Envestnet goes back to its un-marketing marketing approach as Marion Asnes (mostly) leaves and her CMO spot gets deleted

Isn’t un-marketing more credible than meaningless hyperbole.

The innovations that will move the needle require technical expertise, a deep understanding of advisory services and professional standing not consistent with journalism or for that matter commission brokerage.

Simplifying prudent process, advanced technology, work flow management tied to a functional division of labor, elimination of conflicts of interest, more modern approaches to portfolio construction, which make advice safe, scalable, easy to execute and manage as a high margin business at the advisor level at a cost cheaper than a packaged product and compensate advisors 50% more than brokers requires leadership, not promotion. The Envestnet story is advancing modernity.

This is why what we know as advice today is simply an extrapolation of brokers selling advice products as IARs, not advisors managing an expert prudent process in the best interest of the investing public.

Envestnet’s challenge is simplifying its business in support of the professional standing of the advisor as a vendor of fiduciary solutions for advisors and advice products for brokers. Pretty simple. The complexity of fiduciary duty is easily resolved. It is just a matter of choice.

Importantly, as an advisory services solutions business, Envestnet has far more latitude to support advisory services than exists in a limiting brokerage format. It is agnostic as to whether its users are brokers or RIAs. Let the investing public determine which value proposition is in the consumer’s best interest as described by objective fiduciary criteria of statute, case law, regulatory opinion letters.

The marketing story is Envestnet is not more of the same—the old school of promotion, it is as an innovator always supporting the best interests of the consumer whether supported by a broker or advisor.

Envestnet’s independent broker/dealer clients win in a very big way as they can out execute the industry’s very largest firms in advisory services as the conflicts of interest of investment banking, proprietary product and trading are not significant factors in independent b/d economics.

Envestnet needs to assess the most direct and profitable path to growth for its constituents as the industry evolves to advisory services. It is uniquely positioned to advance modernity and professional standing in the consumer’s best interest, marginalizing far larger firms which are committed to an increasingly outdated transactions/commission sales business model.

Complexity is Envestnet’s friend as in simplification it builds massive market share.

SCW