Pershing introduces new integrations with Orion that advisors won’t find at other custodians

BNY Mellon Pershing has bolstered the digital connections between its custodial platform and Orion Advisor Solutions growing suite of technology for advisors.

Pershing’s advisor workstation, NetX360, now supports bi-directional data flow with Orion’s software, letting advisors move more easily between the two platforms without having to manually re-enter data. Advisors can also use Orion’s digital dashboard to access real-time positions, balances and activity of client accounts held with Pershing.

Custodial documents from Pershing, such as statements and tax documents, will also be accessible via Orion’s new client portal.

These are iterative, “quality of life” improvements for advisors, but bring capabilities advisors can’t get from other custodians and lay the groundwork for future developments between the two platforms, says Orion president Noreen Beaman. Though she expects similar developments will occur with other custodians, the partnership with Pershing has “set the standard for other integrations in wealth management,” according to Beaman.

“Pershing has shown an excellent willingness to work with us to set the example and develop a new depth of integration between an advisor's custodian and portfolio management technology,” she says in an email.

However, Beaman declined to specify what some of those future developments might be.

Orion has expanded in recent years from a portfolio management software into a full turnkey asset management platform. When the company merged with Brinker Capital in July as part of a recapitalization deal, the company made clear its intentions to grow among insurance firms and broker-dealers as well as independent RIAs.

Pershing is seeing increasing client overlap with Orion, says Christina Townsend, head of relationship management, platform strategy and consulting for advisor solutions at Pershing. The firm studies the most frequent interactions between Orion and NetX360, and just having custodial data appear in Orion software isn’t enough, she says. Nor is simply having a link that takes advisors from Orion back to NetX360.

“Advisors want to execute on a task for their clients across multiple systems, but they want one seamless experience—they don’t want to feel like they are moving between different systems,” Townsend says in an email.

Despite recently losing some large clients to LPL Financial — such as M&T Bank’s $20 billion retail business and Waddell & Reed’s $63 billion wealth management assets — BNY Mellon remains bullish on its financial advisor custody business. Enhancing its support of popular third-party technology like Orion is key to Pershing’s strategy to attract and retain broker-dealers and RIAs, Townsend says.

Other custodians are also enhancing their support for Orion as the TAMP and technology firm grows. Fidelity offers “robust integrations” for advisors and recently introduced real-time alert capabilities from Wealthscape into Orion, says Fidelity Investments senior communications manager Rachel Shaffer when asked about the unique capabilities developed between Orion and Pershing.

A spokesperson for Charles Schwab wouldn’t comment on the development between Orion and Pershing, but noted that Schwab ranks Orion among its top integration partners.