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06.22

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Orion-Redtail Deal Was Years in the Making

The deal that Orion Advisor Solutions
reached to acquire Redtail Technology
in April was several years in the making,
and everything finally came together
early this year when the timing also
became right for Redtail, the CEOs of
each company told Investment Advisor.
Redtail, led by Brian McLaughlin, its CEO
and co-founder, is a client relationship
management software firm focused on the
wealth management industry, and CRM is
a major component of the financial services
sector that Orion has been missing.
“We’ve been asking Brian if there was an
opportunity to do this deal for a number of
years and this year the opportunity kind of Finally, early this year, “the stars How much of a strategy change does
came together, so to speak, and the timing aligned,” McLaughlin said. “It was a cross- the Redtail purchase represent for Orion?
was great for both of us,” according to Eric roads for me strategically. We’re doing “Zero because we have from the get-go
Clarke, CEO and founder of Orion Advisor really well,” but he wanted to take Redtail been trying to connect that advisor-client
Solutions.“It’s no secret that Redtail has a “to the next level,” he said. “I really want journey across four strategic pillars of
series of raving fans in the marketplace. to innovate for the advisors. I want to prospect, plan, invest and achieve, and all
They have incredible market share. They innovate for the industry and scale it up.” of the advice center interactions take place
have high user satisfaction.” When he spoke to Clarke, “early on first and foremost in the CRM,” Clark said.
In addition, “when we stepped back I told him … [to] be really crystal clear “This is a big deal because they’re the
and looked at the integrations that we here, I want to work. I want to keep number one supplier of CRM to indepen-
support with the open-architecture going. I want to drive value and I want to dent advisors,” Joel Bruckenstein, head
platform here at Orion, Redtail has more provide value,” McLaughlin recalled. of Technology Tools for Today (T3), told
integrations with our user base than any “It was important to me that they Investment Advisor. “But for Orion, it really
other integration that we have in place understood I’m still committed to all sort of fills out their product line. They
today,” Clarke pointed out. “Over 30% of this and I’m committed to the advisors’ are a reseller, or have been for years, of
our Orion customer base is already using success,” McLaughlin said. “I’m com- Salesforce, and that’s great, but not every
Redtail, which made this just an unbeliev- mitted to my employees’ success, their Orion user is going to want Salesforce.”
able opportunity from our perspective.” employees’ success. … So that was just Now, “particularly as Orion is making a
important to me, no matter which direc- move more into the broker-dealer space,
‘The Stars Aligned’ tion Redtail went. That was critical.” Redtail is really entrenched there so … it
Part of the reason that McLaughlin Financial terms of the deal, expected means that now people who are using
agreed to be acquired by Orion was his to close in the second quarter, weren’t Redtail will be able to have even better
long relationship with Clarke. disclosed. integration, I would think, going forward
“We worked together on a number of But as part of the deal, McLaughlin will with Orion,” he said. “For Orion, it opens
projects,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve been become president of CRM for Orion and some doors into broker-dealers that they
doing the hackathons together [and report to Clarke. In addition, McLaughlin may not be entrenched in in the moment.
other] industry events together. There’s will join Orion’s executive team and its So it’s a win-win for everybody, I think.”
been a lot of connections over the years.” board of directors. —Jeff Berman
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