Orion blends client portal with Redtail CRM: Wealthtech Weekly

May 31, 2023 11:16 AM

More than a year after acquiring one of the most popular client relationship management (CRM) programs among advisors, Orion Advisor Solutions is formally connecting its client portal to Redtail CRM.

On Tuesday, the Omaha, Nebraska-based provider of outsourced investment management and technology announced a number of technology enhancements to its platform, including the Redtail integration, billed as "the industry's first CRM with a connected client portal."

The wealthtech firm says the integration eliminates cumbersome manual data entry, offering wealth clients a different way to manage their portfolios and work with their financial advisor.

Advisors will also be able to deploy the Orion Wealth Management mobile app, giving clients access to their portfolios, performance and goals wherever they are.

"Our teams are constantly ideating and testing ways to support advisors in their independence, simplifying their processes in an all-in-one environment that has never been seen before in the financial services industry," Eric Clarke, the founder and CEO of Orion, said in a statement. "This is something no other CRM provides and will vastly improve the client experience and deepen relationships between advisors and their clients."

Fintech

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Other announced upgrades include giving advisors the ability to launch Orion's proposal generation tool and new account wizard directly from Redtail CRM; and making Orion Planning, the firm's financial planning software, accessible in Redtail CRM.

Enhancements to Orion's asset bucketing functionality — a tool that lets advisors customize a client's asset dashboard and visualize different 'what if' financial scenarios — gives wealth managers an avenue to have more productive goals-based conversations, according to Orion.

Technology and behavioral finance
Company leaders say these added capabilities complement the existing suite of solutions available within Orion Planning that are informed by the behavioral financial research of Orion Chief Behavioral Officer and INVEST 2023 keynote speaker Daniel Crosby, including the BeFi20 prospecting tool and the 3D Risk Profile.

"The technology team at Orion is hyper-focused on powering a seamless experience and accelerating workflows for advisors and their clients," Trent Mumma, executive vice president of product at Orion, said in a statement. "This level of advanced integration means we are able to meet the unique needs of any financial advisor, from independent teams to operators and potential breakaway brokers that want to purchase a connected stack in one powerful and convenient package."

Along with the new functionality, Orion is still working on ongoing cloud migration they say will deliver better speed and performance. The enhancements and integrations are all available with the recently introduced Orion Advantage Stack.

Scroll down to get caught up on other recent fintech news you might have missed in our Wealthtech Weekly recap. And check out the previous edition here.

Apex investor study says Gen Z loves crypto, gold and baking stocks

“The logical step once the bitcoin futures market exists is to reevaluate whether it’s suitable to refile the ETF” listing request, said Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital- asset strategy at VanEck.

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Despite its up and down performance and a glut of controversy surrounding it, a new Apex Fintech Solutions study suggests that crypto is still hot among younger investors.

The Q1 2023 Apex Next Investor Outlook (ANIO) report looked at investing trends across generations in response to major market-moving triggers, including the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank crisis and ongoing stock volatility.

Among the findings the firm described as "trend-bucking" were an increased Gen Z demand for both gold and crypto, as well as strong millennial interest in buying bank stocks amid uncertainty in the banking industry.

The ANIO report analyzes data from investors who trade through introducing brokers on the Apex Clearing Platform across more than 1.3 million Gen Z accounts and 5.6 million accounts held by Millennials, Gen Z and Boomers.

"Gen Z investors were in elementary school when Lehman Brothers crashed in 2008 — so in many respects, the Q1 bank crisis was really that generation's first true financial crisis," said Connor Coughlin, the chief commercial officer of fintech at Apex Fintech Solutions. "This is a generation that invests in disruptors and against expected trends, and over $70 trillion in assets will be passed down to this generation in the coming decades.

"Fintechs and advisors need to understand the attitudes, interests and values of this digital and disruptive generation."

Here are other key findings of the report:

SVB's ripple effect across generations: Gen Z investors were measurably more fazed by bank uncertainty than other generations who have first-hand experience with prior financial crises. On March 29 — the peak selloff day for bank stocks this year — Gen Z sold securities at an even higher rate than all other groups of older investors.

Millennials and bank stocks: While older generations were selling off bank stocks, many millennials were buying. Shares of Charles Schwab shot up 21 places in the ranking among millennials, even while its overall market value plummeted by nearly 33%.

Millennials also invested in First Republic Bank, moving it up 25 positions in the rankings compared to the final quarter of 2022.

Gen Z still likes crypto and digital: Gen Z's three hottest stocks of Q1 include a crypto-economy company (COIN); a Bitcoin ecosystem provider (MARA); and a cybersecurity business (CRWD).

All generations agree on their favorite seven stocks: Across generations, the top seven largest holdings held in retail accounts on the Apex platform were: 1. Tesla 2. Apple 3. Amazon 4. Microsoft 5. Nvidia 6. Google 7. Meta.

SMArtX, TradePMR team up to give advisors access to TAMP Solutions

Blue Planet Studio - stock.adobe

SMArtX Advisory Solutions, a developer of unified managed accounts technology and architect of the SMArtX TAMP, has announced a new collaboration with Oregon-based technology and custodial services provider TradePMR.

The relationship allows TradePMR advisors to access SMArtX's unified managed account technology, including their full model marketplace, automated rebalancing, tax harvester, cash management, billing and "Advisor as a PM" tools to manage their advisory business at scale.

Officials say the pairing gives TradePMR advisors a more cost-effective TAMP solution than the current offering. As SMArtX is a sub-advisory technology firm, TradePMR advisors do not have to re-paper any accounts to gain access to SMArtX's automated processes.

"We are excited to bring our UMA technology to TradePMR advisors," said Evan Rapoport, the founder and CEO of SMArtX Advisory Solutions. "SMArtX and TradePMR both want to help advisors run their business better and faster in today's marketplace. We aim to do this by reducing the amount of manual work and tasks required to administrate managed accounts and providing them with the necessary tools to make it easier."

Scott Victoria, the chief operating officer of TradePMR, said the reason for the partnership is to make things simpler and more efficient for RIAs that rely on their services.

"Efficiency can do a lot for advisors. It can help address evolving client expectations, react to a volatile market, and ultimately, we believe, achieve firm growth," Victoria said. "With this new relationship with SMArtX, we are arming TradePMR advisors with another resource to help streamline their workflows and expand how they can serve their clients."