GCash parent Mynt scales GStocks into the Philippines’ largest online retail stock platform Mynt, parent of Philippine super app GCash, said GStocks PH now serves over 2 million Filipinos and accounts for more than 50% of all online retail stock accounts at the Philippine Stock Exchange. With 3.22 million of the country’s 3.61 million retail stock accounts already held online, the payments super app rather than the brokerage is becoming the default on-ramp to Philippine equity investing. Knote: Half my family is Filipino and I can assure you that they know how to save money. And 2 million users is off-the-charts given that only about 2% of the population invests in the stock market (vs 62% in the US). Read More → Hightower picks Dispatch to run onboarding for its Signature Wealth channel Hightower Advisors, a Chicago-based wealth manager with more than 800 advisors, selected fintech Dispatch to handle advisor transitions, client account opening and cross-platform data syncing for Hightower Signature Wealth. Placing Dispatch’s data layer between custodians such as Schwab and Fidelity and Hightower’s advisory systems makes onboarding infrastructure a growth dependency for a channel that has reached $35 billion in AUM in barely a year. Read More → Ajaib raises $270 million from SBI Holdings in Indonesia’s largest tech round since 2022 Ajaib, a Jakarta-based online stock trading platform serving more than seven million users, raised $270 million from Tokyo-listed SBI Holdings, taking total funding past $500 million since its founding. SBI’s 20% stake implies a valuation near $1.35 billion and signals that mobile-first brokerages with large, young installed bases remain strategic targets as tokenization pulls incumbents toward digital-asset infrastructure. Read More → Archive Intel and Zocks connect AI meeting records to compliance review Archive Intel, an AI-powered communications compliance platform, integrated with privacy-first AI platform Zocks so transcripts and notes flow automatically into contextual review and audit-ready retention for $12 per user per month. With SEC and FINRA treating AI notetaker output as electronic client communications subject to five-year retention, supervision is becoming a required companion product to every advisor AI assistant. Knote: One step closer to the dream of fully automated direct surveillance that can be outsourced to 3rd party compliance consultants. Read More → Younger advisors run more of their book through model portfolios Fuse Research Network found that 47% of surveyed advisor accounts are managed through model portfolios, rising to 56% among advisors under 45 and falling to 40% among advisors 60 and older. The age gradient turns model placement into a forward-looking distribution strategy for asset managers, since the advisors gaining share of industry assets are already building on models. Knote: The UK is behind the US in this, but heading in the same direction. Read More → Morningstar’s retirement advisory business drops ByAllAccounts for Plaid Morningstar Investment Management will move account aggregation for its retirement advisory clients, covering $19.4 billion in managed account assets, from its own ByAllAccounts unit to Plaid next month. Morningstar says the switch is limited to this segment and unrelated to ByAllAccounts ownership talks, though Fuse Research has framed it as a possible proof point ahead of a wider transition. Knote: I wish the US would adopt an open banking standard like the UK has except extend it to cover investment accounts. It would make holistic advice a lot easier (and more accurate). Read More → Orion adds BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard to Tailored Allocation Portfolios Orion added model portfolios from BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and Vanguard to its Tailored Allocation Portfolios, bringing the program to eight strategists since its October 2025 launch. Pairing third-party models with Custom Indexing, now past $17.1 billion in assets, lets advisors migrate concentrated and legacy positions gradually and moves the differentiation from allocation to tax management. Knote: UK friends, please take notice. It should not take 30 days to rebalance your customized model portfolios. Read More → Aquiline to acquire control of Flourish from MassMutual Aquiline Capital Partners agreed to acquire a controlling interest in Flourish, the RIA-focused cash and lending platform working with more than 1,300 firms representing over $2.6 trillion in assets, with MassMutual retaining a significant stake. The deal maps to the Family Office as-a-Service theme, in which owning the banking layer of the client relationship becomes asset defense for RIAs competing with banks and wirehouses. MWnote: MassMutual selling control while staying a shareholder, partner, and client is about as close to the ideal corporate venture outcome as one can get. More insurers sitting on WealthTech assets should be studying the structure. Read More → Envestnet more than doubles its technology investment in Tamarac Envestnet is raising technology investment in Tamarac, its RIA platform, by 2.5x through a $35 million surge investment, and introduced Report Studio alongside an AI-enabled version now open for beta signup. The surge accelerates a five-year, $1 billion research and development commitment and aims it at reporting and planning integration, where Envestnet estimates report automation could return roughly 1,077 hours a year across a median book. Knote: Looks like Tamarac is going on the offensive after years of fighting something of a rear-guard action. It's the sort of thing I love to see. Read More → Norwegian investor reportedly seeking majority stake in Hungarian fintech Dorsum Portfolio.hu reported that a Norwegian private equity investor, identified by industry sources as Hawk Infinity, agreed to acquire a majority stake in Budapest-based wealth software firm Dorsum at a value of HUF15-18bn (€38mn-45mn). At roughly 8-9 times EBITDA on 2025 revenue of HUF9.2bn, the reported terms would price a regional leader in securities and wealth-management software that has shifted from custom development toward scalable products. Knote: This has not been confirmed so we are just passing it along. If true, it would be a nice Services-to-Software success story. Read More → AI ATC: A quick summary of AI feature rollouts WealthAi launches WealthAi for Advisors as advice firms enter next phase of AI adoption (https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/wealthai-launches-wealthai-for-advisors-as-advice-firms-enter-next-phase-of-ai-adoption) FE fundinfo extends Nexus for Financial Advisers into face-to-face client meetings with new mobile app (https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/fe-fundinfo-extends-nexus-for-financial-advisers-into-face-to-face-client-meetings-with-new-mobile-a) Altruist Launches AI Financial Planning Agent (https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/altruist-launches-ai-financial-planning-agent) 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! Subscribe and receive these insights directly: wealthtechstrategy.com

DBS sees millennial affluent clients nearly triple in Singapore DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, reported that millennial customers moving into its DBS Treasures affluent tier tripled in the first half of 2026, with overall retail-to-Treasures progression up 180% year-on-year. The bank is backing that momentum with more than 600 new hires, 18 new wealth centers, and AI tools that have already cut wealth-client onboarding time in half — a marker of how fast digitally led wealth platforms are scaling in Asia. Knote: Not strictly WealthTech, but tangential evidence of the WealthTech growth we are seeing in the East. And the DBS Treasures platform is probably one of the most digitally advanced of the majors. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/dbs-records-near-threefold-growth-in-millennial-affluent-clients-in-singapore Apex and Gemini team up on regulated crypto prediction markets Apex Fintech Solutions, the clearing and custody engine behind dozens of brokerages, signed a letter of intent making Gemini Titan the exclusive regulated venue for crypto event contracts distributed through Apex’s Futures Commission Merchant. Coming two weeks after Apex’s Kalshi announcement — and announced before the agreement is final — the deal shows prediction markets hardening into a distribution race, with Apex positioning itself as the pipes for whichever venues win. Knote: I'm not sure if this is aggressive offense or vigorous defense, but this is the second predictions market announcement out of Apex in two weeks. Also, they are announcing this before the final agreement is in place, which seems somewhat unusual (and a little risky). This suggests to us that timing is of the essence. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/apex-partners-with-gemini-on-crypto-prediction-markets Marloo lands in the US gunning for the traditional advisor CRM Marloo, an AI platform for financial advisers that has onboarded more than 900 firms across eight countries in the past year, launched in the US with SOC 2 Type II certification, US data residency, and zero retention of customer data for AI training. By automating meeting prep, advice documents, and compliance workflows rather than just recording them, Marloo is attacking the CRM category’s core weakness — advisors maintaining the system instead of the system working for them. Knote: It seems to us that the only real advantage of the incumbent CRMs is that it is a pain to migrate off of them. That won't last forever, so they need to get a lot more aggressive at defensive building...and fast. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/marloo-enters-us-market-with-ai-platform-designed-to-replace-traditional-financial-advice-workflows Ezra Group launches a directory of AI agents for advisors Ezra Group, the wealth management technology consultancy, launched an “AI Agents for Advisors” directory cataloguing 51 advisor-specific agents by category, with pricing detail and an eventual 0–5 “Autonomy Score” for how much human input each agent needs. As agents proliferate inside advisor platforms, a directory granular enough to cut past marketing language could become the reference layer for firms trying to work out what these tools actually do. Knote: I have always admired, and continue to admire, Craig's courage. With the sheer number of agents coming online, I think this will be very valuable but not easy...more like Air Traffic Control than anything else. Put me down as a subscriber. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/what-does-this-agent-actually-do Vanguard to acquire Altruist, pairing its scale with a modern custody platform Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment managers, agreed to acquire Altruist, the AI-forward custody and technology platform for independent advisors, with the deal expected to close later this year and Altruist continuing to operate as a standalone business. Pairing Vanguard’s institutional scale with a modern self-clearing custodian instantly reshapes the custody race — and signals that the advisor infrastructure layer is now a strategic asset worth paying up for. Knote: We are hearing they paid $4.6B, up from a reported $1.9B valuation in April of last year. That is the power of modern technology for you. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/e4175899 The week in AI: six advisor-tech launches in five days Caddi launched an AI agent that builds and governs a firm’s other back-office agents — employees demonstrate a task on screen, and the resulting agent runs deterministic code with a replayable record of every execution. Practifi unveiled Sentir, an AI-native intelligent CRM carrying 16 named agents across tax, planning, and client sentiment, and rebadged its existing configurable CRM as Practifi Naya. Flanks joined Perplexity’s connector ecosystem, putting regulated portfolio data from more than 700 institutions across 33 countries into natural-language advisor workflows. Growhill Wealth (formerly GROW Digital Wealth) introduced an agentic AI workforce that monitors portfolios, flags priority issues, and preps research for independent advisors across Asia. AssetMark released Talk Tracks, which turns portfolio data, market context, and holdings news into client-ready talking points inside its Advisor Portal. Advisor360° shipped proactive AI intelligence, native Schwab account opening, and Fidelity straight-through trade processing on its Unified Data Fabric. MMnote: Six AI announcements in five days (worth covering). AI is no longer the differentiator; it is the price of admission. The next fight is proving what all these agents actually do (see Ezra’s new directory above). Read More → Caddi | Practifi | Flanks | Growhill | AssetMark | Advisor360° Scalable Capital opens its platform to AI assistants Scalable Capital, the Munich-based digital bank with more than one million clients and €60 billion on platform, launched Agentic Investing, letting clients trade, manage savings plans, and run portfolio analysis through ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok via an MCP server. It claims to be the first bank in Europe to open its platform to AI assistants — an early look at what brokerage distribution becomes when the client interface belongs to someone else’s AI. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/scalable-capital-becomes-first-bank-in-europe-to-open-platform-to-ai-assistants-via-agentic-investin FE fundinfo launches a governed core for fund data FE fundinfo, the global fund data and technology provider, launched Product Mastering Core, a pre-configured governed data layer spanning more than 600 Openfunds-aligned fields that goes live in days with no implementation project. With 64% of investment management leaders saying AI will only deliver value once data quality and structure improve, productized data mastering is becoming the on-ramp for everything else in the stack. Knote: The big win here is probably ease of AI access. AI is not a computational exercise - it is a data exercise. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/fe-fundinfo-launches-product-mastering-core-fund-data-platform april puts IRS tax data to work inside advisor platforms april, the embedded tax platform backed by $80 million from QED Investors, Nyca Partners, and Team8, expanded its Integrated Tax Platform to deliver planning insights built on client-authorized IRS transcript data and its IRS-approved tax engine. Pulling verified tax history directly into existing advisor workflows moves tax from an annual filing chore to a live planning surface — Roth conversions, equity compensation, and estimated payments included. Knote: It sounds like Intuit and H&R Block need to get their heads off their pillows. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/april-expands-integrated-tax-platform-with-precise-tax-planning-insights-powered-by-irs-tax-data Nexedge Capital raises $20M to manage a family’s whole balance sheet Nexedge Capital, the Indian multi-family office founded 18 months ago by 360 ONE Wealth co-founder Anirudha Taparia, raised a $20 million first round co-led by Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Elev8 Venture Partners at a roughly $250 million valuation. With more than $3 billion in AUM already and plans to push family-office-style service into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, Nexedge is a bet that India’s wealth boom will be served by technology rather than headcount. MWnote: India's affluent and mass affluent population is expanding faster than the supply of experienced advisors available to serve it, so a firm that can push family office style services into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities on a technology platform is addressing demand that traditional relationship coverage cannot realistically reach. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/37776c39 RQD* Clearing secures $74M growth investment led by Bain Capital RQD* Clearing, the modern clearing and custody provider that has cleared 515 million equity transactions this year — roughly 2.4% of the NMS equities market — landed a $74 million minority investment led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, with ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and Nyca Partners participating. Days after Vanguard–Altruist, the raise confirms that modern clearing rails — digital asset custody and tokenization included — are where infrastructure capital wants to be. MMnote: This had to have already been in the works, but on top of Altruist<>Vanguard this week, clearing and custody is looking hot. Specifically, how to do so effectively with all asset classes. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/rqd-clearing-secures-74-million-growth-investment-led-by-bain-capital 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! Subscribe and receive these insights directly: wealthtechstrategy.com

WealthTech Strategy opens a free job exchange WealthTech Strategy launched the WealthTech Job Exchange, a free listing board where people looking for their next challenge submit a casual profile that the team drafts, and where anything a candidate wants kept quiet can simply read “Upon Request.” Trading on network rather than fees, and built to accommodate confidential searches, it targets the part of WealthTech hiring that never reaches a job board: senior operators who cannot be seen looking. Read the full post MoneyLion veterans raise $10 million for a wealth data ontology Astraeus, a New York platform founded by former MoneyLion global CTO Phill Rosen and former MoneyLion wealth head Jon Stevenson, went live on August 6 with more than $10 million from Fintech Collective, F-Prime, Walkabout Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures. The pitch is a semantic layer unifying clients, advisors, accounts, products, fees and regulatory requirements without a rip-and-replace, sold to advisory firms, wealthtech platforms and private equity owners rather than to individual advisors. Knote: I'm not seeing anything new here at first glance, but I'm looking forward to digging in. F-Prime does not back things lightly. Read the full post nCino opens its mortgage suite to AI agents over MCP nCino, the cloud banking and lending platform, launched Mortgage MCP, letting lenders connect Model Context Protocol–compatible AI agents to the nCino Mortgage Suite through pre-built Admin MCP and Loan Officer MCP tools. Every action runs inside nCino’s existing permissioning and audit logging, with timestamped records and configurable human confirmation on higher-impact steps — the part that decides whether agentic lending clears a risk committee. Knote: There is a lot of money yet to be made in lending infrastructure and it is a natural place for well governed AI, particularly at community banks and CUs. Read the full post eToro buys TradeZero for up to $231 million to crack US active trading eToro, the global social investing platform, agreed to acquire TradeZero, a US brokerage built for active and day traders with roughly $80 million of trailing revenue at an 81% gross margin, in a cash-and-stock deal worth up to $231 million. TradeZero’s broker-dealer subsidiaries and proprietary short-locator technology hand eToro US infrastructure it has been renting, with management guiding to first-year accretion on an expected close in the first half of 2027. Knote: With Robinhood expanding crypto trading into the UK, it only seems fair that eToro expands into the US. The Company says they expect it to be accretive in year 1, which makes sense to us since we believe TradeZero is profitable and most of the deal is cash. And eToro has arguably way too much cash on the balance sheet (about $1.2B of its $2.4B market cap last we looked). Read the full post Schwab capex jumps on a $633 million software license The Charles Schwab Corporation reported second-quarter capital expenditures of $792 million against $136 million a year earlier, driven primarily by a $633 million multi-year software license booked with a matching liability in long-term debt. Full-year capex now runs above the guided 3% to 5% of net revenues, and the filing names artificial intelligence, digital assets and private company securities as competitive trends alongside the phased Schwab Crypto rollout and the closed Forge Global deal. Knote: We don't have any details on the mystery vendor behind this large tech contract yet, but at $633M, I would not be surprised it rhymed with Planthropic. Read the full post eToro says it rewrote its entire app with AI and wired in trading agents eToro posted second-quarter net contribution up 9% to $229 million and funded accounts up 18% to 4.28 million, and told analysts it rebuilt its app from scratch using AI, replacing what it claims was more than 500 person-years of prior development. Official Grok and Claude connectors now let users authorize AI agents to trade autonomously under read-only or portfolio-scoped permissions, moving agentic investing out of the demo and into production plumbing. Knote: The most interesting data point for me is that they say they re-wrote their entire code base with AI. So AI has replaced what they claim was 500 person-years of work in (presumably) something far less than 500 person-years. Those are some fancy numbers. Read the full post Vanguard opens its models to advisor customization at no extra fee Vanguard launched custom model portfolios letting advisors personalize its Strategic Active/Passive and Fixed-Income models, delivered through Vestmark under SS&C Black Diamond or Orion’s Tailored Allocation Portfolios, with no additional charge for customization. Custom model assets reached $258 billion by the first quarter, up 40% year over year, and a Morningstar survey found 47% of advisors cite insufficient customization as their reason for not using models at all. Knote: Custom models are a huge pain point, especially in the UK. The advisor user experience is critical, though. Key points to evaluate are (1) the amount of work and thought required on the part of the advisor during the customization process and (2) how automated is the rebalancing? Read the full post Edward Jones technology spend climbs 29% as advisory assets surge The Jones Financial Companies reported communications and data processing expense up 29% to $356 million in the second quarter and up 24% to $673 million in the first half, attributed to continued investment in new tools and technology. Advisory program assets under care rose 29% to $1,198 billion while branches fell 3% and home office associates fell 7%, a mix showing the technology bill buying scale rather than headcount. Read the full post Centricity raises $20 million seed led by Lightspeed at a $125 million valuation Centricity, an India-based wealth management technology firm founded in 2022, raised $20 million led by Lightspeed at a $125 million valuation, joined by the Burman, MS Dhoni, NB Ventures and MMG Group family offices. Its Invictus and OneDigital platforms already reach more than 4,500 distributors across 26 cities, and a plan to double the technology team from 75 to over 150 specialists marks distributor-facing infrastructure as the contested layer in India. Knote: We continue to believe that D2C advice and investing market in India is one of the hottest WealthTech opportunities globally. Read the full post LLR maps four forces reshaping wealth and asset management LLR Partners identified AI-enabled advice, broader access to alternatives, mass personalization and an expanded advisor value proposition as the four trends reshaping the market, citing EY-Parthenon research that 95% of asset and wealth managers already run at least three AI use cases. The supporting numbers carry the argument: BNY projects private-wealth alternatives assets tripling to roughly $12 trillion over the decade, and Cerulli expects US direct indexing to pass $800 billion this year. Knote: Solid themes from people who know their stuff. I would add AI governance/data to the AI theme as I see that as a big topic for 2027 and 2028. Read the full post Nitrogen extends its scoring model from risk to insurance Nitrogen Wealth, the advisor platform formerly known as Riskalyze, launched Insurance Center, built on its Nucleus AI agent and organized around a Coverage Number where a result below 100 flags a gap and above 120 suggests excess. LPL Financial is already an approved user, and with roughly 80% of Nitrogen’s advisor base using its existing tools for insurance purposes, the company is selling into demand it has been watching for years. Knote: Insurance should be an easy win for holistic advisors, but it was only a hard win 5 years ago. Technology is changing that. Read the full post Apex turns Kalshi prediction markets into an API Apex Fintech Solutions launched an API letting firms offer Kalshi-powered event contracts from their own platforms without building Futures Commission Merchant infrastructure or direct exchange connectivity, with tastytrade the first firm live. Apex handles clearing, custody, money movement and statements through AscendOS while Kalshi supplies the regulated marketplace, packaging prediction markets as something a wealth platform switches on rather than builds. Knote: Kalshi is quietly building itself into a premier prediction-markets-as-a-service platform for WealthTech. Others using its infrastructure for prediction trading include Robinhood & Coinbase (at least partially), Webull, Moomoo, Interactive Brokers, XP International, Clear, Wealthsimple, and Clear Street. Read the full post SEC exam priorities put AI claims and Reg S-P on the clock A Leo RegTech analysis of the SEC Division of Examinations’ fiscal 2026 priorities notes that examiners will test whether a firm’s actual AI usage matches what it tells clients and regulators, and that smaller advisers had to meet amended Regulation S-P requirements by June 3, 2026. The required documentation — incident response program, risk assessments, incident logs and vendor oversight records, all producible on short notice — is effectively the build spec for a modern compliance platform. Knote: We usually don't publish writeups from vendors talking about the problems that their product solves, but this one seemed refreshingly balanced. Read the full post

Siebert Financial deepens FusionIQ bet, signs 10-year WealthTech partnership Siebert Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: SIEB) is making an additional investment in FusionIQ and signing a proposed 10-year strategic partnership spanning wealth and advisory, broker-dealer and institutional distribution, and digital-asset infrastructure, subject to definitive agreements. The deal builds on work already underway since June 2025, when Siebert began integrating FusionIQ's platform to support hybrid advice, self-directed investing, and multi-custodian workflows for advisors, banks, and credit unions. Knote: These co-development partnerships can be immensely powerful, when done right. I also applaud the all-in commitment here. I don't think I have ever seen such a partnership that explicitly states a 10-year relationship. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/siebert-financial-deepens-fusioniq-bet-signs-10-year-wealthtech-partnership Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev: Tokenization will take over the entire financial system In a CNBC interview, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said tokenization “is at the beginning of a super cycle and will take over the entire financial system,” pointing to Robinhood Chain, the crypto blockchain the company launched about a month earlier outside the U.S. Robinhood's tokenized stock offering has grown from 90 to 190 tokens available in more than 120 countries, trading 24/7 with instant settlement — a model Tenev argues especially solves liquidity gaps for private companies and emerging markets. Knote: I'm not sure that tokenization of public equity is solving a major pain point right now (but perhaps a minor one), but I am 100% behind tokenization of private assets. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-tokenization-will-take-over-the-entire-financial-system Charles Schwab getting more aggressive with internal advisor business Schwab is raising the asset floor for referrals to outside RIAs to $5 million starting January 5, 2027, up from $2 million (itself raised from $500,000 at the start of 2026) — the same week it ran a full-page WSJ ad promising to hire thousands more of its own financial consultants. Nexus Strategies' Tim Welsh said the move is about protecting “investment management revenues, basis points… so the first order of business is: stop giving it to advisors,” while Datos Insights' William Trout noted Schwab keeps more $2M–$5M accounts in-house “where Schwab controls margin, deposits, and ancillary revenue.” Knote: It's not technically a WealthTech story, but anything Charles Schwab does is worth watching in WealthtTech. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/charles-schwab-getting-more-aggressive-with-internal-advisor-business Stash and Capitalize announce new rollover partnership Stash and Capitalize partnered to let Stash customers search for and consolidate legacy 401(k) accounts into an IRA without leaving the Stash app, using Capitalize's Embedded Rollover API to initiate transfers and provide guided support. Stash CEO Brandon Krieg said “too many Americans leave retirement savings behind when they change jobs because rolling over an old 401(k) is harder than it should be,” while Capitalize CEO Gaurav Sharma pointed to “a simpler way to transfer and consolidate retirement savings while reducing friction.” Knote: As younger workers bounce from job to job, they scatter small 401(k)s around like Johnny Appleseed. This tool can help consolidate them into something coherent. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/stash-and-capitalize-announce-new-rollover-partnership Amundi Technology has been growing fast — now it faces a leadership challenge Amundi Technology grew H1 2026 revenue 23% to €63 million after 45% growth the prior year and 10 new client signings, but head Ben Lucas departed in July 2026 to run Aztec Group, leaving newly promoted COO Claire Cornil overseeing the unit on an interim basis. The division, built around the ALTO platform after Amundi's split from BlackRock's Aladdin, is targeting a doubling of technology revenue by 2028 and still accounts for only about 3% of group revenue, versus Aladdin's roughly 8% of BlackRock's $24.4 billion in 2025 revenue. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/amundi-technology-has-been-growing-fast-now-it-faces-a-leadership-challenge CFP Board responds to House Financial Services Committee Democrats' request on AI The CFP Board, which certifies more than 109,000 CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals representing roughly a third of retail financial professionals, submitted its response to House Financial Services Committee Democrats on AI in financial services on August 14, 2026. The Board argued AI should “augment rather than replace human financial planners in consumer-facing advice,” calling for human oversight, disclosure of AI's role, data governance safeguards, error detection, and model risk management within a “flexible, risk-based framework.” Knote: We think AI governance will emerge as a big roadmap item during the 2027 planning cycle. If we are wrong, we think we are only wrong by a year. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/cfp-board-response-to-house-financial-services-committee-democrats-request-for-information-on-artif Stone Point and Genstar take equal stakes in Ascensus Ascensus, which supports more than 16 million savers and administers over $1.3 trillion in assets, restructured its ownership so Stone Point Capital and Genstar Capital become co-equal investors and joint governance partners, with existing investor GIC remaining in place. The deal, expected to close in the coming months pending regulatory approval, follows Ascensus's recent acquisition of AmericanTCS for trust, custody, and pooled employer plan capabilities, and lands squarely in “Peak 65,” the multi-year stretch when more Americans turn 65 than in any prior year. MMnote: We would have thought Asensus would sell to one of the large incumbents (like Empower or PCS) or one of the rapid builders (like Schwab or the wirehouses), but we agree with the notion that there is a lot of growth ahead for Asensus. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/d05884ed VastAdvisor closes $1 million SAFE round for AI growth platform aimed at advisors VastAdvisor raised a $1 million SAFE round led by three individual operator-investors — Dani Fava (Carson Group), Jason Pereira, CFP (Woodgate Financial), and Sally George (Convergency Partners) — to build out its “Organic Growth OS” for RIAs, broker-dealers, and wealth platforms. The platform combines audience intelligence, campaign automation, compliance monitoring, and continuous optimization; CEO Ian Karnell said the round was validating because it came “from operators inside the industry and not only from financial backers.” MMnote: From what I can tell, what’s different about this firm than previous organic growth platforms is the robust intelligence layer that runs on top of campaigns. Read More → https://www.wealthtechstrategy.com/post/vastadvisor-closes-1-million-safe-round-for-ai-growth-platform-aimed-at-advisors 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! Subscribe and receive these insights directly: wealthtechstrategy.com

bne IntelliNews. (2026, September 2). Norwegian investor targets majority stake in Hungarian fintech Dorsum. https://www.intellinews.com/norwegian-investor-targets-majority-stake-in-hungarian-fintech-dorsum-465172/ This has not been independently confirmed. It appears to be a report from just one indirect source being picked up more broadly in the media. A Norwegian private equity investor has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Hungarian fintech Dorsum in a deal that could value the Budapest-based company at HUF15-18bn (€38mn-45mn), according to Portfolio.hu. Portfolio.hu, citing industry sources, identified Hawk Infinity as the likely buyer, although this has not been independently confirmed. The transaction was reportedly agreed last year but was derailed after the Orban government expanded its veto powers over foreign acquisitions in strategic sectors, and the parties are understood to have revived it following the April 2026 election with the required ministry approval potentially already granted. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Budapest, Dorsum builds modular front- to back-office software for investment operations and wealth management in highly regulated EU markets and is described as a market leader in securities and wealth-management software in Hungary and the wider region. The company serves banks, asset managers, brokers, insurers, pension funds and national treasuries across more than 10 countries, having shifted from largely customized software development toward scalable fintech and wealthtech products. Shareholders include businessman Karoly Gerendai, founder and co-owner of Sziget, alongside other private investors, management and key employees, with existing management expected to remain in place and some current shareholders potentially retaining minority stakes. Dorsum generated HUF9.2bn in revenue in 2025 with EBITDA of around HUF1.9bn and an average of 254 employees, implying an EBITDA multiple of roughly 8-9 times at the reported valuation range. Knote: This has not been confirmed so we are just passing it along. If true, it would be a nice Services-to-Software success story.

Envestnet. (2026, September 3). Envestnet deepens $1 billion wealthtech commitment, more than doubling technology investment in Tamarac [Press release]. https://envestnet.mediaroom.com/2026-09-03-ENVESTNET-DEEPENS-1-BILLION-WEALTHTECH-COMMITMENT,-MORE-THAN-DOUBLING-TECHNOLOGY-INVESTMENT-IN-TAMARAC Envestnet is increasing its technology investment in Tamarac, its platform built for RIAs, by 2.5x, described as a $35 million surge investment. The move accelerates the five-year, $1 billion research and development commitment Envestnet announced a year ago spanning trading, reporting, financial planning, portfolio management, and client engagement. Envestnet introduced Report Studio, a rebuilt reporting foundation giving advisors drag-and-drop control over tables, charts, and KPI modules, available to all advisors now. An AI-enabled Report Studio that lets advisors build client-ready reports and briefs by describing what they need is open for beta signup, with general availability planned for later this fall. Envestnet estimates that saving 55 minutes per report across a median book of 235 households equates to roughly 1,077 hours a year, about 52% of an advisor's working year. Custom Model Solutions have been deepened to include semi-liquid strategies, interval funds, and alternative ETFs delivered at scale through the UMA platform. A full MoneyGuide integration now brings planning data such as goals, risk profile, net worth, and held-away accounts into proposal workflows, IPS documentation, and client records. Knote: Looks like Tamarac is going on the offensive after years of fighting something of a rear-guard action. It's the sort of thing I love to see.

WealthAi launches WealthAi for Advisors as advice firms enter next phase of AI adoption. (2026, September 4). Finextra. https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/110812/wealthai-launches-wealthai-for-advisors-as-advice-firms-enter-next-phase-of-ai-adoption WealthAi has launched WealthAi for Advisors, extending its AI operating system for wealth management to independent financial advisers and smaller advice firms. The platform consolidates meeting notetaking, client management, document generation, administration, market information and compliance into a single integrated platform. Advice firms using the product during its summer beta testing phase reported an initial 60% reduction in time spent on routine client administration. Deployment takes days and does not require firms to replace existing practice management systems or undertake a large-scale IT implementation. Core components include WealthAi's AI-native Client File, a single AI Assistant spanning client records, documents, email, calendar and market information, an AI-powered CRM, a document vault, automated form filling and document generation, integrated financial news and data, and compliance monitoring. WealthAi's AI agents can be integrated to operate across compliance, risk management, research, investments and operations, accessing the Client File to identify actions, update records and keep workflows aligned with firm policies and regulatory requirements. Jason Nabi, CEO and founder of WealthAi, said most traditional wealth technology was designed for people to operate software and that the next generation will be designed for AI agents to operate across the business.

FE fundinfo. (2026, September 2). FE fundinfo extends Nexus for Financial Advisers into face-to-face client meetings with new mobile app. https://www.fefundinfo.com/insights/fe-fundinfo-extends-nexus-for-financial-advisers-into-face-to-face-client-meetings-with-new-mobile-app FE fundinfo launched a mobile app for Nexus for Financial Advisers, extending its AI-powered meeting support to face-to-face client meetings for the first time and making it available to all Nexus Assistant users on Android and iOS. Information recorded during in-person meetings on a phone or tablet becomes part of the same client record used across the wider advice process rather than remaining isolated in a separate tool. Meetings recorded on the app follow the same workflow as video meetings, including transcription, structured note generation, client data extraction, adviser review and approval, and transfer into Nexus for Financial Advisers or connected CRM systems. AI-generated outputs are attributed to their source and adviser actions remain auditable. FE fundinfo's Financial Adviser Survey 2026 found that 95% of advisers say they use too many software applications, with data reconciliation between systems consuming an average of 192 hours annually. The app forms part of an expanded investment in Nexus for Financial Advisers, with more than 25 new capabilities planned by the end of 2026. Autumn developments include AI-generated suitability reporting, automated client vulnerability assessment, expanded back-office integrations, a consolidated client profile, and AI-powered fund research and cashflow modelling.

Aquiline Capital Partners has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling interest in Flourish, the RIA-focused cash and lending platform currently owned by MassMutual. The transaction was announced on September 2, 2026 and is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Terms were not disclosed. MassMutual will retain a significant stake and remain a strategic partner and client of the business. Wells Fargo acted as exclusive placement agent and financial advisor to Flourish and MassMutual. Founded in 2017 and based in New York, Flourish gives independent advisors private-bank-like tools for the parts of a client balance sheet that sit outside the managed portfolio. The firm works with more than 1,300 RIA firms representing over $2.6 trillion in assets under management, and its advisor-led cash solution grew from $1 billion to $8 billion in assets under custody over five years while driving more than $1 billion in net new flows to custodians. It recently launched a home lending product built for the independent channel. David Canter, who previously led Fidelity's RIA and Family Office segments, joins as executive chairman. Chief Executive Max Lane said the new structure preserves the MassMutual relationship while providing agility to accelerate the roadmap, with expanded checking capabilities and AI-driven lending optimization planned. The deal maps to the Family Office as-a-Service theme, in which technology carries high-touch services such as cash management, liability optimization, and family lending down-market. For RIAs competing with banks and wirehouses, owning the banking layer of the client relationship is becoming asset defense as much as a growth channel. MWnote: MassMutual selling control while staying a shareholder, partner, and client is about as close to the ideal corporate venture outcome as one can get. More insurers sitting on WealthTech assets should be studying the structure. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aquiline-to-invest-in-flourish-a-leading-wealthtech-platform-for-independent-advisors-302867632.html

Orion. (2026, September 1). Orion adds BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and Vanguard to Tailored Allocation Portfolios [Press release]. Business Wire. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260901726412/en/Orion-Adds-BlackRock-Fidelity-Investments-and-Vanguard-to-Tailored-Allocation-Portfolios Orion added model portfolios from BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and Vanguard to its Tailored Allocation Portfolios offering. The offering combines third-party model portfolios with Orion's Custom Indexing technology to deliver tax management and personalized investing at scale. The three managers join Brinker-Main Management, First Trust Advisors, Frontier Asset Management, Janus Henderson and Russell Investments, bringing the program to eight strategists since its October 2025 launch. Advisors can select an asset manager whose investment approach aligns with their own and build custom models on that foundation. Paired with Custom Indexing, the offering allows gradual migration of assets for clients with concentrated positions, legacy holdings or unique tax sensitivities. Tailored Allocation Portfolios are available across Orion Wealth Management, Orion Investment Portal, Wealth Advisory and Orion OCIO. Orion Custom Indexing surpassed $17.1 billion in assets under management as of July 31, 2026. Knote: UK friends, please take notice. It should not take 30 days to rebalance your customized model portfolios.

Velati, A. (2026, August 31). Morningstar's retirement advisory biz drops ByAllAccounts for Plaid. Financial Advisor IQ. https://www.financialadvisoriq.com/c/5240934/752664 Morningstar Investment Management will move account aggregation services for its retirement advisory clients from its own ByAllAccounts unit to Plaid next month, according to an Aug. 18 regulatory filing. Managed accounts and advisor-managed accounts are part of the transition, and Morningstar Retirement's managed accounts held $19.4 billion in assets under management and administration as of June 30. A Morningstar spokesperson said the retirement group planned the change in part based on connectivity practices of recordkeeper networks in that specific segment. The spokesperson said the change is limited to those retirement advisory services and unrelated to discussions regarding ByAllAccounts ownership, and that ByAllAccounts continues to serve Morningstar Investor and Direct Advisory Suite. Morningstar announced in April that it intended to sell ByAllAccounts to fintech investor Pello Companies, and those plans halted when the deal fell through in July. ByAllAccounts, formed in 1999 and sold to Morningstar by State Street in 2014 for $28 million, services over 6,000 advisory firms and over 70 wealth platforms including Addepar, Advyzon and Halo. Craig Kilgallen of Fuse Research said Plaid's aggregation capabilities appear strong for retirement accounts and could provide a proof point before Morningstar transitions other parts of its business. Knote: I wish the US would adopt an open banking standard like the UK has except extend it to cover investment accounts. It would make holistic advice a lot easier (and more accurate).

Fuse Research Network (2026, August 25). Next-gen advisors embrace models. Fuse Research Network. https://fuse-research.com/next-gen-advisors-embrace-models/ Fuse Research Network reported that 47% of surveyed advisor accounts are now managed through model portfolios, based on its "Portfolio Construction: The Advisor View" study. Model portfolios are increasingly central to advisor portfolio construction, and younger advisors are significantly more likely to use them. Advisors under 45 manage 56% of accounts through models. Advisors aged 45 to 60 manage 47% of accounts through models. Advisors age 60 and older manage just 40% of accounts using models. Fuse said that as younger advisors gain a larger share of industry assets, model portfolios are likely to become an increasingly important route to market. Fuse said asset managers should prioritize model solutions and placement to build relevance with the next generation of advisors and position for future asset growth. Knote: The UK is behind the US in this, but heading in the same direction.