WealthTech Safari — Week of October 16, 2026
Cerulli finds 401(k) retirement income needs advice, not just products
Cerulli Associates’ U.S. Defined Contribution Distribution 2026 report found 46% of pre-retirees want to withdraw money when needed, 39% want guaranteed monthly income, and nearly 40% want a personalized, actionable retirement plan.
With DC consultants suggesting the average plan may need two or three income options, adoption hinges on participant advice and recordkeeper infrastructure, opening a lane for planning and decumulation technology inside DC plans.
Knote: While everyone is focusing on "The Generational Wealth Transfer" they are overlooking the bigger opportunity, in my opinion. There is a tidal wave of people retiring in the next 5 years and they tend to liquidate and invest their (1) 401k, (2) family business, (3) house, (4) and all the other things that don't produce income.
SMArtX embeds its managed account technology in AdvizorStack’s RIA platform
SMArtX Advisory Solutions, a provider of enterprise managed account technology, will power AdvizorStack’s platform for independent RIAs with its Manager Marketplace, proposal generation, trading and billing, embedded natively in the advisor environment.
Selling through a launch-and-transition platform gives SMArtX a direct path to newly independent RIAs, who get institutional-grade portfolio technology without building it or bolting on a separate third-party system.
TD Bank U.S. taps Motif founder Hardeep Walia to run its U.S. wealth business
TD Bank U.S. named Hardeep Walia, founder of Motif Investing and later head of Personalized Investing Engineering and enterprise AI at Charles Schwab, as Head of U.S. Wealth, reporting to CEO Leo Salom.
Walia’s mandate to expand holistic advice, upgrade digital investing and tighten the link between banking and wealth signals that TD treats growth in U.S. wealth as a technology build.
Knote: The fact that TD has hired a WealthTech heavyweight to run their US Wealth business tells you where tech sits with them as a priority.
intelliflo acquires Mabel Insights to put investment research inside intelliflo office
intelliflo acquired Mabel Insights, a UK research and portfolio analysis platform covering more than 80 asset managers and discretionary fund managers and thousands of risk-rated portfolios, for undisclosed terms.
The deal maps to the Future of TAMPs theme: as model portfolios commoditize, owning the research layer where advisors compare and select them puts intelliflo at the point of decision.
DriveWealth and TrueMoney bring U.S. stock investing to 30 million wallet users
DriveWealth, a Brokerage-as-a-Service platform, partnered with Ascend Money’s TrueMoney to offer U.S. equities inside the TrueMoney app through Webull Securities (Thailand), with fractional investing from 30 baht.
Embedding brokerage in a payments wallet, with stock rewards on everyday purchases, makes the wallet rather than the broker the investing on-ramp for underbanked and emerging investors in Southeast Asia.
Knote: On a related note, Digitization of Wealth in India (and D2C advice in particular) is the hottest WealthTech opportunity globally, in my opinion.
AI ATC - A quick summary of interesting AI launches for those with AI fatigue
Unique AI Launches AI Teammates for Financial Services https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/unique-ai-launches-ai-teammates-for-financial-services
Focus Financial Partners Selects Nevis to Empower Advisors with Leading AI Wealth Management Platform https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/focus-financial-partners-selects-nevis-to-empower-advisors-with-leading-ai-wealth-management-platfor
Connecticut Wealth Management Selects Subatomic to Build Its AI Operating System https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/connecticut-wealth-management-selects-subatomic-to-build-its-ai-operating-system
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