From new ways to manage 401(k)s to the launch of a subscription-based RIA, we’ve seen a lot of interesting innovations come to light in wealth management this month. Here are five headlines that caught our attention for June’s Word on WealthTech.
Pontera, Stifel Financial Launch Partnership
With this collaboration, more than 2,400 Stifel advisors will be able to securely manage 401(k)s for over 200,000 clients through the Pontera platform as part of a personalized, comprehensive wealth management plan. Honestly, we’re surprised more advisors don’t include 401(k) oversight management in their advisory offering. Clients expect them to help them make good decisions about taxability, and it pays for itself, so why not?
Altruist Raises $169M in Latest Funding Round
A valuation of this size brings with it the expectation of a high revenue-generating custodian and wealth platform in the future. We think the valuation and interest are justified from our real-world experience of working with Altruist, and it’s exciting to see a newcomer technology firm actually deliver in the traditional RIA space.
Envestnet Elevate Held in Phoenix
Envestnet’s annual advisor tech conference focused on expanded platform integration and connecting the dots on their legacy technology. We were pleased to attend and noticed advisors were eager to take in sessions on technology consolidation, customization of investments and technology, improving productivity, serving the HNW market and how they can incorporate retirement into their practices.
iCapital to Acquire Reporting Platform Mirador
iCapital can now expand its data management and reporting capabilities to create an enhanced technology experience for clients in the wealth management, family office, endowment, and foundation segments. This is a great acknowledgment of firms that support the technology and operations needs of growing advisors. iCapital’s commitment to both technology and the ability to manage complex alternative assets is a masterstroke, making them infinitely more valuable to wealth firms up and down the investor spectrum from mass affluent to UHNW.
NerdWallet Launched a Subscription-Based RIA
NerdWallet Advisors, a subscription-only RIA, has rolled out to a small number of clients. If done right, NerdWallet has a tremendous opportunity to make an impact in the mass affluent and emerging wealthy space from Gen Z and beyond. Subscription-based planning fees that we’ve seen promoted by several financial planning groups so far have been a little slow to take off, so is NerdWallet the little litmus test of a subscription-based model versus a fee-based model? Will it set a new standard for the next couple of generations, significantly moving away from the asset-based fee that we’ve had for several generations? And what was in their research that led them to create a subscription-based versus fee-based model?
Exciting times continue for our industry. As summer kicks off we hope you’ll enjoy some time to recharge. We’ll keep reading the headlines and report back again in July.