With the proliferation of investor-facing fintech and robo-advisor technology, clients demand a better digital experience from their financial advisors than ever before. Clients expect their advisors to provide more than investment management - they’re looking for a guide that can support every aspect of their financial lives with complexity and clarity.
For advisors to effectively meet those expectations, they need their own slate of expansive technology.
While some RIAs primarily leverage the tech offered by their RIA custodians, others look to bring in third-party technologies to expand the offerings they can deliver to clients.
TradePMR’s Fusion technology can do a lot, but it can’t do everything. To help ensure advisors can use the technologies that make the most sense for their unique businesses TradePMR builds integrations with third-party RIA software providers.
Those integrations are constructed in a few different ways:
Each of these integration types has its own set of benefits and opportunities. With a range of different kinds of integrations, TradePMR is able to work with a broader group of providers to help advisors to find the right technology to fit their unique businesses.
While TradePMR has established a strong slate of integrations, the firm doesn’t stop there.
Nearly every RIA that joins TradePMR already works with at least a few technology vendors. If advisors don’t see a specific vendor listed among TradePMR integrations, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to use that technology should they sign on with the provider.
TradePMR is constantly exploring new integration opportunities. While some integrations may take time to build, others can be set up quite quickly. For example, the provider can establish data feed integrations with nearly any provider in the industry. Those integrations can help advisors to pull their clients’ custodial data into third-party vendors without needing to manually port over that data.
With this nimble approach, advisors that are interested in working with TradePMR can make the move without having to significantly adjust their workflows or client offerings.
In addition to these data feed integrations, TradePMR is constantly exploring other more in-depth connections with third-party providers. Advisors considering a move to TradePMR may be surprised to find their favorite third-party providers have an integration coming to TradePMR soon.
In an advisor’s first conversations with TradePMR’s team they should flag the technology offerings that they like to use. The TradePMR team can let them know if an integration is coming, what that integration will look like, and when they can expect it to be in place.
If there isn’t a connection in place, the TradePMR team can start exploring integration options and what type of connection would make the most sense with that provider.
While leveraging integrations can be a great way to streamline operations and access more diverse technology features, they may not always make the most financial sense for an RIA.
If an RIA is leveraging a third-party provider for one specific capability but is paying for offerings that go far beyond that capability, the cost may be more than the value they’re receiving. That cost can have a ripple effect on an RIA, and that could be passed on to clients.
That’s where TradePMR’s product roadmap comes into play. The product roadmap outlines TradePMR’s planned technology evolution: how the TradePMR’s Fusion technology will adjust, which features are coming, and what enhancements are being made to existing features.
This product roadmap is built using a mix of internal innovation at TradePMR alongside advisor feedback.
When TradePMR identifies certain features being leveraged via integrations across a large number of RIAs, the firm takes a deep dive to identify if that capability could be built in-house and how it would fit into the Fusion technology platform. If the capability could be a good fit, it gets baked into that product roadmap.
That feedback driving technology development has helped some TradePMR advisors to cut down on their third-party contracts, instead being able to access those capabilities from TradePMR for no additional charge.
Recently, this exact situation happened with a new trading feature: model sleeve trading.
A few advisors voiced that they were leveraging model sleeve trading through third-party integrations. TradePMR investigated and found that this capability would fit perfectly into the firm’s existing RIA trading technology. The TradePMR Product and Technology teams quickly built out the offering and launched it to advisors within a matter of months.
If your RIA custodian’s technology is falling short – either with its own tech offering or its approach to integrations – we should talk. We can dive into your technology needs, and if TradePMR’s top-rated Fusion technology1 and comprehensive approach to integrations could be the right fit for your team.
At TradePMR, we’re focused on arming advisors with the tools and support they need to succeed and grow. Let’s see if we can achieve that goal together.
1 T3/Inside Information Survey, Joel Bruckenstein and Bob Veres, May 2022, sponsored by AssetBook, Holistiplan, Advyzon, Addepar, and Fidelity Investments, T3/Inside Information Advisor Software Survey, Joel Bruckenstein and Bob Veres, March 2021, sponsored by Salesforce, and 2019 Software Survey, Joel Bruckenstein and Bob Veres, January 2019, sponsored by Orion Advisor Services and Morningstar, Inc.