Client engagement is quickly shaping up as a major theme of late. Wealthtech developers started off February with announcements about a financial planning client portal, a new preparation tool for client meetings and an integration designed to bring new ESG and other strategies to light for advisors helping clients with specialized investing.
It’s Goal Time
Principal-owned digital advice platform RobustWealth has overhauled its client portal by adding a time line demarcated with clients’ goals. The new layout allows advisors who use the tool with their clients to discuss individual investment goals and rework investing strategies that may have strayed, according to the announcement.
As part of the client portal remodeling, account management has also been improved. Aesthetic changes include making account funding links more apparent and enabling clients to link to external accounts and liabilities more easily.
With the improvements, “advisors can focus on constructing a more holistic financial plan,” said Mike Kerins, founder and CEO of RobustWealth, in a statement. “As our industry continues to embrace the benefits of digital technology, it’s critical to provide clients a simple, yet informative, wealth management experience.”
Engaging Recommendations
As wealthtech firms and advisors embrace software-enhanced decision-making, Envestnet is launching an enterprise version of its recommendation engine—a feature available to RIAs last year. The feature pores over wealth and industry data pulled from Envestnet, as well as outside integrations, like Salesforce, to provide advisors with a collection of steps they can take with their clients. The lists could prove particularly helpful for advisors preparing for clients’ meetings, according to the announcement.
“The smart solution can also proactively alert advisors when it may be an opportune time to call a certain client,” said Todd Buck, managing director and head of business development at Envestnet Analytics, in a statement. “This is next-level innovation, available for Enterprise clients today.”
Use cases for the new feature, which uses machine learning to cue up engagement opportunities, include alerts that an advisor needs to contact a client to talk about college savings plans, an upcoming retirement date or an underperforming product.
“Our system can alert an advisor on which clients they may want to call—and why,” he explained. The feature can be customized to include more or less granularity on the recommendations and can be plugged into outside data sources from CRM systems, like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as other Envestnet products, MoneyGuide for example.
Bringing the Hammer to ESG
Portfolio management provider AdvisorPeak is integrating with THOR Financial Technologies, a 2019-founded RIA, to provide advisors with tax-efficient, risk-based investment management. The model portfolios available are built around ESG, global, individual stock and U.S. model strategies.
THOR’s chief attribute is its proprietary investment advisory software, jointly owned by Hattrick Capital, 5280 Capital, Sier Capital, TrimRX and Albatross Capital. With its AdvisorPeak integration, the advisors will “eliminate the contagion of human emotion from investing, bringing science into an industry still heavily reliant on math and outdated fundamentals,” according to the announcement.
“Advisors are increasingly seeking access to investment strategies and outsourced investment management by proven investment professionals,” said Damon Deru, founder and CEO of AdvisorPeak, in a statement. “Our partnership with THOR is an important part of our drive to expand our growing ecosystem of partners to deliver game changing automation and analytics to benefit our advisors.”
