AssetBook, a SaaS-based portfolio monitoring and reporting platform has announced that they have completed integrations with Wealthbox CRM, a modern client relationship management tool, enabling financial planners and investment advisors to seamlessly incorporate client contact records from Wealthbox into the Pulse by AssetBook platform. 

“AssetBook offers advisors who use Wealthbox a simple and fast way to connect their clients’ information across platforms,” said Steve Carroll, Head of Product at Wealthbox. “The integration frees up advisors to spend more time with clients instead of wasting it on duplicative data entry. We’re delighted to welcome AssetBook to the Wealthbox community.”

Smartria, a cloud-based software solution for compliance management for investment advisors, has announced a partnership with Kitces.com to provide online education content for continuing education credits through the Smartria platform to address the North American Securities Administrators Association’s (NASAA) Investment Adviser Representative Continuing Education (IAR CE) Model Rule. 

Investment advisers who activate Smartria’s new IAR CE feature will gain instant access directly from the Smartria dashboard to all of the Continuing Education content provided by the Kitces.com Members Section, including not only the Nerd’s Eye View blog content, but Kitces white papers and webinars as well, which can fulfill both their new IAR CE obligation, as well as crossover CE credit for CFP certification, CPA licensees, Enrolled Agents, and advisors with advanced designations from the Investments and Wealth Institute and the American College.

Performance optimization platform purpose-built for the wealth management industry, Practifi, has announced the rollout of a new business development application (BD app) for managing multiple growth activities and tracking pipeline performance through mergers and acquisitions. 

This newly developed application, designed to address an industry need for managing multiple growth activities while tracking pipeline performance, features tools for comprehensive life cycle management through mergers and acquisitions, using the power of Practifi’s award-winning platform.  

The app will make it easy to manage the full acquisition life cycle within a single, unified platform and will provide an end-to-end transition management experience for RIAs, IBDs and networks that are actively acquiring. The BD app’s comprehensive acquisition life cycle ensures that all deals progress through the same stages, ensuring a smooth and repeatable transition process.

Practifi, a performance optimization platform for the wealth management industry, has announced the promotion of Umesh Banga as Senior Director, Go-To-Market for Practifi, with accountability for the Practifi product offering in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. 

As the company firms up its global product expansion plans and go-to-market strategy for Asia Pacific (APAC), Umesh Banga will be responsible for Australian product strategy with accountabilities touching sales, product strategy, and professional services across APAC. According to a recent announcement, the company’s President and Co-Founder Adrian Johnstone said Mr. Banga had made an incredibly valuable contribution to Practifi since joining last year.

Innovative wealth management platform, Andes Wealth Technologies, has announced that it has signed Waterway Wealth Management, a Texas-based RIA with $500 million in AUM and offices in Woodlands, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to a recent announcement. 

Waterway’s advisors envision using behavioral finance systematically to get to know clients more deeply, viewing the Andes risk tolerance tool as a way to generate rich conversations and get clients more fully invested toward their true risk targets. 

The firm chose Andes Wealth Technologies platform as it stood out as a way to incorporate key behavioral components into a more robust risk profile. The Andes Wealth platform also allows for better understanding for advisors on the risk tolerance assessment and client profiling in order to deliver personalized service.

Practifi, a performance optimization platform for the wealth management industry, has announced that Tim Highland will serve as Head of Product Strategy. In this role, he will be responsible for product strategy, aligning Practifi’s product innovation and development to not only meet the needs of the industry, but to also drive it forward. Tim Highland will report to CEO and Co-Founder Glenn Elliott, according to a recent announcement. 

Prior to joining Practifi, Tim Highland owned and operated an advisory and consulting services firm focused on RIAs, and served in several senior leadership positions with Skience, Docupace Technologies, Investment Plannings, Inc., Russell Investment Group, and Sun Life Financial. He also served as the president and owner of the privately held RIAHighland Investment Advisory and has more than 30 years of experience in the industry.

The RISA, a psychology-backed, research-driven income personality assessment transforming retirement income planning, released in a recent announcement the formation of its inaugural industry Advisory Board comprising thought leaders and innovators in the fintech space.

The Advisory Board will be made up of industry leaders such as John Faustino, Head of Broadridge Fi360 Solutions, Ryan Beach, President of Orion Wealth Management, David Lau, founder and CEO of DPL Financial Partners, Kelly Waltrich, co-founder and CEO of Intention.ly, Bonnie Treichel, founder and CSO of Endeavor Retirement and Michel Finke, Ph.D., Professor of Wealth Management.

The RISA, which is a 15-minute assessment for individuals actively planning for or engaging with retirement, helps financial advisors understand the ideal way each client would like to source retirement income, thus enabling advisors to define and implement personalized retirement income planning strategies aligned with individual preferences. 

Andes Wealth Technologies, the first company to use behavioral finance and risk analytics to empower financial advisors, has been named the winner of the 2022 ThinkAdvisor Luminaries Awards for Thought Leadership and Education according to a recent announcement. 

The award honors firms that make outstanding efforts to better understand and train new and existing industry participants by leading the charge in producing independent research and tools that help the industry connect new understanding of innovative concepts like behavioral finance, retirement income, and ESG investing with practical applications and positive impacts. 

Andes’ wealth management platform blends behavioral finance, proprietary Risk Tolerance Test and deep analytics, and an industry-leading Investment Policy Statement into an integrated solution to deliver unprecedented clarity and transparency to investors while building trust and credibility within advisor-client relationships.

Global leader in consulting for investment operations and technology, Meridia, has announced that industry veteran Martin Ouellette has joined the firm as a Director. In this role, Ouellette will be responsible for managing large transformational programs focused on asset and investment management systems and operations, according to a recent announcement. 

Ouellette brings with him significant operations and technology experience, along with deep knowledge of the BNY Mellon Risk and Analytics platform. Meradia’s front-to-back practice has covered State Street Alpha and SimCorp, making Ouellette’s industry tenure with BNY Mellon and knowledge a powerful extension of Meradia’s existing core client service capabilities.

The Limitless Advisor Coaching Program Founder, Stephanie Bogan, announced the recipients of their inaugural “I AM LIMITLESS” Diversity Scholarship which awarded over $50,000 in scholarships to financial advisors from underrepresented groups with both the need and desire to leverage Limitless financial advisor coaching programs to take their firms to the next level. Five total 2023 scholarships were awarded according to a recent announcement. 

The program’s founder Stephanie Bogan stated that the scholarships will have a compounding positive effect on the industry as a whole as a more diverse group of people are given access to the tools, resources, and training they need to accelerate the impact of the work they do.

Limitless also signed the Females and Finance Fearless Pledge™, an industry-wide call-to-action for the advancement of women in financial services and financial technology. The pledge is a vow to hire, mentor, train, and advance 100,000 women by the end of 2025, and is a public way for companies and individuals to demonstrate their support for a more equitable industry.