Ric Edelman backs family-focused fintech Lumiant

September 16, 2022 5:25 PM

Lumiant Global CEO Santiago Burridge, left, and Ric Edelman.

Ric Edelman is the latest supporter of an Australian-based fintech that is rapidly expanding its U.S. presence throughout 2022.

Founded in 2020 by veteran financial advisor Santiago Burridge, Lumiant made its stateside debut in May with Blake Wood announced as U.S. CEO. The company has developed an engagement platform that aims to deepen client relationships.

Burridge, Lumiant's global CEO, and Wood want to help advisors more easily merge a client's personal and financial goals by placing a greater emphasis on families and life outcomes.

Financial Planning's Justin L. Mack and Lumiant Global CEO Santiago Burridge talk about Lumiant's latest funding support at the Future Proof 2022 Festival in Huntington Beach, California.

Lumiant extends the planning conversation beyond whomever may be considered head of the household by removing "key person dependency" and focusing more on family members, especially the "non-financial spouse."

That means bringing family members beyond the financial head of household into the planning discussion, allowing advisors to create strong bonds with the families they serve.

To accomplish this, the company's software tracks and measures goals that have more to do with a family's values, ideals and aspirations than with dollars and cents.

Edelman's investment in Lumiant, which serves more than 4,000 families globally, follows a $3 million investment by strategic investor Savant Wealth Management. The size of Edelman's investment, made this year, was not disclosed.

"Lumiant's advice process lets advisors uncover what's truly important to their clients," Edelman said in a statement. "The platform helps the advisor focus on offering solutions for where their client is headed, not where they've been. It does so in such an engaging and visual way that I'm convinced that any advisor who uses this service will be among the most successful in the business."

Burridge, who spoke to Financial Planning about his new backer during the 2022 Future Proof Festival, said that having Edelman's support is "a testament to what we've built."

"We've reimagined the financial advice experience to help advisors center on life planning, giving them the tools they need so they can connect with their clients on an emotional level,"Burridge said. "This allows them to have incredibly meaningful conversations with clients, making their advice quantifiable, meaningful and measurable."

Scroll down to get caught up on other recent fintech news you might have missed in our Wealthtech Weekly recap. And check out last week's recap here.

F2 Strategy launches new 'executives-in-residence' program

Doug Fritz, F2 Strategy co-founder and CEO, tells Financial Planning's Justin L. Mack about F2's new executives-in-residence program

Allie Zendrian/StreetCred

Wealthtech management consulting company F2 Strategy is gathering experienced industry minds to help move the business forward.

This week, the firm, based in San Francisco, California, announced the four industry experts and former wealthtech executives who make up the first cohort of the F2 Strategy executives-in-residence program. The program offers C-level executives a unique opportunity to network and drive change outside of the traditional corporate full-time role structure, according to a company statement.

Through the program, EIR professionals will engage in client work, research or mentorship depending on their current career goals and passions.

"Experience is a key factor in driving technology transformation, so we developed our EIR program to attract the best and brightest minds to benefit both our clients and the wealthtech ecosystem as a whole including private equity firms, other consulting firms, companies looking to engage in mergers and acquisitions or performing an executive search," said Doug Fritz, F2 Strategy co-founder and CEO.

F2 Strategy's EIR program will have as many as a dozen members at any given time with a 12-month timeframe for an EIR professional's residency tenure.

Officials say these experts join F2 "as they transition toward a new venture, or as they are looking toward their next chapter upon retirement."These are the first four members and how they plan to contribute to the program:

Koley Corte, senior strategy and marketing executive leader: Corte is focused on driving strategic revenue and profit growth by leveraging digital and data. Formerly worked as senior vice president and global head of business transformation at AllianceBernstein.
Bharat Kumta, senior IT and product leader: Kumta has a breadth of expertise across business domains and technologies for the world's leading financial institutions. Most recently worked as a business partner of private wealth management at First Republic Bank.
Dave Malone, business executive with 35 years of financial industry experience: Malone has spent years leading large teams through growth and rapid technology change and helping wealth management firms achieve their business goals. Previously worked as vice president of business initiatives at RBC Wealth Management Canada.
Michael Zebrowski, financial services and software executive: Zebrowski has broad experience working with software, start-ups, financial consulting, venture capital and private equity. Previously the founder and CEO at Advisor Innovation Labs which was acquired by Envestnet, and former COO of eMoney.

Truist launches Truist Assist

Justin Mack

Fresh off the news that it was entering the robo-advisory game, Truist announced its latest AI-powered offering.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank has announced the launch of Truist Assist, an artificial intelligence-enhanced digital virtual assistant designed to give immediate answers to the most common client questions.

Truist Assist leverages natural-language processing and natural-language understanding tech to provide financial information through digital channels. The self-service channel embeds Truist contact centers as part of the experience, providing clients with a quick transition from their virtual assistant to a human Truist teammate when their question requires a deeper level of support.

"The launch of Truist Assist is another milestone on our journey to co-create a client experience that is digital first, with the option of human touch," Sherry Graziano, head of digital and contact center banking for Truist. "Guided by our purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities, we're continuing to deliver a care-driven digital banking platform to foster seamless connections between clients' financial lives and personal lives."

Truist Assist is available to Truist personal banking clients via mobile apps and online.

Truist Assist currently supports more than 100 common support inquiries and digital banking questions ranging from topics like managing alerts to viewing account details.

"So many of our teammates across the company came together as one team to launch Truist Assist," Chad Elley, head of client enablement at Truist, said in a statement. "Experts from our lines of business, design and technology teams worked side by side to deliver an innovative solution grounded in care that is unlike any other AI-assistant on the market."

Titan app upgrades give investors access to alts, portfolio management tools

Justin Mack

A managed investment portfolio app for retail investors is expanding its offerings with private market and alternative investing opportunities for its clients.

Titan, an investment application launched in 2018 by New York-based Titan Global Capital Management, celebrated its "reintroduction" this week with company leaders saying the improved software will provide clients with a more robust and personalized wealth management experience.

Going forward, Titan has the ability to recommend private credit and institutional real estate investments to client portfolios. Additional new asset classes and premiere access to top funds in the coming months.

Titan clients can invest with a minimum as low as $2,000.

"Titan made a commitment to our clients to deliver the best place for individual investors to build long-term wealth," Joe Percoco, co-founder and co-CEO of Titan, said in a statement. "It's important they have the ability to make their wealth increasingly resilient to market conditions and invest in ways they've never had access to before, and we're proud Titan is the platform to provide that to them. We want to be the go-to place for our clients to power their wealth."

Titan currently serves over 55,000 clients on its app, with over $750M in assets under management.