Client Portal FAQ

Delivering an incredible client experience doesn’t end with offering a Client Portal—but it does start there. And with the friction of multiple log-ins, cluttered modules, and difficult-to-find resources discouraging investors from using Client Portals at all, that experience needed to change.

That’s why, we introduced the newly improved Orion Client Portal—the industry’s only true personal financial management experience—designed to empower your clients with everything they need to run their financial lives. Check out the below FAQs to learn more about what you can expect.

What is the One Portal Project?

Previously, there were two separate Client Portals advisors could deploy via Orion that both provided uniquely compelling solutions: 

  1. Legacy Orion Client Portal: The legacy Portal was built to support the core Orion portfolio management solution. It provides a white-labeled Portal through which advisors can permission clients to access key portfolio information such as quarterly performance reports, balance sheets, investment details, and more!
  2. Orion Planning Platform (formerly Advizr): The Orion Planning platform includes a dynamic Client Portal that supports the platform’s powerful financial planning tools. Among other key features, the new Portal enables advisors to allow clients to aggregate accounts, view their financial plan, and access key documents.

The Orion One Portal Project brought these two Portals together into one—along with a few groundbreaking new features—to help advisors provide a comprehensive client experience that is consistent across platforms, without the need for multiple logins. The new Portal is the anchor of this strategy and is the main Portal, receiving a number of enhancements to ensure it includes all the features previously available on the Legacy Portal as well as several new updates. The Legacy Portal, meanwhile, will eventually be sunsetted.

What makes Orion’s new Portal approach better than the existing approach than the rest of the industry?

There are simply too many financial portals that do too few things for their users. For every aspect of a client’s financial experience, there is a corresponding Portal. Portals for banking, for planning, for performance, for balance sheets, for trading; the list goes on. And each Portal has its own, specific purpose that does little to promote continued use. As a result, in a world where time is an ever more precious resource, clients simply stop logging in. In fact, some estimates put financial portal logins as low as 10%*. Orion’s One Portal Project cuts right to the heart of this issue by creating a Portal through which all the insights, tools, and interactions investors need to run their financial lives are available from a single login. A Portal where their investment performance is balanced by insights into their financial plan. Where they can track accounts and open new ones. Where documents for every aspect of their finances are accessible at any time. Where the advisor is just a click away. In short, it is a Portal that gives them every reason to log in and continue logging in, time and again. No other experience provides such a comprehensive suite of seamlessly incorporated features designed specifically to promote portal use and bring value to the investor.  *Celent Research

What features are available as part of the new Portal?

The goal of the One Portal Project is to not only provide all the features available today in one single portal, but also add new ones. In this effort, the new portal will enable clients to:

  • View and update their financial plans and goals
  • View investment performance
  • Open and fund accounts in a matter of minutes via our new Apex integration
  • Aggregate financial accounts
  • Store, share, and receive documents via a document vault
  • Co-browse with their advisor
  • Access via any device, including mobile (coming soon)
  • And more

Additionally, advisors are able to:

  • Preview the Client Portal before deploying to a new client
  • Enable or disable a number of features 
  • Brand the Portal with their logo and colors
  • Connect the Client Portal to Orion’s broader technology suite 

How does an advisor/firm transition from the Legacy Portal to the new Portal?

Upgrading to the new portal is easy. You need only follow three simple steps:

  • Contact Our Support Team: To get set up with the new Orion Client Portal, an interested advisor can sign up to get in touch with the Orion Planning Support Team here. This team will grant the advisor access to the Platform, help show them around the new portal, and answer any questions they may have.
  • Let Your Clients Know: This step is optional, but recommended. You should let your clients know that their portal experience is about to be improved, and remind them that while nothing is required on their end, the experience will come with some notable enhancements. To make that outreach even easier and more effective, we created a number of client communication templates you can leverage that are available here.
  • Flip the Switch: To officially get all their clients onto the new portal, the advisor can reach back out to the support team and we’ll do all the work behind the scenes using a redirect we built into the system. That way, once their team is ready to “flip the switch”, all their clients will be redirected to the new portal using the same login and credentials as before. Plus, all their investment data, documents, and account balances will be there waiting for them. 

Am I required to switch my clients to the new Portal or can I stay on the Legacy Portal?

The simple answer is: you are not yet required. To give your team ample time to prepare for, and implement, the new Client Portal, we are not mandating a switch, nor are we announcing an end-date for the legacy Portal at this moment. However, we will eventually announce an end-date for the legacy Portal by which all advisors will need to transition.

Can I test the new Client Portal out and still keep the Legacy Client Portal?

Yes, you can test the new Client Portal with a group of clients. Once you’re ready to turn the new experience on for all users we can flip a switch.

Is there a cost for the new Client Portal?

There is no cost to use the new Client Portal or Orion Planning. There is a cost only for the data aggregation ($10/household per year for as many accounts as clients want to link).

Am I required to use the full Orion Planning tool or can I just use the client experience? What if I already have a planning tool?

You are not required to use the Planning tools within Orion Planning and therefore have the option to only use the Client Portal. However, with numerous enhancements being made to the cew Client Portal, now is an excellent time to reexamine the power of the Orion Planning platform. Not only does Orion Planning now boast the industry’s premier client experience, the tool also includes a comprehensive planning workflow. 

  • Prospect: Find, nurture, and convert prospects through intuitive planning workflows tied directly to the Orion Market*r platform. 
  • Understand: With a built-in Risk Tolerance Questionnaire—either your own, the system’s default, or a third-party’s—uncover your client’s capacity for risk and be prepared to build a plan that fits that capacity.  
  • Plan: Planning Solutions for Investors of All Types

    • Client-led Tools: Easy to understand workflows allow clients and prospects to engage with Orion Planning and learn more about key parts of their financial plan, as permissioned by you. 
    • Modular Goals-Based: Intuitive, workflow-driven modules that guide your clients to sound financial decisions that help them reach their goals. 
    • Cash Flow: Create detailed cash flow based plans that ensure your clients understand what they own, what they can afford, and how they can live.  
    • Estate Planning Functionality (Coming soon): Organize your client’s estate and create a plan for their legacy.  
  • Propose: Present multiple plans and investment options to clients that help them decide which path is best for their lives.
  • Act: Open and fund investment accounts from the Orion Planning experience in minutes using the new Apex Clearing Solutions integration. 
  • Oversee: Aggregate client accounts for real-time updates, upload and share key documents through the Vault, and oversee performance data—all from within Orion Planning.  

In addition to these features, the Orion Planning tool integrates with leading financial planning providers such as MoneyGuide, eMoney, and others. 

Is a switch from the legacy Portal worthwhile?

Adopting the new Client Portal is a definitive improvement for your business. The new Portal achieves more than any other portal available today by both combining the power of Orion’s two existing Portals, but also by adding additional, unprecedented features like automated account opening that make our solution the most comprehensive experience in the market.

Can the new Portal be previewed before making it live for clients?

The new Client Portal can be tested out before migrating all of your clients over. Feel free to reach out to our Platform Support team for more assistance.

What data aggregation service does the new Client Portal use?

The Client Portal uses Quovo, which will be migrating to Plaid soon due to Plaid purchasing Quovo. The cost is $10/household per year for as many accounts as your clients want to link.

Can I have some clients use Orion Planning and keep other clients on MoneyGuidePro or eMoney?

Yes, you can still keep other clients on MoneyGuidePro or eMoney and have other clients on Orion Planning.

Is HiddenLevers going to be integrated in the New Client Portal?

Yes, details are still being worked out about how HiddenLevers will be integrated in the Client Portal.

Is the Orion integration with Calendly free?

Yes, please reference this page in our resource center for Calendly set up: https://help.advizr.com/calendly-integration

Will the new mobile app completely replace the legacy mobile app?

This new version of the mobile app will come as an update to the legacy app. The only requirement is that your users need to be migrated to the new Client Portal first (if they are not already).

How do clients who use the legacy mobile app transition to the new app once I move to the new Client Portal?

Once you are ready to make the transition from the legacy Client Portal desktop and app, we are able to transition your clients with the flip of a switch to the new Client Portal desktop and app.

Who Do I Contact for Questions and Support?

For all questions, contact our platform support team using “Contact Us’ on your Orion Connect home page or by calling (888) 279-8447.


Compliance Code: 1 8 9 1, Orion Advisor Solutions, July,24, 2020