Welcome to the New Planning Paradigm: Envestnet CEO Bill Crager

What You Need to Know

Leaps in technology and profound shifts in individuals’ financial lives are driving change in the advisory industry.
Envestnet CEO Bill Crager says advisors must adapt and embrace new ways of doing business — or risk getting left behind.
Crager stressed the importance of integrating data, generating insights and leveraging smarter technologies to offer a seamless experience for clients.

Rapid changes in the global economy, the emergence of new technologies and the increasing complexity of individuals’ financial lives are the facts of life for financial advisors in 2023, and according to Envestnet CEO Bill Crager, these trends can be expected to only accelerate in the years ahead.

In fact, according to Crager, the pace of change and the intersection of so many cross-cutting global trends is rapidly ushering in a new era where traditional approaches to finance and wealth management will no longer suffice.

This new paradigm necessitates a shift in perspective, requiring financial advisors to adopt more comprehensive, integrated strategies, Crager argues. Those advisors who don’t get on board with the new way of doing business, he warned, are destined to fall behind their tech-enabled, future-embracing peers.

Crager made this case during the opening keynote session of Envestnet Summit 2023 — Elevate on Wednesday in Denver, speaking to an audience of more than 2,000 financial advisors and industry partners. During the presentation, Crager explored the concept of a holistic financial ecosystem that breaks down the silos in which money and financial advice have traditionally existed.

He argued that Envestnet, with its history of creating and embracing new technologies, is in the perfect position to help thousands of financial advisors thrive in what can otherwise seem to be a daunting environment — one in which clients will continue to demand “more and more and more” from their advisors.

Crager also delved into the importance of integrating data, generating insights and leveraging smarter technologies to offer a “seamless” financial management experience for clients. That’s the promise of what he referred to as an “intelligent financial life” powered by Envestnet’s current and emerging technologies.

Streamlined Experience

“For our industry, we are very clearly at a moment where we are undergoing a profound shift,” Crager said. “In physics, we once saw a shift from the simple world of Newton’s laws to an entirely new, far richer, more interconnected and more dynamic world of quantum physics. This is the same shift our industry is undergoing today.”

As Crager pointed out, the advisory industry has traditionally been built around important but well-divided silos. Any given individual client today could have relationships across 10 or more financial institutions, and there has historically been little connection or coordination among them.

According to Crager, that is all about to change.

“There is a clear need to help your clients see all of their money in one place, and that’s a problem that Envestnet can help you solve,” Crager said. “Our advisor-clients have told us that their clients are demanding a more unified and streamlined financial experience, and we are listening.”

Crager suggested that a host of platform enhancements being revealed during the Elevate conference can help advisors achieve this goal.

“It starts with data — by bringing data together, enriching it and creating actionable intelligence and insights to help you navigate all the growing complexity,” Crager said. “Some call it machine learning, some call it next-best action technology. Whatever you call it, that’s what we are now delivering for our advisors, and it’s a game-changer.”

Platform Updates

According to Crager, the Envestnet Wealth Data Platform is now able to intelligently consolidate data from a “very wide” set of sources, and this data powers the recently revealed Insights Engine.

“We can now help you pinpoint very specific and timely actions to help a client across their entire financial life,” Crager explained. “Maybe they have a tax-loss harvesting opportunity in a held-away account. Maybe a change in their overall financial situation makes a lifetime income solution more appealing. Whatever opportunities they have, we can help you identify them and take action.”

Crager said the Insights Engine is currently generating tens of millions of potential action items for advisor users on a daily basis, and that number is set to grow as more data sources are integrated into the solution.