Orion Buys Planning Software Startup Advizr

"Our acquisition of Advizr is about the future opportunities we can create together for our users," he told ThinkAdvisor, adding Orion "will not charge advisors an additional fee for Advizr's tools."

Asked why Orion decided to buy Advizr at this time, he explained: "When we looked at the advisors on our platform, only about 30% had implemented a financial planning integration. And those advisors had established financial plans with only 30% of their clientele. This told us there was something fundamentally broken about the planning process as it stood. We knew we needed to bring better technology and a great client experience to our users."

Orion selected Advizr specifically because "we've seen a growing advisor demand for more tools to create a great client experience," he said, adding: "This has been in the works for a long time, and we chose Advizr because we believe its standout client experience can help advisors on our platform grow their business."

He singled out Advizr's iterative planning as "one of the strengths" of its platform, explaining that "if a client approaches an advisor and just wants to discuss retirement planning or a similar issue, Advizr can build a planning solution in a way that is intuitive and immediately engaging." Advizr's technology enables clients and advisors to "engage each other at their own comfort, whether that's a collaborative approach or one initiated by the client," he said.

The "best part of this relationship," meanwhile, is that the "code base and tech stacks" at Orion and Advizr match, which he predicted "will lead to a quick integration." Also, "future innovations between the two of us will be market ready, and less expensive, than other acquisitions we're seeing in the industry," he projected, adding: "At the end of the day, this acquisition continues to bolster our offering to enterprise-sized firms, regionals and smaller firms alike."

The similarities between the back ends of the two platforms will allow the combined experience to reach the market quickly, Orion said, projecting the integrated capabilities will be available to current and prospective clients by late 2019.

FTJ Fundchoice, which NorthStar bought last year, will incorporate Advizr's income planning capabilities into its TAMP, according to Dean Cook, CEO of FTJ, whose brand name will soon change to Orion Portfolio Solutions. "With 10,000 baby boomers retiring each day, providing our advisors with a strong income-oriented proposal tool is a top priority for us," he said.

Advizr's co-founders — CEO Hussain Zaidi and COO Mustapha Baassiri — will join Orion's executive team as president of Financial Planning Solutions and executive vice president of Financial Planning Solutions, respectively. The pair will continue to lead their team out of Advizr's Manhattan location, according to Orion, which added that existing Advizr clients "should expect no disruption to their current service and will be among the first to benefit from the company's position as part of the Orion brand family."

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