Envestnet is increasing its technology investment in Tamarac by 2.5 times, including a $35 million surge investment, as part of a broader $1 billion, five-year research and development commitment focused on transforming technology for financial advisors.
The investment will accelerate Envestnet’s development of AI-powered workflows, reporting, portfolio management, financial planning and other capabilities for registered investment advisers.
Envestnet said its goal is to integrate AI directly into the workflows advisors already use rather than requiring them to adopt separate standalone applications.
The broader $1 billion R&D program was announced as part of Envestnet’s five-year strategic vision and covers technology for trading, reporting, financial planning, portfolio management and client engagement.
The additional Tamarac investment is intended to accelerate that strategy specifically for RIAs.
Envestnet highlighted increasing concentration within the RIA industry as one of the trends driving its investment.
Firms managing more than $1 billion in AUM represent approximately 7% of RIAs but control 74% of industry assets, according to figures cited by the company.
At the same time, advisory practices are dealing with more held-away assets, alternative investments, tax complexity and sophisticated reporting requirements.
Envestnet said its Adaptive WealthTech platform is intended to allow firms to support that additional complexity without proportional increases in manual work.
One of the first major products in the next phase of Tamarac is Report Studio, a rebuilt reporting system that gives advisors drag-and-drop control over tables, charts and key performance indicator modules.
The platform is designed to replace workflows where holdings and performance information could be spread across separate reports and require significant manual configuration.
Advisors can create reporting experiences once and distribute them through interactive digital formats or professional PDFs.
Envestnet plans to add AI-enabled capabilities to Report Studio later this fall.
The AI functionality is expected to let advisors describe the report they want and have the system help add charts, adjust visualizations, incorporate performance, attribution, tax, and capital-flow data, and create client briefs with meeting talking points written in the advisor’s voice.
Report Studio is currently available, while AI-enabled Report Studio is available for preview and beta registration, with general availability planned for later this fall.
Envestnet estimates the reporting efficiency opportunity could be significant.
Using an assumption of five reports annually for each client and 55 minutes saved per report, an advisor serving the U.S. median of 235 households would produce approximately 1,175 reports annually.
Envestnet calculates that automating portions of that work could save approximately 1,077 hours annually, equivalent to about 52% of an advisor’s working year under its assumptions.
The company is also expanding Custom Model Solutions to include semi-liquid strategies, interval funds and alternative ETFs through its unified managed account platform, targeting the increasingly complex portfolios of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
A full MoneyGuide integration is bringing goals, risk profiles, net worth information and held-away account data directly into proposal workflows, investment policy statement documentation and client records.
Envestnet is also integrating AI across Tamarac to reduce operational friction through decision intelligence and AI agents designed to surface potential next actions and automate advisor workflows.
Envestnet has approximately $8 trillion in platform assets and says its technology is used by more than one-third of financial advisors across banks, wealth managers, brokerages and RIAs.
KEY QUOTES:
“Growth for RIAs has always been about how much of their time they can spend on higher-value client and investment activities versus being buried in the operational mechanics of wealth management. This investment is Envestnet backing our belief that closing that gap is among the single biggest levers available to advisors today, and it’s a down payment on a much longer commitment we’re making to this industry,” said Chris Todd, Chief Executive Officer of Envestnet. “AI only matters if it removes work an advisor is actually doing. That is the standard we are building to.”
Chris Todd, Chief Executive Officer of Envestnet
“This is the start of a sustained, multi-year push built specifically for RIAs. The pace of investment we’re putting behind Tamarac is meant to set the pace for the entire RIA industry, and the capabilities we’re introducing give advisors real time back to focus on what actually grows their business: their clients,” said Sean Meighan, VP, RIA Distribution at Envestnet.
Sean Meighan, VP, RIA Distribution at Envestnet
“Advisors should spend their time telling their clients’ stories, not assembling them,” said Ryan Bamert, Group Director, RIA Product Management at Envestnet. “Report Studio is an important step forward because it addresses both the practical needs advisors have today and the future-state experience we are building toward: more flexible reporting, more connected data, and more intelligent workflows that help advisors prepare for better client conversations.”
Ryan Bamert, Group Director, RIA Product Management at Envestnet
