The executives behind Rossby Financial, a Melbourne, Fla.-based registered investment advisor platform launched in March 2023, have created a marketplace connecting financial advisors with virtual or “fractional” service providers. ROffice, as it’s called, is similar to other freelance services marketplaces out there, such as Fiverr or Upwork, but it’s specific to the financial services industry.
“The difference is, we’ve taken more steps to be specifically for financial services, so we look for these providers that understand our business, understand this industry, probably already working in it in some capacity,” said Andrew J. Evans, ROffice’s founder and CEO. “We take time on both sides to do levels of compliance.”
There’s a growing number of service providers in the wealth management industry offering their skills on a “fractional,” or part-time, basis. That includes fractional CFOs, CMOs, or even chief behavioral officers, among others.
“There’s a lot of people out there that do want to work fractionally, do want to work remotely, and we’ve created a platform where they can market specifically to this industry,” Evans said.
ROffice includes service professionals with skills in virtual administration, transition assistance, marketing, bookkeeping, office management and paraplanning. The web-based platform is free for those professionals to sign up. ROffice will complete a background check on those professionals, and make sure they adhere to industry compliance standards, such as working for one broker/dealer at a time.
At the same time, ROffice will interview advisors who want to join the platform, and also check their CRD records.
“If somebody’s CRD is pretty banged up, or they’ve got some problems, we do our best not to put everybody on the platform or give them access,” Evans said.
Once advisors join, they can hire fractional workers that match the skills they’re looking for, or post a job themselves.
Service providers must set their own prices, as they’re independent contractors, but ROffice will provide guidance on typical hourly rates for certain projects.
ROffice handles all the invoicing and billing, and it will take a 10% to 30% cut of the services billed to the advisor.
“Much like Upwork or Fiverr or any of them, we’re collecting a certain percentage depending on volume or the work done off of what has been invoiced to the advisor,” Evans said.
Evans said the idea for ROffice came about because he knew of advisors who needed help on a project-by-project basis. And while there are virtual assistance programs out there, they are expensive, require a minimum number of hours and don’t fit what those advisors were looking for. At the same time, advisors are under pressure to keep up with industry changes, such as new technology, processes and regulations.
“We thought, at the end of the day, you still have to hit the buttons; you still have to make the phone calls. Why not work with a service that can help you fill that capacity faster?” he said.
“This can be something that’s low tech, but high human quotient.”
ROffice is a separate entity from Rossby’s RIA, also founded by Evans, a former executive vice president at Tag Advisors, an OSJ of Cambridge Investment Research. He created the RIA with a subscription fee model and open architecture technology. Advisors do not have to be affiliated with the RIA to use the marketplace.