How Focus Partners delivers better financial planning with Flourish Cash

Lack of advisor-centric options

Cash is an important part of every family’s financial life, whether to protect against an unexpected expense, to meet a short-term liability, or simply to sleep well at night. As a firm dedicated to delivering holistic financial advice to its clients, Focus Partners knew that having a solution for cash was important, but found that the options available to advisors were limited. “There are solutions in the marketplace for individual consumers,” said Aaron Grey, Chief Experience Officer at Focus Partners Wealth. “But the lack of advisor-centric solutions meant that we didn’t have confidence that clients would find the right product or set it up correctly in order to receive the most benefit.” 

In fact, advisors were often unaware if a client even moved forward with opening an account, let alone being able to incorporate the information into a financial plan. “Historically, without a solution like Flourish, you might have mentioned some of the options out there, but you couldn’t be involved in helping a client execute and implement. And usually what you find out is that people don't ever take action,” said Steve Atkinson, former Managing Director, Advisor Relations. “That meant we were unable to help our partner firms help their clients."

Instead of sending clients out to find, set up, and maintain a cash management solution on their own, Focus Partners needed an advisor-centric solution that they could confidently recommend to clients — one that met their high standards. “We were looking for a solution that would give clients access to a savings vehicle with insurance, safety, and liquidity, in addition to a competitive rate and great client experience,” said Grey.

On the partner side, the goal was similar: identify areas of opportunity to provide more value to partner firms and, in turn, allow their partner firms to better serve end clients.

Flourish Cash

As Focus Partners explored options back in 2019, they realized that Flourish Cash hit all the marks: a competitive variable rate^§ (up to 9x the national savings account average^# at time of publication), no minimums and no Flourish account fees,^∫∫ increased FDIC insurance through the Program Banks,^Ω and easy access to cash. 

In addition to delivering on the client benefits, Focus Partners saw that Flourish empowered advisors to provide clients a value-add solution while retaining visibility into balances.^∆ “What really puts Flourish over the top is the fact that it’s built to work specifically with the advisor community,” said Grey. “We’re able to present clients with a solution with the key attributes we’re looking for out of a savings vehicle, while also integrating with our workflows and maintaining visibility in order to understand what’s in the account.” 

Atkinson echoed this: “The fact that Flourish is delivered to RIAs, for RIAs, and we can play a part in helping clients implement and execute is a huge value add. It allows us to lean into the cash conversation instead of avoiding it.”

Integrations and enablement

After selecting Flourish, the next step was to get it running seamlessly within the organization. Focus Partner's technology team worked with Flourish to build an integration directly with their systems. Grey described the process: “When we refer a client to Flourish, our advisors just click a button within Salesforce, our CRM, to initiate an invitation directly to the client. Behind the scenes, Flourish Cash data is automatically pulled into Orion and MoneyGuidePro, our portfolio management and planning systems.”

Following the integration, the next step was to inform and educate advisors through trainings and webinars. Whether newly-hired advisors or those joining via acquisition, training to use Flourish Cash has become part of the Focus Partners onboarding process. “It’s a really well executed, simple solution. Flourish is easy to understand once you know what it is and how to interact with it,” said Grey. In parallel, a similar process occurred with Focus Partners Advisor Solutions, from working through integrations to ensuring their Regional Directors were trained on the solution.

Finally, Focus Partners began to roll out Flourish Cash to clients. “For each one of our clients, we have a very customized planning process. The ingredients are all the same, but the ordering and emphasis is going to be unique to that client and their specific set of needs,” said Grey. “Flourish comes up at different stages of different client’s relationships based on their priorities and situation.”

“It’s something that I bring up to almost every client over time, as every client has cash needs” described Erica Bouchard, Wealth Advisor at Focus Partners Wealth. “It’s a standing agenda item. If a client isn't earning a good rate on their savings, I make it a point to tell them about Flourish.” 

Expanding conversations and achieving goals 

As Focus Partners invited clients and saw accounts being funded, the benefits that they were looking for were realized. “We can give even better advice to our clients, while giving them extra confidence because their advisor is experienced with Flourish,” said Grey. “Flourish makes for a better experience and has achieved all of our key high-level objectives.”

In the ensuing years, Focus Partners has been able to deliver on its goals, with more than ten thousand clients invited, over a billion dollars on the platform, and more than ninety million in interest paid to clients across both Focus Partners Wealth and Focus Partners Advisor Solutions, which has more than 100 partner firms using Flourish. Flourish has become one of the most preferred technology tools among advisors at Focus Partners Wealth. “Our advisors have given Flourish one of the highest NPS scores of all technology we use,” said Grey.

Having a solution for cash has allowed Focus Partners advisors to make it an even deeper part of the planning process. “Flourish has definitely helped us deliver a robust, more comprehensive solution,” explained Atkinson. “The best advisors do more than just provide investment advice. You’ve got to get outside of the numbers and have a more emotional conversation about life — that’s the chasm you have to jump over. A good advisor, a good fiduciary, is always working to expand the conversation with clients and bringing tools to the table to help them achieve their goals.”

About Flourish

Flourish builds technology that empowers financial advisors, improves financial lives and retirement outcomes, and delivers new and innovative investment options to advisors. Today, the Flourish platform is used by more than 1,000 wealth management firms representing more than $2.6 trillion in assets under management. Flourish is wholly-owned by MassMutual. For more information, visit www.flourish.com.

About Focus Partners Wealth

Focus Partners Wealth is an organization of wealth, asset, and business management resources that brings strength, innovation, and partnership to client relationships. Through a comprehensive range of services, Focus Partners Wealth works with clients at every stage, helping them manage their financial future. Their team of advisors works collectively to deliver personalized wealth planning strategies across local communities, placing clients’ values, goals, motivations, and priorities at the heart of what they do. With nearly 100 locations across the country, Focus Partners Wealth serves clients in all 50 states.

About Focus Partners Advisor Solutions

Focus Partners Advisor Solutions is committed to enhancing the wealth management experience for financial advisors and their clients. While providing robust back-office management, research-driven investment models, and best practices, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions is more than a traditional turnkey asset management program (TAMP), offering a competitive toolbox of comprehensive, personalized services. We strategically design scalable solutions to support every stage of a firm’s lifecycle, enabling advisors to dedicate more time and care to clients while setting a strong foundation for sustainable growth. 

First published January 25, 2023. “Focus Partners” (Focus Partners Wealth and Focus Partners Advisor Solutions) and Flourish are separate and unaffiliated firms. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity. This feedback may not be representative of the experience of other customers, and is not a guarantee of future performance or success.