David Lyon is founder and CEO of Oranj (www.runoranj.com), a wealth management platform that gives financial professionals everything they need to run an efficient practice and provide investors with an interactive and engaging experience. Oranj also offers financial advisors a model marketplace where advisors can build investment solutions and utilize pre-built solutions from some of the industries leading investment managers. Lyon launched Oranj after spending nearly 10 years growing his own financial advisory firm in Chicago.
In 2018, Chicago-based Oranj became the financial service industry’s first wealth management platform available to advisors and end-clients at no cost. Since then, the fintech industry has continued its fast-paced evolution, but few entrants have followed Oranj in launching software using a “freemium” model in which the initial install and basic features are free, but upgrades and additional features may come at a price. Nevertheless, Oranj’s experiment in offering an end-to-end wealth management solution for advisors has been a success, said CEO David Lyon.
As the world has accelerated towards using more technology to interact and transact, Oranj is adding a tech-focused asset manager to its platform and growing model marketplace. The Chicago-based free-to-use wealth management and financial planning platform announced this week that it investment services and ETFs from ROBO Global will be available on its platform. ROBO Global manages the ROBO ETF, one of the first robotics-focused ETFs available to U.S. investors. The firm also publishes portfolios, indexes and research capturing opportunities in AI, healthcare technology and robotics around the world.
"Oranj is a single platform to streamline portfolio management and client service. Oranj provides financial advisors with portfolio management, rebalancing and trading, client/prospect management and a client portal to power their practice and elevate client service. Our software is designed to make complex tasks easy without losing the sophistication advisors need to deliver better outcomes and a world-class experience for their clients. The Oranj model marketplace provides single place for advisors to build investment solutions and utilize pre-built solutions from some of the industries leading investment managers. With Oranj, financial advisors spend less time managing and more time advising their clients."
"Advisors need to consolidate, communicate and customize. Creating the optimal digital client experience involves aggregating client data, communicating the value and usefulness of that information to the client, and making sure the delivery of that information is done in a way that suits the client’s needs and preferences. Taking these steps can close the digital divide."
"Advisors are missing an opportunity to appear at the fingertips of their clients and potential new clients. With 93% of individuals indicating they are engaged with social media at least weekly, it is surprising to see that only 25% of advisors said they interact with their clients via social media, 14% with webinars or recorded videos, and 12% with blog posts. Many advisors think that their 55-64 year-old clients are not using Internet for financial things – or not using the Internet much at all. But research in the initial Digital DNA report shows that the demographic spends on average more than five hours per day online."