Envestnet | Yodlee Signs Data Access Deal With TD Bank: Tech Roundup

Also, iCapital Network is acquiring Axio Financial in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

Envestnet | Yodlee and TD Bank Group signed a data access agreement they said was intended to address the needs of an increasingly digital client base.

The North American deal represents the “alignment between TD and Envestnet | Yodlee about protocols to provide for the safe and secure access of TD customer financial data to support the customer’s requests to share with the financial wellness apps and experiences of their choice,” the companies said in a joint announcement.

TD Bank is the 13th bank in North America to sign such a data access agreement with Envestnet |Yodlee.

TD clients will be able to “more reliably and effectively connect to and send their financial information to the more than 1,400 third-party applications powered by” the Envestnet | Yodlee financial data aggregation platform, the companies said.

At a client’s request, TD will now transfer their financial data to Envestnet | Yodlee via application program interfaces the firms say will eliminate the need for clients to share their banking login IDs or passwords.

iCapital to Buy Axio Financial

Axio Financial and iCapital Network signed a definitive agreement under which iCapital will acquire the end-to-end service provider for the U.S. structured notes market.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021 after necessary regulatory approvals, the companies said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition will expand iCapital’s alternative investment strategy options, technology stack, educational offerings and support services for financial advisors, the companies said. The purchase will also enhance iCapital’s distribution capabilities to support fund managers.

Under the agreement, Marc Paley, Axio CEO, and his entire team will join iCapital. As managing director and head of distribution, Paley will report to Lawrence Calcano, iCapital CEO and chairman, and maintain his responsibilities as leader of the Axio team.

Morningstar Launches Interactive ‘Notebooks’

Morningstar announced a new analytics capability in its Morningstar Direct portfolio management system that it said combines multi-faceted data sets with automated analysis designed to “drive new insights that were previously challenging to draw out.”

Morningstar is “accelerating the pace of interactive analytics and new research released in Morningstar Direct delivered” through interactive “Notebooks” that it said enable investors’ access to new diversity, ownership and performance insights.

Financial professionals will be able to use Notebooks to “bring data to life in everyday research, whether it’s to help analyze managers, build portfolios, or identify new sources of risk that otherwise they wouldn’t have seen,” the company explained.

Five individual Notebooks are available now to users of Morningstar Direct, and three more data sets will be released via Notebooks by the end of 2021.

The new data sets featured include: portfolio manager performance history, stock ownership analysis, firm diversity data, investment product launches, and time series factor regression analysis that Morningstar said “breaks down returns into factor exposures to derive an investment’s alpha and beta exposures to enable performance analysts at asset management firms to monitor their lineup.”

Later this year, Morningstar Direct users will be able to pilot the initial release of Analytics Lab, where they will be able to develop their own custom analytics and models.

AssetMark Launches PEP

The AssetMark platform has added a pooled employer plan.

AssetMark PEP is a 401(k) plan the company said allows business owners to pool their retirement assets with those of other employers and to outsource the fiduciary and operational duties involved in sponsoring a plan.

PEPs were a key feature of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) Act of 2019, and were created to help close the retirement plan coverage gap. Citing a 2017 Cerulli report, AssetMark said 51% of employers with 50 workers or fewer do not have access to a retirement plan, while more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business.

A PEP allows smaller employers to unite into one plan so they benefit from economies of scale and potential lower costs while gaining access to diversified investments and enhanced fiduciary support normally available only to large corporate plans, AssetMark said.

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