Advisor Group Hires Techie; Benjamin Lands Seed Funding; Plus News From RetireOne and AdvisorStreamAdvisor Group Hires Techie; Benjamin Lands Seed Funding; Plus News From RetireOne and AdvisorStream
Advisor Group onboards a new exec to oversee digital efforts; meanwhile automated RIA business support system startup Benjamin receives a seed round of funding.
Independent broker/dealer network Advisor Group has hired Peter Clemson into a newly created role overseeing its “digital solutions” development. Clemson has spent the past four years building and running his own technology design and consultancy firm, Evati Inc. Before that, he was at Schwab for five years as an executive working with client-facing technology.
“We wanted to bring in much more of a direct-to-consumer mindset,” said Advisor Group CEO Jamie Price. “The industry has a view that being part of a regulated industry makes it difficult for that kind of thinking to happen and we just don’t buy that.”
Peter Clemson
Price said the role itself had been on the drawing board for more than a year and he was excited to bring Clemson onboard to focus on combining the technology successes Advisor Group had in rolling out its digital turnkey marketing and succession platform with the rest of the network’s systems as part of a complete digital strategy.
It was, Price said, about creating more efficiency and a seamless advisor workflow from application to application. This will include continued buildout of the eQuipt platform and its collaboration technology.
Clemson will report directly to Cindy Hamel, chief strategy and corporate development officer.
Benjamin Receives Additional Seed Funding and a Board Member
Benjamin, the year-old startup that recently relaunched as an artificial intelligence–driven end-to-end business support system for RIA firms, has received an initial round of $750,000 in funding, according to its founder and CEO Matt Reiner.
This round was led by industry veteran Bob Conchiglia, who will also join Benjamin’s executive advisory board. Conchiglia has spent the past 14 years with SS&C Advent’s Black Diamond.
The investment will go toward hiring additional developers and expanding integrations technology partners.
RetireOne Launches an Advisor Portal
The new Advisor Portal provides RIAs with direct access to client insurance policy and annuity data, which can be used for managing, reporting and billing on those assets. The portal is easily accessible and optimized for use on desktops, tablets and smartphones.
Aria Retirement Solutions' RetireOne is an independent open architecture fiduciary platform built for fee-based insurance solutions. The company was launched in 2011 by industry veterans Brad Stone and Scott Strait and now serves more than 900 fee-based advisors.
NexJ Systems Announces Partnership with AdvisorStream
Toronto-based NexJ Systems Inc., a customer management automation technology firm, announced a partnership with content marketing platform provider AdvisorStream.
Through the partnership, NexJ’s Inform product, an artificial intelligence–powered digital assistant, will be integrated with the AdvisorStream platform to assist advisors in personalizing and automating their content delivery to clients. Technology in Inform gathers client demographics and transactions through an advisor’s CRM and online to build “client interest” profiles.
