Fintech news: Firms partner up to bolster wealth management services

Toronto-based wealth management compliance advisory firm North Star Consultants and digital wealth management platform developer FusionIQ Canada became referral partners in November.

U.S.-based FusionIQ expanded into the Canadian market in September.

Under the agreement, North Star refers clients who need a digital wealth management platform to FusionIQ and FusionIQ refers clients who need compliance services to North Star, said Howard Atkinson, head of business development at FusionIQ Canada in Toronto.

Many wealth management firms have separate, unconnected applications for tasks like portfolio management, trading and client onboarding. FusionIQ’s platform, FusionIQ One, is an integrated “operating system” where advisors can see all client documentation and accounts in one place, Atkinson said.

The platform records every trade and position, so compliance personnel can review transactions in a consolidated manner, Atkinson said. Firms can also automatically block transactions that should not happen or that require compliance review.

FusionIQ already serves 10,000 advisors in the U.S. and has completed over one million transactions. The platform will be integrated with two Canadian custodians, available in English and French and “Canadianized” for Canadian account formats, Atkinson said.

FusionIQ has signed memoranda of understanding with a “large Canadian institution” and a self-directed investment firm that will offer the platform for consumers. Atkinson said he expects the company to make official announcements in the first quarter of 2024.

Richardson Wealth renews agreement with Croesus

Toronto-based wealth management company Richardson Wealth renewed its contract in November to use Montreal-based Croesus’s portfolio reporting software for another five years. The company, with $34.7 billion in assets under management, has used Croesus Advisor since 2008, said Marc Riel, vice-president of development and strategic partnerships at Croesus.

Croesus Advisor includes portfolio rebalancing tools and management platforms. It also helps advisors adapt to regulatory changes by automating the risk-rating process and reviewing compliance with an investment policy. Most of the firms using Croesus Advisor use it for reporting purposes and to communicate with clients, Riel said.

Richardson Wealth is one of Croesus’s approximately 150 Canadian clients, many of which are major financial institutions, Riel said. Croesus has over 50% market share of financial institutions in Canada and its platform processes an aggregate $1.7 trillion of assets under management, said Frédéric Le Bouar, director of product marketing and outreach at Croesus.

Croesus partners with Mako Financial Technology for KYC

Croesus and Montreal-based Mako Financial Technologies partnered to integrate the Croesus Advisor portfolio management system (PMS) with Mako’s know-your-client and document-processing automation to help advisors streamline client onboarding.

An onboarding process that used to take up to a month to complete can now be completed in a matter of days, Riel said.

Discussions for this partnership began two years ago in response to feedback from advisors who wanted  quicker client onboarding.

Croesus is in “very advanced” discussions with other companies for similar integrations, Le Bouar said: “Digital onboarding, ESG, financial planning — all the functionalities that we don’t provide in a PMS, we want a partnership in some manner.”