Advisors using wealthtech provider Orion and the account aggregation and trading platform of FeeX will now be able to manage held-away accounts from within the Orion portfolio accounting system, according to an announcement.. The partnership, an extension and improvement on an integration piloted last summer, will see participating advisors managing and trading clients’ held-away assets within 401(k), 529, 403(b) accounts and even annuities.
The partnership, enabled by a newly built, two-way data integration, will open new revenue streams and even lure new assets into advisors’ books of business, said Eddie Sempek, SVP of strategic relationships at Orion. Indeed, the pilot program’s success was part of the reason for building the new partnership, he said, noting that a beta program involving five beta firms using the FeeX integration grew into dozens, with assets nearing an 1,500% growth rate at one point.
Internal reviews indicate that the FeeX-Orion relationship goes beyond simple aggregation, he added. Aggregation is leading to genuine increases in, and retention of, client assets held by participating advisors.
With concepts like “financial wellness” and “holistic management” sitting at the tips of advisors’ (and tech executives’) tongues, Orion founder and CEO Eric Clarke and FeeX founder and CEO Yoav Zurel are creating a partnership that’s bearing real fruit for advisors, they said. It’s not just about a partnership for the sake of a partnership.
By creating a bi-directional integration, Orion is able to take financial data following the execution of management and trading decisions on the FeeX platform and run that information through its own warehouse of features. Data flows to Advizr, its financial planning software, and HiddenLevers, its risk analytics software, said Sempek. That data, in turn, strengthens models based within those ecosystems.
The partnership unlocks a major opportunity for advisors, said Clarke. “Held-away accounts, particularly retirement accounts, are one of the biggest opportunities for advisors to show their value,” he said in a statement. “Advisors can now easily bring these resources into the advisor-client relationship and guide clients toward their financial goals in a holistic way.”