More Than Just A Robo: Vanare Changes Name To AdvisorEngine

As the financial services industry rushed to understand the nascent fintech wave, many companies were lumped under simple labels: “robo-advisor,” “fintech lender,” “savings app.” But this nomenclature often doesn’t accurately describe what many of these companies do or the range of products they offer.

That’s why Vanare, a fintech company that’s part robo-advisor, part dashboard for wealth managers, has changed its name to AdvisorEngine. CEO Rich Cancro said in an interview with Benzinga that the rebranding was necessary to make the company stand out from the roboadvisor pack.

“Every time over the past two years we have done demos, whether it’s for a prospect or an industry veteran, every single time they say, ‘I can’t believe you have all this other stuff,’” said Cancro. “They say, ‘You’re not just a white label robo-advisor. You have a whole platform.’”

The AdvisorEngine platform to which Cancro refers “digitizes a client’s investment philosophy,” Cancro said. The company combines a robo-advisor with a comprehensive wealth management backend that allows managers and clients to access their accounts and analytics on their holdings.

Cancro said that two trends in wealth management firms have converged with the rise of fintech: the changing needs of clients and the need to adopt technology to scale firms’ activities.

“Through my client experience in firms of all sizes, from the $50 million RIA, the billion dollar RIA, the hundred billion plus global franchise, the broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, every single one of them [is] saying, ‘We want to change the client experience,’” Cancro said.

Cancro said technology from firms like AdvisorEngine will help drive down margins for firms looking to enhance the customer experience. Cancro claims his company can put the systems in place for those margins in a little over a week.

“We had a client’s investment philosophy fully digitized 10 days from the time that we signed the contract,” Cancro said. “We do their risk questionnaire, their asset allocation, their investments, their paperwork, their agreements with their clients, their custodian agreements, their disclosures, all within 10 days. We go to firms and empower what makes them successful.”

Cancro’s focus for the new year is to double revenue and to integrate the AdvisorEngine platform with other financial products. Read more about the company here.