Orion Advisor Solutions, a major technology provider to independent RIAs, announced a C-suite hire this week: Mark Mayo has joined as its chief financial officer.
He replaces Daniel Applegarth, who spent 14 years in the role before departing to take on the CFO role at Carson Group in April.
Mayo most recently served as CFO for DISA Global Solutions, a drug testing provider. He has also held CFO roles at Connect America, HireRight and several divisions of General Electric.
It has been a year of changes at Orion. In August Brian McLaughlin, who served as president of advisor tech at Orion and co-founded CRM software developer Redtail Technology in 2003, announced he would be stepping down from his role at the end of this month. And a year ago Natalie Wolfsen, former CEO of AssetMark, joined the firm as its new chief executive, succeeding long-time CEO Eric Clarke.
Betterment for Advisors Rebrands
A decade after launching, Betterment for Advisors, the robo advisor’s all-in-one technology and custody platform for RIAs, has rebranded to Betterment Advisor Solutions.
“This new name more accurately reflects the breadth of products and services we offer across cash, investing, and 401(k) plans—all powered by Betterment’s trusted brand and technology,” the company stated on its blog.
CAIS, Focus Expand Partnership
Alternative investment platform CAIS has deepened and expanded its partnership with Focus Financial Partners, which was first announced in 2022.
The alts platform will be used by Focus advisors to access third-party funds, launch proprietary investment offerings, and consolidate existing funds and historical positions. Firms within the Focus partnership collectively managed or oversee more than $400 billion in client assets.
LPL Advisors Now Have Discounted Access to Asset-Map
The thousands of advisors affiliated with LPL Financial now have discounted access to Asset-Map’s specialized planning tools, which include, among many other features, the Reports tool that displays a household’s entire financial picture in a visual, intuitive way for working with clients; Stencils, where advisors can overlay peer data on a client’s Asset-Map Report for comparison and illustration purposes; and Signals, which is used to help illustrate how a given household will cope with up to six different common financial disruption events and can point out particular vulnerabilities associated with them.
Those and other features are available for $142 per month for the Professional and $189 per month (slight discount for both when paying an annual subscription) for the Elite (which provides more customization and the ability to use your branding) versions of Asset-Map.
Janney Rolls Out New Portfolio Construction Tool
Regional broker/dealer Janney Montgomery Scott announced the rollout of a new proprietary Portfolio Construction Tool for its Advisor Platform.
This tool will enable Janney’s 900 financial advisors to review investment products, compare portfolios and transition brokerage assets to the advisory side of the business. Among the tool’s key attributes are new client and prospect proposal features, new investment selection and research, portfolio analysis and construction features and fee analysis.
This is part of an ongoing, two-year development effort at Janney.
It was announced in late July that Janny was being acquired by private equity firm KKR after 42 years of ownership by Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. Janney will operate as a standalone, private company after the deal closes.