Can Vestwell Revolutionize How Advisors Sell Retirement Plans?

Published:

Jun 02, 2017


Source:

Wealth Management


Share:

When Josh Brown, the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and author of the popular finance blog, “The Reformed Broker,” hosted the 2017 Benzinga fintech awards, he name-dropped Vestwell as a company with the potential to radically change the wealth management industry.

That’s right, Vestwell, a company looking to make it easier and more cost-effective for registered investment advisors to design, sell and administer 401(K) and 403(b) plans using digital automation. What exactly does Brown find so revolutionary?

Brown got started in the retirement plan space a year ago, and is considering adopting Vestwell for some of their clients. But Brown thinks the user experience of Vestwell is such an upgrade over incumbent platforms that it could attract swaths of new advisors to the$6.8 trillion dollar defined contribution market currently dominated by large financial institutions.

Vestwell founder and CEO Aaron Schumm, believes his company has the potential to make an impact on the industry, he doesn’t necessarily plan to take down the biggest players in retirement. He says Vestwell works best at creating plans for small to midsized companies with less than $50 million in assets. Schumm has also talked about potentially partnering with incumbent retirement providers about using Vestwell to service this client segment.

If Vestwell gains enough traction, it could encourage existing providers to update their own technology platforms for advisors, which Brown said currently range from bad to terrible. Just accomplishing this would be enough to qualify Vestwell as revolutionary in his book.

“It’s not a comment on how much marketshare Vestwell will take, it’s a comment on if it could be game-changing with their approach,” Brown said. “They are asking the question, ‘why does this have to suck so much?’ That’s where the best fintech comes along. It answers that question.”

Schumm is hoping Vestwell answers that question and shows that for independent RIAs, selling 401(K) plans really doesn’t have to suck at all.

If Vestwell can take something that takes Vanguard two weeks and condenses it into a few minutes, it’s going to open up the accessibility for a whole host of firms that don’t have huge back offices and don’t have the resources to dedicate. More advisors would be doing the retirement plan business if it wasn’t such a huge time eater and it wasn’t so cumbersome.

Josh Brown, CEO - Ritholtz Wealth Management


Share:

The views expressed here are those of the individual FinTech Collective LLC (together with its affiliates “FTC”) personnel quoted and are not the views of FTC or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by FTC. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, FTC has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; FTC has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.

Any designations found herein have been made by a third party, and although FTC has no reason to believe that such designations, or the criteria for being considered for such designations, are inaccurate or misleading, FTC does not guarantee its accuracy, and such designations may be incomplete or condensed. No compensation was paid in exchange for any designations, endorsements, or testimonials found herein. The hyperlinks referred to herein are provided for your reference only.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. This content does not constitute an offering or form part of any offering or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe to or purchase any investment by FTC, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with any contract therefore. Any such offer will be made only by means of definitive investment offering documents. The information included herein is subject to change without notice to any recipient. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by FTC, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by FTC (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for FTC to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://www.fintech.io/portfolio and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://www.fintech.io/disclosures for additional important information.