Orion, one of many main suppliers of wealth administration expertise to bigger RIAs, is buying Summit Wealth Methods, a next-generation portfolio administration and reporting platform and appointing Reed Colley, its co-founder and CEO, as President of Orion Advisor Expertise.
Colley will report back to Orion CEO Natalie Wolfsen and change Brian McLaughlin, who stepped down in August.
The deal’s monetary phrases weren’t disclosed, however the transaction is predicted to shut in early 2025. Summit’s 12 staff will be part of Orion, and the model will, for now, dwell on inside Orion.
Regardless of the excellent news and notable trade wins (for instance, Seattle-based RIA Brighton Jones signed an settlement with Summit in January), the setting for gross sales of wealth administration platforms has been difficult, and Summit has not been immune to those headwinds, in line with trade specialists.
This could particularly be the case for advisory corporations that make portfolio accounting and administration platforms the core of their operations. The advantages of investing in a brand new and fashionable platform regularly don’t justify the price of changing current techniques.
Requested concerning the present local weather and the way Summit has been faring by way of gross sales, Colley declined to reply instantly.
“It may be robust if you find yourself constructing one thing—there’s a lot you propose for and rather a lot you don’t—however on the finish of the day, in constructing Summit, my goal was to construct one thing that might have an ideal influence on the trade,” stated Colley
Requested whether or not the acquisition duplicates a vital quantity of the expertise Orion already sells, CEO Natalie Wolfsen, whom WealthManagement.com interviewed through a web-based video name on the identical time, responded, “No.”
“I don’t consider it as duplicative,” she stated, noting that Orion has a really broad set of applied sciences that serve advisory corporations and that these corporations are extra selective when deciding on a platform.
“Like all expertise, in the event you don’t innovate, you’ll fall behind,” Wolfsen stated. Buying the fashionable tech stack obtainable inside Summit can be a option to deliver collectively the perfect in portfolio accounting and reporting, she stated.
Summit Wealth Methods was based by Colley (who additionally based Black Diamond, later acquired by Introduction) in 2020. It was constructed from scratch in Java Script to benefit from the newest cloud-native applied sciences and make its person interface each extensible and interactive.
The platform combines a holistic visible steadiness sheet, wealth modeling, and monetary planning, as effectively as advisor-client collaboration instruments, portfolio administration and efficiency reporting.
A part of what has impressed advisors with the platform is its collaborative features. One instance is its Wealth Journey module, which by default shows an extended arc line graph of a shopper’s portfolio over time that is stuffed with interactive information. This permits an advisor to work with shoppers and intuitively illustrate their previous and current whereas reviewing or planning for the longer term.
Summit gained WealthManagement.com Business Awards in 2022 and 2023 within the Business Disruptor and Progressive New Apps classes.
“Reed is a visionary, progressive, extremely skilled chief with a deep dedication to serving to wealth companies, monetary advisors and buyers thrive in at this time’s dynamic setting,” Wolfsen stated of Colley within the assertion saying the deal.