This month's headlines have us quite optimistic about the direction of the WealthTech industry. Here are the five stories we wanted to cover for the September Word on WealthTech.
Having a lot of digitally savvy, forward-thinking people running a legacy, but highly scalable, ubiquitous technology opens up some really interesting doors for the industry. If done right, it can bring deeper levels of market commentary, content, intelligence and thought to how people engage with information about our markets. And it can be set in a very high way, quite quickly. So we're excited about it.
We have been really impressed with Advyzon in the last few months. And we love seeing four Morningstar executives who built a highly scalable, well-used Morningstar advisory technology build something new in a modern direction themselves (leaving the big company to start a cool new company is similar to the origin story of F2). Plus, it's an interesting time—Morningstar recently announced layoffs of some of their integration staff, while the people who left to start Advyzon seem to be ramping up quickly. So if you don't know them now, you should put them on your radar for rebalancing and portfolio building for independent firms, because we're likely to see Advyzon grow and become more important in the market.
Arch is a firm we didn't have on our radar all that much two years ago, but has become very attractive to RIAs drowning in data organization and alts. Their technology, approach to it, and customer service make them highly regarded among some of the most well-regarded RIAs in the country. We expect Arch to become a major competitor to other alts data collection platforms.
LPL
We've noticed the trend of game-changing moves from the LPL. At the forefront of IBD's technology and a leader in helping independent-minded advisors grow, they are now expanding the capabilities of their technology platform into broader uses. LPL has incorporated advisory businesses into their platform along with exciting innovations aimed at supporting hybrid advisors through a seamless and unified offering of RIA custodial and newer high net worth services that could possibly shake up the business of custody of RIA. These moves likely mean that for LPL's growth-minded advisor base, growing and growing on the LPL platform is more attractive than leaving to join other traditional RIA custodians. We have always been impressed by LPL's ability to be scalable and innovative. It appears to be doing so right where many of its traditional IBD peers have faltered in the past.