Orion, a premier provider of transformative wealthtech solutions powering the growth of financial advisors and the enterprise firms that serve them, and GiftingNetwork, provider of comprehensive philanthropic solutions, announced an integration partnership that empowers Orion advisors to offer personalized, white-labeled donor-advised fund (DAF) solutions that drive deeper family engagement, align wealth with values, and retain assets across generations. Unlike traditional DAF offerings, GiftingNetwork enables Orion advisors to create their own firm-branded DAF experience, backed by a growing network of DAF sponsors and charities and supported by cutting-edge, mobile-first technology. Advisors gain full control over the philanthropic journey, offering clients a values-based extension of their financial plan with potential tax benefits, such as donating appreciated assets without incurring capital gains taxes and securing immediate charitable deductions. Orion advisors can now launch white-labeled DAFs, facilitate multigenerational giving conversations, and serve nonprofit clients with tailored capabilities. These offerings further Orion’s commitment to delivering modern portfolio impact, combining behavioral finance, risk management, and personalized planning to align portfolios with each client’s goals, values, and emotional drivers. GiftingNetwork’s platform combines intuitive donor experiences with advisor-facing reporting dashboards, grant workflows, and philanthropic consulting. GiftingNetwork is part of Orion’s Premier Partnership Program, a strategic initiative to collaborate with select industry leaders to deliver cutting-edge solutions for advisors.
AlgoFusion 5.0 real-time risk management solution for traders automatically pauses or adjusts strategies when predefined risk levels are breached and visualizes overlapping risk across asset classes and strategy clusters
AlgoFusion 5.0 has introduced a suite of real-time risk management enhancements designed to help traders and portfolio teams identify threats early, mitigate performance shocks, and maintain logic integrity under volatile conditions. The live risk alert engine scans strategy activity and market conditions simultaneously, issuing early warnings when performance deviates from expected thresholds or when structural conflicts arise across parallel executions. AlgoFusion’s adaptive infrastructure allows rules to evolve mid-stream—without halting operations—ensuring continuity and responsiveness even in stressed markets. The platform also includes configurable escalation protocols—enabling alerts to be routed to team members, logged for compliance, or linked to automated de-risking actions such as position scaling or temporary strategy suspension. Key risk control enhancements in AlgoFusion 5.0 include: Drawdown Threshold Alerts – Automatically pauses or adjusts strategies when predefined risk levels are breached; Conditional Logic Overrides – Allows users to insert emergency filters or override execution parameters in response to market turbulence; Exposure Correlation Mapping – Visualizes overlapping risk across asset classes and strategy clusters; Trigger Sensitivity Calibration – Fine-tunes how strategy signals respond to short-term volatility or structural market shifts; Real-Time Strategy Health Scoring – Ranks each strategy based on performance stability, signal integrity, and risk adherence.
AdvisorCheck launches first free service delivering continuous email alerts on financial advisors’ licenses, firm changes, and disciplinary history for effortless investor oversight
AdvisorCheck announced the broad availability of AdvisorCheck Essentials, the first free monitoring service that continuously tracks a financial advisor’s professional status and delivers key updates directly to investors via email. By signing up and following any advisor, Essentials enables anyone to stay informed about any changes without the need to manually search government regulatory tools. With AdvisorCheck Essentials, investors receive monthly alerts that track changes to an advisor’s license status, firm affiliation, or disciplinary history. The service helps consumers navigate the maze of outdated tools, fragmented data, and upfront manual costs that have become standard in the investor-advisor marketplace. Consumers are given a simple way to maintain oversight of one of their most critical professional relationships, and the peace of mind that comes with it. Essentials is part of AdvisorCheck’s broader mission to make ongoing advisor oversight effortless and accessible. For investors who want deeper insights, faster notifications, and expanded firm monitoring, AdvisorCheck offers Premium, which builds on Essentials with more frequent alerts, expanded data sources, and firm-level monitoring capabilities.
In-car payments are still on track to grow from 87 million in 2021 to over 4.7 billion by 2026
The push to embed payments in vehicles is gaining traction, with projections by Juniper Research showing in-car transactions will grow from 87 million in 2021 to over 4.7 billion by 2026. Automakers like Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and BMW have rolled out systems enabling payments for fuel, parking, and charging via in-car interfaces, biometrics, and stored card info. Mercedes uses fingerprint sensors in Germany, Hyundai Pay has expanded across models via software updates, and BMW has launched features in Germany with plans to scale. Despite the progress, challenges remain, such as lack of a unified infrastructure, the presence of non-connected vehicles, and complications in shared vehicle models. Apps like PACE Drive, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and Amazon Alexa are emerging alternatives, enabling voice and app-based payments. Companies like Metropolis are also enabling AI-powered, checkout-free experiences at thousands of locations. For banks, this shift poses a threat to interchange revenue if consumers bypass card networks. To stay relevant, banks need to understand evolving customer preferences, mitigate fraud risks, and consider partnerships with automakers. “At the end of the day, this has to work with all banks and all cards,” said Glenbrook’s Chris Uriarte.
Robinhood launches Digests, an AI-powered tool providing UK investors with automated, plain-English explanations of stock movements using news, analytics, and proprietary data.
Robinhood expanded its AI-powered investment tool to UK customers, giving retail investors access to automated summaries that explain why stocks are moving. The feature, called Digests by Robinhood Cortex, uses artificial intelligence to scan breaking news, analyst reports, technical data and the company’s internal trading information. It then produces plain-English explanations for stock price movements that appear directly on individual stock pages within the app. UK customers can access Digests at no additional cost when the rollout completes. Robinhood positions Digests as an educational tool rather than investment advice. The summaries aim to help users understand market dynamics and form their own investment opinions before making trades. “We believe our UK customers, from first-time investors to seasoned traders, will appreciate the timely, accessible summaries that highlight what may be moving a stock,” said Jordan Sinclair, President at Robinhood UK. The AI assistant analyzes multiple data streams simultaneously, including news reports, analyst coverage, technical indicators and proprietary trading data from Robinhood’s platform. Users can find these summaries by navigating to any supported stock’s detail page within the mobile app. At launch, Digests covers many of the most actively traded stocks on Robinhood’s UK platform. The company plans to expand coverage and introduce additional AI-powered features over time.
LinePoint Partners platform enables ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) breakaway financial advisors and single family office (SFO) executives to independently operate and grow their practices without designing from scratch in-house
One new entrant to the family office industry, LinePoint Partners, aims to help advisors leaving wirehouses and private banks build up an array of services needed to work with wealthy clients. Andrew Sternlight, LinePoint’s president and chief investment officer, said what sets family offices apart from other wealth managers is the priority family offices place on preserving wealth for future generations, charitable causes or other recipients. “That’s where we think, by extending that sort of family office infrastructure to advisors or to one or two executives of a family office without building out their teams entirely,” Sternlight said. “That’s where we can provide a bit of a solution that has the benefits with that multigenerational lens, but not the cost of designing from scratch in-house.” Andrew Lom, U.S. head of financial services and global head of private wealth at the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, agreed that the true differentiator for family offices is the emphasis they place on making sure clients can bequeath their wealth exactly how they want. Ron LaVelle, a principal in the private wealth practice of the accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly, said clients have the ultimate say on what their family office does. With the list of possible service offerings always growing, and the number of multifamily offices serving several wealthy families also rising, it’s becoming ever more rare for firms to be able to do it all. In fact, LaVelle said, he tends to be wary of firms that claim to be everything for everyone.
FNZ launches AI-powered Advisor platform delivering real-time client insights, automating meeting lifecycles, and boosting productivity through personalized wealth management at scale
Wealth management platform FNZ has launched FNZ Advisor AI, a generative AI solution embedded directly into FNZ’s market leading wealth management platform. The solution will help financial advisors enhance productivity, deliver more personalized advice and serve more clients at scale. FNZ Advisor AI integrates intelligent automation and AI-driven efficiencies directly into FNZ’s market leading platform, placing powerful capabilities right at an advisor’s fingertips. With more than 650 financial institution partners, over 26 million end investors and close to $2 trillion in assets on platform, FNZ provides access to one of the largest wealth management data sets in the world. This enables FNZ Advisor AI to support smarter, faster decision-making by generating real-time insights based on client and portfolio data. Advisors can proactively identify opportunities, flag risks and tailor their recommendations across their full book of business, ultimately driving better client outcomes. Advisor AI also automates the entire client meeting lifecycle. Advisors can now prepare for meetings using personalized insights, access relevant content during client meetings, and use Advisor AI to transcribe and analyze the discussions afterwards. The advanced solution will also highlight key points that require follow-up and guide advisors on the most relevant next conversations to have with each client. The time spent on repetitive administrative tasks is significantly reduced, freeing up advisors to spend more time with clients and focus on delivering high-quality, personalized advice.
Digital marketing platform for financial advisors Wealthtender can automatically structure FAQ content to be more easily surfaced in Google AI Overviews and as direct answers in AI tools by embedding FAQ schema on advisor websites and profiles
Wealthtender, a digital marketing platform for financial advisors and wealth management firms, announced the launch of AI-Optimized FAQs, extending its range of features that play a valuable role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). By embedding FAQ schema, a specialized code recognized by search engines and answer engines, Wealthtender automatically structures FAQ content to be more easily surfaced in Google AI Overviews and as direct answers in AI tools. Brian Thorp, Wealthtender founder and CEO. “With traditional search engines evolving to include AI Overviews and the rapid adoption of AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, FAQs published on advisor websites and Wealthtender profiles, especially when enhanced with FAQ schema, are more powerful than ever for building trust, visibility, credibility, and increasing the likelihood of an advisor landing on a prospect’s shortlist.” Upon activation of the AI-Optimized FAQs feature, advisors can publish up to 10 questions and answers on their Wealthtender profiles that showcase their expertise and areas of specialization, address common questions, and appear more prominently when prospective clients use Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI search tools to find and evaluate financial advisors.
Local small-scale investors revive vacant homes, adding over 30,000 affordable units in 2025, with renovated properties priced 35% to 80% below new builds across key markets.
Local investors have officially surpassed builders in adding new housing supply in many markets, according to a new report from New Western. In 2025, investors have brought 30,852 renovated single-family homes back to market in New Western coverage areas — far exceeding the 18,973 new builds sold this year. Kurt Carlton, co-founder and president of New Western, told the imbalance is striking. “There’s a huge need for affordable housing, and the builders can’t supply it, but we have 15 million vacant homes,” he said. “They’re highly educated, corporate refugees that have left high incomes, looking for something more autonomous, and they’re taking those management skills, rehabbing these houses and bringing them back to the market. Some are making income beyond what they were seeing in the corporate sector. Institutional investors accounted for only 1.93% of all home purchases in Q1 2025 and just 6.6% of investor purchases, down 62% from their 2021 peak. Most operate close to home — with 68% investing within 30 miles of where they live. About 78% plan to purchase just one to five properties in the next year. Carlton argued that policymakers don’t yet grasp the role these small investors play. The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act would create a federal tax credit to build and rehabilitate affordable homes for urban, suburban, rural and tribal communities. More than 70% of revitalized homes are purchased off-market — never showing up in MLS data, according to the report. Carlton said the omission distorts the picture. There’s a million that are off-market. These are generally not habitable. It’s the type of house that a local real estate investor really needs to buy and revive.” Revitalized homes typically re-enter the market at significantly lower price points than both existing homes and new construction. The report found the average existing home sale price was 54% higher than the average revitalized home — and the median existing home price was 17% higher. Compared to new builds, revitalized homes are often 35% to 80% less expensive. “It’s really challenging for builders to supply affordable inventory in the areas that need it,” Carlton said.
For investors integrating generative AI into asset management, best practices are structured internal data, prompt engineering, targeted workflows focused on specific use cases, and vertical AI champions in departments such as equities and fixed income
Bernstein Research has identified 10 best practices for investors integrating generative AI into asset management, emphasizing the importance of structured data, targeted workflows, and measurable outcomes. The brokerage emphasizes the need for clean, structured internal data, prompt engineering, centralizing data, breaking down daily workflows into specific use cases, and developing vertical AI champions. To scale AI effectively, firms should prioritize top use cases, structure offsite exercises, and engage in regular knowledge-sharing sessions within teams. Developing vertical AI champions in departments such as equities, fixed income, legal, or compliance ensures solutions remain close to real use cases. Dedicated AI talent is also needed, with some firms assigning specific team members to focus on AI tools or hiring external specialists. Tools like Daloopa and ModelML are cited for model automation and internal data integration. Early engagement with implementation partners or adopting ready-made AI tools can speed progress without requiring deep technical expertise. In the future, organizations should prepare to work with hybrid teams of humans and artificial intelligence, requiring robust data infrastructure and governance. Clear metrics to evaluate Gen AI’s impact include operational efficiency, error rate reduction, time to generate insights, volume of AI-generated ideas, and comparisons with human output. Success in portfolio management can be assessed by time saved during scenario analysis and the frequency of bias avoidance in decisions post-AI implementation.