Here is your Riskalyze Fintech Five for October, a focused take on what we think are the recent top five stories in wealth management technology.
1. Anthony Stich, Kumar Velugula Join Entrustody Exec Team
First up, there’s a digital-first custodian making major moves. It may not be one you’ve heard about before, but I can guarantee you will know their name very soon. Entrustody has added Kumar Velugla, a former UBS and AQR executive, as its new CTO and Anthony Stich, former COO of NaviPlan, as its new Chief Revenue Officer.
You know Mr. Stich better as “Mr. Purple” and we’re glad to have him here with us at the Summit right now.
Now, I know you’ve heard of digital custodians before, but Entrustody is claiming to offer full fee transparency with its advisors and their clients, as well as software enhanced by natural language processing tools.
A custodian is one of the most critical choices an advisory firm makes, and more choices ultimately lead to better advisor outcomes. I’m excited to see how Entrustody’s differences push our industry forward.
2. Elements One-Page Plan Introduced
How does everyone feel about a one-page financial plan?
It’s something that Elements, a mobile-first financial monitoring platform, strongly believes in and they’ve launched a new one-page plan in their app.
We all know that financial plans can’t be designed to last for twenty years. At best, they can capture a moment in time and then be adjusted as life changes.
By simplifying plans, Elements is looking to address the real-world way that advisors and their clients plan together and make it less daunting to adjust them as life goes on.
3. RightCapital Introduces Blueprint Data Visualization Features
What’s better than a one-page financial plan? If RightCapital’s latest tool is any indication, it might be a one-page plan of everything in a client’s life.
RightCapital released Blueprint recently, which is a visual representation of a household’s net worth, income, goals, as well as savings and investing data.
A one-page visualization of an entire household’s financial picture sounds a lot like what Asset-Map has been pioneering, but you know what they say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
What this news comes down to is a recognition that clients don’t want complexity from their advisor. They want to be shown what they have, where they’re going, and what they need to do to get there if they aren’t on track already. A one-page visual captures all that information so much better than a long, complicated conversation ever could.
4. FA Match Rolls Out “Test Drive” for Advisors to Explore New Firms Incognito
FA Match, a recent winner at the Wealth Management Industry Awards, has launched Advisor Test Drive, essentially allowing advisors looking for a firm to affiliate with to dip their toes into the firm’s Advisor Match AI technology, find a firm that might fit them, and engage in a discussion with the firm—without ever registering or sharing their information with FA Match.
Ryan Shanks, a former Riskalyze board member, co-founded the firm and has been taking aim at disrupting the advisor recruiting space for a while now, and FA Match now has over 500 wealth management firms in their advisor matching ecosystem.
Keep your eye on FA Match—it’s fascinating to see how they are leveraging technology to create a vastly better recruiting experience both for firms and for advisors.
5. Fidelity Announces Salesforce AppExchange Integration
We started the Fintech Five off with custodian news, and we’ll end it there too.
Fidelity Institutional has unveiled a new integration with the Salesforce AppExchange. If you’re a Salesforce user, this news could be big for how your firm runs its day-to-day operations.
The integration links accounts from Fidelity Wealthscape to Salesforce, which will allow advisors to take action on those accounts without leaving their CRM of choice. It’s in beta now and will see a full release early next year.
Watch past episodes of the Fintech 5
