T3 2022: 7 fintech announcements from the conference you may have missed

May 13, 2022 5:44 PM

A crowd gathers for a panel during T3 2022.

While tech-focused advisors flocked to Texas last week with enough fervor to make this year’s Technology Tools for Today conference the biggest T3 ever, not everyone was able to make the trip.

With the final headcounts tallied, officials said T3 2022 drew about 975 total attendees to Denton with roughly 450 of those people being from advisory firms. A big return for the annual fintech gathering, but for those following from home, keeping up with the flurry of announcements and unveilings was no easy task.

To bring you up to speed, Financial Planning has collected several conference headlines you may have missed last week.

Scroll down our cardshow for some of the big news and announcements out of T3 2022 as planners work to top it in 2023.

Joel Bruckenstein and Bob Veres unveil 2022 financial advisor software survey results

The 2022 T3/Inside Information Software Survey ranks the top software solutions in advisory firm tech stacks by market share in 35 different categories. The 72-page analysis, available in full here, offers the average user rating for every included product and service along with year-to-year ranking changes.

The data comes from a sample of 4,495 members of advisory firms, according to a news release. CRM tools, financial planning programs, portfolio management platforms, investment data providers, risk tolerance instruments, document management, client communication power tools and the ratings of all the custodial and broker/dealer platforms are included in the survey.

For those who missed the unveiling of this year’s survey live in Texas, the slideshow presented at T3 can be viewed by clicking this link.

“Anybody looking for new solutions or for a replacement to an existing part of your tech stack should use the survey as a buyer's guide to the most popular options and the solutions with the highest satisfaction scores from their users,” Bob Veres, co-author of the annual survey, said in a statement. “Looking over the 35 categories, you will find some attractive things to add to your advisory toolkit.”

FMG announces rebrand alongside new financial advisor offerings

FMG Suite, a company specializing in marketing software and services for financial advisors, has updated its platform and refreshed its brand while dropping the “Suite” from its name.

Company leaders say the rebrand reflects the “cumulative impact of FMG’s acquisitions, marketing thought leadership and new product offerings.” Officials said the addition of industry executives like Samantha Russell, Susan Theder and others has enhanced the company’s ability to infuse tech with marketing best practices.

FMG has also released new product packages that allow customers to purchase its marketing automation and website products separately.

“The separation of websites and marketing tools enables us to create an ascendant journey for advisors whether they are just starting out or are at the highest level of marketing sophistication. It simplifies our offering and makes it easy for an advisor to pick the package that best meets their business goals, whether that’s marketing their business, modernizing their website, or both,” Dave Christensen, chief product officer of FMG, said in a statement.

FP Alpha launches a new AI-driven estate planning tool

FP Alpha, an AI-driven planning solution for financial advisors, has announced a new tool created to enhance its platform’s estate planning offerings.

Called the Estate Snapshot, the new tool leverages AI technology to read wills, trusts and other documents. The Estate Snapshot then summarizes them into a client deliverable with easy-to-follow visuals, allowing the advisor to review the distribution of assets, identify key individuals and explain potential scenarios to their clients.

“While there are current tools that exist to streamline the creation of estate planning documents and software that helps bring legacy planning into the larger conversation, nothing existed to summarize and visualize the key components of a client’s estate plan,” FP Alpha's Founder

and CEO Andrew Altfest said in a statement. “That is why we set out to create something that could do that; and that is what the Estate Snapshot is. As an advisor myself, I found that if you could incorporate estate planning insights into the larger planning discussion, it allowed you to provide a truly holistic approach to planning.”

XY Planning Network and Hubly launch partnership to help advisors scale their fee-only firms

XY Planning Network and Hubly have announced a partnership that will help XYPN advisors more efficiently and effectively scale their financial planning firms.

Officials say the union aims to help XYPN advisors streamline systems and processes while optimizing their operations, giving them a solution to overcome some of the challenges associated with firm growth.

The goal is to improve both the client experience and boost back-office operations. XYPN’s expert coaches will be trained on Hubly so they’re equipped to share best practices and support advisors in achieving their growth goals.

“Having worked with hundreds of financial advisory firms, we understand the need for an easy-to-use practice management solution to replace inefficient tools such as spreadsheets. Through this partnership, XYPN can leverage the Hubly product to help even more advisors overcome their core operational challenges, optimize their operations and scale their fee-for-service firms,” Louis Retief, CEO and co-founder of Hubly, said in a statement.

Orion infuses behavioral finance into its financial planning technology

Orion Advisor Solutions, a provider of wealthtech solutions for fiduciary advisors, is bringing new goals-based investing tools to Orion Planning.

Called “Protect, Live, Dream,” Orion’s goals-based investing approach uses mental accounting to help clients achieve “a sense of calm and security while simultaneously striving to reach their dreams.”

“We believe a seamless, embedded approach to goals-based investing can improve people’s investment experience, increase returns formerly sacrificed to misbehavior and allow investors to worry less about ‘the economy’ as they become increasingly focused on ‘my economy,’” Daniel Crosby, chief behavioral officer at Orion, said in a statement. “In creating Protect, Live, Dream, we aimed to provide advisors with a tool that helps keep their clients calm during market volatility, improves their client’s financial outcomes and, ultimately, guides their clients to better financial planning habits.”

According to Orion, a study conducted during the 2008 financial crisis showed that “goals-based investors are less likely to panic and make ill-informed changes to their portfolios.” By bucketing investments into distinct areas, advisors can help their clients work toward unique goals. The Protect, Live, Dream approach is integrated into Orion Planning, which is available to Orion clients at no additional cost.

SMArtX Advisory Solutions grows its TAMP platform with 20 new strategies

SMArtX Advisory Solutions, a developer of unified managed accounts technology and architect of the SMArtX TAMP have added 20 new investment strategies from 10 asset management firms to its platform.

The SMArtX platform now supports 1,033 model-traded and manager-traded separate account strategies offered from a group of 255 asset managers. Eight new asset management firms — Appleton Partners, Aptus Capital Advisors, Counterpoint Mutual Funds, Janus Henderson, Main Management, Martin Currie, Ned Davis Research and Spouting Rock Asset Management — have been added to give advisors tools needed to offer tailored portfolios to clients.

“SMArtX is excited to welcome new managers to the platform. The volatility of the markets continues to strain advisors who manage the individual positions within their clients' portfolios,” Evan Rapoport, CEO of SMArtX Advisory Solutions, said in a statement. “As a result, we see ongoing demand for institutional third-party investment strategies to be on the SMArtX platform so advisors can spend more time focused on their clients.”

Kingsview Investment Management and The London Company, two existing firms on the platform, are adding new strategies. The strategies across the 10 firms encompass emerging markets, global equity, U.S. equity and fixed income strategies.

Econiq launches next-gen meeting technology for financial advice

Econiq has announced that its solution for virtual financial advice is now available for advisors of all sizes.

The Conversation Hub is a tool that allows advisors to create visually engaging on-screen meetings, a growing need as remote client and colleague meetings continue to be the norm. Econiq CEO Jim Callan said the company saw a gap in the financial advisor technology market related to digital gathering.

“Meetings were taking place virtually, but there was no technology to easily run that meeting, deliver great advisor and client experience, and ease the administration and compliance burden,” Callan said in a statement.

Officials said The Conversation Hub allows structured meeting templates for different types of meetings to be clicked together, edited and then used to run the actual client meeting. Client input can be added directly as a note on the relevant item as the advisor clicks through the various elements of the meeting, and all of the items discussed at the meeting are automatically tracked and a PDF with the advisor’s branding is produced for distribution to the client. Meetings are scored for quality and consistency, producing a connection quality score which can be tracked by meeting type, advisor or team and helps to drive continuous improvement.

Callan added that although advisors are now used to sharing their screens via tools like Zoom and Teams, there isn’t enough attention paid to making what is on the screen visually engaging. Outside of the meeting itself, hours are spent on meeting preparation, follow-up and entry to other systems. The Conversation Hub is being billed as the “world’s first comprehensive meeting experience platform for financial advice.”