AdvisorEngine Integration With Schwab Advisor Center Completed: Tech Roundup

AdvisorEngine has completed its platform integration with Schwab Advisor Center.

As a result, for the first time, RIAs can access Schwab Advisor Center client data as part of AdvisorEngine’s end-to-end, open-architecture, holistic wealth technology platform, the companies said.

Platform features include proposal generation, client profiling, digital account opening, portfolio reporting, trading and rebalancing tools, fee billing, a white-label client portal and the Junxure CRM.

Schwab and other firms using the platform have the control to brand and customize the offering to ensure the experience reflects their unique and differentiated value proposition.

The new integration takes full advantage of Schwab application programming interfaces (APIs) and Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality, providing smart automation that the companies said saves time for advisory firms and helps elevate the client experience.

“Schwab continues to work with fintech providers who can help fulfill our commitment to offer advisors choice for their technology needs,” according to Kartik Srinivasan, senior managing director, Digital Advisor Solutions at Charles Schwab. “Our deepening relationship with AdvisorEngine is a great example of the type of quality integrations we are focused on with our third-party solutions.”

Envestnet Teams With Oyster Consulting

Envestnet | MoneyGuide has teamed with Oyster Consulting to offer paraplanning services to mutual clients of each firm.

The pact aims to “empower more financial advisors to cost-effectively initiate, scale and deepen financial planning relationships with clients,” the companies said in a joint announcement.

“More than ever, clients are leaning on advisors to provide peace of mind and holistic advice in addition to portfolio strategies,” according to Tony Leal, president of Envestnet | MoneyGuide. “For advisors who already offer financial planning services, the financial plan proves its value again and again during these types of conversations,” he said in a statement.

“Our partnership with Oyster Consulting can enable more firms — especially those that haven’t traditionally offered planning, and/or those that worried about the time it may take for their advisors to create plans themselves — to offer end-investor clients the financial plan they deserve in the most cost-effective way,” Leal said.

Before the launch, Oyster paraplanners attended MoneyGuide’s foundational boot camp and underwent further, extensive training on MoneyGuide’s financial planning tools. After paraplanners complete the training, they will collaborate with advisors in a non-client-facing capacity, helping them to complete and best optimize MoneyGuide’s financial plan for individual clients from within the software, the firms said.

ASx Launches Essential CFO Dashboard

The Envestnet and Dynasty Financial Partners joint venture Advisor Services Exchange (ASx) has launched the Essential CFO Dashboard, new technology that ASx said on Thursday “enables financial advisors to track their firm’s earnings, profitability and determine valuation.”

The new offering automatically links Quickbook Pro to an ASx dashboard with proprietary benchmarking, ASx said, noting “the vast majority of RIAs use Quickbooks for their books and records.” The process “enables advisors to match their financial performance against peers in the industry and allows them to make strategic decisions,” it said.

The Essential CFO Dashboard tracks earnings before owner’s compensation, tracks toward profitability targets based on factors including maturity and size, breaks down profitability by individual advisor, offers a clear view of operating costs to better manage expenses over time, and provides alerts for spending spikes, said ASx, which was announced in early 2020.

The Essential CFO Dashboard also estimates enterprise valuation with a proprietary algorithm based on metrics taking that include size, profitability, and growth rates. The Dashboard can also determine an RIA’s potential borrowing power assisted by ASx Capital Strategies expertise.

Nuveen Expands Partnership With iCapital

The investment manager Nuveen and the iCapital Network global financial technology platform have expanded their partnership, the companies said in a joint announcement on Wednesday.

They said iCapital is providing a customized technology, service, advisory and distribution solution for advisors and their high-net-worth clients seeking access to Nuveen’s real estate and private capital offerings.

The service and technology offering was “designed to overcome many of the long-standing challenges of investing in alternatives” and automates the subscription, administration, operational and reporting processes over the life of an investment, they explained. In addition, iCapital provides a full suite of research, due diligence and educational materials to advisors and investors.

Nuveen now has more than $220 billion in alternative assets under management, and the expanded pact with iCapital “comes amid a surging interest in alternative investing from the wealth management community and particularly among accredited investors, who have historically lacked access to appropriately structured alternative investing opportunities,” the firms said.

New fund structure innovations and technology enhancements by iCapital provide advisors and their accredited investor clients with the opportunity to take advantage of the return and diversification potential of private investments, they added.

CircleBlack Teams With RIA Robertson Stephens

The wealth management platform CircleBlack will serve as the digital hub of Robertson Stephens, a national RIA with over $2 billion in AUM, as part of a new pact.

The deal provides the RIA with a client portal as well as a centralized platform that seamlessly connects various third-party applications, the firms said in a joint announcement.

CircleBlack’s capabilities enable advisors to select solutions from a variety of technology providers and applications that work best with their own platforms — “unlike larger platforms that often lock advisors into inflexible plans with functions and providers which they would not normally use,” the companies said.

CircleBlack technology allows RIAs, RIA aggregators, turnkey asset management programs (TAMPs) and custodians to choose premium fintech providers via an open architecture, seamlessly integrate with existing tools and aggregate data from multiple custodians.

Fidelity eMoney Advisor Launches Home Office Package

Fidelity’s eMoney Advisor launched Home Office Package, a rapid deployment solution it said was “designed to help mid- to- large-sized firms increase revenue from financial planning while improving home office visibility and oversight.”

The Home Office Package enables firms to enhance value for clients by making eMoney available to all financial planners affiliated with or employed by the firm; boost adoption of holistic financial planning and generate more revenue; better support the home office and administrative teams; mitigate risks by increasing visibility and oversight controls; and onboard faster than using a typical enterprise implementation, the company said.

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