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Envestnet Acquires UpsideCHICAGO, Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Envestnet, Inc. (NYSE: ENV), a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to financial advisors, announced today that it has acquired Upside, a technology company providing digital advice solutions to financial advisors. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Upside helps financial advisors compete against other digital advisors, or "robo advisors," by leveraging technology and algorithms to advise, manage, and serve clients who want high quality, personalized investment services delivered to them when and where they want it. The company's design-led, advisor-branded platform provides investors with an intuitive investment management experience, including paperless onboarding and required trading and rebalancing. The acquisition will combine Upside's streamlined and easy-to-use, advisor-labeled, investor-facing financial planning and investment management platform with Envestnet's broad suite of investment solutions, portfolio analytics, account servicing infrastructure and reporting capabilities. "Advisors leverage our technology today to automate operations and effectively deploy many elements of a robo or digital advisor offering," said Stuart DePina, Group President Envestnet | Tamarac. "Adding Upside to our platform will allow advisors to compete more aggressively to engage current clients online and reach a new class of investors. While many see robo offerings as serving the mass affluent, advisors know a growing percentage of their High Net Worth clients are demanding to access their financial portfolios and interact with their advisor online." "The investment advisory market is undergoing a period of significant change through the adoption of technology," said Tom Kimberly, co-founder and CEO of Upside. "When the dust settles, we believe that the winning model will combine the best aspects of the human relationship with the most powerful capabilities of technology. Joining Envestnet is a big step that will help accelerate and amplify that vision." Envestnet expects to significantly augment the scale of Upside's digital advisor solution by leveraging the time-tested operations and servicing functionality of its platform technology. The deal will give Upside access to Envestnet's industry-leading technology services, as it accelerates onboarding new financial advisors whil serving its existing advisor partners on its managed account platform. "Serving nearly 40,000 advisors, Envestnet is uniquely positioned to understand what it takes to support the evolving needs of today's advisors and tomorrow's investors," said Bill Crager, President of Envestnet. "We have the technology, investment products, people, knowledge and infrastructure to empower financial advisors to deliver a competitive and cutting edge offering to their clients. By providing access to managed portfolios from some of the world's leading investment strategists through Upside's platform design, we can extend the automated advice delivery model in a way that further increases the relevance of the financial advisor." Mr. Kimberly and Juney Ham, co-founder and President of Upside, will join Envestnet as Senior Vice Presidents. "With a common mission to help advisors improve their practices with technology, it was clear from the beginning that Envestnet and Upside were a perfect match," said Ham. "Envestnet's impressive ability to provide class-leading portfolio and practice management solutions to its growing population of advisors will help us scale successfully and more rapidly bring a transformative client experience to the industry." About Envestnet Envestnet's Advisor Suite® software empowers financial advisors to better manage client outcomes and strengthen their practice. Envestnet provides institutional-quality research and advanced portfolio solutions through our Portfolio Management Consultants group, Envestnet | PMC®. Envestnet | Tamarac provides leading rebalancing, reporting and practice management software. For more information on Envestnet, please visit www.envestnet.com and follow @ENVintel (https://twitter.com/envintel). About Upside Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Contacts Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110321/NY68085LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/envestnet-acquires-upside-300041946.html SOURCE Envestnet, Inc. |