Carson Group is one step closer to making good on a commitment to free technology made at last year’s Excell conference. As part of the firm’s Carson CX program, advisors of Carson partner firms will see Carson Group pick up the tab for technology costs of software platforms including Salesforce, Orion, Smarsh and Egnyte, effective April 1, according to an announcement shared with WealthManagement.com. The eMoney platform will be covered a month later, starting on May 1. The announcement comes at the same time that the wealth management firm announced hitting $12 billion in assets under management.
Some Carson partner firms are already committing to reinvesting savings back into their firms, focusing on growing their businesses, according to an advisor cited in the announcement, but partners are free to use their savings however they choose. “We want our partners to have the resources to continuously reinvest in optimization and growth,” said Teri Shepherd, Carson president. “Paying for the tech stack is the latest example of our commitment to helping advisors serve their clients while empowering them to focus on being the CEO of their business.”
“We think about it almost like a dividend for partner firms,” said Jud Mackrill, chief marketing officer for Carson Group. According to the announcement, firms saved an average of $22,000 per firm for Orion Advisor Services alone.
Carson Group did not provide an estimate of the total savings partner firms could expect or the overall financial impact for Carson Group. Costs associated with vendors like Salesforce can be tricky to pin down, added Mackrill, because there are software fees to consider, as well as consulting fees in some cases.
Carson Group now has more than 120 partner offices, nationwide, including 24 Carson Wealth offices.