Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. said today that it has invested in Newday Financial Technologies Inc., a San Francisco-based automated advice platform that offers low-cost impact investment portfolios for investors, specifically targeting millennials.
Newday is the second investment by the Ladenburg Innovation Lab since its launch two years ago. The lab’s strategy is to invest in early-stage companies seeking to capture opportunities shaped by transformative social, economic and cultural trends and to use them in Ladenburg Thalmann’s five independent advisory and brokerage firm subsidiaries: Securities America, Triad Advisors, Investacorp, KMS Financial Services and Securities Service Network (SSN). Altogether, Ladenburg Thalmann's independent broker/dealers support 4,300 advisors.
Newday’s platform provides a handful of sustainable investment portfolios around specific themes, including animal welfare, ocean health, gender equality, environmental sustainability and corporate governance. The seven portfolios are designed around the United Nations sustainable development goals. The firm makes investment recommendations based on the investor's values, risk tolerance and time horizon, according to the company, and rebalances the portfolios quarterly. Portfolios are automatically adjusted between equity and debt to match the investors' risk profile.
The Newday platform is available via two routes: a consumer-facing app, which allows clients to make impact-oriented investments with as little as $5, and a Premier Platform, for firms investing through entity accounts. Newday charges clients 1% of assets in the Premier Platform; for app-based investors, the firm charges 1% for assets invested in equities and .6% for investments in mutual funds.
Dan Sachar, vice president for enterprise innovation at Ladenburg and head of the Ladenburg Innovation Lab, said in a press release that “our investment in Newday reflects our belief that millennials and the generations that follow will continue to both seek out technology-enabled entry points into the world of investing and prioritize cause- or mission-based investing that aligns with their values.”
In addition, the firm hopes the investment in Newday will help it position financial advisors out front in terms of millennial clients for when they reach greater levels of financial complexity and look for an individual advisor.
Ladenburg Thalmann's first investment from its innovation labs, made in January 2018, was Track Technologies, a tax-tracking tool for the self-employed.
