Many may not know what the structure of the WealthTech industry is or how important it is to understand the companies in this sphere. In this second installment of our series with David Vellante, Co-founder, CEO, and Co-host of theCUBE, Advisor360°’s CEO, Rich Napolitano, shares his thoughts on how the industry is evolving and how Advisor360° entered as a disruptor.
Napolitano explains that Advisor360° aspires to be “the Salesforce of wealth.” What fascinated me about the company was that this industry is extremely fragmented. It's almost like the early days of the solar system, where all these companies, technologies, and large financial enterprises are trying to digitally transform.
David Vellante: What is the Kitces map?
Created by Michael Kitces, the Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map includes hundreds of WealthTech companies by category. These are SaaS based and remind Napolitano of the software security industry. “Many of these are point solutions used to solve specific problems. The market's highly fragmented with all these home-brewed, weaved-together solutions that don't really solve the whole problem,” explains Napolitano. He continues to say that the Kitces map “is one of the things that attracted me to the industry. I talked to Michael before I joined Advisor360° because I wanted to understand more about the industry.”
David Vellante: Is Advisor360° a new entrant, a disruptor?
Napolitano says, “We are one of the new entrants. There are probably ten or twenty new point solutions entering the industry aimed at solving a specific niche problem, whether it be trading or risk, document management, back office workflow, or digital onboarding. When you look at this map, you'll see that there are several companies in each one of these categories.”
Advisor360° falls under the category of all-in-one technology. According to Napolitano, this means that “we're an all-in-one, but we're not an everything-in-one.” He further explains, “We basically allow the broker-dealer to operate their business. We do reporting, we do home office activities, we'll do a lot of advisor experience, which is why the company is called Advisor360°.”
The all-in-one versus everything-in-one is an important differentiation. Advisor360° wants to make sure that they are giving their clients the opportunity to integrate their platform with other solutions that best fit their company’s needs. The goal is not to replace everything a company has invested in but to help the company utilize their investment to the best of its ability.
Rania Kalaaji is a Marketing Project Manager Associate at Advisor360°, responsible for educating enterprise executives and building our community through content marketing and social media.
Rania Kalaaji
