Fee-based financial advisors who use the Orion Advisor Technology platform will now have direct access to DPL Financial Partners’ commission-free annuity marketplace.
“Orion’s approach is to create a full-circle experience for advisors that provides direct, one-click access from the Orion desktop into DPL’s product discovery and fulfillment technology,” said Steve Werrlein, executive vice president of business development at DPL, the Louisville, Ky.-based clearinghouse for no-load, commission-free annuities for RIAs. “Then, daily DPL data feeds into Orion-enable advisors to manage annuity assets alongside other investments in the client’s portfolio.”
The six million technology accounts that Omaha-headquartered Orion services, along with thousands more independent advisory firms, will now be able to go straight from their desktops into DPL’s product discovery tool and its team of licensed insurance consultants, a press release stated. Orion advisors will be able to click into DPL’s proprietary tools for discovering and comparing annuities by type, benefits, and costs. In addition, DPL’s information news flow will be available on the Orion Advisor Technology platform, so advisors can manage clients’ annuity assets alongside other investments in clients' portfolio.
This is the second major platform that DPL has integrated with. In August 2021, it announced a partnership with SS&C Technologies Holdings, a Windsor, Conn.-based provider of investment-management software. That deal created the SS&C Advent Insurance Marketplace, billed as a first-of-its-kind solution for RIAs because it gave them the power to handle a wide range of fee-only products curated by DPL’s proprietary tools.
“These deals are similar,” said Werrlein, in that both tech platforms were “responding to their users’ desire for integrated access to robust, fee-based annuities and insurance.”
SS&C, however, created a separate insurance marketplace powered by DPL, he added.
As of the end of last year, Orion serviced more than $4 trillion in assets under administration and nearly $66 billion of wealth-management-platform assets.
Brian McLaughlin, Orion’s president, said in a statement, “In an increasingly competitive advisory environment, advisors have told us that bringing their clients’ insurance under the fiduciary umbrella will help to differentiate their firm and offering."
As for DPL, Werrlein said it will “continue to partner with advisor technology leaders to integrate these solutions into the advisor desktop, where they are making investment decisions on behalf of their clients.”
DPL founder and CEO David Lau said in a statement, “Commission-free annuities and insurance solutions are critical tools for fiduciary advisors to serve the holistic needs of their clients and grow their practices.”