Orion Adds Totum Risk, LifeYield To Portfolio Management Software

Orion Advisor Technology, which offers portfolio management software for financial advisors, is now integrating the Totum Risk Investment Life Scoring Tool within its client portal, as well as the LifeYield household portfolio management solution.

Totum Risk analyzes clients’ risk preferences and capacities. Its interface gives clients a questionnaire and view of their risk scores on desktops or mobile devices.

The integration makes it easy for advisors on Orion’s platform to review a client’s scores and make investment recommendations and investment policy statements.

LifeYield, meanwhile, offers software for multi-account, tax-smart portfolio management. Embedded in the platform is the company’s “Taxficient Score,” which helps advisors quantify the financial benefits of improved asset location.

LifeYield uses data stored in the Orion platform, and its reports include the Taxficient Score and suggestions for how to adjust asset locations to reduce client tax exposure. Advisors can also manually take those reports back to Orion’s trading platform, Eclipse, for swift execution.

Totum Risk is headquartered in Atlanta and Los Angeles, LifeYield in Boston. Orion is based in Omaha, Neb.

American Portfolios Launches Digital Prospecting Tool
American Portfolios Financial Services Inc., an independent broker-dealer headquartered in Holbrook, N.Y., has launched BlueDock, a digital practice management prospecting and back office tool to help advisors acquire new clients.

BlueDock streamlines both practice management and back office functions by engaging prospective and existing clients in the data-gathering process. Established and prospective clients, along with their family members, receive e-mail or direct-link invitations to explore or review their financial goals using a series of calculators that help them plan for retirement, college expenses, wealth management or the purchase of a home.

Once advisors have established a business relationship with a prospective client, they can use the data collected to create a new account form in American Portfolios’ STARS business processing system without having to retype the information.

Fidelity Introduces First HSA For Financial Intermediaries
Fidelity Investments now offers the industry’s only full-service health savings account (HSA) for financial intermediaries.

An HSA is a tax-advantaged medical savings account that can help investors pay for qualified medical expenses. HSAs offer a triple tax advantage: contributions are tax-deductible, investors can spend their money on qualified medical expenses tax-free and any growth is tax-free.

Broker-dealer firms, banks and RIAs that are clients of Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions now have access to this multifaceted product, which enables clients to better prepare and manage their health-care expenses while allowing advisors to diversify their product offerings through the platform’s more than 10,000 mutual funds, stocks, bonds and ETFs.

The Fidelity HSA is fully integrated with Wealthscape, Fidelity’s advisor technology platform. To open or contribute to an HSA, individuals must be covered by a high-deductible health plan and cannot be enrolled in Medicare or be a dependent on another person’s tax return. Learn more at www.fidelity.com/hsa.

Snappy Kraken Releases Advisor Marketing Trends Report
Snappy Kraken, a marketing technology company in Ormond Beach, Fla., has released a comprehensive analysis of investment advisor marketing trends based on more than 9.3 million data points gleaned from 14,229 marketing campaigns in 2019.

The report focuses on the types of content and subject matter that attract the most prospects while also engaging current clients. The report also offers insights into why this content is effective, looks at online traffic sources that produce the strongest results, looks at how to maximize return on investment with minimal spend, and talks about what to expect from marketing efforts based on analytical marketing performance benchmarks.

The “State of Digital Marketing Financial Adviser Online Marketing Report and Benchmarking Study” is available at www.stateofdigital.report.

LPL Integrates Envestnet MoneyGuide With ClientWorks Connected
LPL Financial, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, is now offering its advisors the Envestnet MoneyGuide with ClientWorks Connected.

ClientWorks Connected is a goals-based tool that enables advisors to quickly and easily create personalized reports for their clients and prospects. Through MoneyGuide’s integration with ClientWorks, LPL advisors can see real-time account values, down to the position level, as well as plan probability in real time. In addition, plan reports are seamlessly imported back into ClientWorks.

The software is available to advisors with single-sign-on functionality, with no extra clicks necessary after logging into ClientWorks, enabling them to leverage the tool as part of their technology workstation.

Picnic Tax Matches Clients Online With Tax Prep Pros
Picnic Tax, headquartered in New York, has launched a new online service that matches clients with their ideal tax preparation professional.

The online service provides individuals with a custom online tax filing experience designed just for them through a curated network of 100 accountants and CPAs.

The tax professional that the client selects will prepare their income tax return on the back end in just 15 minutes with no hidden fees or surprise upsells, while ensuring that no money is left on the table.

Picnic Tax’s pricing starts at $200.