Financial wellness was a key topic of the 2021 Advisor Summit, an event we hold every year to support and empower advisors. But the wellness message shouldn’t stop there.
As Chief Marketing Officer for Envestnet, Mary Ellen Dugan leads the strategy and execution for all of Envestnet Marketing across digital marketing, communications, product marketing, and demand generation. With over 20 years of experience in strategic marketing and brand building, Mary Ellen is passionate about the role Marketing can play in business acceleration. She’s also committed to supporting advisors as they help their clients live a more Intelligent Financial Life™.
Below is an excerpt from a conversation we had with Mary Ellen about where Envestnet is focusing over the coming months and what she is excited about.
So, to start, we have heard Envestnet talk about The Intelligent Financial Life™ more and more over the last year. Can you explain exactly what that means?
Bill Crager, the Co-Founder and CEO of Envestnet, wrote a white paper about The Intelligent Financial Life that we really believe introduced an industry-changing concept. He identified that each of us really lead two different financial lives —let’s call them our daily life and our long-term goals, or our future life. Within those two lives exist what Bill called “an exploding universe” of financial interactions. Think about your daily spending, salary, investment income, 401(k)s, tax responsibilities, insurance, etc. Then add in things like real estate investments or cryptocurrency. Until recently, there was no way to tie all of those pieces together in a useful way. Just think about all the different financial apps alone that you can have on your phone today. It can be very overwhelming.
We believe that the opportunity ahead for the industry is to intelligently connect the various financial lives of an individual into one cohesive Intelligent Financial Life.
As a company, our goal is to illustrate how the Envestnet comprehensive financial wellness ecosystem empowers our clients to enable their customers to live an Intelligent Financial Life. And we see this as our focus for some time to come.
How does technology, or more specifically the Envestnet ecosystem, play into an Intelligent Financial Life?
Let’s pretend to be financial advisors for a minute. Our clients lead diverse, complex lives. Even if we tend to work with clients in one geographical area, they will still vary greatly in the ways that they acquired their wealth, how they earn or spend their wealth daily, and where they hope to be in 10 years. If you’ve been in this job for a while, you probably remember preparing for quarterly or yearly meetings with a lot of paper – reports explaining what the client’s financial life has looked like over the last year, and projected plans for what things could look like into the future. Then you’d talk it all through in the meeting and develop more paper for next steps. It was virtually impossible to create one cohesive picture of a client’s financial world that was actually up to date.
Today it all happens using technology. Envestnet has spent the better part of 20 years exploring ways to help advisors deliver better outcomes for their clients. Throughout this journey we’ve discovered one truth: It’s all connected. Envestnet is the technology, the financial wellness ecosystem that helps to connect those dots creating an intelligent financial life…a unique picture for each client.
As an advisor, what does that make you to your client? A hero who creates order and increases understanding. A partner who helps clients make better decisions. Technology makes you look good. That’s how I see our role. Envestnet is the power behind over 108,000 advisors, supporting them and making them the hero of the story.
What should advisors expect to see from Envestnet in the coming months?
In the coming months, you are going to hear us speaking about how we are Fully Vested in the concept of an Intelligent Financial Life.
We are Fully Vested in our mission to make financial wellness a reality for everyone. We are transforming our brand to fully support our mission and values. You saw this begin with Bill’s white paper and continue at our 2021 Advisor Summit, with presentations from industry thought leaders like Tyrone Ross.
We are Fully Vested in continuing to build and grow our vast ecosystem of solutions, technologies, and intelligence. We’ve made several acquisitions over the past six months alone, as well as grown our partnerships and exchanges.
And we are Fully Vested in being always on, or always supporting, our customers – and their customers. The Envestnet ecosystem is always on, constantly gathering intelligence and insights, connecting the dots, and getting better. Not all of our competitors can say that.
Anyone who is interested in learning more can check out the Intelligent Financial Life page. We’ll be updating it regularly as we grow and evolve.
The information, analysis and opinions expressed herein are for informational purposes only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Envestnet. These views reflect the judgment of the author as of the date of writing and are subject to change at any time without notice. Nothing contained in this piece is intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting, securities, or investment advice, nor an opinion regarding the appropriateness of any investment, nor a solicitation of any type.