Bringing together the best of the best
Founded in 2016 and reimagined in 2023, Osaic is the culmination of a number of firms coming together and bringing the best of wealth management with them. Osaic is the second largest independent wealth management firm in the United States, enabling financial professionals to provide objective advice, and a high-level of service and care for clients. “We’re a comprehensive wealth management firm with a mission to really serve our advisors across a full segment of their wealth needs,” as Matthew Schlueter describes it today in his role as President of Products and Products & Solutions. They’ve experienced their fastest growth most recently through acquisition, but also organic growth as advisors have repositioned.
Today, they’re bringing a number of independent broker-dealers together under one new brand now known as Osaic. Through this process, they are creating multiple benefits for their advisors in terms of scale and succession opportunities.
As Shannon Larson, Senior Vice President Platform Management & Product Development, describes it: “One of the biggest opportunities that Osaic has is in helping our advisors continue to build and grow their wealth management businesses. Our advisors provide services that go well beyond investment management.”
In today’s changing climate, Osaic is focused on creating a community for and in partnership with their 11,000 advisors. “Osaic is a firm that is based on our advisors. We offer them the platforms, the technology, the infrastructure to help build their business and grow their business,” Shannon explained. Between the partnerships and technology, this is where Envestnet has stepped in—and up.
Strategic partnerships, technology, and integrations
In order to scale the services they provide, expand capabilities, and get to market faster, Osaic relies on partnerships. Good strategic partners have helped them help their advisors be more productive and offer a full set of wealth solutions. “Partners are really important to Osaic. They help us bring a best-in-class, full wealth offering that has been part of our journey and story, helping our advisors grow faster in the marketplace,” Matthew explained.
The Envestnet platform is integrated with all of our other technical solutions and provides a platform for all of our investment management resources in one place.”
Catherine Knopf, Senior Vice President of Advisory Consulting
When it comes to building the best technology platform for their advisors, Shannon agrees that partnerships are key: “When we think about our wealth management platform, really Envestnet is the power behind that platform. We selected Envestnet and have been working with them for the past 10+ years, and the platform has been an evolution over time...Instead of focusing on building and managing portfolios, advisors are focused on the client.”
Their technology philosophy boils down to innovation through integration. “We’re picking the best-in-class partners, like MoneyGuide and the Envestnet platform, to become part of our ecosystem.” This approach allows Osaic to present a unified platform to their advisors where they can do all of their tasks in one place. As Catherine Knopf, Senior Vice President of Advisory Consulting, tells it: “The Envestnet platform is integrated with all of our other technical solutions and provides a platform for all of our investment management resources in one place.”
Looking toward the future
As they continue to bring their firm together with their recent rebrand, one of their areas of focus is building out subsegments in their community of advisors to offer targeted capabilities at the firm and allow advisors to come together with like-minded specialists. Like others, they are also seeing a movement toward teams rather than sole practitioners, as Matthew highlights: “We see the market continuing to shift between brokerage to advisory, shift between sole practitioners to teams. We also look at advisors trying to shift from asset managers to holistic wealth offerings. There's a whole set of what we see as transformation activities that we want to be in the middle of to help our advisors.”
“Our wealth management platform is built in partnership with Envestnet. Instead of building and managing portfolios, advisors are focused on the client. They have access to institutional strategists and the ability to build these models in an effective way."
Shannon Larson, Senior Vice President Platform Management & Product Development
Catherine sees the conversation between their advisors as a key part of their future as well. “What makes Osaic special is its ability to be nimble in this industry, its ability to seek out what the needs are, to seek out feedback from advisors, and to truly take that feedback into consideration, into evolving where we go in the future.”
Of course, growth is always on their mind, whether that’s expanding their client base or the services they offer advisors. “As we think about the future of Osaic, we’re now focused on expanding our addressable markets. Our institutions channel, our RIA market, and different areas where we can provide solutions and choice for advisors’ needs.”
We have a tremendous relationship and a long-standing relationship with Envestnet, one that spans almost two decades, one that has allowed us to grow our advice business to where we're at today.
Matthew Schlueter, President of Products & Solutions
Osaic sees the future of client needs changing and is rising to meet that need with the help of partners, like Envestnet. After 27 years in the industry, Matthews summarizes it well: “The addressable market is growing tremendously. And so, the biggest need of our advisors is getting with partners where they can grow faster, be more productive, have more client relationships.”
