Business owner-planning technology provider RISR has struck a new partnership with OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, giving the $16 billion RIA a specialized toolset for guiding entrepreneurs through valuation, growth and succession decisions.
The agreement lets OnePoint BFG deploy RISR across both its centralized planning team and individual advisor groups that focus on privately held business owners.
It is the latest in a run of moves RISR has made over the past two years to widen its footprint among wealth managers racing to serve a segment of clients advisors have historically struggled to reach with off-the-shelf financial plans.
Roughly half of U.S. employer-businesses are owned by someone 55 or older, and 74% of those owners expect to sell or transition their companies as they head toward retirement, based on Gallup polling cited by RISR. That wave of pending transitions is pushing advisory firms to look for scalable ways to offer valuation, risk and succession guidance without building specialist teams from scratch.
A more recent survey by Revenued painted a similarly dire picture, with just 35% of surveyed small business owners saying they have a succession plan in place even as 59% of potential successors believe one exists.
"Business owners are one of the most complex and underserved client segments in wealth management," said Jason Early, founder and chief executive officer of RISR. "We're excited to partner with a firm that recognizes the tremendous opportunity to serve business owners, and together we're committed to helping advisors engage these clients more effectively."
OnePoint BFG, the Joe Duran-backed RIA that was until last year known as Bleakley Financial Group, framed the deal as part of a broader technology push.
"We've always believed that exceptional planning drives exceptional outcomes," said Andy Schwartz, chief executive officer at OnePoint BFG. "As we continue to grow, we're investing in technology that helps our advisors deepen client relationships and address increasingly complex planning needs."
The OnePoint BFG deal follows a similar tie-up in February with Allworth Financial, the California-headquartered RIA managing, where RISR was integrated to help advisors model succession scenarios and align personal, business and tax planning in a single view.
Since its 2024 launch, RISR has assembled a solid network of enterprise partners including Journey Strategic Wealth, Great Valley Advisor Group, Citadel Wealth Management, Wealthcare Capital Management, Modern Wealth, and NewEdge Wealth.
In June last year, it also collaborated with the nonprofit American College of Financial Services, giving advisors who complete the college's business succession planning program complimentary access to a business insights report generated by RISR.
All the while, RISR has been building out its platform with new capabilities. In May, the fintech firm introduced an AI-powered document analysis module that scans buy-sell agreements, insurance policies and operating agreements for coverage gaps. RISR's review of its own planning case files found 57% of business owners had no protection in place in the event of death, disability or a dispute among owners – a statistic the company has used to make the case for faster, more repeatable document review.
Last September, RISR rolled out a succession and exit planning tool – which the company described as the first of its kind – built specifically for financial planning conversations rather than standalone business valuation.
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