What will happen with Fi360 now that’s it’s been acquired by Broadridge? Will it operate autonomously or be brought “into the fold?” More importantly, how will it affect current clients and advisors who hold its popular fiduciary-related designations?
No major changes in the near future, John Faustino, AIFA, PPC, Head of Fi360, said, and the benefits moving forward involve the greater distribution capabilities Broadridge offers and proverbial “synergies” that exist between the two firms’ products and services.
“Broadridge decided to reshuffle the leadership at Fi360 to best execute on the plans we had going forward, and in the next 90 days, our plans are unchanged,” Faustino said when asked about what’s next. “We set our goals a couple of years ago, and we’re still moving strongly towards them. We’re focusing on things like addressing Reg BI for our clients, IRA rollovers and a pretty drastic shift in the use of Fi360’s tools and services for wealth accounts relative to the historical focus on retirement plans.”
No conflicts
One thing that made Broadridge a good fit is there are no asset management conflicts with the two firms—the services they provide are unbiased.
“We have no horse in the race when it comes to talking about one fund or investment universe versus another,” Faustino added. “We’re completely agnostic. Our independence is something that makes us respected by advisors and makes us non-threatening for the asset managers we serve.”
Claiming the general reaction to the acquisition announcement was “overwhelmingly positive” he said it was because Broadridge and Fi360 have high degrees of trust with their respective client bases.
“Folks know that we work diligently and honestly to meet their needs. They see this combination as making sense with Broadridge being able to further the distribution of the underlying capabilities Fi360 has.”
Historically, Broadridge buys companies and invests heavily while taking advantage of their “unique benefits,” Faustino explained.
“We’re going to build upon the foundation we have, Broadridge is going to invest in that and help us with distribution, but they leave companies alone for the most part.”
Annual conference
Fi360’s annual conference will take place May 17-19 at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Austin, Texas, and there will be a contingent from Broadridge’s senior leadership there to kick things off, as well as staff intermixed with legacy Fi360 employees throughout the event.
As for what excites him most about the future, he mentioned (again) Broadridge’s “reach.”
“They work with a lot more firms than we worked with—more bank trusts, a lot more broker-dealers—so the relationships they’ve established are going to provide introductions to tools and services that we think are really applicable for those audiences. They’re stand-alone Fi360 services, but we’re also going to have the opportunity to integrate things like the Fi360 score into Broadridge platforms. We can enrich legacy Broadridge tools and capabilities and deliver standalone Fi360 capabilities to a broader audience than we would have been able to reach on our own.”
Wealth presence
Faustino concluded by noting the “big interest” Broadridge has is in leveraging Fi360 to grow out a wealth presence.
“Organically, Fi360 has seen a lot more interest over the last 12 to 18 months in using our capabilities not only with retirement plans, but also with wealth accounts. I’m excited at what we’re going to be able to do, combined, to really execute on that. We’re seeing a lot of advisors that have historically focused in one area now spending time in both.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
