Nearly one month since the implementation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest, and one Silicon Valley-based fintech is joining a list of firms deploying tech to help advisers stay the course.
Technology provider La Meer announced Thursday the roll out of its new cloud-based platform designed for advisers to comply with Reg BI’s four obligations in a modular fashion. La Meer touts the module nature of the platform, which is tablet and mobile-enabled, as a way for firms to pick and choose which specific areas have an immediate need for increased compliance.
That business model, in turn, allows advisers to only pay for modules as they need them without additional integration costs, according to the company’s press release.
La Meer’s platform, called Grace, has three main portals — a client management portal, a compliance portal and a client portal — and each portal leads to a dashboard where advisers can manage interactions with clients and exchange approvals and portfolio information with the compliance department for suitability reviews.
The client portal, similar to Merrill Lynch’s Client Engagement Workstation, is a dashboard view for advisers to monitor client metrics and flag priority items needing attention. Moreover, the compliance portal provides tools similar to other tech providers, like RIA in a Box, by offering online compliance training tools for staff.
While there are plenty of tech providers offering solutions that work exactly like La Meer's products, the fintech pushes the comprehensive nature of its platform as an easier way for advisers to prove they are compliant with Reg BI during examinations under a “single source of truth,” the company noted.
Still, an increase in new tech players entering the space is likely a trend for the long haul as the industry’s appetite for innovation has only grown with the new regulation.
La Meer, founded in 2010, is a tech provider for financial services firms that deploys tools to address risk management. The platform is currently available in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Europe, according to the company’s press release.
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