Fintech providers need to find a balance between what's new andwhat works, eMoney Advisor's new CEO Ed O'Brien said at the eMoneyAdvisor Summit this week.

“Innovation is great” when it's fast, he said, “but it has to beprecise and accurate to help financial advisors remain compliant insuch a highly regulated industry.”

Drew DiMarino, head of sales for eMoney, noted at the conferencein Orange County, Calif. that, since 2010, $50 billion has beeninvested in fintech companies. “Fintech is exploding,” hesaid.

O'Brien said although a wave of integrations in the industry isdriving advisor productivity, simply counting the number ofintegrations a financial institution offers isn't enough todistinguish it as tech-driven. “Most advisors are now telling usthat it's not the number, it's 'What does that integration do? Howdoes it make me a better advisor?'” he said.

He added there are 30 integrations on eMoney's emX platform and“20 of them are select integrations that are really deepintegrations.”

O'Brien said, “We want to make sure we have the right”technology partners, “but from there, how we think about theworkflows that are integrated, the touch points and the nextgeneration, that's all coming directly from our client base.”

As an overall philosophy, O'Brien noted, “Planning-led advice isprobably the future of this business. Leading with performanceprobably isn't how advisors will interact with clients in meetingsin the future.”

O'Brien said most customer agreements probably say data belongsto the end client. “Is this industry ready for a wave of governancearound data?” he asked. “I think yes.” Data has been freely passedaround the industry, he said. “What happens when the client leavesyou? I would fall back to it's that client that owns it.”