Less than a month after announcing plans to purchase PortfolioCenter management and reporting technology from Charles Schwab, systems provider Envestnet says it is buying PIETech, which includes the MoneyGuidePro financial planning tools, for about $500 million in cash and stock.
“Envestnet’s acquisition of MoneyGuidePro is a textbook bold move from [Chairman and CEO] Jud Bergman,” said Gavin Spitzner, president of Wealth Consulting Partners.
Other technology consultants are similarly impressed. “I am sort of speechless,” said Craig Iskowitz, CEO of the Ezra Group. “They’ve been buying one thing after another. I didn’t think they could top what they just did during [last month’s] T3 conference.”
In an official statement, Envestnet’s Bergman said the firm had been contemplating the deal for a while.
“We have admired the MoneyGuide offerings for some time, and recently announced our collaborative partnership with Apprise Labs and the PIEtech team,” Bergman said. “With MoneyGuide’s financial planning applications more deeply integrated into Envestnet’s wealth management solutions, enterprises, advisors and their clients can benefit from a frictionless wealth management technology solution.”
Other consultants shared their views on what the move means for the firm. ”From the strategic perspective, the MoneyGuidePro deal makes a ton of sense for Envestnet,” said popular tech blogger and advisor Michael Kitces on Twitter. ”MGP has a massive client base, including a huge overlap with Envestnet’s own broker-dealer enterprises. It lets Envestnet expand market share and wallet share where it already is.”