Articles About Financial Advisor Technology & FinTech

Welcome to the August 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the announcement that Orion Advisor Services is acquiring newcomer financial planning software maker Advizr for a whopping $50M (on a revenue base of only $3M), and will almost immediately begin offering it for free to Orion users as a way to make the Orion client experience more financial planning centric… but in the process, creating potential client experience and workflow conflicts for actually-planning-centric advisory firms already using other third-party financial planning software tools.

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• Independent software goes wirehouse as Morgan Stanley selects Box to power its new Client Vault and Merrill Lynch cuts a deal with Envestnet Tamarac to replace its own proprietary portfolio performance reporting solution.
• AdvicePay launches a new Fee Calculator tool for advisory firms to show and explain their pricing to clients, as Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolio Premium service quickly garners $1B in 3 months with its own financial-planning-for-a-monthly-subscription-fee offering.
• Northern Trust Asset Management acquires robo-advisor-for-advisors Emotomy as standalone digital onboarding tools continue to struggle to find traction.
• Salesforce rolls out a new “downmarket” version of Financial Services Cloud in an attempt to compete in the small-to-mid-sized RIA market

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including Betterment rolling out an “Everyday” high-yield cash savings option for its investors but finding that it’s the Betterment For Advisors RIAs quickly becoming its biggest cash referrers, Ritholtz Wealth re-launches its LiftOff “robo” service for small clients and chooses to pay Betterment For Advisors 0.25%/year just to not use existing RIA custodians’ digital onboarding tools, “Techno-TAMPs” are on the rise as Ethic Investing raises a $13M Series A to provide advisor-customized centrally-managed SRI strategies, Plaid rolls out new student loan account aggregation capabilities that may finally bring more student loan planning tools to advisors, and Envestnet MoneyGuide partners with Jackson National to leverage its wholesalers to provide training on MoneyGuideElite’s new “Secure Income Modeling” tool designed to make it easier for RIAs to begin using annuities with their clients.

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Welcome to the July 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the announcement that Fidelity is launching a new Managed Account XChange (FMAX), in what appears to be a shift in the Fidelity business model to capture the ongoing advisor shift from internal portfolio construction to outsourced third-party managers and models, and also a re-positioning of Fidelity itself to compete more directly with Envestnet’s own manager marketplace in the future.

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• Envestnet putting its own Insurance Exchange into full production, with the potential to finally catalyze growth of fee-based annuities in the RIA channel
• Plaid announcing a new Investments API on the back of its Quovo acquisition, that may put even more investment-related tools directly in the hands of consumers through various financial apps
• Canadian FinTech Equisoft acquires Grendel CRM to potentially push into US broker-dealer and insurance enterprises
• LifeYield rolls out a new “Income Advantage” tool to assist advisors in figuring out exactly which investment retirees can sell to raise spending cash in a tax-sensitive manner
• Two new advisor matchmaking platforms – Harness Wealth, and MyPerfectFinancialAdvisor – launch as demand continues for outsourced lead generation for financial advisors

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including Tamarac rolling out digital onboarding tools to overlay Schwab and TD Ameritrade, Advisor Group launches an internal financial planning payment processing tool called “eQuipt for Financial Planning” as broker-dealers increasingly pivot into fee-for-service financial planning advice, Personal Capital launches its own high-yield cash offering as Wealthfront raises their cash yields to an industry-leading 2.57%, and XY Planning Network announces the finalists for its 4^th annual FinTech competition for advisor technology to support the delivery of financial planning to the next generation of clients.

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Welcome to the June 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the news that Vanguard is apparently working on a new "technology" platform for advisors – adapted from its own Personal Advisor Services solution – that, at a minimum, appears to be a form of robo-advisor-for-advisors offering, and may even be an entire RIA custodial platform to compete with the likes of Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, and Pershing… and potentially force the other custodians to stop charging more for Vanguard (and DFA) trades and instead reconfigure their own custodial business models to be better aligned with the advisors they serve?

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• Goldman Sachs acquires United Capital for $750M, at the least to expand into the "mass millionaire" wealth management marketplace… and possibly to leverage UC’s FinLife technology platform to power its own RIA custodial solution in the future?
• Morningstar launches its own Model Marketplace but chooses a more "fee-only" approach of charging for its software directly and not being compensated by asset manager incentives, even as most model marketplace competitors are reducing the costs of their software (subsidized by asset manager revenue-sharing commissions)
• Carson Group partners with Galileo Money+ to offer independent RIA clients traditional banking services, from a checking account paying 1.24% to a savings account paying 2.20%, along with a debit card, online bill pay, and mobile check deposit.
• 280CapMarkets announces its first enterprise partnership (with United Planners) to offer its BondNav solution for individual bond trading as rising interest rates increase the demand for advisors to build individual bond ladders
• OpenInvest launches Optimus, a new Direct Indexing solution structured as an SMA that relieves advisors of the need to implement their own Direct Indexing strategies but with the flexibility to customize index funds to specific client ESG preferences

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including Redtail’s cybersecurity incident that exposes a slice of private client data (as the challenges of managing a growing web of third-party integrations becomes exponentially more complex every year), RIAInABox launches its own cybersecurity training solution for RIAs and their employees, Salesforce rolls out a new "big data" initiative for Financial Services Cloud users in partnership with its Einstein AI platform, and North Capital launches its own proprietary financial planning solution for free to consumers for lead generation as Zoe Financial wins the Morningstar FinTech competition for its new digital lead generation platform for advisors… as the FinTech world struggles to recognize that the real challenge to serving the masses is not the technology to serve them, but the marketing difficulties and high client acquisition costs to reach them (and gain their trust) in the first place!

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Welcome to the May 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the news that Schwab’s PortfolioConnect is now available – for free – to all RIAs on its platform. Thus far, PortfolioConnect is a downscale portfolio performance reporting system that is meant to appeal to "smaller" RIAs, with less than $100M of AUM, for whom the other performance reporting tools may be too costly and who may be attracted to the Schwab platform for the potential cost savings of a free alternative. But the real question is what happens if and when Schwab adds more features to PortfolioConnect and it becomes a more head-to-head competitive offering to the likes of Orion and Black Diamond… but available for free, because Schwab can profit indirectly from its core custodial business simply by attracting RIAs and their clients’ assets to the platform.

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• Envestnet launches a new Credit Exchange to facilitate independent advisors offering mortgages and eventually business loans to clients as a part of a more holistic advice offering (and providing Envestnet yet another means to monetize transactions that occur across its platform)
• Fidelity announces a further expansion of its Integration XChange as the company continues its shift towards a more open architecture approach (building around Consolidated Data as its unique value proposition instead)
• MoneyTree financial planning software is acquired by Accutech as the company goes deeper into wealth management in the bank and trust channel (and raising questions about the fate of MoneyTree’s traditional financial advisor user base)
• The former TradeWarrior leadership team relaunches as AdvisorPeak rebalancing software after a falling out with Oranj
• Vestwell raises a massive $30M Series B round from Goldman Sachs to scale up its digital 401(k) platform for independent advisors (and giving Goldman Sachs another toe-hold into the RIA channel)

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including Invent.us partnering with Envestnet to bring cloud-native software design to replace legacy broker-dealer technology systems, Allianz invests into Halo Investing’s tools for designing custom structure notes (and perhaps in the future, custom indexed annuities?), FINRA established a new Office of Financial Innovation to support FinTech developments, and “cash” becomes the new battleground to compete for assets as Wealthfront boosts its AUM by 8% in just a few months by offering a competitive cash yield over 2% (while RIA custodians continue to scrape the bulk of their profits from advisors’ client cash instead!).

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Welcome to the April 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the blockbuster deal of the decade in advisor technology: Envestnet acquiring MoneyGuidePro for a whopping half a billion dollars, or nearly 10X its forward revenues… though ultimately, the purchase may not merely be a testament to Envestnet’s expectations for growing MoneyGuidePro’s software revenue, but the potential to link its new Insurance Exchange to MGP as a means to facilitate the distribution of fee-based insurance and annuity products to independent advisors through the software as well.

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• Schwab adds a new “Premium” option to its Intelligent Portfolios robo-advisor, that will offer human CFP professionals providing personal financial planning… not for a traditional AUM fee, but a financial planning monthly subscription fee instead.
• AdvicePay announces half a dozen new partnerships with broker-dealers and signs 17,000 advisors under Enterprise contracts as fee-for-service financial planning models expand deeper into the RIA and hybrid broker-dealer communities as well.
• Hidden Levers signs a 7-figure deal with Focus Financial in a pivot from portfolio stress testing software into a business intelligence platform that can stress test the revenue and profits of an entire advisory firm (or an aggregated collection of them).
• Economic Laurence Kotlikoff rebuilds his popular-with-consumers financial planning software platform ESPlanner into a new web-based solution dubbed MaxiFi Planner and rolls out a financial advisor version for “just” $499/year.

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including the winners of the recent TD Ameritrade Innovation Quest FinTech Competition, the opening of submission for the latest (4^th Annual) XY Planning Network FinTech Competition, a recap of the recent ScratchWorks FinTech competition at the Barron's Independent Advisor Summit, and the arrival of Harbor Plan, a new player in the world of digital marketing automation for financial advisors with a unique tool specifically to help advisors send timely follow-up messages to prospects without allowing any to accidentally slip through the cracks while servicing their existing clients as well.

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Welcome to the March 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the mega-news that Envestnet has acquired PortfolioCenter from Schwab, and in the process, has stirred up a feeding frenzy of what may be once-in-a-lifetime deals as all the major portfolio performance reporting solutions compete for the nearly 2,000 legacy PortfolioCenter users that are now in transition.

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• Commonwealth spins off its proprietary broker-dealer operating system and advisor tools into a standalone entity, Advisor360, and then promptly licenses it out to MassMutual’s 9,000 brokers
• Cetera stakes a new direction in the post-product future of the broker-dealer model with a “fee-for-service” advice initiative using AdvicePay
• OnPointe Risk Analyzer launches a new Riskalyze alternative that aims to compete not just on risk tolerance assessment but marketing capabilities as well
• FA Match raises a $500k seed round and builds a broker-dealer recruiting matchmaking platform for independent brokers looking to make a switch

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including the latest new “Multiple Opinions” and “Timeline” features announcements from Riskalyze, Chalice Financial Network’s acquisition of SuccessionLink as a channel to recruit new advisors, PreciseFP launches a standalone “digital onboarding” solution with SSG that does not require advisors to change client portals and portfolio performance reporting solutions, and Yourefolio launches a new drag-and-drop estate plan flowcharting tool (at least for the subset of advisors still doing estate planning flowcharts!).

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Welcome to the February 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the big news that eMoney Advisor founder Edmond Walters is back, with a new financial planning software competitor… but one targeting an entirely different (ultra-high-net-worth) clientele than traditional financial planning tools, such that MoneyGuidePro and Envestnet (owner of FinanceLogix) have actually partnered with Walters’ new Apprise Labs to develop the solution (aptly named “MoneyLogixPro”).

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• RightCapital raises a $3.7M Series A round to scale its competition with MoneyGuidePro, eMoney Advisor, and NaviPlan in the enterprise market
• AdvicePay raises a $2M seed extension round by crowdfunding within the advisor community itself to power a new enterprise solution for hybrid broker-dealers offering fee-for-service financial planning
• MoneyGuidePro rolls out its own new “downmarket” solution for non-CFPs dubbed MoneyGuideOne, and announces a new, more advanced financial planning software solution to be called MoneyGuideElite
• Plaid acquires Quovo to turn its account aggregation services into more actionable APIs that might actually move client assets (or manage them from afar)

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including Bridge Financial’s new portfolio performance reporting solution for small-to-mid-sized RIAs, Timeline’s new retirement distribution software to model the impact of dynamic spending rules and dynamic asset allocation on sustainable withdrawal rates, the rollout of two new client survey/feedback tools to better measure client engagement, and a look at how the latest T3 Advisor Technology Survey shows that what advisors state is their most important technology is not what they actually spend the most on (raising the question of whether there’s room for higher-priced CRM and financial planning software, and coming price pressure on portfolio performance reporting tools).

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Welcome to the January 2019 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the big news that Blackrock is partnering with Microsoft as it doubles down (or triples down as taking $100M+ stakes in both FutureAdvisor and Envestnet!?) on its strategy of using technology as a distribution channel for its iShares ETFs (and possibly a new next-generation fee-based annuity as well)?

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• TD Ameritrade rolls out a new account-opening API as RIA custodians slowly but steadily try to match the capabilities of retail robo-advisors.
• LPL acquires AdvisoryWorld for $28M to be its ClientWorks core after struggling to build its own solution
• RIA In A Box gears up to become the first “RegTech Roll-Up” by acquiring cottage industry compliance consulting firms and transitioning them to RIAB’s compliance technology solution
• Harness Wealth raises $4M of seed funding for yet another attempt at an advisor matchmaking lead generation platform.

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including wirehouse struggles to build competitive technology to what independent advisors already have, Fiserv’s updated fee billing and revenue management solution, the SEC fining Wealthfront $250k for failing to implement its own tax-loss-harvesting solution properly, Betterment rolling out a new two-way cash sweep program that allows them to attract held-away cash (while advisors are developing new solutions to move cash away from their existing RIA custodians due to non-competitive yields), and a look at how the broker-dealer drive to move deeper into financial planning is causing planning software solutions to finally build the more modular planning tools that advisors have wanted for years… even as it remains unclear is more modular planning tools will actually help broker-dealers themselves to gain financial planning adoption amongst their own brokers.

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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Cash flow is the financial lifeblood of the household. As no matter how effectively one plans for the future, with savvy tax strategies and well-diversified investment portfolios… if there’s more cash leaving the household than there is coming in every month, eventually the plan (and the money) will run out.

Unfortunately, though, remarkably few individuals have a clear understanding of where their cash is actually going from week to week and month to month throughout the year. At best, most households are aware if their available cash balance (e.g., the bank account) is rising or falling… but without knowing where exactly the money is going, there’s no way to make adjustments. Yet in practice, tracking spending to figure out where the cash is going can be so time-consuming and laborious that many households would rather stay in the dark than take the time to do the extra work.

The good news, though, is that technology tools – when combined with the ongoing shift towards “cashless” digital transactions – is making it easier than ever to track a household’s cash flow. In this guest post, Lindsay Bourkoff, Director of Financial Planning at Shrier Wealth Management, highlights the software tool that she’s found works best in planning with clients: Tiller Money.

Discovered in her process of trying to find a cash flow tracking tool for her own household, Lindsay shares how Tiller Money finds a balance between automating the download of transaction data, easy viewing and output by aggregating the data into a custom Google Sheet (rather than a proprietary software app that cannot be adapted for individual client needs), and categorization (which can be done semi-automatically, though Lindsay notes that, in practice, having clients play at least a small role in manually categorizing irregular expenses can actually help to put them in better touch with where their money is really going).

Ultimately, some advisors (and their clients) may prefer a more automated solution to fully track and categorize expenses, while others may prefer an entirely hands-on approach. But in a world where there are still remarkably few cash flow tracking and budgeting tools for financial advisors themselves, Tiller Money provides an interesting consumer-based alternative (that can still be easily adapted for financial advisors in our own practice with clients).

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Welcome to the December 2018 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the big news that Blackrock is taking a whopping $123M stake in Envestnet as the company doubles down on the strategy of using technology as a distribution channel after its $150M acquisition of FutureAdvisor just 3 years ago… and raising the question of both what other asset managers may acquire FinTech companies for distribution in the coming years, and what Envestnet itself may invest into and acquire with its newfound cash.

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

• E*Trade ramps up its competitive push into the (large) RIA custodial space with new account aggregation tools and an advisor referral program,
• RightCapital becomes a real financial planning software contender with enterprises as a Commonwealth deal takes the company beyond its independent RIA roots,
• Stonecastle launches an FDIC-insured cash management solution for RIAs to compete with MaxMyInterest as cash yields start to matter again, and
• United Capital partners with Medicare BackOffice as “real” retirement planning increasingly expands beyond just retirement portfolio management.

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including a signal that Investopedia’s Advisor Insights may be shutting down, a Vestorly pivot away from content marketing into trying to license its content curation engine instead, Smartasset ramping up its financial advisor directory for consumers (but without learning the lessons of BrightScope from years ago), Morningstar fighting back against Riskalyze and Blackrock’s Aladdin, and TD Ameritrade announcing the finalists for its first “Innovation Quest” FinTech competition.

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

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