For more than 16 years, Envestnet has been developing its unified technology to support advisors and enterprises and enabling them to run and scale their businesses more efficiently, giving them access to the best and most diverse investment products. We are driven not only by the belief that expert advisors offer tremendous value and are more essential than ever, but that when supported by intelligent systems those experts can help deliver better outcomes for their clients.
2016 was a year of strong organic growth for Envestnet. We continue to innovate and deliver actionable intelligence through our smart systems for wealth management and financial wellness. And, the steady movement to fee-based advisory services reinforces our dedication to delivering a fiduciary standard of care.
2016 Highlights
Envestnet currently serves more than 2,000 enterprises and more than 54,000 advisors, a nearly 15 percent increase from 2015, and over $1 trillion in total platform assets—a significant achievement for our firm.Serving tens of thousands of advisors across thousands of companies in over 15 countries, and supporting millions of investor accounts and many trillions of aggregated assets and transactions, we are uniquely positioned to enable financial wellness. This is reflected in the continued strong demand for our offerings from both large enterprises and registered investment advisors.
Financial Wellness
Consumers today are actively engaged in better understanding their overall financial health. They want hands-on tools that can offer them better transparency and control. In a 24/7 information-driven environment, we enable financial advisors and enterprises to offer digital technology like a smart client portal that strengthens their relationship with clients. By leveraging advanced data aggregation capabilities within a goals-based financial planning approach, advisors can deliver on their promise of more meaningful advice to their clients according to their financial needs. Our client portal and financial wellness tools not only enable consumers to actively engage and monitor their daily personal finances but also give them a complete picture of their wealth in real-time. This technology also empowers advisors with better intelligence driven by robust data analytics.We believe that sound financial advice is not driven by algorithms alone, but rather, through a human connection as well. Building an advisory model that leverages the best technology to support this important advisor-client relationship, while also enabling scale, is more essential than ever. In order to deliver this, we have developed an expert-centric, intelligent platform that mitigates or eliminates human error, and enables expert advisors to focus on the things they’re uniquely capable of doing: coaching, helping clients navigate a confusing world of information overload, tax and estate planning, tax management, and sophisticated financial and goals-based planning. With Envestnet’s proven infrastructure and advanced software tools, we are helping to power the future of advice.
Holistic Advice
One of the core pillars of an advisor’s value proposition is being able to deliver a financial roadmap for clients that meets not only their long-term financial needs but also takes into account real-life challenges and opportunities that can factor into everyday life. As the financial advice profession has evolved from being investment-centric, to being wealth-centric, and financial planning-centric, we believe the advisor of the future will need to harness the power of data aggregation and analytics within a goals-based planning toolset. In this new world of planning, our systems integrate financial planning tools with Envestnet |Yodlee’s data aggregation capabilities.Unified Technology
The importance of technology integration in helping advisors and enterprises grow their practices was underscored in a recent third installment of a study we commissioned by Aite Group. The study found that firms that utilize a technology platform with fully integrated applications are empowered to engage their clients in a more scalable way. In fact, advisors using an integrated platform that includes financial planning are able to complete, on average, 56% more financial plans than counterparts without integrated solutions. By relying on integrated technology with data aggregation capabilities, advisors can focus their time and energy on what they do best—building client relationships and helping clients navigate through complex financial planning and wellness decisions to add value and deliver better outcomes.Also, advanced technology integration has proven to allow more time for client investment management. Independent research shows an increase of 10% for independent RIAs, 28% for independent broker-dealer practices, and 62% for bank/trust advisors, compared to peers with no integration.
In the last year, Envestnet has further deepened its integrated technology offering to meet the growing needs of financial professionals. We enhanced our end-to-end wealth management platform by integrating Envestnet | Yodlee’s industry-leading data aggregation capabilities. We improved our data analytics toolset to deliver robust online dashboards and reporting that provide actionable intelligence. And, we enhanced our existing capabilities to further meet the fiduciary requirements increasingly being demanded by end consumers.
Our platform offers proven wealth management technology, unmatched breadth and depth of fiduciary solutions, and advanced data analytics. These essential elements are integrated and can be configured to meet a wide range of client needs and uses.
Looking Forward
Our 2017 priority is to continue to expand our business through the following strategies that respond to market requirements:First, we expect to evolve from being the number one platform in wealth management to a powerful financial wellness network that connects not only the advisor with their client, but links them to all of the important constituents involved—including investment managers, fund and ETF providers, strategists, custodians and record keepers. This will enable us to continue to offer a more holistic end-to-end solution for our clients.
Second, we will continue to identify areas of synergy with respect to data aggregation and data integrity including performance analytics. We now have the integrated solution that deepens understanding of the client, accelerates client onboarding, automates the major activities required for wealth management and financial wellness, and turbocharges advisor and enterprise productivity.
Third, we expect additional growth from expanding our addressable market. By creating a financial wellness network, having the data analytics capabilities to provide clients with better intelligence and delivering expert-centric smart systems, we’ll be able to create better outcomes for enterprises, advisors and investors.
As always, I want to thank my Envestnet colleagues for their hard work and dedication to our mission and values; our clients for their partnership; and our shareholders for recognizing the tremendous opportunity that we share.
Sincerely,
Judson Bergman, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Envestnet, Inc.