Happy Tuesday, Fellow Fintechers!
Today we launch with an insightful 3 Questions with Ed O’Brien, CEO of eMoney Advisor, who shares that he began his career in fintech as a programmer at Fidelity, and first fell in love with technology after receiving a Christmas gift of a Commodore 20 in the early 80’s. O’Brien moved over from Fidelity into the CEO role at eMoney when Fidelity acquired the firm in 2015.

Financial Advisor’s Chris Robbins reports on last week’s closing of the merger of Orion Advisor Solutions with Brinker Capital, creating a $44 billion TAMP serving over 10,000 advisors. Robbins has also filed stories on the recent integration of AdvisorPeak with Panoramix’ billing platform and the addition of KraneShares to Chicago-based Oranj’s model marketplace. 

We also report on several new wealthtech firms that have caught T3 founder Joel Bruckenstein’s eye of late, including FP Alpha, Vanilla and Supernova, amongst others.

In a fascinating piece, we learn that technology-consulting firm ITRS Group Ltd. is projecting that trading volume could spike eight-fold on November 3rd, election day. That sounds like pure and unadulterated chaos which could trigger all kinds of trading halts and massive volatility if their prediction is correct. 

A former advisor to the president of the Dallas Fed has authored an op-ed stating that automation in mortgage refinancing, which has driven a huge spike in refinancing during the pandemic, could prove economically disastrous for the economy long run, even though it’s been beneficial short term. That’s a rather jarring thought. 

Finally, FA Mag editor Jackie Sergeant has provided an analysis for us of a recent survey conducted by Broadridge Financial Solutions on advisors’ views of asset managers. It seems the wholesalers who sell these strategies to advisors for client portfolios are not perceived to have adapted particularly well to the “new normal” during the pandemic.

All in all, another exceptionally busy week in the world of wealthtech. Read up and be in the know!

Yours in Fintech,
Cindy Taylor