401(K) Fintech platform Pontera announces integration with Envestnet

by James · February 9, 2023

Pontera, a technology platform that helps advisors manage and trade clients’ retirement assets in custodial accounts, today announced an integration with software wealth management giant Envestnet.

The announcement is the latest in a long line of recent integrations between Pontera and some of the biggest wealth management players, including Carson Group, Morningstar, Orion and Dynasty. It comes after an $80 million capital raising announced in February 2022, which accompanied a name change from FeeX to Pontera.

FeeX was originally started with the aim of providing transparency on advisory, investment and expense ratio fees for retirement savers. But Dave Goldman, chief business officer at Pontera, said so RIA Intel that the company changed its business model five years ago to become a secure marketplace where advisors could manage clients’ 401(K)s and other withheld retirement accounts without gaining custody of those assets.

“I think the consumers are [telling] their advisors to find ways to create value for them — they’re worried about retirement,” Goldman said. “And in asset management there has been this shift to comprehensive advisory services. We are part of [an advisor’s] ability to provide comprehensive services on assets as otherwise [were often] overlooked or underserved.”

Typically, advisers don’t have a compliant way to easily manage or advise on these assets, which can make up 20 to 30 percent of a client’s portfolio, Goldman said.

Pontera, which charges a fixed annual subscription fee of 30 basis points, acts as a secure intermediary site that facilitates the management of retained pension assets, but does not provide direct access to those assets. “It just allows [advisors] to review [and] rebalance the account,” Goldman said. “It doesn’t allow the advisor to see client credentials, and it doesn’t allow the advisor to change an address or update the beneficiaries.”

Goldman said Pontera does not disclose the number of assets or advisers on its platform, but he said the firms it serves number in the thousands. Envestnet, which alone is used by more than 6,500 firms and 108,000 financial advisors managing more than $5.5 trillion in assets, is no stranger to the pension plan. In 2022, it bought advice-focused retirement marketplace 401kplans.com for an undisclosed amount. Goldman said the integration with Envestnet was in beta testing for about nine months and officially went live in January.

Part of the success of the company, Goldman said, is that the platform is built to serve any advisor who has a client with a 401(K), and it also has the ability to serve the entire advisory space. “What we’re really doing is enabling choice,” he explained. “If you are a client and want help [with held-away retirement assets]we really believe that you should be able to get help from the adviser you have chosen to work with.”