BlackRock continues its push into the market of retail financial advisers with a new integration between its
iRetire retirement income calculator and eMoney Advisor, one of the most popular financial planning tools among independent advisers.
Advisers can use iRetire to illustrate how working longer, saving more, spending less and changing investment strategies can impact their income in retirement. The new integration lets advisers move from iRetire to eMoney with a single sign-on to more easily build and manage a plan that meets a client's retirement income needs.
The integration produces a more transparent retirement planning experience while increasing operational efficiency and facilitating better conversations about financial wellness, said Jess Liberi, eMoney head of product. While the Fidelity-owned financial planning company would love to see advisers use its own retirement income tools, the company recognizes that simply is not always going to be what happens.
(More: Fidelity launches digital marketplace for technology integrations)
"What we see is advisers will start a planning conversation in a tool like iRetire then move into eMoney," Ms. Liberi said.
The integration with BlackRock is about giving advisers more options in the technology they use, she said.
"We know advisers start planning conversations in different ways. We want to give them tools to scale their business, grow their business and ensure success for the client," Ms. Liberi said.
While the initial integration provides just support for single sign-on, the companies have discussed how they could extend the integration in the future, Ms. Liberi said. Nothing has been determined yet, she added.
The partnership with eMoney is the latest effort from BlackRock to get in front of more financial advisers. The asset manager's Aladdin risk analytics technology plays a central role in Morgan Stanley's
WealthDesk platform that the wirehouse is rolling out to its 15,000 financial advisers.
In November, BlackRock
acquired a 5% stake in Envestnet to build an integration between its platforms and iRetire and FutureAdvisor, BlackRock's robo-advice platform. About 93,000 advisers from 3,500 different firms use one of Envestnet's platforms.
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The latest partnership could potentially put BlackRock's retirement income calculator and, presumably, investment products in front of the 50,000 advisers who use eMoney Advisor for financial planning.
BlackRock declined to comment.
