Happy Tuesday, Fellow Fintechers –
I’ll spare you my sarcastic remarks about the thousands of days it feels like we’ve been Sheltering in Place. Some business openings have begun here in Georgia as of last Friday, though few employees are showing up to man those salons or businesses – they make more money staying home for now. How ironic is that? The new normal.
Anyhow, the fintech stories have absolutely exploded over the past month. Lots of wealthtech firms are adding new capabiliities, new integration partners, and fintech in general has seen a huge spike in usage during this time. We knew this day would come. We didn’t know it would be because of a pandemic, but when this all passes over – hopefully at some point in the not too distant future – the way we all conduct our finances and the way advisors interact with their clients will have vastly changed.
And to that end, FA Mag senior editor Chris Robbins has penned a terrific piece, after listening in on a recent TDA Institutional webinar, entitled “How to Make Your Virtual Office Better", chock full of great advice for advisors. A must read.
We also have breaking news that wealthtech Docupace has been acquired by “growth equity investment firm” (a/k/a private equity) FTV Capital, which has raised over $3.7B to invest in several high level sectors, including fintech. David Knoch will be joining as the firm’s new CEO and former CEO Mark Tapling will remain with the company for an interim transition period. Docupace founder Michael Pinsker will serve as president under the new ownership.
Moving on, we have our usual WealthTech Weekly column from our resident guru Vasyl Soloshchuk, who does such a great job of keeping us informed on industry news each week. We also have a terrific new 3 (actually four) Questions interview with Randy Lambert, COO of Orion Advisor Solutions. There are two things you should know about Randy – first, he thinks robotic processing automation & machine learning represent the future of the wealthtech industry, and two, he has some really spiffy hand-painted sneakers (with the Orion logo & color scheme) that he likes to sport to the world on social media. Check out the piece!
Robbins has also written several additonal pieces for our readers today including coverage of news from Chaikin Analytics on a new ETF ratings system they’ve recently rolled out, word of a new onboarding system being offered to advisors by eMoney, and news that our friends at Vestmark have announced an integration relationship with Redi2 to offer billing solutions to their customer base.
Chris has also delved into the story that Motif Investing is closing its doors (actually sending its customers over to Folio Investing). We’re shocked, but not surprised. How they blew through $126 million in venture money is beyond me, but their clients should be well-served under Folio’s steady hand, founded by former SEC Commissioner under President Clinton, Steve Wallman.
Finally, we finish up with news from marketing wealthtech AdvisorStream that the firm has detected a major surge in online interest in financial advice since the COVID outbreak. Not surprising – we’ve seen this pattern for several weeks now.
Folks, read up, stay safe, and remember, one day at a time is all it takes! Sending you and yours good vibes from ATL!
Yours in Fintech,
Cindy Taylor