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Financial Planning > Behavioral Finance

New Risk Tool Launched: Tech Roundup

By Jeff Berman

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Financial Gravity Companies and Applied Behavior Finance (ABF) have rolled out the SaaS-based Real Risk Meter for U.S. financial advisors and financial firms.

The new tool was developed “to help financial advisors provide prudent advice grounded in realistic capital market assumptions and behavioral expectations,” according to Financial Gravity CEO Scott Winters.

“We will compete head-on with the likes of Riskalyze, FinaMetrica and other risk analysis tools,” he said in an email.

His company is offering the new resource “at a price we feel provides real value at just $24.77 a month, with the goal of quickly capturing a large portion of the risk analysis market share,” Winters added.

The companies “know we’re taking on an 800-pound gorilla in Riskalyze, but real-life experience has shown us that bear markets are a reality of life and investing,” ABF co-founder William Nelson said in the joint announcement by his firm and Financial Gravity. But he said, “in our view, pretending bears don’t exist is not the path to building real trust with clients.”

There have been five S&P 500 downdrafts in the past 20 years alone that Nelson said “exceeded Riskalyze assumptions.”

He added: “On average, every four years, clients have been hit with a bad surprise, and I’ve no doubt that some of them bailed on their stock portfolio. We want the client to be part of the decision making process, to take psychological ownership of their portfolio from the beginning. We believe that this process is the foundation of trust.”

Commenting on the announcement Friday, a Riskalyze spokesman told ThinkAdvisor: “Copycat startups aren’t new, but they’re continually validating. It’s fascinating to see a penny stock company looking to get into the game as well. It’s another affirming signal to the tens of thousands of advisors who have already decided to take the risk-first approach.”

Lead Pilot Updates

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company Twenty Over Ten updated its Lead Pilot tool to help advisory businesses improve their inbound marketing efforts, the firm said Thursday.

The platform now offers curated automated drip campaigns in which marketing messages are delivered over an extended period of time, gated content (online info and videos that require users to fill out a form before they can be accessed), Facebook Pixel integration for re-targeting content readers, and pre-written weekly market summaries, it explained in a press release.

Those new features will “enable financial advisors to better manage their content and communications in less time, generate new leads from digital marketing, and grow their businesses — completely virtually,” the State College, Pennsylvania-based company said.

“The pandemic has pushed advisory businesses across the world to shift their marketing efforts completely digital and right now more than ever, lead generation is crucial to the success of advisory firms,” according to Ryan Russell, co-founder of Twenty Over Ten.

“The addition of these four new features to the Lead Pilot platform have been on our product road map since we formally launched Lead Pilot in February,” he said in the announcement.

“We decided to fast track these improvements and additions so that our users can better serve their clients and prospects digitally at a time when it’s much needed,” Russell added.

Firstrade Enhances App 

Online broker-dealer Firstrade Securities released upgrades to its mobile app that the Flushing, New York-based firm said enable active traders to “manage their investments and make trades with greater speed and efficiency.”

“Traders also benefit from zero commissions on all stocks,” exchange-traded funds, options and mutual funds with the enhancements, the firm said. Additionally, all options trading has no contract, exercise or assignment fees, it noted.

The enhanced app introduced a new design and innovations that the firm said “greatly improve trading workflows and account management.”

The upgrades incorporate some features of Firstrade’s desktop trading platform, and they have been optimized for a smaller screen, it noted, including advanced tools for options traders who want to use more sophisticated investing strategies, it said.

Also included in the update are new charts and improvements to existing modules that Firstrade explained “provide a consolidated view of all relevant data to a trader’s position and allows easier access to commonly used tools and account management features.”

Firstrade app 3.3 launched for Apple iOS devices and an Android version was to follow, the company said.

Jeff Berman

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