Refinitiv announced Wednesday the launch of new content management capabilities across its wealth management platforms. Called House Views and Market Insights, the technology is meant to improve the distribution of the data firm's investment recommendations and research between asset managers and financial advisors.
HVMI will be the repository for all in-house research, investment recommendations and strategy, risk ratings, convictions and model portfolios and can bring together internal and external data sources. The new technology can be accessed through Refinitiv Workspace for Wealth Advisors or through an integrated API.
“First and foremost this is all about eliminating silos for the advisor and integration and automation of distribution has become a priority from the manufacturing side to the distribution side—it has been disjointed across a large swath of the industry for a long time,” said Will Trout, director of wealth management for Javelin Strategy & Research.
Digital Marketing Moves
Many large incumbent firms are feeling pressure from external providers of similar technology. For example, this week sales and marketing platform provider Seismic announced coming updates to its machine-learning and natural-language-processing-powered Aura engine. The firm has grown dramatically in the last year and landed another $92 million of funding in September, bringing the total to $270 and a $1.6 billion valuation.
Similarly, startup Magnifi recently completed an integration with Schwab that allows the startup’s semantic search engine to be used by advisors that custody assets. Advisors can now import their clients’ portfolios to navigate and discover information about investment funds and holdings, as well as alternative products, as easily as they can use a Google search bar for queries.
“It’s not quantity, it’s quality of information these days—it used to be a shotgun, then it went to a rifle and now it’s a laser. As analytics have improved you want to have the content, educational materials, and marketing feed into and easily parsed by the advisor,” said Aite Group analyst Dennis Gallant.
Ethic Raises Another $29 Million
ESG asset management platform announced Tuesday it had closed $29 million in Series B funding, led by Oak HC/FT, as well as participation from existing investors, including Fidelity Investments, Nyca Partners, Sound Ventures, ThirdStream Partners, Urban Innovation Fund and Kapor Capital.
The platform, which supports personalization of investments in ESG, will use the new capital to support continued growth and investment in its technology platform.
The firm raised its $13 million Series A in July 2019.