Wealthtech Insights, Roundups Of Wealthtech And Recruitment News, An Analysis Of TruClarity’s Sale, Enabling Advisors And M&A And Recruiting Full-Year Reports
To My Fellow WSR Community Members:
No doubt you have heard much about the artificially intelligent ChatGPT that recently launched, demonstrating astounding speed and command of data and language that rivals – and in some ways exceeds – human intelligence.
At the same time that ChatGPT revives an interest in technological advancement in the broader culture, the wealth management industry is abuzz with wealthtech discussions: Orion completed its Ascent conference last week, T3 is hosting its annual T3 Advisor Conference simultaneously with its Enterprise Track in Tampa next week, and a flurry of wealthtech news is crossing the wires.
No doubt, technology is changing our industry for the better, but as I explain in an editorial, the bells and whistles have run ahead while some of the basic needs of advisors for technology that works seamlessly and simply have fallen behind. We also bring you our latest monthly roundup of wealthtech news.
In addition, we bring you our Weekly Recruitment Roundup, expert reports on recruiting and M&A for the full year 2022, analysis of TruClarity’s breakup and sale, and expert views on the best work culture for advisors to grow their business.
This Week’s Issue
We have the following on tap this week:
- Who’s our new Wealthtech Leader of the Month? In Digital Domain, our latest Wealthtech Roundup features Eric Clarke, CEO of Orion Advisor Solutions, discussing his firm’s recent Ascent conference. We also explore 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.
- Are acquisitions saving some sellers? In Newsmakers & Roundups, our latest Weekly Recruitment Roundup covers Hightower Advisors facilitating a sub-acquisition by Schultz Collins Investment Counsel; LPL Financial recruiting an advisor from Merrill Lynch; Stratos Wealth Partners gaining majority ownership of First Wealth Financial Group; Ritholtz Wealth Management agreeing to acquire the book of business from BlackRock’s FutureAdvisor; and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice agreeing to acquire Focus Financial Partners.
- Can you grow by letting go? In Upmarket, Angie Herbers, Managing Partner of Herbers & Company, describes the professional-advisor cultural shift that decentralizes control of advisors and how it leads to faster growth.
- Seeking clarity on TruClarity? With TruClarity’s breakup and sale in the rear view mirror, we speak with Michael Terrana, President and CEO of Terrana Group, and Phil Waxelbaum, Founder and Principal of Masada Consulting, in Capital Connections, analyzing the causes of the sale and red flags advisors can look for that indicate weakness in a potential partner.
- How can advisors start using ChatGPT? FMG, an SaaS company specializing in marketing software and services for financial advisors, launched an AI-powered personalization engine for social media content based on technology from its own Vestorly platform and OpenAI GPT. FMG’s compliant one-click tool is currently in beta mode and will roll out to all customers this month.
In case you missed it, last week we brought you coverage of M&A and recruiting reports, as well as my take on the state of wealthtech:
- In Words In Edgewise, I examined whether the concept of constant innovation in wealthtech is fact or fiction given that some financial advisors say basic capabilities like account opening and transfers still need considerable improvement. I also break down the current wealthtech landscape and a potential path forward for advisory firms.
- Also in Words In Edgewise, we recapped the recently released Diamond Consultants full year 2022 Advisor Transition Report, covering recruitment trends across multiple channels. WSR Deputy Managing Editor Chris Latham conducted a Q&A video with Louis Diamond, President of Diamond Consultants, on key takeaways from the report.
- In Capital Connections, we explored findings from the ECHELON Partners full report on the state of RIA-related mergers and acquisitions in 2022. The new report reveals that wealth management activity avoided the broader M&A market slowdown even as wealth management transaction volume fell each quarter in 2022.
I will be at the T3 conference and speaking on a panel on Tuesday afternoon. Our Managing Editor, Julius Buchanan, will also attend. We would love to meet you there!
We always enjoy hearing from you, so share your thoughts, ideas and questions with us.
Sharing our articles with your friends and colleagues is as easy as forwarding our e-blast or reposting our content on LinkedIn.
Have a great week!
Cheers!
Larry Roth, CEO
Wealth Solutions Report
