STP acquires WealthSite, Docupace productivity toolkit

The tree is decorated, the menorah is ready to be lit, the Festivus pole is in the corner, the presents are wrapped and the holidays are just around the corner.

This will likely be the last Fintech Bytes column of 2022, so I wanted to thank everyone who has read over the year. It was exciting to come back to Investment news as technology editor, and I look forward to another year of big mergers, failed deals and new products.

What do you think were the biggest fintech advisory stories of the year? What big trends do you think will define the coming year? I’d love to hear from you and maybe even feature your thoughts or questions in an upcoming column, so drop me an email or drop me a line at Twitter.

I hope you all have a healthy and happy holiday, however you choose to celebrate, and a safe New Year. See you in 2023. In the meantime, here’s a recap of some of the week’s tech updates.

STP ACQUIRES THE KINGDOM PAGE

Investment operations services provider STP Investment Services acquired WealthSite, a firm that provides customized accounting, portfolio management, reporting and analytics to multifamily offices and other firms serving ultra-high net worth clients. The acquisition brings STP’s total assets under administration to $400 billion.

While there are plenty of technologies to manage and report on a portfolio of stocks, bonds and alternative assets, I often hear about wealth fintechs falling short when it comes to UHNW clients. WealthSite claims to be able to monitor things like classic cars, art and other complex, illiquid assets, and STP’s acquisition is a step towards its goal of being the destination for wealth managers serving the UHNW clientele.

DOCUPACE PUBLISHES PRODUCTIVITY TOOLKIT

The RIA Productivity Suite from Docupace was developed to help companies reduce operational costs, improve efficiency, attract talent and strengthen recruitment. The toolset includes new account opening and client onboarding, direct processing, a digital library of forms, built-in Docusign and integrations with most CRMs used by registered investment advisors.

Docupace CEO David Knoch claims the toolset is flexible enough to meet the needs of the diverse RIA market, while being more affordable than other products on the market. The product was designed in collaboration with the consulting firm Ezra Group to offer the technology and integrations that RIA wants.

STIFEL TURNS TO KX

KX, which produces a database and analytics engine, announced that Stifel Financial Corp. has chosen it to improve market data analysis and decision making. The engine will improve Stifel’s analysis and operation of trading.

As much as people love to say, “Data is the new oil,” actually turning the vast amounts of information that large financial institutions like Stifel have into something useful is an incredibly difficult task. With many firms using legacy brokerage platforms dating back to the 90s, moving to new cloud-based products like KX is a step towards realizing the dream of actionable data.

MODERN LIFE COMPLETES NEW PLATFORM FOR ADVISORS

Digital life insurance brokerage Modern Life has rolled out a new platform to help financial advisors find and offer life insurance to clients. Modern Life is multi-carrier and multi-product, uses data analytics to help determine the highest value products for customers, and offers digital intake forms to make data collection easy.

Demand for life insurance has boomed since the pandemic, with policy sales up 5% and premiums up 20% in 2021, the highest annual growth since 1983. Modern Life’s approach to digitizing how advisers offer insurance helped the firm close a $15 million funding round in August.

SUMMIT LAUNCHES ‘THE RICH JOURNEY‘

Advisor fintech company Summit Wealth Systems has a new tool for its WealthOS product that allows financial advisors to demonstrate the value they provide to clients. The Wealth Journey highlights a client’s personal and financial milestones in their life, the most important tasks an advisor has performed on their behalf, and a summary of meetings with the client.

I’m sure Wealth Journey is a wonderful product for advisors, but have you ever noticed how many technical advisor products are designed to help advisors demonstrate the value they bring to clients? Does any other industry struggle as much as wealth management to justify what their services are worth? It makes me think of that scene in Office Space where the consultants are trying to figure out what an employee does for the company.