Mar 23, 2023

What You Need to Know Broadridge Financial Solutions teamed with Apex Silver to provide integrated cost basis processing and tax information reporting. Orion Advisor Solutions made leadership changes in its wealth management business that include naming Tim Holland to chief investment officer — OCIO. Cambria’s Trinity Portfolios are now available in Envestnet’s Fund Strategist Network. Broadridge Financial Solutions teamed up with a unit of Apex Fintech Solutions to provide the financial services industry with integrated cost basis processing and tax information reporting, the firms said Tuesday in a joint announcement. The new offering will reduce the overall cost of ownership for wealth managers and improve the overall tax experience for clients, the companies said. For instance, it will let banks, broker-dealers and custodians contract with Broadridge for an integrated reporting process delivered and supported by Broadridge’s customer service team. “This collaboration provides a complete reporting solution for complex transaction processing addressing both cost basis and tax treatment,” Thomas Burke, president of Broadridge Tax Services, said in a statement. “Broadridge has long provided tax data and information reporting solutions,” he added. “What’s new is that by working with Apex Silver, we are bringing to market an integrated one-stop reporting solution that supports compliance with changing tax regulations, new asset classes such as crypto, and which scales rapidly in line with higher transaction volumes.” Orion Leadership Changes Orion Advisor Solutions on Wednesday announced several leadership changes in its wealth management business. Tim Holland was named chief investment officer — OCIO, while Rusty Vanneman was promoted to CIO — Wealth Management and Shelby Perez joined Orion as chief solutions officer. Holland, an industry veteran, will report to Ryan Beach, Orion Wealth Management president. Holland joined the Brinker Capital team as global investment strategist in 2017 and was named CIO after Orion’s merger with Brinker in 2020 . Holland continues to serve on Orion’s Investment Committee and will be responsible for consulting with Orion’s largest customers utilizing Orion’s OCIO services. Starting July 1, Kurt Brown, currently Orion OCIO president and CIO, will step down but continue to serve on the Investment Committee, providing market updates and commentary. Vanneman, who has 35 years of experience in the sector, will be responsible for investment management and strategies for Orion Portfolio Solutions and Brinker Capital Investments. He will report to Shelby Perez and work closely with Orion’s executive team, Orion said. Vanneman has held investment leadership positions at Orion since 2012. Prior to 2012, Vanneman worked for E-Trade as well as Fidelity Management and Research in Boston. In her role as chief solutions officer, Perez will be responsible for maintaining the Orion wealth management platform’s strategic vision and “spearhead” all wealth management product launches, the firm said. She will be based in Atlanta and also report to Ryan Beach. Perez brings more than 25 years of fintech experience to her new role, which Orion said will “support her efforts to chart the next phase” of the company’s growth. Prior to joining Orion, Perez held senior leadership positions at Charles Schwab and, most recently, Visa, where she focused on product innovation and strategy, growth, go-to-market and customer experience. Envestnet Adds Cambria Trinity Portfolios Cambria’s Trinity Portfolios are now available in Envestnet’s Fund Strategist Network, Cambria said in an email on Thursday. Those who select Trinity Portfolios for Fund Strategist Portfolio accounts will be able to access Cambria’s quantitative, rules-based portfolios ranging from conservative to moderate to aggressive, the company said. The Latest Absolute Engagement Engine Launches Absolute Engagement said Tuesday it launched the  Absolute Engagement Engine , describing it as a “quantum leap forward in empowering financial advisors to deliver an efficient and deeply engaging prospect and client experience.” The company, founded by Julie Littlechild in 2014, enables advisory firms to drive personalized engagement at scale, it said. In addition to conducting ongoing advisor and investor research, the firm offers engagement technology that it said “reveals the true needs of prospects and clients and allows advisors to respond in real time.” Data generated through the Absolute Engagement Engine will support leadership teams in making better strategic and operational decisions, the company said, offering actionable insights they can use to measure and enhance the client experience and optimize service and growth plans. Additionally, real-time input can now be used to “drive meaningful interactions with leads, prospects, new clients and existing clients,” the firm said, noting real-time insights are generated as advisors learn more about their prospects and clients, while real-time actions are “triggered by integrating that data into existing workflows.” AssetBook Teams With Pontera AssetBook, a SaaS-based portfolio monitoring and reporting solution provider, partnered with fintech firm Pontera  in a pact the companies said Tuesday will “help financial advisors holistically manage” their clients’ full portfolios. Pontera allows advisors to use “cohesive rebalancing and tax strategies across their 401(k)s, 403(b)s and more,” the companies noted. Through the new integration, “advisors will be able to view, monitor, report and bill on held-away assets in AssetBook’s Pulse Platform to ultimately deliver better client experiences and financial outcomes,” they said in the joint announcement, adding that it will ”enable advisors to deliver consolidated portfolio insights to clients.” Using Pontera’s intuitive interface, advisors can rebalance within their clients’ plan accounts or set target allocations and “create alerts for when those allocations drift outside of customized boundaries,” the firms said. Smarsh Enhances Platform Smarsh on Tuesday announced enhancements to its Professional Archive platform that it said will allow registered investment advisors and broker-dealers to “streamline compliance processes, giving them greater visibility into their data through four flexible and easy-to-use dashboards.” Recent developments, such as the SEC Marketing Rule , “reinforce the requirement of wealth management compliance professionals to demonstrate supervision activity to regulators,” said Sheldon Cummings, GM of Smarsh’s Corporate Business Unit. “Our objective is to make compliance easy for firms — enabling more efficiency and effectiveness for those that don’t have the luxury of devoting additional resources to this area of their business,” he added. Smarsh’s new Professional Archive dashboards “will help solve these challenges by making compliance easier for everyone at no additional cost, thanks to a unique suite of tools,” Cumming said. (Image: Shutterstock)