Envestnet Insurance Exchange, a new insurance network that integrates insurance solutions into the wealth management process on the Envestnet platform, announced Feb. 27 that it now offers access to a lineup of six highly respected carriers.
The Envestnet Insurance Exchange is intended to streamline and enhance advisors’ ability to deliver the full lifecycle of financial advice to their clients. The carriers, Allianz Life, Brighthouse Financial, Global Atlantic Financial Group, Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Nationwide and Prudential Financial, offer a variety of variable, structured, fixed and indexed annuities to advisors through the exchange.
Year over year, holistic financial planning is among the top three factors investors use to choose their advisor, according to Nationwide Advisory Solutions’ annual Advisor Authority study of more than 1,700 RIAs, fee-based advisors and individual investors. As fee-compression is on the rise, and asset management becomes more commoditized, holistic planning is key for the most successful advisors to create a competitive advantage.
For many RIAs and fee-based advisors, insurance solutions, including annuities, that fit the way they work is the missing part of their clients’ holistic financial plans—and that means a missed opportunity for growing their practices. Nationwide said in a Feb. 27 statement its collaboration with Envestnet helps close this gap by allowing advisors access to insurance solutions designed to fit the way they work.
“Joining the Envestnet Insurance Exchange is one more way for us to build on a successful 10-year track record of serving independent advisors the way they want to be served – using the platforms and technology they want to use – to manage insurance holistically alongside the other assets in their clients’ portfolios,” said Craig Hawley, head of Nationwide Advisory Solutions. “Built from the ground up to meet the unique needs of RIAs and fee-based advisors, we have become a dominant player in the independent channel by integrating our fee-based insurance solutions into the practice of more than 5,500 RIAs and fee-based advisors.”
Nationwide points to its collaboration with Envestnet as a way to make annuities and insurance more accessible for advisors who don’t specialize in selling them and help provide a range of benefits for their clients at every stage of the financial lifecycle—a tool for tax advantaged investing, a source of guaranteed income in retirement, a method for managing risk and a solution for legacy planning.
“As the industry shifts and the number of RIAs and fee-based advisors continues to grow, we’ll continue to create new opportunities to serve more of these advisors and their clients in the ways they prefer to do business,” said Kirt Walker, president and COO of Nationwide Financial. “It’s a tremendous engine for growth going forward.”
Envestnet is actively working to onboard advisors to the pilot program and plans a broad-market release of the Insurance Exchange in June 2019.
“We believe advisors who offer integrated advice to their clients can help them achieve better outcomes,” said Bill Crager, Chief Executive of Envestnet Wealth Solutions. “By bringing more choices to the enterprises we work with and their advisors, we believe we are one step closer to helping them deliver complete financial wellness to their clients.”
Envestnet Insurance Exchange is backed by Fiduciary Exchange, LLC (FIDx), a technology-empowered network that seamlessly integrates the brokerage, insurance and advisory ecosystems. FIDx’s technology unites insurance carriers and wealth management platforms empowering advisors to fully integrate annuities and the benefits of insurance into clients’ portfolios.
“FIDx is excited to be working with the industry’s largest wealth management platform, Envestnet, and a network of highly regarded insurance carriers in helping advisors address their clients’ need of guaranteed retirement income,” said Brian Serfass, Chief Marketing Officer of FIDx.
Through Envestnet Insurance Exchange, advisors and their clients will have access to the following:
- Daily annuity performance reporting aligning with traditional asset classes
- Integration of annuities into asset allocation models
- Simplified account opening, processing and management of annuities on platform
- Ability to advise on annuities within the managed account ecosystem and conduct in-force transactions on platform
- Fee-based and commission-based annuity offerings
Envestnet Insurance Exchange is available through the sponsor and advisor portals on the Envestnet platform. For more information visit www.envestnet.com
