Having won advisor assets, Envestnet's next -- more Google-like -- play is for their smarts
The Chicago outsourcer will soak up and synthesize information from 23,000 advisors and distribute it in real time in an effort to create one big giant brain out of an atomized industry
Pershing
|FPA
|Nexus Strategy
|Envestnet
|HiddenLevers
|Dynasty
|Pinnacle
|The Ensemble Practice
|Lenox Wealth
Related Moves
Pershing restores Ben Harrison as sole heir to Mark Tibergien -- for now -- but solo tenure may be temporary, with other top talent in the wings
Co-Head Maura Creekmore's departure leaves Harrison at the top by default, but the company is mum on future hiring and how much RIA autonomy gets sacrificed in name of 'convergence.'
January 19, 2023 at 3:31 AM
Bill Crager shuffles the deck on management team created just seven months ago: Tony Leal is out of 'Big Three' inner circle, replaced by Morgan Stanley vet Rose Palazzo
The RIA software 'trailblazer' and co-founder of MoneyGuidePro has been working on departure for a year; will transition to a 'consultant,' company says
January 7, 2023 at 1:50 AM
Envestnet just named an ESG head to meld 'wellness,' 'The Intelligent Financial Life' and 'sustainable investing' into a single nirvana -- that starts outside of the product realm
Ron Ransom earned CEO Bill Crager's trust as chief business development officer and now will define how Envestnet conducts itself as a global citizen and vendor of wellness.
July 27, 2022 at 2:27 AM
UBS bets its 'wealth' future on ex-Schwabbie Naureen Hassan, a corporate digital A-lister, who analysts give a fighting chance to transcend PaineWebber's ossified culture
Still a $2-billion cash-flow cow, the Swiss bank's 6,000-broker, US-based wirehouse is milking aging broker relationships with aging investors but needs a new kind of human presence, empathy, mindset and smarts to draw in Gen Z.
July 16, 2022 at 1:35 AM
See more related moves
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Financial Planning Association
Association
Top Executive: Lauren S. Schadle, CAE, Executive Director and CEO
Pershing Advisor Solutions
Asset Custodian
Top Executive: Mark Tibergien
FPPad.com
Consulting Firm
Top Executive: Bill Winterberg
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TAMP
Top Executive: Jud Bergman
HiddenLevers
RIA Publication
Top Executive: Eric Clarke, CEO
The Ensemble Practice LLC
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Top Executive: Philip Palaveev
Kitces.com
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Specialized Breakaway Service, Mergers and Acquisition Firm, RIA Set-up Firm
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Stephen Winks
Big data cuts both ways as it exposes cost, pricing and effectiveness in highly transparent ways.
The takeaway is there is a lot of fat to cut, less costly, more modern and far more effective approaches to portfolio construction and far higher margins to be achieved at the advisor level. (Brokers have no control over their margins, it is set by their supporting firm determined by its overhead.)
This will make brokers selling of investment products to include investment advice products seem antiquated to advisors addressing and managing investment and administrative values in the best intererst of the investing public.
Importantly, advisors and brokers alike become accountable for and have ongoing responsibilities for their recommendations—presently not possible in a brokerage format—the principle industry push back on supporting the fiduciary standing of brokers.
EnvestNet begs the question of whether any broker/dealer afford can afford to self select not to support the highest level of advisory services and the associated professional standing accorded to brokers fulfilling their fiduciary duties in the best interest of the investing public.
Big data greatly simplifies the business by requiring simplifing processes. It boils down to a very simple equation—how effective is each individual avisor in addressing and managing investment and administrative values in the consumer’s best interest.
Let’s hope that EnvestNet is not the only firm who wants to help brokers and advisors grow as professionals and accordingly build and grow their business. Right now, given the behavior of our largest brokerage wirehouses which historically have been insular to the best interest of the investing public, it looks like EnvestNet is beginning to pull away from the pack.SCW
Pat Mulvey
Anyone familiar with the Trust Universe Comparison Service (TUCS) which Wilshire created back in the 1980’s? Technology today makes the communication more immediate but the idea was the same only directed to institutional assets- gather all this raw data like account size, asset allocation, returns for peer groups etc. (for TUCS from the Trust companies and for envestnet from the advisor)- clean the data, organize and analyze it and sell it back to the providers of the raw data for a fee. So, if you want to know the quartile rankings of say…equity exposure for account between 2-5M you can. Or if you want the exposure to passive strategies you can as well. TUCS was very successful and perhaps this will be as well. Surprised the custodians don’t do this.
