Envestnet rolls out Trust Services Exchange

Registered investment advisers and broker-dealers a part of the Envestnet network will now have the option to manage trust and estate planning accounts for their clients thanks to a new integration with Trucendent. 

Looking to roll out a tool that addresses the $68 trillion in wealth set to transfer into the hands of next-gen investors, the tech giant announced Wednesday the launch of the Envestnet Trust Services Exchange designed to let advisers facilitate the transfer of wealth from generation to generation without dealing with external attorneys or trust administrators. 

For Envestnet, the idea was to create an adviser-led process tied to estate planning so the adviser remains in control of their clients’ assets into the next generation, said John Yackel, executive managing director and head of strategic initiatives at Envestnet. 

“We wanted to create not only the technology, but the process of integration, that would help facilitate a proactive environment for the adviser to say, ‘We believe that the trust vehicle, and the trust account is the best possible way to help preserve the wealth,' and transfer it to the next generation,” Yackel said. 

The Trust Services Exchange will be fully integrated with Envestnet MoneyGuide and Envestnet Tamarac, Yackel said. For now, the tool is launched with a select group of financial advisers in a pilot phase with a full deployment to the more than 105,000 advisers slated for the second quarter. 

Here’s how it works: The Trust Services Exchange provides a network of attorneys and trust administrators that work behind the scenes with advisers to handle trust account documentation, asset transfers, and regulatory compliance navigation. Once a trust account is opened, the adviser, client, attorney and administrator can work together on the Exchange's platform, where the adviser will maintain custody of the client's assets.

The Trucendent technology generates all the required documentation in order to manifest the trust, said Co-founder and President of Trucendent John Scarpato. 

“In our model, the adviser retains control for managing the portfolio,” Scarpato said. “Therein lies the importance of our integration with Envestnet because the adviser is going to use one of their platforms in order to manage that portfolio, they don't need to change who their custodial provider is and they obviously don't need to change their portfolio management system.” 

Envestnet’s latest integration is another move to democratize financial services, said Scarpato, as the advantages of trust accounts in estate planning will be available for all client segments, not just the ultra-high-net-worth segment that has traditionally been the focus.

API INTEGRATIONS

The integration with Trucendent is just the latest in a long list Envestnet has under its belt. Most recently, Envestnet MoneyGuide rolled out MoneyGuideEngine, a service which integrates the algorithms of MoneyGuide to any personal finance-based digital offering, according to the announcement Monday. 

"Essentially, we are now enabling firms to integrate our tried and tested 'calculation brain,' or the central API engine that makes Envestnet MoneyGuide tick, within their own planning software offerings and products," said Tony Leal, President of Envestnet MoneyGuide. 

The vast amount of API integrations for Envestnet is notable when the fintech has the size to acquire some of these firms, instead, said Steve Zuschin, executive vice president of enterprise technology adoption at LifeYield, which also has integrations with Envestnet. The largest TAMP by assets reigns king with assets under management clocking in at $229 billion as of September. 

Integrations make sense because it enables two companies to design the ability for two different technology platforms to talk to each other, said Zuschin. 

“In the future, we'll see more fintech companies coming out that have this API first model where they're thinking of integrations from the gate,” Zuschin said. “[Fintechs] will think: ‘How can somebody else leverage our engine where we solve this unique, sophisticated problem to enhance their larger, their big picture solution?’”