This Wealth Management-Disrupting Fintech Company Launches A New Look

The centuries-old business of wealth management, like the rest of finance, is undergoing massive changes. Many experts view the current capital markets as frothy, and investors are wary of asset prices that can change rapidly with the mood of the market.

Seemingly in tandem with a year of market volatility, new Department of Labor regulations on wealth management announced in April demand that portfolio managers focus more explicitly on their customers.

These factors, combined with the fintech assault on traditional finance bulwarks, has led to the rise of companies looking to help wealth managers better serve their customers through technology.

One of the companies leading the wealth management revolution is MyVest. Anton Honikman, MyVest’s CEO, left a strategic venture group that he built at what is now BlackRock to run a boutique management firm, and from there joined MyVest as chief executive. The company was founded in 2001, and according to Honikman, was ahead of several developments for which the industry had not yet prepared.

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Earlier this year, the company was acquired by TIAA, and will continue to run as an autonomous entity, according to Honikman. The company has doubled its staff and tripled its assets under management in the past three years, according to Honikman.

Revamped Look

MyVest recently launched a new brand and website, reflecting the growth the company has experienced in the past year.

“MyVest has evolved, leveraging our foundation at the forefront of holistic, household wealth management for traditional advisors, to becoming an innovator in modern, digital wealth offerings. This new look represents how we support both,” said Honikman in a press release.

The acquisition aligns well with the new look and website, said Honikman.

“A fresh brand is helpful to express that autonomy,” he said. “We’ve always espoused a client-centric approach to wealth management. Now, it’s less about products and more about client outcomes, and that’s a change we are proud to be a part of.”

Honikman sees a tension between the need to provide greater levels of personalization and the ability to scale a wealth management practice, but also sees technological solutions.

“The challenge for the wealth management industry is to provide personalized solutions at scale,” Honikman said. “The higher end of the market does provide a personalized service, but it’s typically very labor intensive and expensive. If you move down market towards the high net worth, the mass affluence market, where there are many, many more customers, the challenge is to continue to provide personalized service at scale and not compromise margin. That’s the role of technology in this industry. Technology can enable personalization at scale. That’s the business that MyVest is in.”

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