SS&C Black Diamond Expands Insurance and Annuity Capabilities for Advisors
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. has expanded the insurance capabilities available through SS&C Black Diamond Wealth Solutions’ Annuities & Insurance Marketplace, known as AIM, through its partnership with DPL Financial Partners. The expansion introduces new tools designed to help fiduciary financial advisors evaluate, quote and manage insurance products within their existing wealth management workflows.
The latest enhancements include term life insurance quoting and insurance policy review capabilities. At the same time, Jackson National Life Insurance Company and Protective Life Insurance Company have joined the AIM platform, expanding its integrated carrier roster to seven.
The additions are designed to give financial professionals broader access to annuity and insurance products while reducing the separation between insurance planning and other areas of a client’s financial plan.
AIM already supports fee-based annuities as well as life, disability and long-term care insurance. With the latest additions, advisors can access a broader range of protection products and related workflows through the platform.
Bringing Insurance Into the Advisor Workflow
Insurance has traditionally occupied a different position from investment management within many advisory practices. Financial advisors may manage investment portfolios and financial plans through centralized technology platforms, while insurance policies and annuity contracts can remain outside those systems.
This separation can make it more difficult for advisors to maintain a complete picture of a client’s financial position and protection needs.
SS&C’s expanded AIM capabilities are intended to address that gap by allowing advisors to conduct additional insurance-related activities through the same environment used for other wealth management workflows.
Steve Leivent, Senior Vice President and Co-Head of SS&C Wealth & Investment Technologies, said insurance has historically been an area of the client balance sheet that advisors could see but had limited ability to act on through their primary technology workflow.
“With our expanded insurance offering, AIM closes that gap,” Leivent said. “Advisors can now quote term coverage, conduct in-depth policy reviews, and manage insurance as an advisory asset, all within their existing workflow.”
The expansion reflects the growing integration of insurance and investment planning within comprehensive wealth management. Advisors can consider protection needs alongside retirement planning, portfolio construction, income planning and other financial objectives.
New Term Life Insurance Quoting
One of the key additions to AIM is an integrated Term Quoter.
The tool allows advisors to compare term life insurance quotes from carriers with A and A+ ratings. By bringing the quoting process into AIM, advisors can evaluate coverage options without moving between separate systems for insurance discovery and wealth management.
Term life insurance can play a role in financial plans where clients need temporary protection against risks such as premature death, income replacement needs, debt obligations or family financial responsibilities.
Having access to quotes within the advisory workflow can help advisors incorporate these considerations into broader planning conversations.
The new capability expands AIM beyond annuity-related activities and adds another insurance planning function directly to the platform.
Insurance Policy Reviews
AIM has also introduced an insurance policy review capability designed to help advisors evaluate existing coverage and identify potential gaps.
Insurance policies can remain in place for years, and clients may acquire different forms of coverage at different stages of their lives. Changes in income, family circumstances, business ownership, retirement plans or financial objectives can affect whether existing coverage continues to align with current needs.
The policy review capability gives advisors a way to examine insurance holdings as part of the broader client portfolio.
By bringing insurance information into the advisory workflow, advisors can consider protection alongside investment assets and other financial planning components.
The addition also supports the broader objective of making insurance a more integrated part of fiduciary advisory relationships.
Jackson National Joins AIM
Jackson National Life Insurance Company has joined the AIM platform, adding its annuity products to the integrated carrier lineup.
Jackson offers annuities designed for the registered investment advisor channel. These products can be used in strategies involving tax-deferred growth, protected income and retirement planning.
Alison Reed, Head of Distribution at Jackson National Life Distributors LLC, the marketing and distribution business of Jackson, said financial professionals are seeking flexibility as they help clients prepare for retirement.
“Financial professionals are seeking greater flexibility in helping clients prepare for retirement, and annuities can play an important part of that strategy,” Reed said.
She added that Jackson is focused on making it easier for financial professionals to access its products through the RIA channel and said the company is pleased to join Black Diamond’s AIM.
The integration gives advisors using AIM another source of annuity products to consider when developing retirement and income strategies for clients.
Protective Life Expands the Carrier Network
Protective Life Insurance Company has also joined AIM, providing advisors access to its annuity and life insurance solutions.
Protective offers products designed to address both accumulation and protection needs. Its participation expands the range of insurance options available through the marketplace.
Lauren Drapeau, Vice President and National Sales Director of Advisory Solutions at Protective, said the integration can help advisors incorporate protection discussions into broader financial planning conversations.
“By making our annuity and life insurance solutions available through Black Diamond’s AIM, we’re giving advisors another way to incorporate protection considerations alongside the broader planning conversations they’re already having with clients,” Drapeau said.
The addition of Protective means advisors can evaluate another provider’s offerings within the same technology environment used for other client planning activities.
Seven Integrated Insurance Carriers
With Jackson and Protective joining the platform, AIM now has seven integrated insurance carriers.
The other participating carriers are Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, Midland National Life Insurance Company, MassMutual Ascend Life Insurance Company, Pacific Life and Security Benefit Life Insurance Company.
The expanded carrier network gives advisors access to multiple providers within the marketplace.
A broader carrier lineup can be particularly relevant when advisors are comparing products based on client objectives, product characteristics and suitability considerations. Rather than relying on a single insurance provider, advisors can use the marketplace to evaluate offerings from participating carriers.
Supporting Fee-Based Annuities
AIM’s insurance expansion builds on its existing support for fee-based annuities.
Fee-based annuities can be incorporated into advisory relationships in a manner designed to align with fee-based wealth management models. These products may provide features related to retirement income, tax-deferred growth and other financial planning objectives.
By placing annuity workflows within a wealth management technology platform, AIM is designed to make these products more accessible within the advisor’s broader planning process.
The expansion into additional insurance products further develops this approach by bringing term life insurance and policy review capabilities into the same environment.
Pre-Filled Applications Reduce Manual Data Entry
The latest launch follows several other AIM enhancements introduced since January.
One of those improvements is pre-filled applications. The capability automatically populates application information across participating carriers, reducing the amount of manual data entry required between product discovery and submission.
Application processes can involve significant amounts of client and advisor information. Re-entering that information across different systems can create administrative work and increase the potential for data-entry errors.
Automated population is intended to streamline the process and create a more continuous workflow from product selection through application.
For advisory firms, reducing administrative friction can allow staff to spend more time on client service and planning activities.
Annuity Review Capabilities
AIM has also expanded its annuity review functionality.
The platform can support scalable reviews of legacy and held-away commission-based annuities. This allows advisors to identify potentially eligible contracts across their client books.
Where appropriate, advisors can evaluate whether existing contracts may be converted into billable, fiduciary-managed assets.
Legacy annuities can represent a significant component of some clients’ financial portfolios, but those contracts may not always be incorporated into the same advisory technology systems used for other investments.
The annuity review capability is designed to provide advisors with greater visibility into these holdings and create opportunities to incorporate eligible assets into broader fiduciary management workflows when suitable.
Enhanced Insurance Modeling and Reporting
Another recent enhancement involves insurance modeling and reporting.
AIM provides in-platform scenario modeling designed to support insurance-related planning discussions. The platform also offers client-ready educational resources that advisors can use when discussing protection strategies.
Modeling can help advisors illustrate how different insurance scenarios could affect a client’s broader financial plan. Educational materials can then support conversations about coverage, risk and long-term planning.
The combination of modeling and reporting is intended to make insurance discussions more integrated with the overall financial planning process.
Connecting Protection and Investment Planning
The expansion of AIM reflects a broader movement toward integrating insurance and investment management within financial advice.
Clients often have financial needs that span multiple categories. Retirement income, investment growth, estate planning, risk management and insurance protection can all influence a household’s overall financial strategy.
When these components are managed through disconnected systems, advisors may need to spend additional time gathering information and reconciling data.
A platform that incorporates insurance alongside investment and planning workflows can provide a more unified view.
SS&C’s latest AIM enhancements are designed around that concept. Advisors can access insurance discovery, quoting, applications, reviews, management and billing capabilities while continuing to work within their existing wealth management environment.
Supporting the RIA Channel
The participation of Jackson and Protective also highlights the continued development of insurance solutions for registered investment advisors.
RIAs and other fiduciary advisory practices increasingly seek technology that can support a broad range of financial planning needs without requiring advisors to manage multiple disconnected workflows.
Integrating insurance carriers into wealth management technology can help create a more consistent experience for advisors and clients.
For carriers, participating in an integrated marketplace provides another channel through which financial professionals can access their products.
The result is a technology ecosystem connecting advisors, insurance providers and clients around broader financial planning objectives.
Expanding Insurance as an Advisory Asset
One of the broader themes behind AIM’s development is the treatment of insurance as part of the client’s overall financial picture rather than as an isolated product category.
Life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care coverage and annuities can each affect a client’s financial plan in different ways.
By bringing these products into the advisory workflow, advisors can consider protection alongside investment assets and other financial resources.
This can also improve visibility into the complete client balance sheet. Existing policies and contracts can be reviewed, modeled and considered as part of broader planning conversations.
A Broader Digital Marketplace for Financial Advisors
The expanded AIM platform brings together a growing range of insurance capabilities and carrier relationships.
Advisors can now use the marketplace for insurance discovery, term life quoting, policy reviews, applications, management and billing, while also accessing fee-based annuities and other protection products.
The addition of Jackson and Protective increases the number of integrated carriers to seven, while the recent technology enhancements add new functionality throughout the insurance lifecycle.
For SS&C, the expansion represents another step in developing Black Diamond Wealth Solutions as an integrated technology environment for financial advisors.
For participating carriers, the platform creates an additional pathway for reaching advisors through a technology workflow already used for wealth management activities.
Advancing Integrated Wealth Management
SS&C’s expanded Annuities & Insurance Marketplace is designed to make insurance planning more connected to the broader financial advisory process.
The addition of term life quoting and insurance policy reviews gives advisors new tools for evaluating protection needs. The inclusion of Jackson and Protective expands the carrier network and provides additional product choices.
Meanwhile, pre-filled applications, annuity reviews and enhanced insurance modeling and reporting build on the platform’s existing capabilities.
Together, these developments are intended to reduce manual processes, improve visibility into insurance holdings and help advisors incorporate protection products into broader client planning.
As financial advice continues to evolve toward more comprehensive wealth management, the ability to evaluate investments, retirement strategies and insurance within connected workflows is becoming increasingly important. SS&C’s latest AIM expansion brings those areas closer together by giving advisors additional insurance capabilities and carrier access through the Black Diamond platform.
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