Natalie Wolfsen finds herself at the nexus of change.
After Charles Goldman stepped down as CEO of Concord, Calif.-based AssetMark Financial Holdings on Feb. 23, its board of directors named Wolfsen to take his place.
Less than a week later, AssetMark, whose core business is as a turnkey asset management platform (TAMP), announced it was acquiring financial planning software provider Voyant, a transaction that promises to expand its technological and geographical scope.
After a 25-year career in investments, digital product development and marketing, Wolfsen also now finds herself in rare company: a woman leading one of the largest and most influential investment and technology providers in the U.S.
“I’m excited about our future,” she said. “I think it’s exciting that now young women who are thinking about financial services can see a growing, successful group of women on executive teams and now as CEOs, too.”
AssetMark, which is one of the world’s largest TAMPs with $74 billion in platform assets, also recently launched AssetMark Institutional, an RIA-oriented channel encompassing products, technology, operational support and community resources. The service launched with 350 RIAs and $7 billion in assets already on board.
AssetMark Institutional includes portfolio management, reporting, proposal systems, billing, access to multiple custodians, financial planning resources, client experience and engagement resources, including an investor portal, and business consulting and practice management resources. The launch solidifies AssetMark as a source of end-to-end technology and support for advisors, and bolsters its role as a TAMP specializing on goals-based planning and financial wellness.
“We believe that planning is evolving to be more of a wellness conversation,” said Wolfsen. “You don’t just do a plan once and check in periodically. Instead, you have to offer the client a cash-flow view of their life and a goal-based, or success-based, view of their investments. Those two things are interrelated, and have to be offered side by side.”
That’s where the Voyant acquisition makes AssetMark’s new offering all the more powerful. According to Wolfsen, Voyant’s platform was already constructed with a financial wellness focus. Voyant helps bring AssetMark’s existing offerings and technology onto the computers, phones, tablets and other devices of advisors and their clients in a high-touch, holistic manner.
Wolfsen said that, while Voyant catalyzes the goals-based approach, the focus on wellness is not a pivot. AssetMark embraced its identity as a wellness-focused platform prior to her accession to the CEO role. It is an added and renewed emphasis as much of the industry moves away from an investment- and product-oriented approach towards one concentrating on engagement and life management, she said.