Docupace Advances Strategic Transformation with Acquisition of Award-Winning Client Onboarding Provider PreciseFP

Acquisition Positions FinTech Partner of Choice to CRM, Financial Planning, TAMP and Custodial Firms for Leadership Across RIA and IBD Segments

Connecting Back Office Platform with Innovative Client-facing Technology Creates End-to-End Digital Ecosystem for Advisors to Engage Clients and Prospects

LOS ANGELES, California – September 30, 2021 – Docupace, the leader in cloud-based fintech digital operations software for the wealth management industry, today commenced the next phase of its strategic transformation with the announcement of its acquisition of PreciseFP, the wealth management industry’s leading data gathering and client engagement solution. Built by advisors for advisors, PreciseFP is combining its innovative client-facing capabilities with the Docupace Platform’s powerful automation, workflow and operations processing tools to create an end-to-end wealthtech ecosystem for advisors to engage clients and prospects.  The acquisition, which was announced at the Riskalyze Fearless Investing Summit in Palm Springs, CA, amplifies Docupace’s new account opening and client onboarding capabilities, while positioning the company for leadership across both the RIA and IBD segments of the wealth management space.

“We’re more than a decade into the digital era, yet paper-based processes still have a stranglehold on new account opening and too many financial advisors say the process for opening accounts is the most cumbersome portion of client interactions,” said David Knoch, chief executive officer at Docupace. “For far too long, the wealth management industry has not invested sufficiently in back-office solutions, in favor of building front-office resources that emphasizes look, feel and presentation. As a result, wealth management firms and their financial advisors today increasingly are at risk of raising prospective client hopes, only to disappoint expectations when it comes to how account opening, and the rest of the client service experience is operationalized.”

Mr. Knoch continued, “Docupace is here to fix this growing challenge for the industry.  We are leading the charge in building a truly unique ecosystem of digital tools that aligns workflow, document management, digital signature, data integration and document storage, into a single, fully integrated back-office solution.  The combination of PreciseFP’s award-winning capabilities with the powerful Docupace Platform is part of our broader commitment to accelerate the ability of firms and advisors to adopt the digital-first mindset their clients demand.”

PreciseFP, recipient of the 2021 WM.com Industry Award for Client Onboarding/New Account Opening, provides financial advisors more time to meet with clients, create financial plans and grow their business by removing all the “leg work” of collecting financial data. The company’s mobile-friendly, data-gathering platform has become a must-have tool for registered investment advisors (RIAs) thanks to its connectivity with CRM systems and major financial planning applications. PreciseFP’s leadership in the RIA segment complements Docupace’s already robust account opening and client onboarding capabilities across the independent broker-dealer segment.

Research from Kitces.com shows that simply gathering the data needed to build a sound financial plan consumes more time than implementing or monitoring the plan during the first 12 months of a client engagement. Leveraging PreciseFP frees up valuable time for advisors to spend time on more value-added efforts. The real-world impact of this efficiency gain is significant for financial advisory firms. Docupace market research shows PreciseFP user firms have 47% larger average account size and have grown firm AUM at a 5% faster rate, on average, than the overall registered investment advisor (RIA) universe over the past 5 years.

“PreciseFP has been traveling down this road for 14 years and this represents an exciting new chapter for us to dramatically expand the extraordinary experiences we deliver to clients and the advisory firms who serve them,” says Don Whalen, CFP®, CEO of PreciseFP. “We’re delighted to join the Docupace family and can’t wait to show the wealth management industry what we can accomplish together.”

Docupace was advised by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP as legal counsel. PreciseFP was advised by 360 Venture Law as legal counsel. The PreciseFP acquisition comes on the heels of Docupace’s acquisition of compliance and advisor compensation system jaccomo in May 2021.

End-to-End Ecosystem Connecting Clients, Advisors and Operations

Docupace believes we’re in the midst of a “back office revolution” where antiquated, manual and paper-based operational processes are being replaced by smooth, efficient, transparent and error-free workflows through technology.

Docupace is carrying the torch for financial advisors and back office professionals by solving operational challenges for wealth management firms, large and small, by delivering a consolidated new account opening process, digital forms creation, electronically signed documents and integration with third-parties that eliminates duplicate data entry and enables straight-through-processing workflows soon to be powered by artificial intelligence and robotic process automation.

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About Docupace

Docupace is a solutions provider focused on digitizing and automating operations in the financial advice and investment industry. Financial services firms use the Docupace Platform (a cloud-based, integrated software suite) to reduce back-office expenses, improve efficiency, strengthen recruiting, and enhance the experience of advisors and investors. With headquarters in Los Angeles, California, Docupace is proud to serve some of the largest independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisers (RIAs) in the financial services industry. For more information, please visit www.docupace.com.