Envestnet has acquired a one year old startup named Upside, which provides registered investment advisers with online investment services.
"There's been a lot of attention around the robo-adviser," Bill Crager, president of Envestnet, said. "What Upside does is gives us that front end portal but behind the scenes, Envestnet has the infrastructure to help advisers perform."
Envestnet will use Upside's portal for financial planning and investment management alongside its own services, which include portfolio analytics, reporting and account servicing.
Chicago-based Envestnet has acquired Upside, a year-old tech company that has developed an automated, online financial planning and investment platform to be white-labeled by financial planners who want to compete with the likes of Wealthfront, Betterment or Futureadvisor. Envestnet, the advisor support and technology firm, will use the acquisition to provide its clients with a robo-advisor solution of their own. "Adding Upside to our platform will allow advisors to compete more aggressively to engage current clients online and reach a new class of investors,” said Stuart DePina, group president of Envestnet | Tamarac, in a statement. “While many see robo offerings as serving the mass affluent, advisors know a growing percentage of their high-net-worth clients are demanding to access their financial portfolios and interact with their advisor online."
http://wealthmanagement.com/technology/envestnet-gets-robo-business