Good morning. I hope that you and your family are healthy.
I feel very fortunate that my family and friends are doing well health-wise. If your situation is anything like mine, you are balancing new demands as your personal life has merged with your professional life. For a window into my household: I’ve been locked down in my NYC loft with my family playing teacher / short-order cook / Sonos DJ / Paw Patrol watcher / Ticket to Ride competitor. I have always appreciated teachers - now my appreciation and admiration are sky-high...Truly: how do they do it?
Over the last several months, I have been inspired by colleagues who are working incredibly hard to enhance our products and support your firm. One surprising thing: the team has actually gotten closer during the time apart. Video calls with colleagues that feature their family members and pets have connected our group in a new way.
Today I have some exciting news to share with you. We have been acquired by Franklin Templeton, a global investment management firm with a 70-year history. It’s a universally positive moment for clients and a growth moment for the company. Selecting Franklin Templeton was the culmination of a thorough year-long process where we interviewed dozens of potential partners. I’m fired up for the next phase of our journey.
We are positioned better than ever to help you connect more deeply with your clients, grow your business and scale your operations. In summary, here is what you can expect:
Thank you for your continued partnership. Please read the press release, check out our Q+A page, or contact us with any questions or excitement you’d like to share. Also, stay tuned for an invite to a webinar later in May where we will share more information.
More background information is below.
I started in the financial services industry in the early ’90s. I’ve been through many acquisitions - some of them good, some of them not-so-good. Here’s why I’m so excited about this deal:
Our company is being unleashed. Over a year ago, AdvisorEngine® decided to begin a thorough process to interview potential strategic partners. If you’ve gone through it while building a business, you know that this process can be draining. It requires having the same conversation over...and over...and over again. I’m happy to be done with it, and ecstatic that Craig Ramsey (our COO) and the rest of our leadership team can return to 100% of our focus to operating and growing the company, developing technology and serving clients.
As we accelerate our product development, we will bring down the walls between CRM, portfolio management and productivity software. Junxure® is a very powerful CRM system, and we are excited to raise the bar on the user experience. From a portfolio management perspective, we are extending our custodian data and workflow integrations and deepening reporting capabilities. We cannot wait for you to see the next generation of products.
We’re gaining a phenomenal strategic partner and parent company. In selecting a partner, we were optimizing for three things beyond investment capital: strategic alignment, cultural fit and expertise that will make our platform even smarter. After meeting with dozens of potential investors/acquirers, Franklin Templeton stood out as a group that checked all three boxes. Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Resources Inc, is a major believer that technology is a critical component of the advisor value proposition. Together, AdvisorEngine and Franklin Templeton have an opportunity to deliver a combination of technology, investment and practice management resources not yet seen before in wealth management.
The leadership team is excited and ready to deliver for you. We will operate as an independent subsidiary, and leadership will retain strategic and operational flexibility to run the business. As we move forward, we will continue with our company mission of creating a future of financial advice that is personal, scientific and beautiful. We will continue to live our six company ideals: camaraderie, clarity, curiosity, creativity, crushing it and celebration.
This is not an exit for me and I remain ‘all-in’ on our future. The rest of the leadership team is also committed, including Craig Ramsey (COO), Patrick Arnold (Head of Product), Vladimir Baranov (CTO), Carly de Diego (Chief Administrative Officer), Scott Woodworth (Head of Client Success), John Haas (Head of Consulting & Training), David Coyle (Platform Business Development) and Kathy Crowley (CRM Business Development) to name a few. In conjunction with this acquisition, we are also excited to be adding John Tyers to the leadership team. In a newly created role of Chief Growth Officer, John will oversee the full client lifecycle, from Sales to Client Success. The word ‘Growth’ in his title starts with helping you grow and scale -- if we take care of that, AdvisorEngine will grow as well. John is a longtime former colleague and innovative wealth management executive with over 25 years of experience in leadership roles in the RIA, Broker-Dealer and Private Wealth channels. We are very lucky to have him, and he is looking forward to engaging with you.
In closing, if you’ve made it this far: thank you for reading. And thank you again for your partnership. I hope that we can deepen our relationship together over the coming months/years.
Warmest regards.
Rich