Plus, direct indexing platform Alphathena partners with ex-PayPal chief’s tech-forward RIA, while comms compliance startup Archive Intel announces key appointments.
To wrap up some of the happenings in this busy week for wealth tech, FMG Suite has made a key acquisition to better help organic growth-seeking advisors, Alphathena has integrated with a tech-forward RIA founded by ex-PayPal CEO Bill Harris, and compliance tech platform Archive Intel taps two veterans in a bid to reach more financial institutions.
FMG buys Testimonial iQ to fold reviews into AI-era search
FMG has acquired Testimonial iQ, a reputation management platform built for advisors, and will fold it into its suite under the new name FMG Testimonials. The deal brings client reviews, testimonials, referrals and feedback surveys directly onto FMG’s marketing stack, with the goal of helping firms turn social proof into pipeline and new assets.
The move comes as more advisor discovery happens through local search and AI-powered “answer engines,” rather than traditional search alone. FMG is pitching the acquisition as a way for firms to centralize website content, SEO, local listings, testimonials and reviews on one platform and keep that activity within existing compliance workflows.
“Organic growth is the defining challenge for wealth management firms today, and FMG is focused on being the industry’s organic growth engine,” said FMG chief executive Dave Christensen. “Our expanded capabilities will help advisors stay visible in AI and local search, earning the trust of potential clients quickly and turning that visibility into organic growth opportunities.”
FMG plans to integrate Testimonial iQ’s Google Reviews workflows, survey tools, and analytics with its existing SEO and answer engine optimization features, which already apply schema markup to FAQs and manage local listings.
Highlighting his firm’s founding mission of “[turning] happy clients into new business without creating compliance headaches,” Andrew Johnson, chief executive and co-founder of Testimonial iQ, said joining FMG will allow that approach to scale across “tens of thousands of advisors and many of the industry’s leading enterprises.”
FMG Testimonials will remain available as a standalone product as well as part of FMG’s broader marketing packages.
Alphathena and Evergreen Wealth team up on tax-aware direct indexing
In Chicago, direct indexing provider Alphathena announced a strategic partnership with Evergreen Wealth, the tech-focused RIA launched by fintech veteran Bill Harris in September.
Evergreen will use Alphathena’s platform to power its tax-aware portfolios, including Dynamic Portfolios, while keeping investment decisions and portfolio design in-house.
The collaboration underscores a broader trend among RIAs and multifamily offices: using direct indexing and custom portfolios to generate tax benefits that may be harder to capture with off-the-shelf ETFs and mutual funds. Alphathena’s system is built to weave tax management into each step of the portfolio process, from security selection and tax-loss harvesting to rebalancing.
“Alphathena gives us the infrastructure to deliver sophisticated, tax-aware portfolios at scale, without sacrificing personalization or control,” said Harris, Evergreen’s founder and chief executive. He framed that combination as essential for firms that are “serious about improving after-tax outcomes for clients.”
Alphathena’s leadership has positioned the firm as a partner for “next generation” advisory shops that are “tax-aware, human-first, and technology-forward,” arguing that personalization should be built into the investment process rather than layered on at the end.
Adoption has been growing among independent wealth managers looking to differentiate their portfolios. Firms such as Mainstreet Advisors, ICR Partners, and MCF Advisors are already using Alphathena to combine scalable personalization with tax-aware portfolio management, according to the company.
Archive Intel brings in veteran sales leaders to court large institutions
On the compliance front, Archive Intel is bolstering its go-to-market team as more banks and asset managers wrestle with how to supervise client communications across personal devices, social media and AI-generated content. The AI-powered communications compliance vendor has appointed John Molesphini as head of sales and Vince Bakshani as head of enterprise sales.
Both executives previously held senior roles at eVestment, now part of Nasdaq, where they worked with large institutional clients alongside Archive Intel founder and chief executive Larry Shumbres. Their mandate now is to expand enterprise adoption of Archive Intel’s platform among large financial institutions with complex communications requirements.
“John and Vince are exactly the kind of leaders we need at this stage of our growth,” Shumbres said in a statement, pointing to their experience building teams and handling “sensitive financial client communications” at scale.
Molesphini will oversee sales strategy and execution across channels, drawing on more than two decades of experience in sales leadership, client success and go-to-market strategy. Bakshani, who has held senior positions in sales and product strategy at eVestment and Proposal Software, will focus on deepening penetration with large institutions and scaling enterprise sales operations.
Launched in 2024, Archive Intel’s platform is designed to monitor, archive and review communications and marketing content across email, social networks and personal devices, aiming to cut manual review workloads and reduce false positives.
The company says it plans to continue hiring and investing in product development and enterprise sales to meet growing demand from regulated firms.
Datalign extends GEOsAI to steer office expansion decisions
Datalign Advisory is also leaning into AI, but with a focus on where advisors should hang their shingles. The Cambridge-based firm has expanded GEOsAI, its geographic expansion engine, to help RIAs identify specific ZIP codes and communities where consumers are actively seeking financial advice but have limited access to local advisors.
Initially launched in June as a market intelligence tool, GEOsAI now functions as a full site-selection engine. The system sits on top of Datalign’s proprietary knowledge graph, which covers more than 200 million Americans and aggregates behavioral, financial, and demographic data stretching back more than a decade.
In pilot programs, Datalign reports some users recorded a 12% lift in revenue from new clients, with 11% lower cost per lead and 9% more leads compared with traditional expansion tactics.
“Organic growth has always been the hardest part of building an advisory practice – there’s never been a way to systematically identify where demand exists,” said Satayan Mahajan, Datalign’s chief executive. “Advisors can now pinpoint exactly where to grow and reach underserved clients that need their advice – before competitors even know these markets exist.”
GEOsAI is available to fiduciary advisors on Datalign’s platform, with paid access for RIAs outside its network.