Each advisor is unique in how they attract their clients or which programs they use. They expect a lot of flexibility. Our goal is to provide a set of tools. We talk to the advisors quite often about their needs. We conduct market evaluations and look at what’s out there, including innovations. We look at software that has high penetration in the industry. We always keep our ears close to the ground and provide them with the best platforms. It is always a dialogue. It’s not us saying, “This is the stack. Go use it.”
CRM: Redtail CRM / Wealthbox
We support Redtail CRM and Wealthbox. The custodian the advisor uses may also have a homegrown CRM. In those cases, these will compliment them.
Portfolio Reporting: SS&C Black Diamond Wealth Platform / Wove by BNY Mellon’s Pershing X
There are some platforms where we have decided to conduct more thorough due diligence. A good example would be performance reporting. We are in the process of moving from SS&C Black Diamond Wealth Platform to Wove by BNY Mellon’s Pershing X. We have multiple lines of business, and we need something robust at a reasonable price point. As we support all these tools, one of the issues we run into is the need for consistent data across the board. That is usually the most significant pain point that advisors talk about. Availability of data is huge for them. That’s one of the reasons we’re looking at using Wove by BNY Mellon’s Pershing X. It will allow us to normalize the data. We can see the entire book of business on a single pane of glass. There are data feeds that we can send to all our enterprise platforms.
Financial Planning: Envestnet | MoneyGuidePro / eMoney
We use MoneyGuidePro by Envestnet, but we are now in conversations with eMoney. We have heard from the advisors that they would also like eMoney as a standard.
Client Data Gathering: PreciseFP / Jotform
Client data gathering has been picking up a lot of steam. Nobody likes forms. Whether it’s advisors or prospects, they’re shifting towards electronic data-gathering methods. We support Jotform.
PreciseFP is another platform that we have been using in multiple ways. We are also using their robust advisor transition platform. We have grown our business through recruitment. Most of the account growth comes in via transitions. We needed something specialized. We built a streamlined advisor transition platform that will help the entire process. This includes when you start talking to a recruit about how we collect data. We support both protocol and non-protocol transfers. We can push the information to the custodial back offices in a streamlined fashion. For a growing firm like us, that was a big challenge we had to overcome.
AI Assistant: CogniCor
We have realized many questions from our advisors can be answered more efficiently in real time using an AI-based tool. We are rolling out an AI-based tool from CogniCor so the advisor can use and access all the available information. It is difficult for advisors to look at 500 pages of policy documentation. Advisors can ask more specific questions. That is very efficient.
Management of Retirement and Held-Away Assets: Pontera
We are rolling out Pontera, a platform allowing advisors to manage 401(k)s. It is in a pilot phase now and we will be rolling out to a more extensive set of advisors soon. It’s an excellent opportunity for advisors to be able to manage the entire book of business for their clients. For investors who are a little bit older, a lot of their assets sit in 401(k)s. That is not an asset that has been monetized well yet. An advisor is not touching that.
As told to reporter Rob Burgess and edited for length and clarity. The views and opinions are not representative of the views of WealthManagement.com.
Want to tell us what’s in your wealthstack? Contact Rob Burgess at [email protected].
