Refinitiv upgrades digital tools with Advisor Software purchase

Refinitiv is integrating new tech tools for wealth managers using the company's Digital Investor platform after announcing its acquisition of fintech Advisor Software Inc. on Wednesday. 

With ASI’s software, Refinitiv will add tax-aware portfolio rebalancing, Monte Carlo-based progress-to-goal tracking, cash flow and portfolio analysis, investment modeling and proposal generation into the Digital Investor tool, according to Refinitiv’s head of digital wealth management solutions Charles Smith.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Advisers using Digital Investor will also be able to use ASI’s application programming interface as widgets within their existing platforms, Smith said. Moreover, Refinitiv is focusing on refining the rebalancing, goals-based planning, and analytics software from ASI.

The acquisition of ASI comes just one month after Refinitiv launched the Digital Investor tool. Since rolling out the platform, Refinitiv had its eye on aggressively acquiring digital advice technology to build out more tools for advisers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith said.

“The pandemic has created a market shift that has impacted the way clients communicate with advisers and, in turn, created a market for digital advice models where clients communicate via digitalized and automated channels,” Smith said. 

In fact, a Refinitiv survey fielded among 1,000 consumers in April 2020 found that 24% of respondents said they will increase their use of digital channels. Yet, 57% of the respondents said they were disappointed by the online response of the brands they use and the lack of personalization. 

ASI joins a list of tech providers Refinitiv has acquired to grow its wealth management business. Since last year, Refinitiv has built out its products via strategic acquisitions of Scivantage, and partnerships, including SigFig, MarketPsych, Appway, StoneCastle and Sberbank.