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Elements, a Salt Lake City–based company that provides a financial monitoring platform for advisors, announced today it was offering free service to advisors with less than four planning clients.
Qualification for the program is based on how many clients an advisor has on their Form ADV, which needs to be updated with the Securities and Exchange Commission every year in March. For advisors not in the “three for free” program, Elements costs $299 per advisor per month.
The move follows a series of announcements from the company in recent months geared toward helping smaller RIAs get off the ground. Earlier this month, the company announced it had trained a second cohort of advisors to create their own subscription model. In October, the company launched a partnership model that allows RIAs to take on smaller clients who wouldn’t normally fit their asset minimums.
“During those early days of a financial advisor’s career, establishing a strong foundation is crucial, even though acquiring new clients may pose a formidable challenge,” said Reese Harper, chief executive officer of Elements, in a statement. “By providing our platform free of charge to startup advisors, we’re not just offering a resource; we’re investing in the future of the industry and in the success of tomorrow’s financial leaders.”
Elements allows advisors to streamline the process of gathering and analyzing client data. The company claims that in less than eight minutes, advisors can gain a snapshot of their clients’ financial health, including burn and tax rates, all through the company’s app.
The platform isn’t meant to replace other popular financial planning tools like Fidelity Investments’ eMoney Advisor; it works in conjunction with them.
At the moment, Elements serves 500 firms representing more than 10,000 end investor clients and has brought on 20 firms as part of the “three for free” program, said Jordan Haines, director of advisor success at Elements, in an email.
While the company said that it is utilized by RIAs of all sizes, about 75 percent of its users are smaller RIAs with less than three advisors.
“Elements is pioneering a new approach to financial conversations using our objective and standardized set of financial vitals,” said Haines. “This new approach often necessitates a paradigm shift on the part of the advisor adopting the program regarding how they interact with clients. Smaller, more agile RIAs are a natural fit for this reason. And while Elements is becoming more commonplace in mid-sized to larger RIAs, smaller RIAs will continue to be a core user base for us and be a core part of our business model and future strategy.”
