How Banks Are Taking the Lead in Robo Advisor Technology
Banks are traditionally stodgy institutions built on creaky, old infrastructure and usually being the last ones to adopt new technologies. This has been true regarding robo-advisors and digital advice platforms, where broker-dealers and RIA’s have taken the lead over the past few years. But now, it seems that change is coming. While the growth of […]
Envestnet Expands Their TAMP Empire with FolioDynamix Deal
When the same football team keeps winning the Super Bowl or the same baseball team keeps winning the World Series, everyone gets used to hearing the same teams names mentioned every year. The same might be true for acquisitions in the wealth management technology space. For the past few years, the name behind much of the […]
RBC Tries to Jumpstart RIA Custody Business with New Platform
The asset gap between the Big 4 RIA Custodians and the second-tier custodians is as wide as the Grand Canyon. With a combined asset base of over $2.5 trillion, the Big 4 would seem to have nothing to worry about from their small custodian peers. Yet, the many niche RIA custodians don’t seem to be […]
How RIA’s Can Survive the Wild West of Roboadvisor Technology – Kitces
In the 1966 spaghetti Western, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Clint Eastwood plays one of three gunslingers competing to find fortune in a buried cache of Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of the American Civil War. Each of the three have only partial information about the gold’s location, so they have to work together if […]
10 Great Ideas from IMCA 2016 Conference
The IMCA 2016 Conference claims to be the largest association gatherings of investment advisors and wealth managers in the industry. This year’s event included engaging speakers such as Michael Kitces, April Rudin and Frank Coates. Some of the session topics included optimal rebalancing strategies, understanding Millennials and improving client relationships. Here are 10 great ideas to take […]
Dead Robo Walking: Why Wealthfront is Doomed
As recently as last summer, Adam Nash, CEO of roboadvisor Wealthfront, was boasting about his firm’s rapid growth and how they could soon replace ‘traditional’ financial advisors. How fast the world changes in just a few months. In an article in InvestmentNews, Alessandra Malito reported that Wealthfront’s AUM growth slowed to a crawl by the end of last year: Wealthfront, which […]
MMI Fall 2015: Conference Summary – Day 1
It is already a month into Fall, but you would never know it from the weather in midtown Manhattan today. It was 75 degrees and sunny. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go outside and work on my tan since I was busy attending the Money Management Institute’s 2015 Fall Solutions Conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The […]
MMI 2015 Annual Convention Quick Twitter Recap
The theme for the Money Management Institute’s 2015 Annual Convention in Charlotte, NC was “Leadership Challenges in a Period of Fast-Paced Industry Transition”. This was well-timed considering the whirlwind of changes that have occurred over the past year. The attendees were a good mix of asset managers, sponsors and vendors that led to some lively […]
What Robo Advisors Can Teach Us About Focusing on the Client
This is a summary of a TechOps Track Session titled, “Empowering Advisors: Delivering Tools that Support Today’s Client Needs” from the Money Management Institute’s 2014 Fall Solutions Conference. The discussion topic was supposed to be centered on how firms are delivering new advisor tools to help them customize solutions for different client segments. However, the […]
Top 10 Most Popular Posts from 2013
What were the most popular WM Today posts from 2013? Portfolio rebalancing, financial planning and anything mobile were big draws last year. Here are the top 10 according to stats from WordPress: 10. 5 Ways a Web Portal Can Excite Your Clients This summary from the fantastic Technology, Tools & Today (T3) conference highlights how software […]