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Digital Wealth Management
Richard Cancro & Alexey Sokolin, Vanare (cont.)
“Our vision is to
power thousands
of digitally enabled
financial advisors,
each with a
different brand,
investment
framework, and
consumer
audience.”
What are the problems you see with the traditional wealth management industry? What are current vendors to
this market lacking?
The wealth management industry faces several fundamental trends. First, there is a $40 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer that
is in progress, from a generation that has traditionally relied on an in-person advisor relationship to a generation that expects much
more of a technology-augmented experience. Advisors need to understand the millennials and engage with them on their own terms
in order to preserve the household relationships that have been the cornerstone of the advisor business model.
Second, there is significant competitive pressure from consolidation. Independent RIAs are merging and being acquired in order to
create multi-billion dollar AUM scale and efficiency. These larger companies benefit from the operational and technology practice
management best practices, which lead to superior growth. Lastly, robo advisors are creating fee-compression and competing with
the traditional financial advisor, utilizing ETF-based low-cost investment models powered by efficient technology. We see Vanare
helping our clients address each one of these challenges. Our solution helps firms connect with the next generation, become more
integrated and scalable, and lower costs.
Smarter technology improvements, based on machine learning and neural networks, may also start to play a role in the wealth
management space. An algorithm that reads a client’s social media presence and financial data feed may be able to provide a true
and optimal view of that investor’s risk posture and financial needs. We expect to incorporate such tools into the existing advisor
workflow and into self-directed tools to make advice generally more sophisticated and accurate.
How is Vanare different from other white label digital wealth management providers? What are the full breadth
of services you offer? Do you expect other providers to follow your lead by adding robo advisor capabilities?
Unlike B2C robo advisor companies, which serve an investor directly and have to succeed in consumer marketing, we work with
financial institutions in partnership. Our clients are Registered Investment Advisors, and we extend their business through the use of
technology. Our vision is to power thousands of digitally enabled financial advisors, each with a different brand, investment
framework, and consumer audience.
Another key difference is that our platform can support existing assets. A $5 billion firm cannot move that entire asset base to a robo
advisor. We combine the digital and traditional channels in an integrated platform, empowering the advisor to manage complex
household relationships with different needs. We are the only platform built for the purpose of helping RIAs accomplish this transition
of assets into a next-generation service model, while also satisfying and growing the existing business using efficient workflows and
technology. We offer sophisticated performance reporting, trading and CRM with the ability to customize household views of the
relationship, as well as a fully customizable, modern robo advisor based on the RIA investment philosophy.
We expect that all financial advisory companies will develop digital advice capabilities, and we see our firm as the best-in-class
provider in the space.
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