Just in time for Easter, defunct fintech company Oranj is getting new life thanks to an acquisition by turnkey asset management platform SEI.
SEI plans to incorporate some of Oranj’s technology, primarily its client portal, into Wealth Platform, a technology suite for independent advisors that includes custody services, model management and trading. The TAMP also plans to incorporate Oranj’s messaging features, digital client collaboration tools, model marketplace, and trading and rebalancing capabilities.
Oranj’s software and expertise in running a cloud-based company will help SEI more quickly bring to market a single digital workstation that advisors can use to manage every interaction from the first conversation with a prospect through financial planning, opening accounts and executing trades, says Kevin Crowe, head of product development at SEI Independent Advisor Solutions.
“Oranj was highly aligned with what we’re trying to accomplish here,” Crowe says. “What attracted us to Oranj is the [technology] and the people.”
Oranj Founder and CEO David Lyon is joining SEI alongside 13 of his former staff, Crowe says.
The deal comes just four months after
The sudden closure gave financial advisors just six weeks to find a new trading software and migrate client accounts. Oranj
“What advisors will recall, is that Oranj abandoned its clients with very little notice. You don’t do this to people, period,” says Manish Khatta, president and CIO of Potomac Fund Management, which offers a competing outsourced investment management service to advisors. “Maybe SEI can make do with the tech, but if the person who decided to slap his clients in the face is attached to the deal, this won’t do them any favors.”
Lyon was not made available by SEI and did not respond to a direct request for comment.
Despite Oranj telling advisors the software would shut down, some advisors were given free access to the technology through March. One advisor, who asked not to be named, says his firm still has client data on Oranj’s trading platform despite not placing a single trade since 2020.
Oranj has not been in contact about the acquisition or what will happen to the firm’s client data, the advisor says.
“It was nice to be able to double check old model assignments and such as we built out our new trading system, and it was free for us to keep it going,” the advisor says. “That said, a heads up [about the sale] would have been nice.”
SEI understands advisors’ frustrations, but hopes they will find value in the firm’s 30 years of experience in the advisory market, says Crowe. “We anticipate being here for quite some time and continue to expand.”
Decisions made about Oranj’s customers and employees were made before SEI engaged in serious conversations with the fintech, says Erich Holland, head of distribution and engagement at SEI Independent Advisor Solutions. The firm plans to reach out to advisors who remain on the platform about migrating them to SEI.
“Now more than ever, investors and advisors, they’re challenged with the unknown, stressors from the pandemic, trading issues with custodians and retail platforms, and transparency and trust in general ” Holland says. “Those are core tenets of what has always been SEI’s value proposition.”
