Estate planning technology provider Vanilla and prospecting platform WealthFeed have extended their respective networks this week, underscoring how quickly wealthtech vendors are locking down distribution deals with both boutique family offices and national RIA networks.
Salt Lake City, Utah-based Vanilla announced Callan Family Office as its latest RIA partner, which includes an agreement by Callan to make a strategic investment in the wealth tech firm.
Meanwhile, WealthFeed, the AI prospecting platform operating out of New York, has entered into an exclusive partnership with The Mather Group, the Chicago-headquartered national RIA managing roughly $17 billion in client assets.
The Vanilla-Callan agreement is built around the planning gaps that emerge at the top of the wealth spectrum, where layered trust and entity structures, multigenerational transfers, and complex ownership reporting routinely outpace off-the-shelf estate software. Under the deal, the two companies will jointly develop consolidated multigenerational planning visualizations, tools for handling complex entity and asset ownership structures, and tighter data connections between Vanilla and the other systems family offices rely on.
Gene Farrell, Vanilla's president and chief executive, said the company was "built from day one to serve the most complex estate planning needs" in the market. Jack Ginter, chief executive of Callan Family Office, framed the partnership as a way to combine his firm's decades of work with ultra-high-net-worth investors with Vanilla's planning technology to help families preserve wealth across generations.
The arrangement also includes a coordinated go-to-market push – joint thought leadership, events, and distribution efforts – aimed at wealth management firms and family offices operating in the ultra-high-net-worth segment.
The Callan agreement is the latest in a run of distribution wins for Vanilla, which in May announced it was extending its estate planning platform to more than 600 advisors across Carson Group's network of over 165 partner offices. Carson Group manages more than $58 billion in assets under management and serves more than 60,000 client families nationally.
Beyond Carson, Vanilla also counts Osaic, Cetera, Mariner Wealth Advisors, and Vanguard among its existing enterprise partners.
On the prospecting side, WealthFeed's selection by The Mather Group gives roughly 100 advisors across TMG's 14 offices firm-wide access to a platform built around so-called money-in-motion intelligence – data signals tied to life events such as inheritances, business sales, promotions, and retirements that indicate a client's assets may soon be in flux.
The platform also supports paths to warm introductions – a key capability it unveiled several months ago via an update to its Discover feature – data enrichment, compliant outreach, and inbound web lead capture.
Founded in 2011, TMG advises on approximately $17 billion in client assets and has completed more than 20 acquisitions since 2018. Deana Lewis, TMG's chief marketing officer, said the WealthFeed deployment gives the firm's advisors a standardized process for identifying prospects across every office.
The deal represents the latest positive turn for WealthFeed, which landed a strategic partnership and minority investment investment from Broadridge Financial Solutions last year.
It also comes as RIAs face what the industry has described as a broader squeeze on referral-driven organic growth at independent firms. While there's no reason to write off referrals totally as a driver of business, one recent survey by Ficomm Partners in partnership with Absolute Engagement suggests the steady rise of digital adoption, including a growing trend of prospective clients vetting firms and advisors online, has taken away at least some of the premium face-to-face connections traditionally commanded.
Chicago-based Mesirow Fiduciary Solutions adds flexPATH's plan-level outsourced fiduciary book, boosting its retirement market reach to $164 billion.
Also, Raymond James's employee advisor channel adds breakaways from Wells Fargo and Stifel, while UBS welcomes an ex-Morgan Stanley duo in Indiana.
It promised guaranteed principal and 10% monthly returns. The SEC says it invested nothing.
Ten years after entering the fee-based annuity market, MassMutual Ascend says nearly half its lifetime sales came in the past two years alone – but barriers remain among fee-only advisors.
Amplify, WealthReach, Zeplyn and Zocks have unveiled partnerships aimed at automating portfolio management, content creation, account opening, and client communication.
Northern Trust’s Ken Lassner shows advisors how to convert volatility into after-tax portfolio gains
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
