Envestnet announced an expanded partnership with Baird to accelerate the next-generation wealth management experience by unifying investments, financial planning, reporting, and insurance solutions for advisors and clients. The collaboration includes a full standardization of annuity workflows across Baird’s platform through the FIDx-powered Envestnet Insurance Exchange.
As part of the multi-year initiative, Baird became the first broker-dealer to standardize annuity workflows firmwide using the Envestnet Insurance Exchange, requiring all annuity business for its nearly 1,400 financial advisors to run through the platform. The move establishes a centralized and automated process for purchasing, servicing, and reporting annuity products across the firm.
Baird has been modernizing its wealth platform to create a more integrated experience for advisors and clients. Through deeper integration with Envestnet’s open-architecture platform, the firm consolidated portfolio management, financial planning, reporting, and annuity capabilities into a unified ecosystem.
According to the companies, annuity processing has traditionally involved significant manual oversight, including home-office reviews for licensing verification, carrier appointments, and advisor training requirements. Advisors also frequently had to move between separate carrier systems to complete transactions and service contracts.
The Envestnet Insurance Exchange was designed to streamline those processes through automated controls and centralized workflows. The platform provides automated licensing and product validations, structured data capture to reduce Not-In-Good-Order applications, integrated access to fee-based annuities, and a single advisor workflow with prefilled forms and centralized purchase-and-service capabilities.
The system also provides enhanced visibility into annuity products and business analytics through the Envestnet Research Center and integrated dashboards, enabling advisors and home offices to better oversee annuity operations.
Baird said the implementation contributed to the firm surpassing its annuity sales goals for 2025, including growth in fee-based annuity adoption following the platform integration.
The announcement was made during Envestnet Elevate 2026 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, where Envestnet showcased its broader wealth management ecosystem designed to support RIAs, advisors, and home offices with tools for client engagement, planning, reporting, and investment decision-making.
FIDx powers the Envestnet Insurance Exchange and focuses on integrating brokerage, insurance, and advisory ecosystems to simplify annuity and insurance workflows within existing wealth management platforms.
Envestnet said it currently supports more than $7.0 trillion in platform assets and serves over one-third of financial advisors across banks, brokerages, RIAs, and wealth management firms.
KEY QUOTES:
“Baird has built one of the most sophisticated and forward-looking advisor and client experiences in the industry. Our role has been to provide the flexible technology foundation – including data, APIs, planning, investment, and annuity capabilities – that allows firms like Baird to innovate at scale and deliver truly integrated advice. We are proud to be able to assist firms like Baird with streamlining historically time-consuming workflows and strengthening the next-generation wealth experience.”
Andrew Stavaridis, Chief Relationship Officer, Envestnet
“Baird is proud to lead the industry in implementing the Envestnet Insurance Exchange, a reflection of our ongoing commitment to providing advisors with technology to support their clients. In today’s macro environment, we recognized the role annuities can play, and we’ve been very pleased to partner with Envestnet and FIDx to modernize and streamline Baird’s annuity platform and workflow. The results speak for themselves: We’re seeing increased interest in considering annuities as part of the holistic wealth management experience we offer.”
Ellen Galezewski, Director of Wealth Strategy and Solutions, Baird
“A big part of how FIDx is transforming the insurance industry is simplifying how business is done. That is what the Envestnet Insurance Exchange we power does – allowing broker-dealers and financial advisors to seamlessly bring annuities into wealth management.”
Rich Romano, CEO, FIDx
