Orion Hosts Ascent Conference, Pontera Partners With Sanctuary On Retirement Assets, White Glove Launches Estate Planning Toolkit, Riskalyze Collaborates With Opto Investments On Private Markets And Dynasty Chooses BridgeFT For Data Aggregation
In this edition of the Wealthtech Roundup, we speak with our newest Wealthtech Leader of the Month, Eric Clarke, Chief Executive Officer of Orion Advisor Solutions. Other entries this month include Pontera partnering with Sanctuary Wealth on oversight of clients’ retirement assets, White Glove launching its web-based Estate Planning in a Box toolkit, Riskalyze collaborating with Opto Investments on private markets solutions for wealth advisory clients and Dynasty Financial Partners choosing BridgeFT for custodial data aggregation.
1. Eric Clarke Reveals What Stood Out At This Year’s Orion Ascent Conference
Orion Advisor Solutions hosted its annual Orion Ascent conference from Feb. 27 to March 2 in Orlando, Florida. During the conference, the company revealed results from its inaugural wealthtech survey, which found that 47% of advisors expect to invest more in technology in 2023, despite macroeconomic headwinds.
As of Dec. 31, Orion serviced $3.7 trillion in assets under administration and $60 billion of wealth management platform assets, with more than 5 million technology accounts and thousands of independent advisory firms. Its subsidiaries include Orion Advisor Tech, Orion Portfolio Solutions, Brinker Capital Investments, Redtail Technology and TownSquare Capital.
And now for our in-depth Q&A with Wealthtech Leader of the Month Eric Clarke, CEO of Orion Advisor Solutions.
WSR: How many people attended this year’s Orion Ascent, and why has the annual event become so popular among financial advisors and wealth management firms?
Clarke: Ascent is our opportunity to bring together our most engaged clients. This year we had over 1,600 financial advisors and industry leaders join us. Coming together at Ascent each year is our chance to highlight and celebrate the work advisors do every day on behalf of their clients, uncover ways to transform the way they grow their businesses, support their clients and achieve more than they did the day before.
We specifically selected close to 150 growth partners that we believe support advisors and help them to uncover new opportunities to power their businesses. Attendees were inspired by a diverse set of speakers and industry thought leaders. We chose these speakers specifically to shed light on topics and challenges that are top of mind for advisors and all attendees.
WSR: What were some of the big announcements from Orion and its subsidiaries in connection with this year’s Orion Ascent?
Clarke: I’m excited to announce our new Story Paths feature for Orion Custom Indexing, which enables advisors to create truly customized portfolios at scale. Whether aiming to transition a portfolio with a realized gain target, replicate a factor tilted exposure or overlay to an existing internal or third-party separately managed account, Story Paths will help advisors connect with their clients and win business.
Another way advisors are saving time is through our new proposal generation tool, which enables advisors to create and deliver proposals in a fraction of the time. The proposal technology integrates key capabilities across Orion’s tech ecosystem, pulling client demographic information from Redtail CRM and Orion Connect, financial planning information from Orion Planning, investment management data from Communities and Eclipse, and risk metrics and stress testing from Orion Risk Intelligence.
We rolled out the new tool to Orion Portfolio Solutions clients in spring 2022 to high praise, and now Orion Advisor Technology and Redtail users can use the proposal tool directly from their CRM dashboard in Redtail.
A new Client Oversight tool was also rolled out from Orion Compliance, with continuous monitoring and daily updates that can quickly alert compliance officers to share class selection issues present across client accounts. The Client Oversight tool enables automated monitoring and reporting of compliance pain points typically managed through time-consuming and manual processes.
WSR: Were any especially interesting ideas, trends or topics discussed at this year’s Orion Ascent that you believe are highly pertinent for advisors and their firms?
Clarke: Whenever I talk to advisors, the number one issue they have is integration. To that end, we have created the opportunity to opt into integrated tech stacks that provide greater value and convenience via a unified, seamless wealthtech experience. The new Orion Stacks bring the full power of Orion to our clients through an exceptional end-to-end advisor experience and provide substantial discounts compared to purchasing as standalone technology components.
We also discussed this reality during Ascent: clients want to text. With research showing that 9 out of 10 people read a text within the first three minutes, and the open rate for text messages being 98%, it’s not a shock that advisors need to be able to text with clients.
To do this in a compliant way, our Redtail team launched Speak. Speak archives, records and shares your text communications with email surveillance providers, offering you a safe, compliance approved way to communicate with your clients—and is also now integrating with ChatGPT to provide advisors with suggested responses.
Orion has also been exploring ChatGPT to compare and contrast portfolios, refine marketing content, respond to RFPs, HR team use to help navigate difficult conversations and our development team has used it to write new code to replace older code methodologies.
To learn more, view the press releases here and here.
2. Pontera Partners With Sanctuary Wealth On Oversight Of Clients’ Retirement Assets
Wealthtech provider Pontera partnered with Sanctuary Wealth to enable its advisors to manage, trade and bill on clients’ held away assets in 401(k) and 403(b) retirement accounts. Pontera integrates with Orion’s portfolio management software, which Sanctuary utilizes.
Sanctuary’s network of partner firms are based in 28 states nationwide and oversee approximately $25 billion in assets under advisement. Its subsidiaries include the RIA Sanctuary Advisors, the independent broker-dealer Sanctuary Securities, Sanctuary Insurance Solutions, Sanctuary Global Family Office and Sanctuary Commercial Loan Group.
“Over 60% of investors are looking for expert guidance on their held-away retirement accounts, and we are thrilled to partner with Sanctuary Wealth to empower their advisors to fill that void,” David Goldman, Chief Business Officer at Pontera, said in the press release. “By enabling Sanctuary Wealth’s advisors to provide more personalized advice, we’re fulfilling our mission to help more Americans reach their retirement goals.”
To learn more, view the press release here.
3. White Glove Launches Web-Based Estate Planning Toolkit For Advisors
The financial advisor marketing company White Glove launched its web-based Estate Planning in a Box toolkit, combining its existing estate planning workshop offering with the third party Estate Guru platform that produces on-demand estate plans and documents.
Advisors can use White Glove’s Estate Planning in a Box to connect with a nationwide network of attorneys for help gathering information and conducting legal work on behalf of clients. White Glove, an advisor-built and advisor-owned portfolio company of Rockbridge Growth Equity, specializes in client acquisition and engagement services for advisors. Its solutions encompass digital seminar marketing, lead generating workshops and lead nurturing programs.
“Ease of use and quality support are the key differentiators of Estate Planning in a Box,” White Glove Co-Founder Mike Thurman said in the press release. “There is no software to download, clients work with a qualified attorney who is dedicated to their plan, and both advisors and clients can view and manage documents online 24/7.”
To learn more, view the press release here.
4. Riskalyze, Opto Investments Bring Private Markets Access To HNW RIA Clients
Riskalyze is collaborating with Opto Investments to enable RIAs on the Riskalyze growth platform to access private markets for their high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients across private credit, private equity, real estate, venture capital and infrastructure.
Opto’s capabilities for advisors include portfolio-building tools and guidance on creating customized investment strategies based on clients’ individual goals and risk tolerances. It also provides resources for educating clients, attracting clients and boosting revenue, in addition to assistance with private-market related compliance and operations responsibilities.
“Consistent with our mission of empowering the world to invest fearlessly, we’re pleased to partner with a company that’s helping to eliminate some of the roadblocks firms face when utilizing private market investments,” Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein said in the press release. “Opto’s unique servicing structure, fund partnerships, educational materials and high-touch service resonate with advisors seeking income and diversification outside of traditional stock/bond allocations.”
To learn more, view the press release here.
5. Dynasty Financial Partners Chooses BridgeFT For Custodial Data Aggregation
Dynasty Financial Partners chose BridgeFT’s WealthTech API as its main custodial data partner, with Dynasty and some of its affiliates set to make a strategic minority investment in BridgeFT. As a result, BridgeFT will handle custodial data aggregation that underpins the technology for all of Dynasty’s partner integrations.
BridgeFT’s WealthTech API provides a single, open API for trade-ready, multi-custodial data, analytics and applications. The technology aims to eliminate the need for individual data feeds from multiple custodians and back-office providers. Frank Coates, Chief Technology Officer at Dynasty, will join BridgeFT’s Board of Directors.
“The Dynasty Network of independent RIAs is connected by our integrated WealthTech platform, and our partnership with BridgeFT will allow us to enhance the world-class tools at our advisors’ disposal to best advise their clients’ complete financial lives,” Ed Swenson, Chief Operating Officer at Dynasty, said in the press release. “BridgeFT brings Dynasty speed of execution, reduced cost, and a turnkey architecture that will allow us to scale more efficiently.”
To learn more, view the press release here.
Chris Latham, Deputy Managing Editor at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at clatham@wealthsolutionsreport.com
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