This edition of Wealthtech Roundup features FusionIQ and Novum partnering on derivatives, Summit adding AI advisor tools, Docupace unveiling a roadmap to agentic AI, Envestnet announcing a five-year plan and $1 billion investment, Orion adding advisor tools, Nitrogen integrating with Broadridge, Canoe launching an alts incubator, Origin debuting an AI financial advisor, Dynasty starting an innovation lab, Raymond James hiring David Solganik as Head of AI Strategy, Dispatch raising $18 million in Series A funding and Compound Planning launching an AI ‘command center’ for its advisor operating system.
Larry's Take
We knew it was only a matter of time, and now Origin has launched an AI financial advisor that it says outperforms trained professional planners. At the same time, many companies, including several in this month’s roundup, continue to put forward AI advancements to mine data, organize workflows, save advisor time and more.
In a competitive race that evokes memories of the advance and retreat of robo-advisors a few years ago, we will now see how AI-augmented human service competes with pure AI-based interaction. Industry experts claim that the human touch is an integral part of financial advice – and now that thesis will be proven in the wild.
It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing competition, however. We may see that fully automated AI advice is a cost-friendly option for those who can’t afford advisory fees. RIAs may even find fully automated AI advisors useful to present branding to students and early career professionals before they accumulate wealth.
If you would like to discuss this Larry’s Take further, including how these trends might impact your business, please contact me at larry.roth@ascentix.com.
FusionIQ And Novum Partner On Derivatives Technology
Woburn, Massachusetts-based FusionIQ partners with Novum Investment Management to integrate its derivatives technology on the FusionIQ platform. The technology, called Doris, gives advisors the tools to access derivatives for their clients without requiring specialized expertise.
Options trading is growing, and retail investors now represent half or more of total trading activity, FusionIQ said. Doris is designed for retail investors, offering a user-friendly derivatives experience including simple visual explanations of risk and potential returns.
“By partnering with Novum to bring Doris to the FusionIQ platform, we are continuing to democratize wealth building with best-in-class tools across asset classes,” said Eric Noll, CEO of FusionIQ. “This partnership not only benefits our existing clients by allowing them to offer options trading, but also positions FusionIQ to support new clients who see the value in a comprehensive platform that includes this important asset class.”
Summit Adds Next Gen Advisor Tools To Its Platform, Including AI Lead Gen
Parsippany, New Jersey-based Summit Financial adds more advisor tools, including AI-driven lead generation, to its wealthtech platform. The new integrations are: Absolute Capital’s self-directed 401(k) account management, FinLink’s M&A and recruiting marketplace, FINTRX’s AI-driven private wealth intelligence, Microsoft Teams Premium, Move Health’s personalized health insurance planning, Retirement Plan Advisory Group’s qualified plan reporting, Wealth.com’s AI estate planning platform, and Wealthfeed’s AI-driven prospecting and lead generation.
Summit has also formed two technology councils to advise on future additions to its advisor platform. Summit currently has 150 advisors on its platform, overseeing $23 billion in assets, the firm said.
“The staggering pace of AI innovation in wealth management is accelerating, so it’s critical that advisors adopt technology today to compete and win,” said Stan Gregor, Chairman and CEO of Summit Financial. “AI-enhanced technology can help advisors deepen client relationships, enhance and scale operational efficiencies, uncover new growth opportunities, and gain a clear competitive edge without replacing the human expertise at the heart of great financial advice.”
Docupace Unveils AI Roadmap To Transform Wealth Management Operations
Docupace, a back-office technology provider for broker-dealers and RIAs, unveils a roadmap to build what it says is the industry’s first agentic AI platform, designed to automate as much as 80% of manual processes across advisory operations. The initiative targets a $50 billion annual inefficiency gap caused by paper-based workflows, not-in-good-order (NIGO) rework and compliance bottlenecks, the firm said.
The firm lays out a vision for deploying “digital teammates” that can reduce onboarding time by 90%, accelerate account processing by 85% and cut compliance errors by 75%. The rollout includes an advisor onboarding agent, account management agent and document extraction agent, with phase two introducing surveillance and compensation tools to reduce false positives and improve payout accuracy. Each agent is purpose-built for wealth management, rather than adapted from horizontal AI platforms.
“Our vision is to bring intelligent automation to every operational layer, so firms can focus on what truly drives value: advice and client relationships,” said David Knoch, CEO of Docupace.
Envestnet Announces Five-Year Strategic Plan Including $1 Billion R&D Investment
Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based Envestnet, which was recently acquired by Bain Capital, announces a five-year plan to reinvent the advisor experience on its platform. It includes a plan to invest $1 billion in developing advanced tools for advisor workflows, including platform unification, unified managed account infrastructure, flexible household modeling, integrated investments and client relationship management.
Envestnet’s research shows that high net worth (HNW) investors prefer advanced technology and comprehensive offerings, with features like custom allocation, multi-manager accounts funds, alts and tax overlay solutions. These preferences are at odds with the fragmented legacy technology that most advisors still use, the firm said.
“Advisors are telling us they want to consolidate with fewer partners, deepen integrations, and leverage better wealthtech that helps them expand their business, especially to serve the HNW market,” said Chris Todd, CEO of Envestnet. “This roadmap delivers that — not in pieces, but as a fully connected solution, and one in which we've dedicated significant resources to in terms of software and product development, and its delivery.”
Orion Adds Advanced Tools And AI Assistants To Advisor Platform
Omaha, Nebraska-based Orion announces upgrades to its wealthtech platform. The enhancements include two AI assistants — Report Assistant and Query Studio — that use natural language interfaces to provide client-ready reports and complex data insights. The firm also launched the Orion Summit Experience platform for ultra-high net worth investors and the Orion Strategic Insights dashboard for C-suite executives.
Orion Summit Experience and Orion Strategic Insights both run on Orion’s specialized data engine, Denali, that the firm says ingests and cleans structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources so it can be used to drive advisor insights. Orion served over $5 trillion in assets under administration (AUA) and over $100 billion in platform assets as of June 30, the firm said.
“Today’s advisors are under increasing pressure to deliver more personalized value in less time, across more complex client relationships,” said Natalie Wolfsen, CEO of Orion. “That’s why every innovation we’re unveiling at Future Proof Festival – AI assistants, Orion Summit Experience, and Orion Strategic Insights – is rooted in one goal: helping advisors meet the evolving needs of their clients with clarity, insight, and scale.”
Nitrogen Integrates Account Data From Broadridge’s Wealth Aggregation And Insights
Auburn, California-based Nitrogen announces an integration with Broadridge Financial Solutions for automated data feeds from Broadridge’s Wealth Aggregation and Insights (WAI). Nitrogen users will benefit from automatic daily data syncs from Broadridge’s WAI.
Firms that use Broadridge WAI as their primary source of account data can activate the Broadridge integration. Advisors will be able to use Nitrogen features — such as risk analytics, client check-ins, retirement maps and proposals — with the Broadbridge data, without the need to manually upload data.
“Dipping in and out of different software products and manual data entry are two of the biggest drags on advisor productivity so integrations with other core advisor platforms will forever be a top priority for us,” said Craig Clark, Chief Growth Officer at Nitrogen. “By integrating Broadridge’s Wealth Aggregation and Insights directly into Nitrogen, we’re removing barriers, reducing risk, and equipping firms with a future-ready foundation to scale.”
Canoe Launches Incubator For Automated Private Markets Workflows
New York City-based alts management platform Canoe Intelligence launches an incubator for next-generation alts workflows. Canoe Labs provides an innovation center where alts professionals can collaborate on emerging AI capabilities that are not yet available in the market.
At the time of launch, alts professionals will be able to test two capabilities: AI-driven document summarization and real-time language translation. Canoe says more capabilities will be added to the lab as they evolve. Canoe Labs runs on Canoe AI, the company’s proprietary AI architecture that uses only alts documents to train its models.
“Every breakthrough in Canoe Labs emerges from real pain points our clients face daily,” says Zack Helgeson, Head of Product at Canoe Intelligence. “By working directly with users who manage trillions in alternatives, we ensure every innovation is purpose-built to create value and advance the industry.”
Origin Debuts AI Financial Advisor With Human-Like Capabilities
Origin introduces an AI financial advisor on its personal finance app. The AI advisor taps user financial data to deliver personalized financial advice that the company said matches or exceeds the level of human financial planners. Origin says the AI advisor scored 17 points above human performance on eight CFP mock exams, and it also outperformed leading large language modules (LLMs) on those tests.
The AI advisor is able to converse in real time using advanced reasoning, contextual memory and live financial data, the firm says. Features include automated spending and investing insights, personalized daily and weekly market reports, individualized market monitoring and portfolio analysis with commentary. The firm says the app is intended to democratize access to the type of personalized investment advice traditionally available only to wealthy investors.
“For too long, expert financial guidance has been reserved for the wealthy, with about half of Americans citing cost as the primary barrier,” said Matt Watson, Founder and CEO of Origin. “Origin removes that barrier by unifying a user’s full financial picture – cash flow, investments, liabilities, taxes, and more – and applying advanced multi-agent AI to deliver advisor-grade insights in real time.”
Dynasty Launches AI Lab For Wealthtech Innovation
St. Petersburg, Florida-based Dynasty Financial Partners launches an experimental lab for AI applications in wealthtech. Dynasty Labs leverages the firm’s proprietary data to create prototypes of advisor tools for productivity, operations and client management.
Dynasty, which already uses generative AI in its desktop for advisors, is also launching an “AI super agents” initiative involving tools for complex advisor workflows. The firm says it plans to seek partnerships with technology firms, incubators and universities on wealthtech applications.
“Powerful AI experiences start with good, clean data, and our proprietary data lakehouse gives us a unique advantage,” said Leslie Norman, Chief Technology Officer at Dynasty Financial Partners. “It allows us to rapidly deliver generative AI tools that are not only powerful, but context-aware and deeply integrated.”
Raymond James Appoints David Solganik As Head Of AI Strategy
Raymond James hires David Solganik for the newly created role of Head of AI Strategy. He reports to Stuart Feld, the firm’s recently appointed Chief AI Officer. Solganik will focus on cross-business opportunities for generative AI and machine learning to drive growth and improve client experiences. “We will continue to make meaningful investments in AI as part of our $975 million annual technology budget,” said CEO Paul Shoukry.
Solganik joins from RBC, where he was Head of U.S. Wealth Management AI and Data Strategic Initiatives for three years. He has also held positions in AI and data analytics at Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and MetLife.
“There’s an immense opportunity to reduce administrative tasks for financial advisors and associates, freeing up more time to focus on serving clients,” said Solganik. “To successfully integrate AI across the firm, education and adoption are critical. Our team is partnering with training and delivery experts to launch firm-wide education programs that increase AI awareness and usage.”
Dispatch Completes $18 Million Series A Funding Round
Dispatch raises $18 million in a Series A funding round, led by Brewer Lane Ventures. Participants included New York Life Ventures, MassMutual Ventures and Perceptive Ventures, along with existing investors F-Prime, Layover Capital and Fika Ventures.
The round brings Dispatch’s total capital to $30 million. The data orchestration company focuses on automated solutions for cleaning and syncing client data, and the new capital will fund further development of agentic workflows and AI-driven data orchestration, Dispatch says.
“Dispatch is creating critical infrastructure that the wealth management industry has been missing,” said Chris Downer, General Partner at Brewer Lane Ventures. “Their approach to data orchestration redefines how firms and fintechs can serve clients, while giving advisors the tools to operate with speed, accuracy and efficiency. We are excited to partner with visionary founders like Rob and team to provide not only capital, but also the knowledge and relationships to help them build a market-leading company.”
Compound Planning Launches AI-Powered ‘Command Center’ For Advisor OS
Compound Planning launches Activity Monitor, a “real-time command center” for the firm’s AdvisorHQ AI-powered operating system (OS) used by its advisors. The feature, available only to Compound advisors, conducts an AI-based analysis of an advisor’s book of business, providing “actionable intelligence, centralized data, and automated workflows,” the RIA said.
Activity Monitor uses AI call transcripts to record a Compound advisor’s client meetings — whether they take place online or by phone, according to the firm. It maintains advisors’ to-do lists for them, reviewing client meeting notes to understand what and when client deliverables are due, Compound said. Activity Monitor monitors each client’s profile, informing their advisors about key changes including large cash movements, performance issues and life events, the firm noted.
“Activity Monitor is the linchpin of our platform,” said Nelson Arnous, Head of Product at Compound Planning. “It allows our advisors to stay on top of client opportunities in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. We’re monitoring tens of thousands of data points and surfacing insights to advisors right when they need them, so they can deliver truly proactive advice.”
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