Marstone is a leading digital investment and goal-based firm that aims to enhance financial literacy, deepen financial inclusion, and humanize finance for all. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Marstone’s Founder and CEO, Margaret Hartigan, to learn more about the company.
Margaret Hartigan’s Background
What is Margaret Hartigan’s background? Hartigan said:
“After graduating from Brown University in Providence, I began my career in the financial industry. For a decade, I worked as a top quintile financial advisor in the Global Wealth Management Group at Merrill Lynch.”
“During my time there, I identified three major challenges in the industry: a lack of financial literacy and tools that humanize finance for the retail investor; antiquated systems that hinder client engagement and advisor productivity; and the lack of automated solutions to drive operational efficiencies.”
“With these in mind, I left Merrill Lynch and built Marstone from the ground-up to directly address — and solve for — these issues. I knew my biggest challenge would lie in solving for the antiquated systems and lack of automated solutions in the industry, and that specific expertise would have to go into developing Marstone’s backend to ensure it was easily integrated, flexible, and seamless for the organizations implementing it.”
“I set out to forge technological integrations with multiple investment custodians, allowing Marstone to work with customers of all financial means. In my opinion, Marstone’s the only company, in comparison to its B2B and B2C competitors, to put such extensive integrations in place.”
“In addition to being passionate about creating a product that’s inclusive of a larger and more diverse customer base, I also believe strongly in leading a company that’s made of an equally diverse employee group. More than half of Marstone’s senior leadership is female and/or a person of color, with women and people of color also holding other leadership positions throughout the organization. Through the creation of Marstone, we have attracted best of breed clients and partners including BNY Mellon Pershing, FISERV, Interactive Brokers, HSBC, and others. I’ve also had the good fortune to cultivate an exceptional Board of Directors and advisors, including former CEO of AB and current founder and chairman of Aperture Investors, Peter Kraus.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Hartigan reflected:
“I don’t have just one, but a recent favorite memory was sharing the Marstone story on stage at Nicole Casperson’s Fintech is Femme Leadership Summit in April. It’s been an extraordinary journey that has introduced me to my fantastic team, clients, and partners and has taken me all over the world. Telling the story reminded me of how much we have accomplished and how innovative we have been.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Hartigan explained:
“Marstone is a leading digital investment and goal-based firm that empowers customers of all financial backgrounds to understand, manage and plan for their own financial futures. Marstone’s products set it apart in the fintech community, including Powered by Marstone™ and Marstone Maps™.”
“Powered by Marstone provides an all-in-one solution that can be deployed in multiple ways, allowing financial institutions to fully customize and white-label the platform to satisfy a diverse array of needs. By dramatically reducing the cost to service these accounts, banks are able to work closely with a wider range of clients, not just the wealthy. It seamlessly sits atop clients’ other technology systems via robust integrations with various underlying financial frameworks.”
“Marstone Maps has been a game changer for many wealth managers. Maps is a fully integrated financial wellness and planning tool for institutions, allowing end-clients to set and evolve their financial goals. Through an intentionally playful, shopping-like user experience and using a timeline inspired by a subway map, end clients can experiment with shifting deadlines of goals to create decisive plans that meet their specific financial situations.”
“Further, Marstone has expanded to now offer its turnkey digital wealth management platform to community banks across the country. Through direct engagement with Marstone’s Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) or through partnerships within Marstone’s RIA network, the solution enables community banks to seamlessly deploy digital wealth management services to their clients in approximately a month or less, which is unprecedented in the financial industry. This enables community banks and credit unions to better compete with their larger, regional or national competitors.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Hartigan and the team faced in building the company?
“One of the biggest challenges we faced was that we were exceptionally early not only to the space but to going B2B2C. It was only after the pandemic that financial institutions were ready to include wealth management and financial wellness into their digital strategies. When we first started out, there were hundreds of robo advisors, but most of them were focused on B2C and most of them have perished.”
“Marstone was the first to be a truly B2B2C platform and the first one to partner with custodians like BNY Mellon Pershing, Interactive Brokers, Apex, Fiserv and others. This was really smart, but it took a long time for community banks and credit unions to be ready to embrace and engage digital. Fortunately, those institutions are not only ready but eager to engage digital investing and financial wellness. As a result, we joke that we are the ten year overnight story.”
Evolution Of Marstone’s Technology
How has Marstone’s technology evolved since launching? Hartigan noted:
“Our technology is always evolving. When we started, many clients did not have external APIs. Similarly, a lot of financial institutions were skeptical of the cloud. Fast forward ten years, and almost everyone is in the cloud. Clearly, mobile and being embedded in online banking and bank apps is the trend.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Hartigan cited:
“There are so many. Our first $100 million in assets was a significant milestone. Making the platform available in Spanish was big. Our partnerships. Completing our B round. Turning 10 years old.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Hartigan about customer success stories, she highlighted:
“We are seeing tremendous traction and success with our community bank and credit union partners. Banks and credit unions run what they call “leakage reports.” These reports track money that leaves the bank and where it goes. More often than not, the number one destination is wealth management firms. By partnering with Marstone, banks and credit unions can quickly ramp up a digital investment solution in as little as four to six weeks depending on the engagement model. Once launched, clients report curbed outflows, retention of deposits, and the acquisition of new clients.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Hartigan assessed:
“It’s really quite significant. We can work with any financial institution with $500 million or more in assets. We also work with insurance companies and asset managers so it’s huge.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Hartigan affirmed:
“Marstone has consistently maintained an independent voice, making it unique in the fintech market. Unlike its competitors in the B2B2C space, Marstone’s technology is integrated with multiple custodians and banking core systems. It’s not owned by a parent company whose technology it’s pushing onto clients. Instead, Marstone’s products are seamlessly designed to be compatible with clients’ existing systems, meeting them where they already are.”
“This feat was achieved through forging partnerships with top practitioners and technological leaders. Marstone is deployed in a variety of ways across banks, community banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. Lastly, I think having executive leadership who previously worked as financial advisors, Chartered Financial Analysts, portfolio managers and even regulators sets us apart in terms of subject matter expertise in wealth management – we aren’t trying to solve just a technology problem but instead a human problem.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Hartigan pointed out:
“Marstone is focusing its efforts on our goal-based planning and wellness tools and really leaning into community banks, credit unions and insurance companies.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Hartigan concluded:
“In many ways, we are just getting going. Financial institutions realize that investment and planning solutions must be part of their digital offering. They are also desperate to find new ways to drive non-interest income. Wealth management is a perfect way to do this.”
