Orion Zooms In on Growth, M&As and New Advisor Solutions at Conference

What You Need to Know

Orion has grown to support more than 2,200 advisory firms with $1.7 trillion in AUA, CEO Eric Clarke told Ascent attendees.
The company has increased the number of its integrations to almost 100 third-party tech providers.
New solutions revealed at Ascent include Orion Cash and Credit, a joint venture with Focus Client Solutions.

Orion Advisor Solutions spotlighted its growth, key recent M&As and new advisor solutions on Tuesday, the first day of its Orion Ascent conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, the firm’s first in-person user conference in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company supports more than 2,200 advisory firms with $1.7 trillion in assets under administration, according to Orion CEO Eric Clarke.

The 1,200-person firm also has “integrations with nearly 100 third-party tech providers,” he told attendees and those viewing the conference virtually.

Those numbers represent “amazing growth at Orion,” Tim Welsh, president and CEO of Nexus Strategy, said in a tweet.

Orion had an additional $54 billion of combined platform assets between Orion Portfolio Solutions and Brinker Capital on its open architecture TAMP as of June 30, after the merger of Orion Advisor Solutions and Brinker Capital, announced in June 2020, according to Orion.

“Post-merger, we’re now the fourth-largest wealth management platform, or TAMP as the industry calls us, and today we serve more than 10,000 financial advisors and have over $55 billion under management,” Noreen Beaman, Orion president and former Brinker CEO, told attendees.

“Independent advisors are the fastest-growing segment in wealth management,” Clarke said. “Assets managed by independent advisors have nearly tripled over the past decade and continue to grow.”

New Orion Solutions

Orion Cash and Credit, unveiled at Ascent, is the result of a joint venture between Orion and Focus Client Solutions. The new solution will bring competitive cash management, credit options and other personalized banking services for high-net-worth clients directly to the Orion platform, Orion predicted.

Meanwhile, Orion Planning, the firm’s financial planning and client experience software, will soon include behavioral finance workflows to bucket investor finances into three broad goals: Protect, Live, and Dream, it said.

To further connect investor assets with their priorities, Orion’s new 3D Risk Profile will work hand in hand with the risk analytics engine of HiddenLevers, Orion also said. By creating a more complete picture of a client’s risk tolerance, capacity and composure, advisors can use HiddenLevers’ portfolio analysis capabilities to generate proposals and build portfolios that Orion said “resonate with the needs of individual investors.”

Built on feedback from advisors, enhancements to Market*r, Orion’s automated, omnichannel marketing engine, will soon allow advisors to create more responsive campaigns with improved compliance workflows and customer relationship management connections, it said.

Also, new automated account workflows in Orion Planning make it easier for investors to complete their onboarding and get right to work pursuing their financial goals, Orion said.