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Ritholtz Wealth Management, an RIA with more than $6 billion in assets, has added Altruist to its custodian lineup, which also includes Schwab, Fidelity and Betterment.
In a statement, Ritholtz said its decision to partner with Altruist will help it serve a broader pool of investors, “not just those with millions to invest.” The firm has built a tiered service model to do so, and Altruist’s technology will help the RIA scale that model.
“Our philosophy has always been that simple beats complex, and portfolios should be customized to a client’s goals and circumstances,” said Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz, in a statement. “That means meeting people where they are. We talk to 18-year-olds opening their first accounts and 88-year-olds planning their legacies, and everyone in between. What matters is that someone values advice and wants to engage in the process. Altruist gives us the ability to serve clients across generations seamlessly. This is where the industry is headed.”
With Altruist, advisors have access to account opening, reporting, trading, billing and custody on one platform. The custodian’s account opening process typically takes a few days.
Altruist was founded in 2018, and has evolved into a self-clearing custodial platform with integrated brokerage services including account opening, reporting, trading and billing. In April, the firm raised $152 million in a Series F funding round that valued the RIA custodian at $1.9 billion and brought its total fundraising to $602 million. At the time, company executives said the funding would go toward developing new technology, tools, products and other features.
In separate news, Altruist announced the launch of “Hazel,” its artificial intelligence service resource for advisor clients. It marks the first AI product release since Altruist acquired Thyme, an AI-powered assistant, in June.
With the new assistant, advisors can ask questions, and it will answer them based on a firm’s recorded conversations, emails, documents and CRM systems, as well as market and regulatory information. It can also provide a daily snapshot, draft client emails, create tasks following meetings and sync them with the advisor’s CRM system, prep advisors for meetings, take real-time notes and safeguard client data.
Advisors can access Hazel as a standalone platform for $60 per seat monthly or $600 per seat annually. Altruist will integrate Hazel into its custodial platform in the coming months.
About two years ago, Altruist launched its own self-clearing platform, Altruist Clearing, the final step in becoming a full-service custodian. Just weeks later, it announced plans to acquire SSG, adding more than 1,600 advisors to its platform. The firm now has about 5,000 advisors on its platform.
Last week, Altruist won the Custodians: Technology category at the Wealth Management Industry Awards for its work on feature integrations.
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