Cetera works with Asset-Map, MSCI goes with Google

The biggest story in tech this week is the ongoing layoffs happening at the biggest companies in the world.

Facebook parent company Meta let go of 11,000 employees; Alphabet got rid of 12,000, including Google’s in-house massage therapists; and Amazon continues the process of eliminating 18,000 employees worldwide. Microsoft announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees the same week it reported $52.7 billion in quarterly revenue and invested $10 billion in OpenAI.

I have been wondering if and when this is going to trickle down into the financial advisor fintech niche. Some companies have already done some layoffs, but I’ve gotten a lot of pitches over the years from a lot of small startups that I’ve never heard from again. What happened to them or how are they doing these days?

Some layoffs have already occurred in the wealth fintech space, and we’re likely to see more, but most companies that serve advisors benefit from being private companies that don’t have to disclose financial information. Their PR teams are not coming Investment news to talk about a round of cost-cutting layoffs, but it’s important for advisors to know how their technology vendors are doing. These tools can play a critical role in how advisors manage a retiree’s savings, a family’s college fund or a company’s workplace benefits.

So if you’re employed by an advisor fintech going through a budget crunch, reach out to me via email or social media to tell your story.

On the bright side, it’s not all doom and gloom. We have new partnerships, products and funding to talk about. Here are the rest of this week’s fintech headlines.

CETERA SELECT ASSET MAP

Asset-Map has an agreement to bring its financial planning software to 8,000 financial professionals in Cetera’s network of advisors, tax professionals, banks and credit unions. Cetera will gain access to Asset-Map Reports, which help advisors visualize the entire family’s holdings in a single interactive view, as well as products for prospecting, event risk indicators and goal-based planning.

This is a major gain for Asset-Map in terms of exposure to financial advisers and the assets they manage. So-called “enterprise deals” are where fintech advisors focus their energy to grow, which makes sense. While individual RIAs may be a bit more adept at choosing fintech, it requires companies like Asset-Map to sell door-to-door, so to speak. An agreement with a firm that Cetera instead gets the company in front of thousands of advisers at once.

MSCI ALLIES WITH GOOGLE CLOUD

The next generation of products that MSCI is building for asset managers, banks, insurance companies and asset managers will use an investment data platform built on Google Cloud. This platform enables MSCI to acquire, ingest and process data faster using tools such as Google’s artificial intelligence and natural language processing technologies.

For years, Amazon Web Services was a dominant force in serving as a cloud data provider to companies in the financial sector. I can’t recall a project of this scale instead of aligning with Google Cloud, and it could be an indicator that Google is looking to become a much bigger player in the space. Don’t discount Microsoft either. One reason it invested $10 billion in OpenAI is to incorporate it into its own cloud services offering.

MORNINGSTAR SUPPLIES INVESTMENT PLANNING TO THE ADVISOR WORKSTATION

A new workflow in Morningstar’s Advisor Workstation pulls in the company’s investment data, research and ratings to help advisors build a comprehensive set of investment recommendations. Like financial planning engines, advisors input a client’s risk tolerance, sustainability beliefs and goals to produce specific product recommendations to achieve those goals.

A common criticism I hear from advisors about many financial planning tools is the struggle to put a plan into action. The software is great for working with a client to build a plan, but there can be obstacles when it comes to opening accounts and choosing the investment products. By focusing on the investment implementation part of the equation, Morningstar’s new product could address this – and help prove that recommendations were made in the best interests of clients if a regulator gets involved.

ELEMENTS RECEIVED $5 MILLION

Mobile financial monitoring technology Elements secured a $5 million seed round led by Flyover Capital. The company has grown tenfold since January 2022 and now counts 260 companies as customers.

Elements is all about making it easier to deliver practical financial advice, such as its “one-page financial plan” which claims to be an easy-to-understand guide advisers can deliver via mobile device. It remains to be seen whether Elements can make a breakthrough in the advisor fintech space.

KWANTI PROVIDES FUNCTIONS FOR SCREENING PROPERTIES

Portfolio analysis fintech Kwanti has a new product called Screener that helps advisors find the best performing assets and products that fit their client’s financial needs. Advisors can search millions of ETFs, mutual funds, SMAs and individual stocks to come up with a narrow list based on specific criteria they set. Screener will display products that are similar to all assets, and compare up to four products to help advisors find an asset that may be a better fit.

Products like this make so much sense that it’s a little surprising that they aren’t already ubiquitous throughout the industry. It can help advisors go deeper into the analysis and easily build a tailored portfolio for clients.

BRIDGE FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY REMARKS, LAUNCHES NEW PRODUCT

The company formerly known as Bridge Financial Technology, which provides API-based digital infrastructure to wealth management firms, has rebranded as BridgeFT in connection with the launch of its latest product: WealthTech API. BridgeFT CEO Joe Stensland said the WealthTech API will help firms “control their own digital experiences” by providing trade-ready and accurate data from multiple custodians, removing the need for manual reconciliation and eliminating time spent on internal data aggregation.

BridgeFT touts its product as “enabling better results” and “reimagining the potential of data” that can solve all the problems with legacy technology that many financial services firms use. The words “seamless” and “streamlining” and “strength” and “turnkey” are all in there, but it’s unclear what the WealthTech API actually do beyond data aggregation. Perhaps BridgeFT really is an improvement over what’s out there for advisors, but there are many who want to provide firms with API-based infrastructure.

[More: Move past fintech buzzwords toward a proactive wealth management future]

DMW STRATEGIC CONSULTING PARTNERS WITH LUMIANT

Digital client engagement fintech Lumiant leverages the practice management mentors at DMW Strategic Consulting to advise wealth management firms on how to incorporate Lumiant’s products into their practices. DMW will also provide Lumiant customers with practice management training and how to design and implement an effective customer experience. More than 60 companies currently use Lumiant, according to the company.

The collaboration is about helping advisors improve the “client experience,” the nebulous term that no one can quite define, but which everyone is very sure advisors are bad at. DMW Principal Dennis Moseley-Williams said Lumiant’s technology “prioritises life outcomes and client needs over financial returns.” Will it drive referrals, retention and revenue growth? We’ll see.