Welcome to an all-new monthly feature launched in collaboration with WealthManagement.com called The Fintech Five. It is a focused take on what we think are the recent top five stories in wealth management technology. So, here are the top five we at Riskalyze saw for January 2022.
1. CAIS Moves to Unicorn Status
We’ll kick things off with a unicorn—CAIS just snagged a fresh $225M in a round funded by Apollo, Motive and Franklin Templeton, bringing their valuation up past a billion.
CAIS is an alternative investment platform that has been making some great moves, including hiring Abby Salameh as CMO last year.
CEO Matt Brown is on a mission to make alts easily accessible for advisors, and this is a big step in their growth.
2. Hearsay Automates Video Reviews
Marketing consultants have been telling advisors to use more video content, while compliance folks working with those advisors are often far less enthusiastic. That is because video content can often trigger the most lengthy of compliance reviews. Hearsay is changing that with a new automated video compliance review tool that transcribes the videos and looks for images that may warrant special attention during review.
3. Conquest Planning Looks to Conquer Planning
Mark Evans, one of the original creators of NaviPlan, has returned to the planning technology world with Conquest Planning, a Canadian-based firm (as Naviplan was originally), which is now entering the U.S. market.
And planners out there know how competitive the market for planning software is. Evans is banking on what he calls an “intelligent assistant” to set it apart. Conquest will include all the goal and cash-based planning tools you would expect, but then its software looks to take the next step and get advisors into making investment strategy suggestions to support the financial plan.
Welcome back to the states, Mark!
4. Redtail Opens Speak for All
Redtail, purveyor of the popular CRM platform for advisors, is making its text messaging service—called Redtail Speak—available for advisory firms that aren’t necessarily using their CRM.
It’s critical for advisors to adapt to consumer communication preferences. And there are tools cropping up to automate text message marketing, but what makes Redtail’s offering different is how easy it can make connecting with both prospects and clients for personal communication.
5. Vanilla Adds Executives Who Are Anything But
Estate planning software Vanilla has added a handful of key executives that include Gene Farrell, who comes over from Smartsheet to act as CEO; Amjad Hussain, who joins from Amazon Web Services to serve as CTO; and Robin Melnick, the new senior VP of Revenue, who joins from Addepar.
There is so much innovation happening in the estate planning space, from former Riskalyze alumnus Matt Morris relaunching the Helios offering as EncorEstate Plans, and Envestnet ramping up its efforts with the Trust and Estates Exchange.
It’s going to be really interesting to see how it all shakes out.