RBC and Salesforce, Wealthbox and MaxMyInterest
Maybe it’s all the tryptophan, but the week after Thanksgiving always seems to be one of the slower weeks of the year in fintech advisory. The holidays are officially here, and many companies are riding out the end of 2022.
The fallout from FTX continued this week, as former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s interview at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit has many convinced the entrepreneur may be guilty of fraud. While this year’s crypto meltdown has largely spared the traditional financial system, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink revealed that his company has invested approximately $24 million in FTX.
Email or tweet me to let me know what you think are the biggest tech advisor stories of the year, or what you think will be the biggest fintech trends of 2023. We’ve got four weeks left in the year, let’s make them good!
RBC WEALTH CUT COSTS WITH SALES FORCE
Salesforce shared data from its work with RBC Wealth Management, which has 2,100 financial advisors in 184 locations, as a case study of the value of its client relationship management software. The company claimed that it consolidated 26 different systems into one CRM, which helped reduce maintenance costs and streamline client onboarding with a single click.
As one of the largest business-to-business technology companies on the planet, Salesforce has been trying to grow its presence in the financial services space for years now. However, one criticism it routinely faces is that it is too expensive for smaller, independent wealth management firms and contains too many features that are only useful for the largest institutions. This case study presents a compelling case for using CRM as the central hub of a technology stack, but not everyone has the technical resources or budget of RBC Wealth to fully utilize Salesforce.
MAXMYINTEREST INTEGRATES WITH WEALTHBOX
Speaking of CRM, Wealthbox CRM, a Salesforce competitor built for registered investment advisors and broker-dealers, announced a new integration with MaxMyInterest, a fintech offering cash management solutions for advisors. Businesses using Wealthbox can now begin the onboarding process to deposit clients into FDIC-protected savings accounts with returns as high as 3.83% APY.
Thanks to the Federal Reserve, cash may have become the best-performing asset class in 2022, as my colleague Jeff Benjamin has covered. High interest rates are likely to be here for a while, opening up opportunities for fintech companies like MaxMyInterest, Flourish and other cash management options for advisors to grow.
STARTUP POST IMPRESSIVE GROWTH
CapIntel, a Toronto-based fintech advisor that entered the US market in 2022, raising $11 million in funding, has seen impressive growth despite a difficult year for many tech companies. At a time when both start-ups and established technology companies are announcing layoffs, CapIntel increased its headcount by 185% to 60 people.
The company is primarily focused on automated proposal generation and attributes its growth to addressing a critical need among wealth management firms. CapIntel received several awards for its growth in the Canadian market, but it will be an interesting name to keep an eye on as it tries to penetrate the US market.
SMARSH EXPANDS MANAGEMENT TEAM
Similarly, communications fintech company Smash hired Mike Cagle and Leander LeSure as CFO and head of people and diversity, respectively. Smash says it now serves 6,500 clients worldwide, including BDs and RIAs in the US
LeSure brings more than 20 years of HR experience to Smarsh, including positions at Western Union and American Express, while Cagle most recently served as vice president of financial planning and analytics at Veeam Software, a backup and recovery company.
[More: Naureen Hassan to oversee UBS Americas’ digital-focused teams]
