Pershing announced Wednesday that three more automated digital advice platforms – Jemstep, SigFig and Vanare – are joining Marstone on its NetX360 platform as robo advice options for advisors. Jim Crowley, Pershing’s chief relationship officer, said the deals represent the “intelligent open architecture” approach the firm is taking to empower its advisors with digital technology.
“We’re not going to integrate with every solution on the street,” Crowley said. “We’ll integrate in an intelligent fashion with providers we believe are suitable in many different ways.”
But for a company that custodies and clears for such a wide-ranging variety of financial institutions, building everything in-house didn’t make sense either. Crowley said Pershing has learned through its history that the many differing business models, economics, strategies and personal preferences among advisors require multiple tools.
SigFig co-founder and CEO Mike Sha said his company would focus mostly on the largest institutions that work with Pershing, like banks. Jemstep and Vanare both said they will work to provide custom-built digital platforms for RIAs that incorporates advisor’s own investment strategies, technology and workflows.
All of the technology will be available through Pershing’s NetX360 platform.