Broker-Dealers
Cambridge Investment Research
In 2022, Cambridge’s executive leadership team created an Office of the CEO to align its leadership structure with its key business functions. They reorganized internal departments into three broad areas of responsibility. The Innovation and Experience division drives associate engagement and financial professional satisfaction while advancing new ways to meet ongoing needs. Growth and Development develops strategic opportunities centered on organic growth, acquisitions, recruiting and relationship management, while enhancing and expanding the digital resources. Advocacy and Administration helps Cambridge associates and financial professionals succeed by managing internal policies and controls while navigating industry rules and laws that affect the business.
Commonwealth Financial Network
Forty-four-year-old Commonwealth Financial Network spent much of the last year building toward the next 44 years of its evolution. The firm expanded its à la carte Outsourced Business Solutions offering, including human resources, compliance, investment management, operations, technology, marketing and financial planning. It also experienced record-breaking recruiting success, bringing in a greater diversity of advisors. And it redefined its Mission, Vision and Values statement, which guides all efforts by the home office. The statement emphasizes independence, choice and guidance, positioning Commonwealth as the best partner for client-centric advisors.
Prudential Financial
Prudential Advisors, the advice channel of Prudential Financial, has brought together the face-to-face advice expertise of its advisors with a hybrid advisory team with digital capabilities, creating a holistic financial advice organization. In 2022, it introduced the online Prudential Stages for Retirement to help individuals envision their ideal retirement, and benchmark their retirement readiness with a personalized confidence score. The firm has committed resources to advisors who practice holistic planning, such as its referrals and leads program and access to consulting for practice building. Prudential has also devoted resources to diverse teams of advisors to facilitate growth of their gross dealer concession.
Consulting Firms
Alliance 160
Alliance 160 is committed to bridging industry and market divides by building connections and acting as a consultant to product sponsors with expert solutions. In consultation with product sponsors, the firm created a new structure for perpetual-life investment products that is compatible with the needs and interests of different advisors at IBDs and RIAs. Not long after Alliance 160 introduced perpetual-life products to the two channels, product sponsors previously without access to retail markets reported improved ability to connect with advisors and the qualified purchasers they serve.
Republic Capital Group
Early on in its history, Republic Capital Group recognized a need to deliver M&A advisory services as the rapid-paced evolution of the wealth and asset management space was only intensifying. Since its founding, the firm has advised on more than 40 transactions for clients worth $1 billion or more, including 10 transactions over the last 12 months. To ensure that its top-tier clients continue to receive the best advice and to position the firm to serve clients on par with national firms, Republic Capital has added three partners with extensive wealth management M&A and consulting experience.
Corporate RIAs
Sanctuary Wealth
Sanctuary Wealth bolstered management in the last year with a new chief executive and new chief investment and chief financial officers. It also rolled out Haven, a comprehensive intranet platform that provides advisors with an intuitive way to access all the firm’s tools and resources and share best practices with their peers. Sanctuary expanded its insurance tools by entering a partnership with Global Wealth Financial, and partnered with financial technology company Pontera to enable its advisors to manage, trade, and bill on their client’s held-away assets across all accounts for better client retirement outcomes.
Wealthspire Advisors
Wealthspire’s executive leadership team has made it a strategic priority to bring top industry talent to the collaborative organization and nurture both enterprise and advisory teams. Over the last year, Wealthspire created a position to lead the firm’s Advisor Success program and provide an advisor and development framework. It also made enhancements to its internship program, leading to increased entry-level opportunities for college seniors to begin their careers. And Wealthspire crafted a structured program for women returning to the workplace as a way to continue bringing top talent to the firm.
Fintech/TAMP Platforms
AssetMark
AssetMark acquired Adhesion Wealth in 2022 to complement its end-to-end outsourcing offering with modular solutions for advisors seeking flexibility to do some or all components of advice delivery themselves. AssetMark continued to optimize its digital ecosystem to deliver a differentiated experience that champions client engagement and drives efficiency, from prospecting and financial planning to ongoing servicing and administration. The firm also expanded its investment platform to include enhanced income planning capabilities, personalized investment solutions and tax transition services. And it upgraded its turnkey business programs to enable further efficiency, and invested meaningfully in its personalized consulting services.
FMG
To advance the quality and accessibility of financial advisor marketing, FMG has introduced two updates to its platform and services. The first is a one-click AI-powered social media content engine, whereby advisors can leverage FMG’s content library as a starting point and customize material to be authentically and uniquely theirs through integrations with Chat-GPT. The second one is the “Do It For Me” program, through which advisors receive the support of a dedicated marketing specialist and exclusive content from FMG’s thought leaders to develop a monthly calendar of marketing activities. Once approved, the advisor’s specialist then executes the calendar on the advisor’s behalf.
FP Alpha
FP Alpha, the artificial intelligence-driven advanced planning solution that helps advisors identify actionable recommendations to clients, rolled out The Estate Snapshot in May 2022, an enhancement to the platform’s Estate Planning Module. This new tool is produced by applying AI technology to read documents, such as wills and trusts, then summarize them into a client deliverable with easy-to-follow visuals, including flowcharts. It allows the advisor to review the distribution of assets, identify key individuals and explain potential scenarios to their clients.
Invent
In 2022, Invent introduced the Platform as a Service ecosystem for broker-dealers to support digital transformation of legacy applications, third-party integrations and complex business workflows into a unified user experience. Invent provides wealth management data sets, coupled with a purpose-built data lake, and a digital warehouse that powers trusted data analytics and business insights across the enterprise. The micro-frontend UI/UX framework offers engineers a set of core wealth management interoperable components and an integration framework that powers a user experience across third-party applications and proprietary applications, and the ability to create persona role-based experiences that drive technology adoption, advisor productivity and enterprise scale.
MyVest
MyVest continues to invest in delivering comprehensive tax management and personalized portfolios at scale so its customers can deliver the best possible advice for their investors. The firm recently enhanced its Strategic Portfolio System, focusing on optimizing how this is done across large firms by streamlining workflows for advisor and firm capacity, improving collaboration between roles across the enterprise, and operationalizing manual processes.
RIA/IAR Firms
Grand Wealth Management
Grand Wealth Management has been deliberate about building an advisory team with diverse perspectives and skillsets. Advisors commonly hold a Certified Financial Planner mark, but the firm also draws from team members’ CPA/PFS, MBA and JD degrees, as well as from their specialized interests. Succession planning has become integral to the firm’s development as well, as has its three-year Financial Advisor Residency Program for recent college graduates. In late 2022, Grand Wealth added a sabbatical benefit that is now available to any full-time employee who has been with the firm for five years.
Merit Financial Advisors
Merit Financial Advisors invested $4 million in its tech platform and infrastructure over the past year, including a scale-ready data architecture powering automation, client experiences and services. The firm released a client portal in February 2023 as part of the initiative, routing clients directly into a Merit Experience rather than relying on its custodian or a broker-dealer or tech partner to provide the portal. This future-focused approach represents a data driven strategy, which readies the firm for future enhancements with a much faster go-to-market result.
Private Advisor Group
In March 2022, Private Advisor Group introduced the Advisor Alignment and Equity Program to provide advisors an opportunity to participate in a jointly owned Growth Partnership entity. Participants sell a portion of revenue for upfront cash and equity. In turn, they gain access to additional working capital to fund growth opportunities. They also receive a review of short- and long-term business goals and an assessment of practice plans, expenses, and business health. This program provides advisors with direct economic interest in the overall Private Advisor Group community and serves to elevate and expand the value of their practice.
Wealthstream Advisors
Wealthstream Advisors spends a lot of time on its culture. The firm offers a competitive employee benefits package that enables team members to achieve better work-life balance. The core of its benefits is offered through a professional employer organization, which enables the firm to offer benefits typically seen only at large companies. In the last year, Wealthstream increased staff by 30% in a difficult market environment, believing in hiring in advance of growth to build a pipeline of future leaders. The current management team now includes three second-generation leaders and a recently added third-generation leader.
