TradeWarrior was integrated into the Oranj platform so that even advisors on the free-to-use services can access all of the rebalancing tools relevant to the Model Marketplace. The rebalancing capability uses algorithms to help advisors monitor accounts and identify tax-harvesting opportunities.

“Over the past two years we’ve invested heavily into the technology that we acquired from TradeWarrior,” said Lyon. “It was a 10-year-old rebalancing application that started as a desktop application for a single firm. It was eventually marketed to additional firms and moved to the cloud, but it still needed a significant investment to modernize it. We invested heavily into it spearheaded by our chief technology officer (Perry Moutzouros), head of product development (Lauri Hofherr) and head of engineering (Mike Johnson), and have really brought the rebalancing engine in line with some of the larger players you know of in the space like Tamarac.”

Emphasizing Ease Of Use
But Oranj has one more differentiator relevant to advisors and their clients, said Lyon: It’s easy for advisors and end investors to come on board the platform.

“We have to reduce the friction to adopt new, modern software,” said Lyon. “Technology evolves things, quickly, and we help advisors adopt our platform not just by offering standalone application that does a lot of different things, but also with direct assistance getting it up and running and making it an integrated part of their overall business.”

One of the reasons so many advisors remain on installed, obsolete legacy technology is that moving between platforms is costly, time-consuming and effort-intensive, said Lyon.

In 2019, Oranj created a five-member client success team to offer white-glove service to advisors coming onto their platform, giving them a hands-on alternative to Oranj’s automated offerings.

Today, the company offers two different styles of advisor onboarding, tailored to each firm’s needs. In what Lyon calls a “quick serve” program, advisors take more of a self-driven approach, assisted by intuitive technology, that allows them to get on board, customize Oranj’s platform and learn best practices for using  the software with clients and prospects. The company also offers what Lyon calls a “quick start” program, where the client success team can intervene with one-on-one assistance.

But the firm’s efforts don’t stop there, said Lyon. Oranj monitors data and analytics of how different advisory firms use the platform and proactively reaches out to them with information and education about how features they’re under-using – or not using at all – might benefit their practices, using co-browsing capabilities to demonstrate capabilities for advisors.

Adjusting To A New Normal
Being a fintech company, Oranj adjusted quickly to the need to shelter-in-place and allow its employees to work from home, said Lyon.

Lyon has strived to keep Oranj’s culture intact, even while working remotely. In 2019, the company was named among the best places to work in financial technology by SourceMedia and the Best Companies Group. While the criteria for the award included surveys to determine the employee workplace experience, Oranj was also recognized for the perks it regularly provides to its employees, like free tickets to Chicago’s annual Lollapalooza music festival. The company also keeps an ongoing collection of vinyl records, asking new hires to name five records of their own choosing to add to the collection.