Welcome to the November 2022 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!
This month’s edition kicks off with the news that a new RIA custodian – Entrustody – has launched, as independent RIAs continue to clamor for more alternatives than what has now become the ‘Big 2’ of Schwabitrade and Fidelity. As with Altruist, the ‘other’ new startup RIA custodian to launch in recent years, Entrustody is pledging to have a more modern interface with a better user experience, more and deeper integrations, and a more transparent price structure than ‘traditional’ custody services.
Notably, though, the reality is that changing RIA custodians still requires the repapering of clients and retraining of staff (and the latter cost is still incurred even if firms ‘just’ add Entrustody as a second custodial platform without moving existing clients), which raises the question of whether Entrustody has enough efficiency improvements to actually convince advisors to switch. While at the same time, competition has already heated up for new advisors (who can pick a new custodian without repapering or retraining because they’re just getting started) with SSG, Altruist, and even Schwabitrade itself pledging no minimums, and a number of ‘new’ RIA custodial competitors like LPL and SEI are increasingly competing for breakaways as well. Which raises the question of whether and where Entrustody may even be able to make a beachhead in a surprisingly crowded marketplace for the few advisors who are in a potential custodial transition?
From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:
- Orion’s Redtail launches “Redtail Campaigns” in partnership with Snappy Kraken to facilitate CRM-based drip marketing emails
- Hearsay Systems rolls out a new small-to-mid-sized RIA platform for social media compliance and website design
- Riskalyze signals an intent to rebrand itself away from ‘just’ risk tolerance assessments to a broader focus on helping advisors grow clients and assets
Read the analysis about these announcements in this month’s column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including:
- Merrill Lynch launches a new ‘Merrill Match’ system that downplays an advisor’s geography and focuses more on advisor ‘fit’ with respect to expertise, meeting preferences, and communication style
- Ezra Group launches a new “WealthTech Integration Score” for major AdvisorTech vendors to help advisors better assess which software has the most meaningful deep integrations
In the meantime, we’re excited to announce several new updates to our new Kitces AdvisorTech Directory, including Advisor Satisfaction scores from our Kitces AdvisorTech Research, and the inclusion of WealthTech Integration scores from the Ezra Group!
And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular “Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map” as well!
*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to TechNews@kitces.com!
Leave a Reply