At BizEquity, every time business owners or advisors use the firm’s tools to determine a valuation, the information they input is added to the trove of big data the software uses to make its calculations. Thus, as the company finds more partnerships and attracts more users, its products become more sophisticated and more powerful in the hands of financial advisors—and the company has added several significant partnerships so far this year.
In April, the company added a significant carrot for advisors when it incorporated 5500 benefit plan data into the Advisor Office platform. With that information, the company helps advisors identify opportunities in the booming small and midsize retirement plan advisory space.
BizEquity’s capabilities grew even more sophisticated in May when the company announced it was expanding a partnership with Equifax. The latter offers BizEquity’s valuation estimates while BizEquity incorporates Equifax’s data into its processes. Together, the companies have created the “BizEstimate” score, which helps client companies identify their need for insurance and financial products using their valuations, locations, industries and other inputs.
Via the Equifax partnership, BizEquity will also add financial and business details on more than 80 million companies to its database, allowing it to “pre-value” businesses for advisors.
Moving forward, BizEquity will layer artificial intelligence capabilities on top of its big data-driven valuations. That will help advisors provide specific advice to business owners on how to grow the value of their businesses, says Carter.
“We’re also moving beyond business data and business valuation data into personal wealth data, which will open up additional prospecting opportunities for advisors,” says Carter. “We’re also in development of a business valuation institute, where we’re going to launch a professional designation and an online learning experience to help advisors learn more about business valuations and earn the designation.
Starting at $299 per month, BizEquity offers three options for its advisor-facing valuations tool. An “Advisor” package is accessible by one user, creates a branded site for the advisor and allows him or her to search 100 prospective companies per month and create 20 individual reports per year. The “Office” package allows three advisor users and one administrative user, creates an office-branded site and a client-matching network, and provides 300 searches per month and 60 reports per year. The “Enterprise” package enables custom user counts, multiple branded sites, custom report counts, unlimited searches, integration services and a higher level of support.