Advisor Group, a network of independent advisory firms composed of FSC Securities, Royal Alliance, SagePoint Financial and Woodbury Financial Services, announced a new platform for the 5,000 advisors the group supports. That platform was built in partnership with Jemstep and will be supported by Pershing and Envestnet, Advisor Group’s clearing and advisory platform partners, respectively.
Advisors can use it to onboard new clients and open new accounts entirely electronically through any web-enabled device. It can also support a broad selection of Advisor Group’s brokerage products, incorporate data aggregation, and provide a digital advice solution that advisors can add to their websites.
Advisor Group plans a gradual rollout of the digital platform throughout the fourth quarter of 2017.
Orion, AdvisoryWorld and Mineral Interactive Launch “Catalyst”
The three companies describe Catalyst as a “tailored technology and marketing offering for turn-key asset management programs” looking to build or upgrade their technology. Mineral Interactive provides a customizable user interface, branding, logo creation and a digital marketing strategy, while AdvisoryWorld provides lead acquisition, portfolio modeling and proposal generation. Orion Advisor Services provides digital account opening, back-office services and unified managed account maintenance.
The companies say that it’s the first product to fulfill TAMP’s need for white-labeled technology that provides a modern user interface with heightened administrative oversight. FTJ FundChoice, a TAMP with $8 billion in assets under administration, is an early adopter of Catalyst and helped in its development.
Apex Partners with InvestCloud on New Digital Advice Product
Apex Clearing already serves some of the biggest names in fintech, like Betterment and Robinhood, but the new digital advice product uses InvestCloud’s modular, app-based technology to provide both startups and established businesses access to customizable technology. Together with Apex’s suite of APIs, the company says it will help companies quickly bring to market a personalized robo-advice product.
InvestCloud cofounder and CEO John Wise said, “Unlike most custodians’ platforms, this offering will be flexible and customizable as clients’ needs grow. And while the focus of this offering is digital advice, we’re pre-integrating our full library of over 200 financial apps to enable seamless future growth as the business scales.”
UBS Invests in iCapital Network
UBS joins lead investor BlackRock as a strategic partner with iCaptial, which provides a curated, digital menu of alternative investments to the high-net-worth community, The details of the investment were not disclosed, but iCaptial said it would use the infusion of capital to further develope its core functionality and make the technology more widely available to the wealth management community. UBS will incorporate the technology into its private fund operations to automate its alternative investment offering.
Fiserv Partners with Vestwell for Digital Retirement Planning
Fiserv is integrating Vestwell to enable advisors to access digital retirement-planning tools through Fiserv’s Unified Wealth Platform. Advisors using Fiserv can now open a 401(k) for their clients and have it sit alongside their other managed accounts. Vestwell said asset managers can also benefit by providing mutual fund and ETF strategies that align with new regulations like the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule.
Vestwell will also join Fiserv’s Wealth Management Network, which connects participants across the managed-accounts industry.
AssetMark Launches "Smarter Account Setup"
AssetMark continued its parade of announcements this week with a new product designed to reduce the time it takes for advisors to set up and manage accounts. The new setup includes auto-fill options, on-screen alerts and automatic error checking when creating new account paperwork. The company has also simplified the authorization process for AssetMark Trust clients to let advisors create paperwork for multiple account types with a single signature.
Laser App Names New President
The digital-forms company named Michael Cymbrowsky as its new president with the goal of leveraging his experience in financial services to help grow the company through new operational efficiencies. Ed Beggs will remain as LaserApp’s CEO.