Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor
People using a iPad looking at stock charts

Technology > Artificial Intelligence

Envestnet Launches Wealth Data Platform for Advisors: Tech Roundup

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

What You Need to Know

  • Envestnet is accelerating the growth of its data and analytics business by launching the Wealth Data Platform, a cloud-based data intelligence solution.
  • The expanded partnership between UBS and Microsoft will accelerate UBS’s public cloud footprint over the next five years.
  • eMoney Head of Product Tom Sullivan shared his vision for the firm, identifying four main value creators of eMoney that he said help advisors create efficiencies and scale their practices.

Envestnet said Thursday it’s accelerating the growth of its Data and Analytics business by launching the Wealth Data Platform, a cloud-based data intelligence solution for advisory firms.

The Wealth Data Platform enables advisors to connect and enrich all the data sources across their practices and provide their clients with actionable insights at scale, all on one platform, Envestnet said.

The platform’s functionality was made possible through Envestnet’s partnership with data cloud company Snowflake and its Powered by Snowflake program.

The enhanced platform “improves data access, time, and efficiency, giving research and analytics teams the tools they need to work more seamlessly on their platforms by knitting together separate capabilities such as valuation, client aggregations, advisor analytics and more,” Envestnet noted.

UBS and Microsoft Expand Cloud Partnership

UBS and Microsoft on Thursday announced a significant expansion of their partnership to accelerate UBS’s public cloud footprint over the next five years.

As part of the initiative, UBS expects to have more than 50% of its applications, including critical workloads, running on the Microsoft Azure service, now UBS’s primary cloud platform.

Azure will “help advance UBS’s sustainability initiatives, drive operational efficiencies, and maintain its standards for compliance and security — providing strong foundations on which to scale UBS’s rate of cloud adoption,” the firms said.

When UBS announced its cloud strategy in 2018, leveraging its strategic partnership with Microsoft, the wirehouse said it planned to move about 33% of its applications to the public cloud within four years. But UBS accomplished that goal early, in February 2021.

Now, the companies’ partnership is expanding beyond just consuming cloud services to include the co-development of innovations and greater collaboration in areas including carbon reduction, they said.

In line with its sustainability goals, UBS continues to move certain technology platform workloads from its on-premises and private cloud servers to Azure. In some use cases, that has resulted in the energy consumption of those workloads to be reduced by as much as 30% to date, the firms said.

UBS and Microsoft are also “implementing and further exploring ways in which artificial intelligence and data can be used to enhance services for clients and employees.” As an example, in Switzerland, UBS is currently operating two applications that use conversational AI capabilities to respond to client e-mail inquiries.

eMoney Announces Product Roadmap at Summit

Fidelity’s eMoney Advisor announced new details of its product roadmap on Monday, day one of its 2022 eMoney Summit.

Head of Product Tom Sullivan, who joined eMoney in June, took the virtual stage during the annual conference for the first time to share the vision for the firm, identifying four main value creators of eMoney that he said help advisors create efficiencies and scale their practices.

Those value creators are financial planning; aggregation supporting planning efforts, providing a consolidated view of clients’ financial picture; financial wellness; and professional services.

“Over time, I expect to further align these value creators and create an even better bridge between you and your customers,” Sullivan told the virtual audience.

Ricky Illigasch, director of product management, outlined the progress eMoney made in the past 12 months.

The eMoney product roadmap continues to be directed toward shifting the center of the planning experience into the Decision Center, the company’s most widely used interactive cash flow-based planning experience.

Key enhancements that the company made include more interactive reports that it said provide advisors access to more detailed views into a client’s overall cash flow and the ability to “drill down into both their income and expense flows;” Monte Carlo-based reporting views; and an Explore Mode that enables the end-user to engage with his or her plan on their own on the Client Site Goals page.

Bento Engine Makes Three New Hires

Fintech Bento Engine announced three new additions to its team on Wednesday.

Cassie Jackson has assumed the role of chief growth officer after most recently serving as senior director of enterprise sales at AdvicePay.

Marcus Davis was named the new advice evangelist/business development representative after serving as an account executive at Podium and sales development associate at Better.

And Charlotte Ketelaar joined Bento as its chief of staff. She previously spent more than six years at the investment bank ING on various teams, including leveraged finance, private debt funds and mergers and acquisitions.

Initially launched with six firms in October 2021, Bento continues to grow rapidly and now has more than 40 firms on its platform, it said.

Helios Tools Launch

Helios released Helios Tools, a tech-driven process through which it said advisors can build and customize models based on unique client needs.

Helios Tools, backed by Helios’ deep investment expertise, came out of its beta phase after adjustments were made based on “extensive use and feedback from Helios’ advisor clients.” It is available now to all Helios subscribers.

Wealthcare Launches Upgraded Comfort Zone

Wealthcare Capital Management, a technology-enabled, full-service RIA that supports independent financial advisors, launched upgraded Comfort Zone technology that it said provides advisors with a digital dashboard that “helps clients visualize and plan for their futures in a dynamic and simplified way.”

(Image: Shutterstock)


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.