Advisors trying to keep abreast with generative artificial intelligence developments should note that Amazon this week added $2.75 billion to its investment in Anthropic.
For those unfamiliar, Anthropic is a start-up that competes with other big names in generative AI development including OpenAI and Google.
It was just six months ago that Amazon invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic, and the latest injection of capital completes Amazon’s total $4 billion in investment with the AI firm.
This could all be important to advisory shops because part of Amazon’s rationale has been to be able to provide access to sophisticated AI tools to customers of its massive cloud hosting business.
Multiple Enhancements at Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers announced and rolled out a raft of updates to its Advisor Portal this week.
Among these are improvements to its trading capabilities, which now support advisor allocations, whereby advisors can create “allocation groups” in Advisor Portal (which serves as the custodian’s CRM) or Trader Workstation without having to move between the applications.
A new folder structure has been added to IB’s Message Center to help advisors track and organize their client communications more easily. This includes upgraded message classification and improved search and sorting tools.
Electronic invoicing has been updated to allow RIAs to bill new clients for a limited time after accounts have been opened or funded, after which standard logic will be applied to the client account.
The custodian has made it easier for RIAs to collect the information required for filing their Form ADVs with a new Form ADV Worksheet that auto populates information.
There have also been improvements added for DocuSIgn, as well as ones to updating beneficiaries on IRA accounts and enhancements to client management models, among others.
We hit just a handful of the highlights; you can read the prepared statement for the full list.
FP Alpha and PreciseFP Strategic Partnership
The client engagement and data-gathering platform PreciseFP (a part of Docupace) has partnered with FP Alpha to deepen integrations between the two. This will assist advisors who are using financial planning software not currently integrated with FP Alpha, allowing them to access and auto-populate client data from that planning software directly into the FP Alpha platform.
These integrations will allow FP Alpha users to sync data with widely used financial planning tools including RightCapital and eMoney Advisor. Data and documents can be seamlessly fed into FP Alpha's AI-driven technology that reads clients’ tax returns, wills, trusts and insurance policies, and then summarizes key data and can identify actionable planning insights.
PreciseFP over the years has developed more than 30 integrations with other advisor technology platforms including eMoney Advisor, Redtail CRM, RightCapital, Wealthbox and many others.
Eaglebrook Advisors Expands Partnership with Franklin Templeton
Eaglebrook Advisors and Franklin Templeton have put together a new managed Bitcoin and Ethereum separately managed account strategy.
Active asset manager Franklin Templeton has rolled out the Franklin Templeton Digital Asset Dynamic actively managed investment vehicle that the firm hopes will outperform a market cap-weighted portfolio comprising Bitcoin and Ethereum. The asset management firm is providing the model to Eaglebrook on a non-discretionary basis. Advisors who plan on using the SMA will also be able to include an automated tax overlay.
With the new strategy, the two firms are seeking to provide advisors working with high-net-worth investors with a better option for tax optimization. Eaglebrook’s platform has built-in tax optimization strategies that proactively identify opportunities to reduce or defer capital gain tax liability.
In 2022, Franklin Templeton introduced two digital asset SMA strategies via the Eaglebrook platform: the Franklin Templeton Digital Assets Core and the Franklin Templeton Digital Assets Core Capped.
Franklin Templeton is also an investor in Eaglebrook, having added $2.5 million in additional funding after the latter’s $20 million Series A funding round in early 2022.
Eaglebrook, which counts Dynasty Financial Partners, Mariner Wealth Advisors and Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors among its clients, works with more than 700 advisors and has more than $225 million in assets under management, according to the firm.