Today, we start a weekly news digest. Here, every Monday you can find the main news of the WealthTech industry that have happened during the preceding week.
Last week Fidelity Investments announced that they have amassed $2 trillion in assets for retirement planning, Vanguard claimed top overall honors in The Robo Ranking, and IRESS announced a new initiative to enable users to input into its design and development process. Advisors that use Asset-Maps Platform can now access Orion household data directly. AdvisoryWorld is going to defend its 2017 award titles.
Financial technology business IRESS today announced a new initiative, IRESS Labs, that means more users of its software will be able to input directly into the design and development process and use future functionality in advance of general release.
Recent releases of XPLAN include co-designed features resulting from IRESS Labs. These are:
- A refreshed and contemporary screen design
- A much simpler menu structure to make navigating XPLAN simpler and quicker, and
- A new opportunities management capability that enables better management of the advice and review business pipeline, accessing the rich client data in XPLAN.
You can read more here.
Vanguard Personal Advisor Services claimed top overall honors in Backend Benchmarking’s first edition of The Robo Ranking – the research firm’s first attempt to rank consumer-facing robo investing platforms. The “time-tested, low fee, indexing approach” of the asset manager set it apart from runner-up, Betterment, and honorable mention, SigFig.
As the top robo, Vanguard scored high marks in performance and financial planning services, while getting docked for its hefty $50,000 account minimum and a lack of transparency around its portfolio construction. While the firm packed a punch in its returns, it lost some ground when it came to its online experience, which is notably basic compared to its robo peers.
You can read more here.
Fidelity Investments became the first retirement-plan record keeper to amass $2 trillion in assets on its platform, bolstered by record sales numbers over the past year and a surging stock market.
Defined-contribution assets — including those held in 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans — on Fidelity’s record-keeping platform stood at $2.06 trillion as of June 30. That’s at least $1 trillion more than Fidelity’s closest competitors — TIAA, Vanguard Group and Empower Retirement — none of which have yet broken the $1 trillion barrier.
You can read more here.
AdvisoryWorld, a leading software provider for financial advisors, today announced they will be sponsoring and attending Orion Advisor Service’s Ascent/ Fuse 2018 Conference on September 5-7 at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
Since 2014, AdvisoryWorld has competed and won awards annually at Orion’s Fuse competition for FinTech developers. This year, AdvisoryWorld will be defending its 2017 Fuse award titles of Best Work-Saving Development for Advisors and Best True Hackathon. Additionally, AdvisoryWorld will be exhibiting their seamless integrations with Orion’s New Account Center, Model Center, Client Portals and newly announced Orion Enterprise offering.
You can read more here.
E*Trade Capital Management has launched socially responsible versions of its mutual fund and ETF hybrid portfolio range.
The portfolios vary in allocation between five to six SRI funds and ETFs, depending on risk profile.
‘These portfolios are designed for socially conscious clients who are looking to align their investing with their personal values by investing in socially responsible funds,’ an E*Trade spokeswoman said.
You can read more here.
Asset-Map announces a new integration with Orion Advisor Services (“Orion”), the premier portfolio accounting solution provider for registered investment advisors. This integration brings advisors closer to a fully integrated meeting experience, where clients can see their full financial picture clearly in one screen.
With this integration, advisors can access Orion household data directly through Asset-Maps Platform to get a deeper view on the details about their client’s performance, documents, statements, and allocation in a clean, one-page visual summary. With this integration, advisors can easily show their clients a more informative snapshot of their financial landscape.
You can read more here.
