Innovation in #retiretech
The Most Innovative Companies Shaping The Future Of The Industry
Background
In late 2020, we held a series of events entitled “Reimagining Retirement in a Post-COVID World.” By that point in time, most people in the industry believed that the crisis had propelled technology adoption by carriers, distributors and clients from five to ten years into the future.
However, nearly every organization in the market realizes that they have to reassess strategy, investment priorities, and partners to adapt to the rapidly emerging new world. Who will help them?
From those sessions, we identified over 100 companies actively working to solve that problem. We believe they will effectively rewire the industry for the next ten years.
Sectors
We have divided this universe of companies into eleven sectors. We created them by looking at the intersection of target customers - millennials, employees, boomers - and the particular problems solved - savings, planning, and advice through planners, agents, or institutions.
Savings For Millennials
Unfortunately, most millennials find themselves drowning in debt. College debt makes the headlines today. However, credit card and other personal debt also create significant drag.
A number of interesting companies have emerged to address the lack of savings. The ones that succeed will fuel retirement planning for this generation in later years.
Financial Planning For Millennials
A very small number of millennials have accumulated enough wealth to start the planning process. They may have saved the money through high-paying jobs, startup success, or inheritance from grandparents. A solid group of entrants work to create a native digital experience for delivering advice that will create financial stability over time.
Savings For Employees
Companies want a financially-stable workforce. To get there, employees need to save more. Startups have emerged that work to help employees learn to change spending habits, budget and save more.
Retirement Planning For Employees
Today, most savings occurs at the workplace through 401(k) and other defined contribution plans. Through automatic enrollment, participation has risen substantially over the past 10 years at most companies.
Truth be told, account balances still need to be much larger on average to truly create stable retirements for most Americans. A number of companies have emerged that attempt to encourage better retirement planning with The Employee Retirement Income Security Act, (ERISA) framework at the workplace.
Retirement Planning For Boomers
As boomers head into retirement, their comfort with technology has increased substantially in the last five years. A large group of companies have created digital-first platforms to provide advice, reallocate savings, and even purchase retirement products.
Customer Creation For Advisors
Almost all agents and advisors want more clients to serve. We could have called the new companies in the sector “lead generators.” However, the label would short-shrift their greater ambitions to create new clients. The next generation of startups in this category work to effectively connect educated consumers with well-matched advisors.
Planning Tools For Advisors
The industry delivered advanced planning simulation tools to advisors ten to fifteen years ago. These effectively brought institutional-strength capabilities like Monte Carlo simulations to individual investors. They typically served as the basis for plans later executed by agents or advisors.
Today, the next generation of tools use the same advanced algorithms, but integrates them from product manufacturer to actual trading platforms. They promise to deliver real time planning linked to actual portfolio activities.
D2C Annuities
Online term life providers have broken the paradigm that insurance is bought not sold. Many naysayers continue to argue that annuities will never be sold in a similar fashion. However, a number of companies have started to crack the D2C (Direct to Consumer) code starting with simple-to- explain, simple-to-purchase annuities offering good consumer value.
Product Selectors
The Internet drives transparency. In a sea of product choices and options, companies that organize, rate, and recommend products will only create more value for agents, advisors and consumers over the coming years. We see an influx of companies reinventing the UX (User Experience) and redefining the factors that drive purchase decisions.
Compliance/risk Managements
Today, institutions, agents, advisors, and customers confront a broader range of risks than ever before. These include interest rate fluctuations, market volatility, health issues, geopolitical turmoil, and now even cyber security. A number of companies are rapidly building platforms to provide better real time assessments of investment risk and integrate them with trading
platforms that can react in real time. Individuals increasingly can benefit from risk mitigation strategies previously available only to large institutions.
Institution Enablers
Finally, retirement plan providers, financial institutions and insurance carriers need assistance building hooks into the new emerging partners. They need better data to make underwriting and pricing decisions in real time. They also need systems that will reduce costs as margins continue to compress.
Summary
We hope that this list of over 100 companies grows to 200 and beyond. Millions of Americans need a more secure retirement. Solving this problem requires new approaches to a number of problems: increasing rates of savings, improving financial literacy, creating more options for accumulation, and providing better strategies for decumulating wealth in retirement.
Top 100 Retiretech Companies 2021

55ip
55ip is a financial technology company whose purpose is to break down barriers to financial progress. Financial advisors use 55ip’s tax-smart investment strategy engine to dramatically improve their efficiency and effectiveness. 55ip’s intuitive experience and intelligent automation elevate portfolio design and delivery, helping advisors save time and drive better outcomes for their clients.

Advizr
Advizr is dedicated to creating financial planning software that enables profitable financial planning for all of its customers. It has automated advice delivery that allows more advisors to participate in holistic advice and more clients to receive financial plans regardless of their net worth.

Algoreg
Algoreg is a global RegTech, contributing to the digital transformation of businesses in compliance with regulatory requirements. With our proprietary solutions, we transform the way that banks, investment funds, payment companies or insurance firms are on-boarding their customers and conduct the KYC journey. Our products enable a fast and compliant onboarding, decrease operational KYC and reduce negative impacts on customers.

Annuities Genius
Annuities Genius offers everything you can possibly need to present, choose and sell annuities in one place at your fingertips.

Annuity Rate Watch
Annuity Rate Watch is an Industry Leading Annuity Software For Financial Professionals and Distributors.

Blueprint Income
With Blueprint Income, you have the option of signing up for a Personal Pension or buying a traditional annuity. With either, you get guaranteed retirement income you can count on for life.

CANNEX
CANNEX is the premier provider of data, research and quantitative analysis for retirement savings and income products in North America. Their mission is to provide access and transparency to the pricing and features of annuity, bank and investment products that consumers rely on for retirement security.

Canvas Annuity
Canvas Annuity allows for a simple way to fund your retirement with a fixed annuity. Their Motto: People-first annuities. Great rates. Flexible access. Zero commissions.

Catch
Catch handles all of it so you don’t have to. Whether you work for yourself or have a few side gigs, you still need tax withholding, time off, retirement, and health insurance. Catch can help you get squared away. Choose your benefits, link your bank, then set aside a percentage of each paycheck. It’s that simple.

Clearnomics
Clearnomics provides a technology that empowers financial advisors to have engaging market conversations with clients.

ClientPoint
ClientPoint is a cloud-based platform designed to generate, manage and track sales proposals. The platform ties all SaaS together to give businesses a way to easily build custom client portals, or ClientPoints, so that they can: engage prospects more dynamically to close more deals faster; (2) successfully onboard customers better, and build stronger and more profitable relationships with them over time.

CoPilot AI
CoPilot AI is a SaaS company that uses A.I. and rich social data to connect businesses with qualified people on social media with authentic conversations to identify and surface timely opportunities.

Covr
Covr’s digital, white-labeled platforms integrate seamlessly with financial brands to provide life, long-term care, disability, and supplemental health solutions from top carriers to their clients in a simple, turnkey way. Our AI-driven tools, digital advice model and omnichannel sales support seamlessly blend high-tech and high-touch. We’re dedicated to transforming the insurance purchase process from something that was previously slow and paper-based to an experience that is fast and digital.

EFTLogic
EFTLogic is a provider of analytics and portfolio tools to ETF issuers, institutions, and financial advisors. EFTLogic offers their web-based ETFLogic Insights platform to all professional market participants, RIAs and advisors. Additional business lines include our Customized API Solutions, ETFLogic Compliance Suite, Alternative Data and Corporate Analytics. Our solutions honein on portfolios, portfolio attribution, optimization and risk measurement.

Ensight
EnsightTM provides SaaS-based sales acceleration solutions that make selling life insurance, LTC and annuities simpler, more profitable & a modern digital experience. The EnsightTM sales enablement platform helps insurance carriers, national distributors, BGAs and financial professionals drive sales growth, improve sales productivity, and transform the advisor-client experience at the point of sale.

Even
Even offers an affordable on-demand pay product that allows employees to access their paychecks when they need it most—without confusing, hidden, or predatory fees. With a proven track record of reducing employee turnover and increasing retention and productivity, Even is the highest-rated on-demand pay app and has helped employees save more than $82 million to date.

EvoShare
EvoShare is the only solution turning American workers’_ spending into automatic retirement savings. For a long time, employees have only had one source of money for their 401(k) or 403(b) plan; their paycheck. With EvoShare, employees have access to an entirely new source of money to grow their retirement savings; their spending.

Facet Wealth
Facet Wealth is a provider of financial and wealth management services used to simplify the financial planning process. Its services include portfolio management, comprehensive full financial life planning, and personalized goal planning from a dedicated Certified Financial Planner (CFP) on a subscription-based model that enables customers to increase their financial security and prosperity at an affordable cost.

Fenris Digital
Fenris enables streamlined customer acquisition and full lifecycle optimization. Clients (agencies, carriers, financial services providers) leverage their APIs to inject insights and data into their workflows, to increase conversions, and deliver killer Amazon- like customer journeys.

Fintech Open Source Foundation
The Fintech Open Source Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization focused on promoting open innovation during a period of unprecedented technological transformation within financial services. FINOS believes that organizations that embrace open source software development and common standards will be best positioned to capture the growth opportunities presented by this transformation.

Fintech Robos
Fintech Robos serves is a catalyst for transformation across the region by empowering governments to embark on key pension reforms, by providing high- tech digital solutions for contributory and defined contribution (DC) pension system administration.

Gainbridge SPIA
The Gainbridge SPIA (Single-Premium Immediate Annuity) is a financial planning tool designed to convert an initial investment into a stable stream of fixed monthly payouts over a specified investment period.

Gerry
Gerry is a concierge service provider, helping families find the right assisted living homes for elders. The company provides its services related to assisted home living, financial planning, memory care facilities, family support, and communication, providing families with personalized recommendations and advice to find a suitable facility for their loved ones.

Halo Investing
Halo Investing is the first multi-issuer technology platform for protective investment solutions. Halo has created a two-sided marketplace connecting advisors and investors to protective investment products offered by leading global financial institutions.

Harness Wealth
Harness Wealth is a platform that connects clients to vetted financial advisory firms that provide a wide range of tailored financial services.

Icon Retirement
Icon Retirement savings built for the 21st century. It’s the first portable, universally accessible, workplace savings plan. Built for the modern workforce, our proprietary technology delivers simple, fast, radically less expensive alternative to 401k plans.

Income Discovery
Income Discovery is a value-added planning tool built to help advisors provide better answers to difficult questions from clients either contemplating retirement or currently in retirement. A proven white label tech platform for retirement decumulation to deliver a Full & Rich Retirement to millions.

Income Solutions
Hueler Companies launched the groundbreaking Income Solutions platform, a web-based lifetime income annuity purchase system. Income Solutions Platform is a lifetime income annuity marketplace with simple, streamlined tools that can help you turn savings into a paycheck for life or an income stream you won’t outlive.

IncomeConductor
IncomeConductor® is a proprietary, cloud-based tool that allows advisors, firms and individuals to create customized, time-segmented income plans that can be easily tracked and managed throughout retirement.

Insurance Technologies
Insurance Technologies offers innovative sales and regulatory automation solutions. We automate and modernize the entire sales process for advisors, agents and their customers, advancing the way insurance, retirement and investment products are marketed, sold, bought, delivered and managed. From pre-sale functions through e-application, to post-sale services, our suite of integrated sales tools and components make the sales and buying experience intuitive, fast and mobile.

InsureLife.io
InsureLife.io provides an AI-powered Network Orchestration Platform for Insurers that digitally connects their financial services products with consumers and agents, so they interact anytime, growing sales in a contactless world by creating an “in the moment” buying experience for connected consumers.

Intellagents
Intellagents is the only no-code, hybrid cloud, independent insurance integration platform, connecting agents, insurers, and new digital marketplaces and ecosystems with best-in-class insurtech solutions, data, and AI provider, Core and legacy systems to power “Real Change” in the insurance industry.

InterGen Data
InterGen Data develops proprietary “AI/ML” Artificial Intelligence-based Machine Learning algorithms that help banks, financial services, and insurance companies predict and identify when their clients are likely to have an important Life Event occur, what it could be, and how much of a financial impact that it could make.

iPipeline
iPipeline provides cloud-based software solutions for the life insurance and financial services industry. Through SaaS solutions, we accelerate and simplify insurance sales, compliance, operations, and support. We provide process automation and seamless integration between every participant in the life insurance industry including carriers, agents, distributors and consumers.

JourneyGuide
JourneyGuide allows you to interactively work with your clients’ and provide answers to their most important retirement questions in seconds, not days. Together, you can chart a course to, and through, retirement. Proprietary algorithms based on years research allow for speed while at the same time support the rigor necessary to provide results that advisors and clients can be confident in.

Kidbrook
By distilling decades of research in the fields of quantitative analysis, behavioral economics and portfolio management into easily accessible APIs, Kidbrooke enables the FinTechs and financial institutions to build the next-generation digital wealth experiences. They provide B2B automated financial analytics designed to lower the cost of providing wealth management services without compromising on performance scalability.

Life Legacy
Life Legacy creates a mission-driven channel that current life insurance buyers don’t have access to or knowledge of. Their platform instantly allows members to find an affordable plan, support the charity of their choice by paying monthly premiums, and most importantly, leave the world a better place.

Life.io
Life.io is the world’s first web-based platform specifically designed to help people make better decisions every moment, to take care of themselves more, to engage more, to simply live more. Delivered through insurance companies or employers, it’s always on, sharing inspired ideas on how to live better today and every day after.

LifeYield
LifeYield’s software takes a comprehensive view of investors’_ assets and provides simple tools to help improve their financial health. The company does so through the LifeYield Advantage SuiteTM of asset optimizing software programs including Portfolio Advantage, Social Security Advantage, and Income Advantage.

Longevity Card
Longevity Card is a banking application developer intended to help manage money
and health, together. Their application provides financial products, personalized health tips and recommendations from your personal AI longevity advisor, reward points that can be redeemed to buy products within the marketplace ecosystem, thereby enabling users to remain high functioning and financially stable throughout their lives.

Luma Financial Technologies
Luma is an independent multi-issue platform that provides banks and brokers and dealers an order entry system. Its education and training system helps advisors maximize their sales and marketing efforts to provide the best purchasing options for their clients. Moreover, their post-sales support provides life cycle support to ensure that advisors and clients are maximizing their purchases.

Micruity
Micruity’s first of its kind platform enables frictionless annuity transactions, the portability of annuity products, and the building of annuity based funds.

NextCapital
NextCapital’s Managed Advice platform provides retirement savers with personalized advice and a plan that grows with them, to and through retirement.

NICE Actimize
NICE Actimize is the largest and broadest provider of financial crime, risk and compliance solutions for regional and global financial institutions, as well
as government regulators. NICE Actimize experts apply innovative technology to protect institutions and safeguard consumers and investors assets by identifying financial crime, preventing fraud and providing regulatory compliance.

NOW: Pensions
NOW: Pensions has a clear mission: to help everyone save for a more financially secure future. This means achieving the best financial outcomes for their own members, while fighting for a fair pension system to enable all pension savers the ability to enjoy the retirement they deserve by highlighting pension inequalities and campaigning for change.

Penfold
Penfold is the new way of doing Pensions. Managed entirely on mobile, it gives people complete transparency to track everything about their pension in real time. It myth-busts and explains pensions and retirement planning in the most simple way, and it helps you avoid building up loads of small pots every time you change jobs.

PensionBee
PensionBee combines all your old pensions into one new online plan. The application enables its users to create profiles including information on past and present pension and personal information. It allows them to track the pension progress and features a pension calculator to set retirement goals and add new contributions.

PensionSync
PensionSync is a solution that automates the delivery of data between payroll, AE middleware and pension providers. pensionsync is at the heart of automatic enrollment connecting payroll and pensions.

Portformer
Portformer is a fund intelligence platform that helps RIAs, asset managers, and other professional investors find high-quality, low-cost ETFs.

Profile Pensions
Profile Pensions’ mission is to help everyone in the UK better understand their pension(s), allowing them to be more informed and ultimately better off in retirement. They provide impartial, expert and ongoing pension advice. You don’t need to
be financially savvy to be their customer. You don’t need to be ‘high net worth’. You don’t even need to know anything about your pension. All you need is to want to do something about your financial future. They can help with the rest.

Proformex
Proformex is the leading inforce management platform offering data aggregation, analytics, and portfolio monitoring for life insurance and annuities. The platform is purpose-built to help independent life insurance and advisory firms protect their clients’ best interest and ensure regulatory compliance by monitoring individual policy performance, identifying at-risk policies, and uncovering new sales opportunities.

PTO Exchange
PTO Exchange is a flexible benefits platform that allows employers to extend existing benefits to convert unused paid time off (PTO) into retirement contributions, student loan payments, emergency cash, or voluntary health insurance Advisor Tools.