In a sign that advisor technology behemoth Envestnet is indeed continuing to develop and consolidate its technology stack, the firm announced a raft of developments, updates and new features to its platform this week.
While Envestnet announced Bain Capital was acquiring it in July, the technology firm has continued to break down data silos, consolidate the technology of the many acquisitions it has made and automate much of that technology over the last two years.
Evidence of the latter is the improvements announced regarding Envestnet BillFin, the cloud-based advisory billing software for RIAs that resulted from its acquisition of Redi2 Technologies in 2022.
BillFin provides RIA firms with a comprehensive billing solution, from calculating advisory fees (flat, tiered, or banded AUM). It can match most ways a firm already bills its clients—in advance or in arrears—based on several parameters such as the end of the period, with flows or average daily balance. There is also self-service onboarding, the ability to fully customize your invoices and set up asset exclusions by household, account, asset class or individual security, among other features.
Envestnet also announced Workplace for RIAs, a suite of technology tools and product offerings meant to facilitate advisory firms’ entry into or expansion of their retirement planning efforts through Envestnet’s Retirement Marketplace (one of several rolled out over the years).
Within that suite is a fiduciary proposal generation and ongoing recordkeeping set of tools called Envestnet Retire Complete that has been built in partnership with Empower. These tools, according to the firm, provide a cost-efficient retirement solution for wealth advisors looking to enter the retirement space or work with small- to medium-sized businesses that lack access to a retirement plan. This is part of Envestnet’s Data Solutions business, which in turn provides access to data aggregation tools as well as a workplace management dashboard, among other features.
Another important part of the announcement concerns developments to a collaboration and parternship first announced in June. On Oct. 1, Envestnet RIA clients will be able to access fund strategist portfolios, comprised of ETFs and mutual funds managed by asset managers Envestnet | PMC, BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton and State Street Global Advisers through Envestnet’s RIA Marketplace.
While it is designed to help advisors deliver managed accounts to their end clients at scale from those asset managers without a platform fee, Envestnet did disclose that they are receiving compensation (“RIA Marketplace provides advisors with access to Fund Strategist Portfolios managed by third-party asset managers who have entered into a strategic partnership with Envestnet. In connection with this relationship, Envestnet is compensated by the third-party asset managers based on the value of assets invested in the models participating in this program, which creates a conflict of interest”).
Several other announcements were made, including a new client portal that presents a single consolidated view of a client’s accounts in one interface and the rollout of a mobile application for accessing it that is available on both the Android and Apple iOS mobile operating systems.
Other announcements, including Envestnet RIA Trading now available as a standalone product and being fully integrated with reporting and providing the ability to manage UMA sleeve allocations, will be covered in a separate story.
D1g1t Rolls Out Billing
The RIA advisory technology sector continues to address the need for better and better integrated billing technology.
In addition to Envestnet’s announcement this week, d1g1t (pronounced “digit”), an advisory technology platform provider headquartered in Canada that serves the US advisory market, has rolled out its own set of extensive billing features within its wealth management platform.
It is powered by a multi-currency, scalable fee calculation engine and supports complex billing scenarios that include in arrears or in advance, tiered or fixed fee schedules. It also provides flexible fee exclusions, various asset calculation methods, sales taxes and payment redirection.
Vise Announces Advisors and Additions to Leadership
Larry Raffone, the current chairman and former CEO of Edelman Financial Engines, has joined Vise as an executive advisor focusing on distribution and partnerships.
Another well known industry name, Chip Roame, the founder of Tiburon Strategic Advisors and the former chairman of Envestnet, will serve as a strategic advisor at Vise, helping the firm in finding new strategic partnerships.
Fitting with that addition is the company’s newly expressed mission—published in a blogpost this week—to partner with the advisory industry’s aggregator firms and help them centralize investment management and operations.
Vise can support integration of an RIA aggregator’s investment models that include both advisor and home office strategies and provides a unified workflow.
The firm also announced that Andrew Waisburd, PhD, former head of Invesco's Global Indexing business and Global Head of Portfolio Management, has joined Vise in the role as Vise’s co-chief investment officer alongside Travis Fairchild, previously a partner and portfolio manager at O’Shaughnessy Asset Management.
