The WealthTech Safari - Week of April 14, 2026
- Apr 17
- 4 min read
Charles Schwab to launch direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading by June
• Charles Schwab, the largest custodian in the RIA space, plans to offer direct spot trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum through its Premier Bank subsidiary by June 2026, marking a major push to compete with fintech platforms like Robinhood in the retail crypto arena.
• The move signals that traditional financial institutions are no longer content to cede digital asset trading to fintechs—and that regulatory comfort around spot crypto has reached a tipping point for even the most conservative incumbents.
Knote: The only question I have is “why did this take so long?” Fidelity launched this three years ago.
iCapital and Envestnet deepen partnership to bring alternatives into unified managed accounts
• iCapital and Envestnet have expanded their strategic partnership to integrate alternative and structured investments—including private credit and structured investment SMAs—into Envestnet’s Unified Managed Account platform with single sign-on access for advisors.
• Embedding complex alternatives directly within the UMA workflow removes one of the biggest friction points in alts adoption: the operational headache of managing them in a separate sleeve outside the core portfolio.
Knote: I thought they had already done this, but it certainly is worth doing. Advisors aren’t going to select their own private investments, in my opinion. Hopefully Envestnet’s TAMP steps in on that piece.
Morgan Stanley FA-led assets surge as Workplace and E*Trade channels heat up
• Morgan Stanley’s Workplace and E*Trade channels are generating increasingly robust asset flows into the wirehouse’s wealth management unit, a trend the firm’s CFO confirmed publicly this week.
• The acceleration underscores just how valuable the E*Trade acquisition has become as a client-acquisition funnel—turning workplace equity plan participants into full-service wealth management relationships.
Knote: When Morgan Stanley astutely acquired E*Trade, it also acquired an incentive equity management platform for the workplace. Both have traditionally contributed significant inflows, but it looks like the pace is picking up in terms of shots-on-goal and conversion.
Wealth.com raises $65 million to scale AI-driven estate and tax planning
• Wealth.com closed an oversubscribed $65 million Series B led by Titanium Ventures and Pruven Capital—with Charles Schwab and GV among existing backers—after reporting a 664% year-over-year increase in AI workflow usage on its estate and tax planning platform.
• Estate planning has long been the forgotten corner of the advisor tech stack; a 664% surge in AI workflows suggests the category is finally getting the automation treatment that portfolio management and financial planning received years ago.
MMnote: Estate planning tech has been underinvested for years relative to its importance in the client relationship. A 664% jump in AI workflows is eye-catching, but the real signal is that Schwab is on the cap table—that’s distribution waiting to happen.
Hightower nears summer launch of centralized advisor platform
• Hightower Advisors plans to launch Hightower One this summer, a centralized, open-architecture wealth management platform backed by NEPC institutional consulting and OCIO resources, with a full rollout to its 663 advisors expected by year-end 2026.
• The platform is central to CEO Larry Restieri’s strategy of converting affiliated advisors and external firms into a cohesive W-2 employee channel under the new Signature Wealth division, which already manages nearly $29 billion.
Knote: This makes sense. If you are looking to attract advisors to your platform, you need to be prepared to answer four questions. Three are “what is my payout going to be” but the fourth is “can you give me a unified system that just plain works?”
Orion and Pontera integrate to pull retirement accounts directly into Eclipse workflows
• Orion and Pontera have deepened their partnership with a new integration that lets advisors pull held-away retirement account data—including 401(k) and 403(b) plans—directly into Orion Eclipse’s trading and rebalancing workflows, eliminating manual entry.
• With Peak 65 in full swing, the ability to seamlessly manage and eventually roll over retirement assets gives advisors a powerful tool for capturing what is often a client’s single largest financial account.
Knote: The romantic in me points out that this is a big win for clients since they get professional management of their often-largest financial asset and more holistic advice. But it’s also a killer tool for capturing 401(k) rollovers. It’s Peak 65 this year, folks.
Pello Companies emerges from stealth to acquire ByAllAccounts from Morningstar
• Pello Companies, a previously unknown firm focused on open finance, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ByAllAccounts—Morningstar’s data aggregation business—which will operate as a standalone company under new CEO Cynthia Rojas Sejas after the deal closes in H1 2026.
• The divestiture signals Morningstar’s strategic pivot toward proprietary data and research while raising questions about who is behind Pello and whether the aggregation utility will get the investment it needs to remain competitive.
Knote: Pello Companies is B2-grade stealth. Nobody seems to know who owns it, runs it, or funds it. A little strange given that they are presumably going to be asking people for their financial login information. I’m sure we will get more details shortly.
UK MPS poised for next growth phase as platform connectivity becomes the bottleneck
• New research from Morningstar Wealth and the lang cat finds that 87% of UK advice firms now have a documented Centralised Investment Proposition, with 83% rating CIP capability as critical when selecting platforms—positioning MPS as a core delivery mechanism rather than a niche outsourcing option.
• The study identifies operational frictions like tax handling, cash management, and reporting transparency as the primary constraints on wider MPS adoption, suggesting the next wave of growth depends on platform providers, not asset managers.
Knote: We think MPS (the UK version of TAMPs) are poised for lift-off the way TAMPs were poised for lift-off ten years ago in the US. Come join us and our friends at The Wealth Mosaic at their conference “UK MPS: a view into the future” as we attempt to explain why. It’s in London on May 14th. Link here.
Feel free to reach out if you want to discuss any of the above or if you just want to chat about WealthTech. We love talking WealthTech!
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