Fintech Bytes: Raymond James, Wells Fargo and Orion

People are feeling anxious about their money.

Despite signs of slowing inflation, 62% of Americans reported feeling concerned about their current financial situation, according to a new Harris Poll commissioned by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Funding Our Future Coalition and DailyPay, a payroll fintech company.

The survey also found that fintech could help people feel better about their money. Eighty-two percent said an app where they could handle all their banking needs in one place would be helpful, and 79% said the same about an app that would provide free financial coaching and advice.

Perhaps it’s a bit self-serving given the survey was commissioned in part by a fintech company, but the results make sense. Fintech firms have a huge opportunity to make a meaningful impact on people’s lives.

Read on for some of the fintech updates you may have missed this week, and let me know what you think either on Twitter or with an email.

RAYMOND JAMES EXPANDS DIGITAL MARKETING

Raymond James is adding Instagram to its list of the social media that its brokers can use in their marketing efforts. Advisors with the firm can currently use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and Raymond James plans to launch YouTube and Spotify podcasting in the coming months. The company also has a Marketing + Agency Solutions team to help advisors build and promote their digital brands.

I’ve seen some independent financial advisors do some interesting things on Instagram, such as Priya Malani and her firm Stash Wealth. Most advisors will probably struggle to create content that resonates — and it’s probably only a matter of time before an advisor says something on a podcast that gets them in trouble — but it’s still good that a large firm like Raymond James is giving advisors access to it. I learned recently that Merrill Lynch brokers only have access to LinkedIn.

WELLS FARGO INTRODUCES LIFESYNC

LifeSync is a new feature in Wells Fargo’s mobile app for Private Client Group, Wealth Brokerage Services and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network clients. The tool lets clients create goals, shows progress toward those goals and tracks metrics such as net worth, portfolio performance, market indices, FICO scores and credit card reward balances.

The goal is to boost engagement with Wells Fargo’s 2.6 million wealth management clients, according to CNBC. The bank sees wealth management as an area of growth and currently manages $1.9 trillion in assets, but those assets haven’t grown since 2019.

ORION LAUNCHES ADVISOR ACADEMY

Fintech and turnkey asset management platform Orion Advisor Solution is launching an on-demand education dashboard that allows advisors to learn strategies for improving and growing their business while earning continuing education credits. Orion Advisor Academy was built on research and insights from Daniel Crosby, Orion’s chief behavioral officer, and is available at no additional cost to advisors.

Sounds cool. I don’t have much to add here other than I know Crosby is a smart guy whom advisors can learn a lot from. I’ll be able to get a closer look at Advisor Academy next week at Orion’s Ascent conference in Orlando.

HOLISTIPLAN GOES TO COLLEGE

Holistiplan, which provides tax-planning software for financial advisors, has partnered with six universities that offer certified financial planning programs: Texas Tech, Texas A&M, University of Georgia, Western Michigan, Brigham Young University-Idaho and Kansas State. Students in these programs will have free access to the company’s software to complete their capstone, tax planning and software financial planning courses.

This isn’t a new strategy, fintechs have been partnering with universities for years. I wrote about it in 2019 and an InvestmentNews predecessor covered it in 2013. It’s a very smart strategy for fintech companies. It can be tough to get veteran advisors to adopt new tools or change the ways that have worked for them for awhile, but by making a tool like Holisitiplan a vital part of how the next generation learns how to plan, they can become natural advocates for the technology in their careers. With many fintech companies making themselves available to university CFP programs, it will be interesting to see which ones the students choose.

AIMR ANALYTICS RELEASES ADVISOR COMPARISON TOOL

AdvisorCheck.com, the flagship product from fintech company AIMR Analytics, hopes to help investors research a financial advisor by compiling information from sources like the SEC’s IAPD website and Finra’s BrokerCheck and presenting it in an easier-to-read format. Now, the website has a comprehensive “compare” function that gives investors a side-by-side comparison of multiple financial advisors, as well as the ability to easily share an advisor’s profile with others.

I saw a demo of AdvisorCheck, and it’s pretty useful not just for investors wanting to learn more about the person who may potentially manage their entire retirement account, but for reporters such as yours truly trying to make sure the people commenting on stories are legit. You just type in the name of the advisor and get a detailed profile of the person and the firm, including physical location, disclosures, years of experience, firm history, certifications, exam history, average account size, assets under management, number of employees at their firm, the total number of clients and the ratio of clients to employees. I personally find it much easier to use than IAPD or BrokerCheck.

GW&K SELECTS PUREFACTS

PureFacts Financial Solutions — which provides a software for fee calculation, processing and reporting — has landed GW&K, a Boston-based investment firm with $47 billion in assets under management, as a customer. PureFacts recently raised $37 million in financing and says it integrates with all major custodians, CRMs, and banking portfolio management and accounting systems. GW&K plans to use the software to consolidate client and institutional fee calculations and billing management into a single system.

This is the first time I’ve heard of PureFacts, but the value of using automation to help wealth and asset managers grow revenue and manage costs is interesting. Back-office work like fee calculation and reporting should be a no-brainer place for advisors to implement technology.

Related Topics: Holistiplan, Orion Advisor Solutions, Raymond James, Wells Fargo