Page 14 - Investment Advisor - October 2021

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

By Tim Welsh

New Acquisitions and Behavioral Efforts

Lead Orion’s Platform Play

The firm’s in-person conference, a welcome change, provided an inside

look at innovative plans and other insights.

fter an 18-month pandemic- ate proposals and build portfolios that
driven hiatus, the advisor con- better resonate with the needs and
A ference season briefly opened proclivities of investors.
in late August with the first major in- A major contributor to this new
person event — Orion Advisor Solutions’ behavioral finance focus for Orion has
Ascent conference — held in Scottsdale, been Daniel Crosby, its new chief behav-
Arizona. A full-capacity event of over ior officer, who also joined Orion via
800 attendees gathered in person, along the Brinker merger. Crosby led multiple
with another 200 or so virtually. sessions during the conference to show-
“This is the most prosperous time to case how a behavioral finance approach
be a fiduciary advisor,” said Eric Clarke, is needed to help advisors and investors
CEO of Orion, in his welcoming remarks. work better together.
“Assets with independent advisors have post-Brinker and FTJ mergers, is now “The good news is that behavioral
tripled over the last decade — the wind the industry’s fourth-largest TAMP with coaching adds tremendous value to your
is at your back and Orion is at your side.” over $55 billion in assets, serving over clients’ lives, however, the bad news is
For Clarke and Orion, it has been a 10,000 advisors. that no one wants behavioral coaching,”
busy couple of years despite the lin- he said with an ironic twist.
gering pandemic. Orion has capitalized BEHAVIORAL OVERLAY Crosby pointed to multiple stud-
on its momentum by making some of As a result of the integration work that ies that quantified how much value
the industry’s most dramatic and game- Orion has been focused on, Clarke and advisors add to investor performance
changing acquisitions. Beginning with his new president, Noreen Beaman, through behavioral coaching. “The aver-
the acquisition of Advizr, a financial who joined Orion with the Brinker age loss an investor incurs under stress
planning software system, combined merger, announced several new prod- is upwards of 5%, while those investors
with the acquisitions and mergers of uct and platform enhancements, all who used an advisor not only avoided
turnkey asset management programs, under a behavioral finance overlay. those losses, they doubled results over 10
FTJ and Brinker, along with the risk These include a re-branding of Advizr years, and tripled results over 15 years.
analytics technology of HiddenLevers, as “Orion Planning” that will include However, according to Morningstar,
Orion has been by far the most active behavioral finance workflows, along behavioral coaching ranked last in what
M&A player in the industry. with a new “3D Risk Profile” assessment investors want from their advisor.”
With these acquisitions, Orion tool to better align clients’ objectives What this means to Crosby and Orion
has methodically built out the com- and goals with their preferences for risk is that advisors need new and better tools
ponents to make its portfolio man- to further connect investor assets with and technology to more efficiently deliv-
agement system a true, end-to-end, their priorities. er behavioral finance concepts when
wealth management platform that Orion’s new 3D Risk Profile will working with clients at the right point
includes all of the pieces advisors work hand-in-hand with the risk during the client journey. “Academic
need to run their businesses. analytics engine of HiddenLevers, studies show that ‘just in time’ education
Orion now serves over 2,200 firms, according to Clarke, to create a more can make a huge difference in outcomes,
representing $1.7 trillion in assets, all complete picture of a client’s risk tol- and why we are building out new tech-
supported by over 1,200 employees. In erance, capacity and composure. As a nology and practice management tools
addition to being one of the industry’s result, advisors can use HiddenLevers’ to better support advisors and their cli-
leading technology providers, Orion, portfolio analysis capabilities to gener- ents,” Crosby said.

12 INVESTMENT ADVISOR OCTOBER 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com