To showcase new RIA solutions, Envestnet|Yodlee Vice Chairman and CEO Anil Arora began his presentation in New Orleans at the Advisor Summit 2018 by recapping the theme of "financial wellness," and stating that today's business is switching from "product orientation to client orientation." The new solutions also will appeal to the next generations of clients, he said.
On why "financial wellness" is key, Arora discussed findings that showed last year 85% of Americans are stressed and anxious about their financial lives, while the second closest concern was health care at 32%.
"Let's go deeper: 56% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. More than half of the country couldn't come up with $500 for an emergency and 83% don't have an emergency fund," he told the audience of RIAs.
He added that 54% of high-net-worth individuals are concerned about being under-insured, and 41% of Americans have been victims of major data breaches.
"These are the reasons why [clients] are so anxious and so stressed, and if we are going to address these clients in more a focused way we need to understand why they are so concerned," he said. "And this is the foundation that drives what we do in terms of our solutions and innovation."
He pointed out that Envestnet "recognizes the brand in front of the client is yours … and we're the intel inside. You need to make sure you pick the best partner."
He then showcased some of the new solutions from Envestnet|Yodlee that are available now or will be launched this year.
"We have the benefit of scalability," he said. "Data gets better with scale. It's machine learning. The more data you see, the better the data becomes … it's a virtuous cycle. We have 23 million users, 100,000 investor accounts."