Displaying items by tag: clients

Andrew Hartnett, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, recently said in an interview that a massive, multi-state sweep of broker-dealers will be completed sometime early next year to gauge the effectiveness of their Reg BI implementation. This should give state regulators “what they hope” will be a clear snapshot of whether firms are putting investors' interests first or not. Last November, similar multi-state exams of 443 firms found pervasive retail advice and sales violations. This was in spite of the fact that Regulation Best Interest had already been in place for more than 15 months at that time. The 2021 sweep found a majority of broker-dealers and reps still putting their interests above their retail clients. The sweep also found that 65% of brokerage firms also failed to discuss lower-cost or lower-risk products with their clients, even when they offered such products. Hartnett stated, “Now we’re out there doing exams again to see where the industry is now, what’s changed and how well firms are implementing the requirements to look at reasonably available alternatives.” NASAA is also ramping up its focus on fees on the registered investment advisor side and expects to release that guidance next year.

Finsum:The time for leniency is over for broker-dealers as the NASAA is planning a multi-state sweep to gauge the effectiveness of their Reg BI enforcement.

Following Altruist’s recent announcement that is enhancing its Model Marketplace and adding UMA capabilities, the firm has now announced a partnership with ESG firm HIP Investor to provide advisors with access to its Fossil Fuel Free Portfolio models. HIP, which was founded in 2006, manages impact-themed strategies and ESG portfolios for advisors and investors. The addition of the ESG models expands Altruist’s values-based investing offerings. Adam Grealish, Head of Investments at Altruist, stated the following as part of the announcement, " With HIP’s Fossil Fuel Free Portfolios on our platform, advisors can build portfolios for any stage of their ESG journey—from dipping in a toe to full allocations to climate action and impactful investing. Our partnership with HIP Investor represents a cornerstone in our continued expansion into values-aligned and higher-impact investing." The firm is also telling advisors to expect more offerings within its Model Marketplace in the coming months.

Finsum:Altruist continues to expand its Model Marketplace with the addition of Fossil Fuel Free model portfolios managed by HIP Investor. 

Altruist recently announced that it is adding unified managed accounts to its portfolio management capabilities. Altruist is a fintech company that offers a next-generation custodial solution built for independent financial advisors and their clients that combines software to manage a portfolio with and a powerful brokerage platform to invest. The new UMA capabilities will allow advisors to now mix and match models to create core-satellite or best-of-breed portfolios. The new feature will allow advisors to access third-party investment models from top asset managers through the firm’s Model Marketplace to create individual portfolios that meet clients’ investing goals. Advisors will also be able to include their own custom models as building blocks for client portfolios. The company launched its Model Marketplace in February 2021 featuring its own investment models, the Simplicity Series, as well as models from Vanguard and Dimensional Fund Advisors. Models from BlackRock, Redwood Investment Management, and State Street Global Advisors were added later on.

Finsum:Fintech firm Altruist announced the addition of UMAs to its model marketplace to allow advisors to mix and match models to create portfolios.

Skience, a leading financial services solution and consulting provider, recently announced an integration with CapitalROCK’s RightBRIDGE Best Interest Validation System. Skience offers consulting services and an award-winning platform that provides wealth management firms and RIAs with an efficient way to unify their technology. CapitalROCK, the makers of RightBRIDGE, provides financial services firms with a powerful and configurable rules engine to determine and document the best interest status of proposed rollovers, account types, and products. RightBRIDGE uses a scoring engine and ReasonText™ that explains why a recommendation fits a client’s needs and the licensing firm’s best interest requirements. By adding this integration, Skience will be able to provide advisors with an easy way to integrate Regulation Best Interest into their workflow process with a click of a button. The data can be used to update Skience records and be leveraged by Skience’s suitability checks as Skience’s client and household data will be prefilled into RightBRIDGE. The announcement comes as Robert Cook, FINRA Chief recently noted that more Reg BI-related enforcement cases are in the pipeline.

Finsum:Financial services platform Skience announced that it will be integrating with CapitalROCK’s RightBRIDGE solution that helps advisors meet Reg BI standards.

FactSet recently announced the launch of FactSet Model Center, their new no-cost marketplace for wealth advisors to access the industry’s best-of-breed investment solutions within a single, integrated platform. The Model Center will provide advisors with pre-built model portfolios from leading asset managers, product metadata, and detailed marketing materials, including factsheets. Advisors will be able to access model portfolios through the FactSet Model Center application inside the FactSet workstation to perform portfolio analysis, implement models, and create reports for their end clients. Asset managers that will be hosting model portfolios and funds on the FactSet Model Center include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, KraneShares, PIMCO, Principal Asset Management, Russell Investments, Simplify ETFs, and VanEck. Wealth advisors will be able to do a deep-level screening to discover models that fit their client’s investment criteria, while asset managers will benefit from scalable model data delivery to tens of thousands of retail wealth advisors.

Finsum:FactSet launched a new no-cost model center where advisors will be able to access model portfolios from leading asset managers.