Chicago-based investment technology consulting firm F2 Strategy is expanding its presence in Canada’s financial services industry by acquiring Toronto-based Intelligo Partners, an investment technology consulting company serving asset and wealth managers.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
F2 serves the wealth and asset management industry, advising asset managers, banks and family offices on topics like technology strategy and AI adoption. Intelligo similarly helps firms modernize their investment technology platforms.
The deal follows F2’s April acquisition of Pennsylvania-based consulting firm Meradia, which has an office in Montreal. Intelligo had an existing relationship with Meredia, so it made sense for F2 to acquire Intelligo to grow its Canadian presence, Ryan Beach, CEO of F2, said in an interview.
Firms typically engage multiple consulting firms, each with different areas of expertise, to help them solve different types of problems, Tom Hong, managing partner at Intelligo, said in an interview. Intelligo has stronger expertise in asset management, while F2 has more expertise in wealth management, for example. The acquisition will allow F2 to serve clients across both lines of business and simplify overlapping client relationships, he said.
“We’re starting to combine our Rolodexes across the Canadian team and F2, and we’re seeing that there’s quite a bit of overlap,” Hong said.
F2 intends to keep all of Intelligo’s staff and will eventually transition the Canadian company over to F2’s branding.
D1g1t opens its platform to general purpose AI integrations
Toronto-based performance and risk analytics software firm d1g1t has opened a server that connects its platform to general purpose AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
Advisors using d1g1t can link their subscription to third-party large language models (LLM) to summarize portfolio performance, flag compliance risks and build client reports within d1g1t.
D1g1t created a platform that was open to all major LLMs to stay agnostic, Benoit Fleury, chief product officer and co-founder of d1g1t, said in an interview. He recommends firms use the enterprise edition of LLMs to ensure client data isn’t used to train models.
Other capabilities include creating morning briefs of the day’s meetings and firm-wide data, preparing for client meetings and performing research with external information sources.
Manulife doubles down on Microsoft AI
Manulife Financial Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have announced the renewal and expansion of their partnership, enabling the insurance giant to build on its AI adoption efforts.
As part of the five-year agreement, Manulife is adopting the Microsoft 365 E7 Frontier Suite, which includes AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent 365. More than 30,000 employees will have access to the suite, which Microsoft first announced in March.
Manulife said it will use Agent 365, a tool that helps simplify AI agent oversight at enterprise scale, as a registry for all its AI agents, making it easier to observe and govern how AI agents work.
AI-assisted underwriting
BMO Insurance has launched SmartDecision, an AI-assisted underwriting tool that approves eligible term, universal and whole life policies with a face value of up to $5 million.
Eligible applicants don’t need to go through an interview or medical exam. BMO said it can make a decision in seconds at the point of sale, reducing the need for agents to find time for follow-up meetings.
In 2024, BMO Insurance started using Microsoft Azure OpenAI for field underwriting. The AI system helps agents pull information related to underwriting requirements quickly, such as whether someone who had a stroke can still apply for a life product or how a client’s smoking and drinking habits will impact their application.
Sun Life updates digital insurance questionnaire for advisors
Sun Life has updated the non-medical questionnaire in its Sun eApp insurance application platform for third-party advisors.
When an advisor makes a digital application for their client in the Sun eApp, they can choose between a non-medical questionnaire or arrange a tele-interview for the applicant.
Those using the non-medical questionnaire for qualifying clients could get policies issued up to 16 days sooner.
With the new changes, 40% of applications undergo straight-through underwriting, and 54% of applications under the automated evaluation process are instantly approved.
Anti-money laundering information is now only mandatory for universal life policies or applications with temporary insurance coverage, reducing unnecessary information gathering.
Conquest offers behavioural AI integration
Winnipeg-based financial planning and analysis software Conquest Planning has integrated behavioural agentic AI Lydia onto its platform.
Lydia is available as a paid add-on for the Conquest platform.
Chicago-based learning technology company Shaping Wealth developed Lydia to help financial advisors have deeper conversations with clients. Lydia can roleplay difficult client conversations to coach advisors on their communication skills.
With the integration, Lydia works with Conquest’s AI to take context from prior client interactions. This helps advisors deliver financial recommendations with empathy, Brian Portnoy, founder and CEO of Shaping Wealth, said in a statement.