advisors are able to purchase key items to meet their business needs – including everything from office supplies to janitorial equipment and office beverages – utilizing a wide range of suppliers, all delivered quickly and reliably to support their offices.
Orion
MassMutual, a leading mutual life insurance and financial services company, and Orion, a premier provider of wealthtech solutions for financial advisors and enterprise firms, today announced the addition of a new Wealth Management Solutions (WMS)-Orion platform. This collaboration brings an integrated, flexible technology and investment experience to MassMutual’s network of more than 6,500 affiliated financial professionals nationwide.
The platform brings together essential advisor functions into a single, integrated solution – streamlining workflows, simplifying operations, and boosting productivity. In addition to enhancing efficiency, the platform expands investment flexibility and supports scalable growth, enabling advisors to tailor strategies and grow their practices with confidence. This unified experience underscores MassMutual’s commitment to equipping advisors with tools that drive success and, ultimately, deliver better outcomes for the investors they serve.
The WMS-Orion platform is available to financial advisors affiliated with MML Investors Services (MML), MassMutual’s independent broker/dealer and investment adviser subsidiary. MML Investors Services currently administers $274 billion in client assets (as of year-end 2024). MML advisors offer a range of services, including financial planning, wealth management, retirement planning, and insurance solutions. They also assist clients with estate planning strategies, efficient wealth transfers, and business solutions such as key employee benefits and succession planning.
Summit Financial
Summit Financial (“Summit”), a preeminent investment advisory firm empowering advisors to deliver family office services and optimize business growth, today announced the addition of eight wealthtech tools to its integrated technology ecosystem as well as plans for ongoing exploration of new, innovative solutions.
These latest tools — spanning the spectrum of AI-powered lead generation, digital marketing automation, client service technology, and M&A opportunity analytics — can help advisors accelerate growth, streamline operations, and deliver high-touch family office services at scale to their high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients.
The platform’s newest integrated tools include: Absolute Capital — Self-directed 401(k) account management for advisors; FinLink — Marketplace for M&A, recruiting & financial opportunities; FINTRX — AI-Driven private wealth intelligence; Microsoft Teams Premium — AI-powered meeting notes, transcriptions, and action items; Move Health — Personalized healthcare insurance planning; Retirement Plan Advisory Group (RPAG) — Qualified-plan reporting and analytics; Wealth.com — AI-powered estate planning platform; and Wealthfeed — AI-driven prospecting and lead generation platform.
Wahed
Wahed, a leading Shariah-compliant Fintech, today announced the launch of its Private Real Estate investment product in the United States. This marks an important milestone in Wahed’s continued mission to create inclusive and accessible investment opportunities for faith-based investors.
Designed to democratize access to the high-demand asset class of private real estate, this new product allows investors to begin building their property portfolios with as little as $100, addressing significant barriers traditionally faced by faith-based investors.
Historically, private real estate has proven to be a reliable hedge against inflation and a strong source of passive income. However, due to stringent Shariah compliance requirements, primarily the avoidance of debt-based financing, Muslim and values-based investors have had limited access to these opportunities. Wahed’s new offering solves this by providing completely debt-free, fractional ownership in carefully vetted residential properties, accessible via Wahed’s intuitive mobile app.
Webull
Webull (NASDAQ: BULL), an online investment platform, today announced the return of cryptocurrency trading for U.S. residents. Previously, trading crypto required opening and accessing a Webull Pay account through the standalone Webull Pay app. With this update, users can now manage their Webull Pay accounts directly within the Webull app, making it more streamlined to open an account and trade crypto all in one place.
The crypto trading experience offers seamless, 24/7 real-time trading of over 50 digital assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL).
Crypto trading on Webull is currently only available in the U.S. and Brazil, with additional market rollouts expected to take place over the coming months.
