T3 2023 news: Altruist buys SSG, Envestnet upgrades MoneyGuide and more

March 17, 2023 12:42 PM

T3 attendees listen during an Incedo panel at the 2023 wealthtech conference in Tampa, Florida.

After bouncing back in 2022 with the largest T3 to that point, the annual Technology Tools for Today conference got back into the flow of bringing people together and breaking wealthtech news in 2023.

With the four-day event held in Tampa, Florida, coming to a close Thursday, here are some of the biggest headlines that spilled out of T3 2023, including acquisitions, upgrades and insights from some of the biggest names in the business.

Scroll down our Wealthtech Weekly cardshow to see what you may have missed if you didn't make it out to the Sunshine State this year.

Altruist acquires Shareholders Service Group

On the heels of becoming a full custodian, Altruist announced the acquisition of brokerage and custodial platform Shareholders Service Group in a deal company officials say will "double the footprint of its RIA-exclusive services and product offerings."

The specifics of the purchase were not disclosed as the news broke on the third day of T3, but Altruist CEO and INVEST keynote speaker Jason Wenk said it was mostly a cash deal. A statement released the same day by Wenk also stresses that "SSG leadership, management, and employees all have a place at Altruist."

He added that there will be no mandatory changes in services or products as the priority is to "seamlessly bring the two organizations together with a focus on optimizing technology and service delivery across the shared advisor base."

The San Diego-based SSG operates a platform that serves more than 1,600 advisors across the United States.

"This acquisition enhances our mission to make human financial advice better, more accessible, and affordable to everyone," Wenk said in a statement. "Our firms have strong alignment on the substantial value financial advisors add to their clients' lives and how we can empower them to reach more people."

After operating for more than two decades, the SSG leadership team said it was looking for the ideal partner to help them usher in their next chapter of growth. Peter Mangan, founder and CEO of SSG, said when the company got its start in 2002, the goal was to be the most dependable and trusted partner to advisors, built on a core of transparency and efficiency.

"Today we are very excited to be joining with Altruist in writing the next chapter in the RIA custody business as we empower advisors with the most cutting-edge technology and service platform," Mangan said.

Dan Skiles, president of SSG, added: "We know that together, Altruist and SSG will deliver what independent RIAs expect and need from a custodian in order to best serve their clients."

The acquisition of SSG continues what has been a busy month for Altruist. Exactly two weeks ago, the organization celebrated the launch of Altruist Clearing, a self-clearing brokerage that aims to spur movement away from legacy financial institutions.

Altruist previously relied on Apex Clearing for custody and clearing. With its evolution to a full-service custodian, Wenk said Altruist stands alone with a technological advantage over other custodians and technology platforms dependent on third-party clearing houses.

"Together we're primed to deliver some long-awaited innovation to the RIA custody business, at a time when the need for quality independent financial advice is greater than ever," Wenk said in a statement.

Envestnet makes enhancements to MoneyGuide with an eye to the future

With the great wealth transfer in mind, Envestnet has rolled out a number of MoneyGuide improvements targeting advisors whose practices incorporate financial planning.

The latest Envestnet | MoneyGuide generational technology release features updates across its platform that "supports forward-thinking advisors who are seeking to deliver personalized and relevant planning experiences," according to the Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based firm.

The release includes the rollout of a Goals-Based Planning digital experience, which can align investment strategies with specific goals and streamline their implementation. Additional release highlights include advanced earmarking with Monte Carlo; an employer awards section that has replaced stock options and restricted stock; and a new entity section that will enable advisors and their clients to add information about trusts, charities and businesses in plans.

"These ongoing updates to our comprehensive financial planning suite give advisors quality data and actionable insights into their clients' financial lives," Kevin Hughes, chief growth officer of Envestnet | MoneyGuide, said in a statement. "In the wake of recent market volatility, advisors can utilize the Envestnet | MoneyGuide platform's capabilities to digitally re-engage clients around planning, as well as work with new clients and prospects — including next-generation recipients of wealth transfers — on sticking to a defined plan over time that can give them both confidence and peace of mind."

According to Envestnet, it is estimated that baby boomers will pass down $68 trillion in wealth over the next 25 years. At the same time, Envestnet's generational research shows that a surprising 50% of boomers are not formally organizing their long-term finances.

"There has arguably never been a more important time for an emphasis on financial planning, and we consistently update our offering to set the pace of planning technology. Our goal is to make it easier for advisors to develop deeper client relationships and expand their services to all clients and prospects — regardless of their wealth, stage in life, or complexity of their finances — through digital financial planning experiences," Rose Palazzo, group president of Envestnet Financial Planning, said in a statement. "This generational technology release delivers enhancements across our platform that support core functionality and also lay a foundation for continuous financial planning enhancements to the platform."

FP Alpha announces estate planning improvements, new snapshot tool

FP Alpha, a New York-based wealthtech firm that develops AI-driven financial planning software, has added new estate planning and client snapshot capabilities to its suite of offerings.

The company's estate planning module, called The Estate Lab 2.0, has been upgraded and is now available to advisors as a standalone project.

The Estate Lab's new features include the ability to automatically transfer key data points from wills and trusts to the software. FP Alpha says this will allow advisors to compare alternative estate planning scenarios to the current one by pulling in assets to illustrate how those assets would transfer at death today, and at death of the first and second spouse.

The Estate Lab will also display changes in beneficiaries or placement of assets by incorporating several simple and complex estate vehicles including various gifting strategies.

"Advisors spoke and we listened," Andrew Altfest, president of New York-based RIA Altfest Personal Wealth Management and CEO of FP Alpha, said in a statement. "Instead of exclusively packaging the FP Alpha platform with all 16 planning disciplines, the estate module will be available for purchase as a standalone product. With estate planning being incorporated more and more into the comprehensive advice process, we wanted to ensure as many advisors as possible had access to our solution."

Meanwhile, FP Alpha's new P&C Snapshot is billed as a "first of its kind" tool that uploads and analyzes home and auto insurance documents to the platform. FP Alpha's AI will "read" complex and lengthy documents, and generate reports that more simply display a client's insurance situation.

The firm says the P&C Snapshot tool will allow advisors to distinguish themselves from peers by bringing clients peace of mind via a second review for their insurance coverage, as well as the potential to address gaps or deficiencies in current coverage.

"In a few short months, the snapshot feature will visually depict, in a client friendly deliverable, the key data points associated with each policy," Rachel Schwab, product manager for FP Alpha, said in a statement. "Studies show that most clients want their advisors to help with P&C, but almost no one is getting it. There are simply no tools available, but our technology is going to solve that.

Hubly unveils Partner Workflows for the RIA industry

Hubly, a process management system built specifically for the financial advisory market, has announced the launch of "Partner Workflows" to help TAMPs, custodians, broker-dealers, networks, fintech partners and others share best practices with the growing community of Hubly users.

According to company leaders, Hubly's Partner Workflows will feature workflows from well-known organizations such as XY Planning Network, fpPathfinder, Policygenius Pro, MaxMyInterest, Caribou and Trust & Will.

Through it, Hubly users will have access to specially designed workflows curated by these and other partners to help them streamline processes around client service, money movement, estate planning, life insurance, healthcare planning, tax operations and other common projects.

"We look forward to taking part in Hubly's Partner Workflows," Michael Halloran, head of business development and partnerships at MaxMyInterest, said in a statement. "Hubly's innovative software helps advisors streamline their practices while ensuring that their clients benefit from the best solutions in the market."

Partner Workflows gives users the ability to build workflow templates with Hubly's help. Those workflows can then be shared with other Hubly users by making them public or by embedding them in a forum or helpdesk.

Hubly is also set to launch a platform promoting partner workflows later this year. There, workflows will be made available for download or sale, opening up a potential revenue stream to partners.

Partners will also have the option to keep their workflows exclusive to specific Hubly users, such as their clients or network members.

Andres Mazabel, head of advisors at Trust & Will, said as the firm now works with more than 8,000 financial advisors, he is excited to partner with Hubly to give advisors a more scalable and seamless process to implement our platform through their workflows.

"Hubly users will now have a step-by-step guide on how to have conversations around estate planning and proactive reminders to ensure clients have their legacy in place," Mazabel said.

Advyzon Investment Management launches model marketplace

Advyzon Investment Management, a turnkey asset management program under the umbrella of Chicago fintech Advyzon, announced the launch of a new model marketplace called Nucleus that will be fully integrated into Advyzon's existing platform.

"We're extremely excited to announce the launch of Nucleus, something that has been in the works since we launched AIM in Spring 2022," Lee Andreatta, CEO and co-founder of Advyzon Investment Management, said in a statement. "Adding a model marketplace enhances AIM's TAMP offering and moves Advyzon closer than ever to offering a fully comprehensive solution for financial advisors and investment managers to run their firms."

Andreatta and Advyzon Chief Revenue Officer John Mackowiak shared the news during their T3 main stage session titled, "If You Think Your Tech Stack Is Optimized, Think Again." Mackowiak's key message was that building a good tech stack is harder than most financial advisors think.

He added that once they get into the thick of it, they may be not only frustrated, but disappointed with the end result.

The Nucleus model marketplace is structured for unified managed accounts and will include sleeve-level reporting and trading. Advisors will have access to third-party strategists and access to more than 100 risk-based models and SMAs from some of the top third-party management firms in the industry.

Single and multisleeve setup and trading will include a variety of features, including cash management; dollar-cost averaging and required minimum distribution schedules; a "do not buy/sell" securities list; onboarding tax management and ongoing-tax loss harvesting and more.

AIM plans to add to Nucleus' features and capabilities in the coming months.

TradePMR launches new integration with CircleBlack

Technology and custodial services provider TradePMR is partnering with CircleBlack in a deal intended to provide RIAs easier access to the latter's CRM integrations, white-labeled client portal and mobile app, performance reporting and more.

The new relationship includes a seamless data integration so that advisors working with TradePMR can leverage the CircleBlack platform without needing to manually transfer any of their data.

"We are thrilled to deepen our relationship with TradePMR and expand the ways we can work with the advisors that they serve," Lincoln Ross, CEO and president of CircleBlack, said in a statement. "TradePMR and CircleBlack share a commitment to providing RIAs with flexible technology that meets their needs and facilitates their growth. We feel that our technology can be a great fit for the advisors working with TradePMR and are excited to see how our offerings will work together to drive advisor success."

RIAs working with TradePMR now have greater flexibility in their technology choices. TradePMR is rapidly expanding its integration network — the firm sees relationships with providers like CircleBlack as integral in delivering the tools advisors need to succeed in today's hypercompetitive market.

TradePMR Chief Operating Officer Scott Victoria said the firm is always looking for ways to expand the solutions available to the RIAs they work with.

"This integration with CircleBlack is yet another way for us to arm advisors with the technology and service they need to achieve their goals," he said. "We are proud to have CircleBlack join TradePMR's integration network and look forward to how our offerings will work together to deliver elevated results to advisors and their clients."