Advisor Group announced on Tuesday that it is building a new technology platform for its affiliated advisors to bring many of the capabilities consumers expect from robo-advisors to a traditional advisor's business.
Jemstep is building the platform, which will fully integrate with Pershing and Envestnet, the custody and TAMP providers for Advisor Group's network of advisors.
Advisor Group has a long-standing relationship with Jemstep, according to Jamie Price, Advisor Group president and CEO. "They started as a direct-to-consumer robo platform but quickly morphed into an advisor-facing robo platform," he told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday.
The firms have been working together on the new platform for about seven months, he said, and expect to release it to advisors in the fourth quarter.
Matt Schleuter, EVP and president of wealth management solutions for Advisor Group, said offering a simple robo-advisory tool directly to consumers would be a "big miss" for the firm by cutting out its current customer base.
"We wanted to bring those products out to make it available to all of our customers so that they can benefit from these services," he added.
"We did not build an off-the-shelf, to-the-side platform," he said. "It is fully integrated into our ecosystem in order to get the greatest amount of efficiency."
The new platform will help advisors reduce paperwork by onboarding clients and opening new accounts through an entirely digital process. Advisors can use any web-enabled device to access the platform, which will support a broad selection of advisory and brokerage solutions from Advisor Group.
The platform will also have integrate with Jemstep's Advisor Pro digital advice solution, which can be customized as a branded offering available through the advisor's website.
End clients will get access to a mobile-optimized web portal where they can see their portfolio information and performance reports, as well as transfer assets from other institutions using e-signatures.