Deals & People July 5, 2023

Adviser Product Partnerships

Crystal Capital teams with SS&C to ease alternative investment process; BridgeFT powers Yayati for more personalized investing applications; Nassau Financial Group announces collaboration with LifeYield.

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Crystal Capital Partners Chooses SS&C for Back-Office Alt Investing Offerings  

SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. announced Crystal Capital Partners, a turnkey alternative investment platform for financial advisers, has selected SS&C to improve its back-office investment processes for financial advisers. 

“Our integration with SS&C will help streamline the investing process for advisers and their clients, eliminating much of the burdensome operational processes associated with alternative investments —subscriptions, rebalancing, and liquidity schedules, among other things,” Michael Hoyer, Crystal Capital Partners’ CEO, said in a statement.  

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“We are excited to support Crystal Capital Partners in their efforts to bring efficiencies to alternatives investing,” Karen Geiger, co-general manager at SS&C Advent, said in a statement. 

BridgeFT to Power Yayati Applications, Including Tax-Saving Investment Tools  

BridgeFT and Yayati have partnered to offer wealth mangers technology infrastructure and more personalized investment experiences through integrated application programming interfaces. 

“Yayati fills an important gap in the wealthtech landscape by offering a range of tax-smart investing options,” Joe Stensland, BridgeFT’s CEO, said in a statement.  

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Yayati is an investment technology company that offers personalization infrastructure to advisers, broker-dealers and asset managers. BridgeFT is API-first wealth infrastructure software company. 

Through the partnership, BridgeFT will power Yayati’s applications for registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, and asset managers who sign on with BridgeFT or Yayati. Users will have access to trade-ready, multi-custodial data pre-integrated into Yayati’s tax intelligence platform, including tax transition, tax-loss harvesting, rebalancing, tax withdrawal and tax location. 

“BridgeFT has created the pathway for wealth management firms to build a differentiated tech stack and a unique client experience,” Rajeev Sharan, founder and head of product at Yayati, said in a statement.  

Nassau Financial Group Advances Retirement Income Options With LifeYield  

Nassau Financial Group announced a collaboration with LifeYield to expand its offerings of retirement income strategies. The collaboration will seek to help independent advisers to create retirement income protection through education, emerging retirement technology, and annuities. 

Nassau will integrate LifeYield’s “Social Security+ with Income Layers” application into its toolbox for use by independent producers. The application models Social Security benefits under different scenarios, and producers can then help clients by showing potential options for converting assets into reliable income streams to supplement Social Security benefits, according to the firms. 

“Nassau’s collaboration with LifeYield demonstrates our long-term focus on providing leading digital capabilities to help insurance producers develop strong retirement income strategies for each client,” Tom Buckingham, chief growth officer at Nassau, said in a statement. 

Data & Research July 5, 2023

Financial Advisers Feeling Starved of Time with Clients, J.D. Power Reports

Additionally, one in five advisers said they were less than five years away from retirement.

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About one out of four financial advisers report not having enough time to work with their clients, according to J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Financial Adviser Satisfaction Study.

Among more than 4,000 financial advisers surveyed by the research firm, 28% said they did not have enough time to spend with clients, with 41% of that set noting they spend more time each month on non-value-added tasks, such as compliance and administrative duties, than their peers.

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“Right now, many advisers are struggling to find the time to deliver the level of hands-on service they know is critical to growing their business,” Craig Martin, executive managing director and head of wealth and lending intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement. “They’re spending more time on administrative and compliance-oriented tasks and, in many cases, they are starting to question whether their firm is committed to providing them with the support and resources they need to succeed.”

As retirement plan advisement and wealth management converge, more financial advisers are being sought to supplement workplace retirement plan advisories, according to those in the industry. But according to J.D. Power’s report, lack of time for clients, as well as many advisers’ pending retirements, may be further crimping the long-term success of the industry.

According to J.D. Power, 20% of the surveyed advisers—who have an average age of 56 years old—report being five years or less away from retirement. A significant portion of employee advisers (30%) and independent advisers (28%) reported they “probably will” rather than “definitely will” work for their current firm in the next one to two years.

“This suggests that even if advisers are not contemplating leaving the industry or their firm, many may become apathetic about their situation,” the researchers wrote.  

The top reasons given for staying at a firm were strong culture and company leadership, as reported by advisers most likely to stay with their firm long term. Other key factors included professional development support, training and technology.

Notably, female employee advisers’ overall satisfaction (637) and net promoter score (59) were significantly higher than their male counterpart’s satisfaction (578) and NPS (36). The overall satisfaction was measured on a 1000-point scale, while the net promoter score is measured on a 100-point scale.

When it came to employers, the results of the overall adviser satisfaction index ranking placed Stifel Financial Corp. (777), Raymond James & Associates Inc. (711), and Edward Jones (672) in the top three. Those firms were followed by RBC Wealth Management (669), Ameriprise Financial (660), Merrill, which is owned by Bank of America Corp., (610), Morgan Stanley (580), and Wells Fargo Advisors, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co. (407).

Net promoter scores measure adviser advocacy on a scale from -100 to 100. Among advisers who say they do not have enough time with clients, employee advisers’ NPS were 27 points lower, while independent advisers’ scores were 30 points lower, compared to advisers who said they did have sufficient time.

J.D. Power’s study is based on responses from 4,183 employees and independent financial advisers; it was fielded from December 2022 through April 2023.

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