T3 2023 news: Altruist buys SSG, Envestnet upgrades MoneyGuide and more

On the heels of becoming a full custodian, Altruist announced the acquisition of brokerage and custodial platform Shareholders Service Group in a deal company officials say will "double the footprint of its RIA-exclusive services and product offerings." 

The specifics of the purchase were not disclosed as the news broke on the third day of T3, but Altruist CEO and INVEST keynote speaker Jason Wenk said it was mostly a cash deal. A statement released the same day by Wenk also stresses that "SSG leadership, management, and employees all have a place at Altruist."

He added that there will be no mandatory changes in services or products as the priority is to "seamlessly bring the two organizations together with a focus on optimizing technology and service delivery across the shared advisor base."

The San Diego-based SSG operates a platform that serves more than 1,600 advisors across the United States. 

"This acquisition enhances our mission to make human financial advice better, more accessible, and affordable to everyone," Wenk said in a statement. "Our firms have strong alignment on the substantial value financial advisors add to their clients' lives and how we can empower them to reach more people."

After operating for more than two decades, the SSG leadership team said it was looking for the ideal partner to help them usher in their next chapter of growth. Peter Mangan, founder and CEO of SSG, said when the company got its start in 2002, the goal was to be the most dependable and trusted partner to advisors, built on a core of transparency and efficiency.

"Today we are very excited to be joining with Altruist in writing the next chapter in the RIA custody business as we empower advisors with the most cutting-edge technology and service platform," Mangan said.

Dan Skiles, president of SSG, added: "We know that together, Altruist and SSG will deliver what independent RIAs expect and need from a custodian in order to best serve their clients."

The acquisition of SSG continues what has been a busy month for Altruist. Exactly two weeks ago, the organization celebrated the launch of Altruist Clearing, a self-clearing brokerage that aims to spur movement away from legacy financial institutions.

Altruist previously relied on Apex Clearing for custody and clearing. With its evolution to a full-service custodian, Wenk said Altruist stands alone with a technological advantage over other custodians and technology platforms dependent on third-party clearing houses.

"Together we're primed to deliver some long-awaited innovation to the RIA custody business, at a time when the need for quality independent financial advice is greater than ever," Wenk said in a statement.

With the great wealth transfer in mind, Envestnet has rolled out a number of MoneyGuide improvements targeting advisors whose practices incorporate financial planning.

The latest Envestnet | MoneyGuide generational technology release features updates across its platform that "supports forward-thinking advisors who are seeking to deliver personalized and relevant planning experiences," according to the Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based firm. 

The release includes the rollout of a Goals-Based Planning digital experience, which can align investment strategies with specific goals and streamline their implementation. Additional release highlights include advanced earmarking with Monte Carlo; an employer awards section that has  replaced stock options and restricted stock; and a new entity section that will enable advisors and their clients to add information about trusts, charities and businesses in plans.

"These ongoing updates to our comprehensive financial planning suite give advisors quality data and actionable insights into their clients' financial lives," Kevin Hughes, chief growth officer of Envestnet | MoneyGuide, said in a statement. "In the wake of recent market volatility, advisors can utilize the Envestnet | MoneyGuide platform's capabilities to digitally re-engage clients around planning, as well as work with new clients and prospects — including next-generation recipients of wealth transfers — on sticking to a defined plan over time that can give them both confidence and peace of mind."  

According to Envestnet, it is estimated that baby boomers will pass down $68 trillion in wealth over the next 25 years. At the same time, Envestnet's generational research shows that a surprising 50% of boomers are not formally organizing their long-term finances.

"There has arguably never been a more important time for an emphasis on financial planning, and we consistently update our offering to set the pace of planning technology. Our goal is to make it easier for advisors to develop deeper client relationships and expand their services to all clients and prospects — regardless of their wealth, stage in life, or complexity of their finances — through digital financial planning experiences," Rose Palazzo, group president of Envestnet Financial Planning, said in a statement. "This generational technology release delivers enhancements across our platform that support core functionality and also lay a foundation for continuous financial planning enhancements to the platform."

FP Alpha, a New York-based wealthtech firm that develops AI-driven financial planning software, has added new estate planning and client snapshot capabilities to its suite of offerings.

The company's estate planning module, called The Estate Lab 2.0, has been upgraded and is now available to advisors as a standalone project.

The Estate Lab's new features include the ability to automatically transfer key data points from wills and trusts to the software. FP Alpha says this will allow advisors to compare alternative estate planning scenarios to the current one by pulling in assets to illustrate how those assets would transfer at death today, and at death of the first and second spouse.  

The Estate Lab will also display changes in beneficiaries or placement of assets by incorporating several simple and complex estate vehicles including various gifting strategies.

"Advisors spoke and we listened," Andrew Altfest, president of New York-based RIA Altfest Personal Wealth Management and CEO of FP Alpha, said in a statement. "Instead of exclusively packaging the FP Alpha platform with all 16 planning disciplines, the estate module will be available for purchase as a standalone product. With estate planning being incorporated more and more into the comprehensive advice process, we wanted to ensure as many advisors as possible had access to our solution."  

Meanwhile, FP Alpha's new P&C Snapshot is billed as a "first of its kind" tool that uploads and analyzes home and auto insurance documents to the platform. FP Alpha's AI will "read" complex and lengthy documents, and generate reports that more simply display a client's insurance situation.

The firm says the P&C Snapshot tool will allow advisors to distinguish themselves from peers by bringing clients peace of mind via a second review for their insurance coverage, as well as the potential to address gaps or deficiencies in current coverage.

"In a few short months, the snapshot feature will visually depict, in a client friendly deliverable, the key data points associated with each policy," Rachel Schwab, product manager for FP Alpha, said in a statement. "Studies show that most clients want their advisors to help with P&C, but almost no one is getting it. There are simply no tools available, but our technology is going to solve that.