Vestmark Poll Finds Majority of Financial Firms Pl

WAKEFIELD, MA --(Marketwired - June 08, 2017) - Vestmark , a leading provider of Unified Wealth Management® solutions, today released poll results captured during their recent webinar, High Tech, High Touch: Engagement & The Future of Advice Delivery , featuring Pinnacle Advisory Group's Michael Kitces. During the discussion, the panelists focused on providing tips and best practices for how to evolve traditional advisory business models leveraging technology. Feedback from the poll revealed significant interest in robo-advisor solutions, with 64% of firms planning to incorporate these strategies in the future, and15% of respondents already using them.

"The proliferation of robo-advisors and disruption they've created won't put traditional financial advisors out of business, rather this technology will become the platform human advisors use to build the advisory business of the future," said Michael Kitces, Partner and Director of Wealth Management at Pinnacle Advisory Group. "Eventually it won't be considered 'robo technology,' rather it will simply be the common technology we all use to run our advisory business."

"Broker dealers, asset managers, and advisors are looking to better service investors and improve efficiency with tools that maximize their value proposition," said Rob Klapprodt, President of Vestmark. "Traditional firms must embrace digital advice technology and develop a plan for marrying human advisors with technology tools that automate manual processes and provide a compelling user experience. As Michael mentioned, at some point 'robo' gets dropped from the lexicon and the technology associated with robos just becomes an inherent part of the practice."

During the live webinar, 133 participants including financial advisors, broker dealers, asset managers, bank trusts, service providers, and other financial firms responded to poll questions posed throughout the course of the event.

Key Highlights:

• A majority (58%) of participating firms perceived managing client emotions as their key business value-add; another 25% thought their primary value-add is financial planning; and 17% believe it is portfolio construction.

• Respondents varied on their business considerations for adopting robo technology (multiple responses were allowed): - 69% felt it offers a solution for low balance accounts - 51% indicated a robo technology could enable their business to capture new investors/market segments - 51% said the solution would be considered to automate manual processes - 43% suggested robo technology would improve the client experience - 14% indicated that it's a solution to outsource portfolio management

Panelists of the webinar included Michael Kitces, Partner and Director of Wealth Management at Pinnacle Advisory Group, and Vestmark's Senior Vice President of Client Experience, Vince Pellegrini, and President , Rob Klapprodt. A full recording of the webinar can be downloaded from Vestmark's website .

About Vestmark:

Vestmark is a leading provider of wealth management solutions, headquartered outside of Boston, MA. Founded in 2001, Vestmark's mission is to enable investors to better their financial well-being through delivering technology and services that enable financial institutions and advisors to deliver holistic advice in line with investor objectives. We service 43 institutions, 25,000 advisors, $650 billion in assets, and over 2 million investor accounts.

For more information about Vestmark's solutions, call (781) 224-3640, email inquiry@vestmark.com , or visit www.Vestmark.com .