Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services (Ladenburg) has made a strategic investment in Track Technologies (Track), a San Francisco-based digital provider of tax automation for independent contractors, freelancers, and other workers who generate self-employed income.
The investment, which is the first major outgrowth of Ladenburg’s recently launched Innovation Lab and its inaugural Innovation Symposium in May, enables Ladenburg to align new technology-enabled solutions to support the business growth of financial advisors affiliated with its five independent advisory and brokerage (IAB) subsidiary firms: Securities America, Triad Advisors, KMS Financial Services, Investacorp and Securities Service Network (SSN).
Adam Malamed, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ladenburg, says: “Ladenburg’s investment in Track reflects our commitment to lead the industry in anticipating and capturing opportunities for our advisors that are driven by socioeconomic trends that have the potential to transform the future of financial advice. This investment is part of our innovation-focused process for identifying macro themes, and then adapting technology-enabled tools from the start-up community that our financial advisors can deploy to get ahead of the curve. We expect the ‘gig economy’, characterised by self-employed individuals, or those with independent income sources, will only continue to expand. By enabling our advisors to deliver digital automated tax solutions that can potentially plug into financial and retirement planning efforts for self-employed clients, we are positioning our advisors to serve a large market.”
Track Technologies calculates, withholds and submits quarterly estimated payments on self-employment taxes for workers who use IRS 1099 Forms. Users can connect the software to their bank or credit card accounts to save time by allowing Track to synch, detect, and review transactions such as deposits and expenses, in order to notify users about income taxes owed as well as potential deductions. This ground-breaking model also presents enormous opportunities for financial advisors in all of the Ladenburg IABs to help clients leverage a turnkey solution for payroll services, setting up qualified retirement plans, and reducing their administrative burdens.
In January, Ladenburg announced the launch of its Enterprise Innovation initiative and the Ladenburg Innovation Lab, as part of a comprehensive strategy to generate new resources that empower the growth of Ladenburg’s IAB subsidiaries and the practices of the financial advisors they serve. On May 22, Ladenburg’s inaugural Innovation Symposium in San Francisco united CEOs of venture-backed fintech start-ups, leaders of technology-focused venture capital firms, and an elite group of growth-oriented advisors for an invitation-only event to pursue forward-looking tools, ideas and business practices.
Dan Sachar, Vice President for Enterprise Innovation at Ladenburg and Head of the Ladenburg Innovation Lab, says: “Ladenburg picked a robust assortment of ideas to test drive with the growth-oriented advisors who were selected to attend our recent Innovation Symposium, in a two-way process that takes our longstanding commitment to constant collaboration with advisors to a new level. Following our Innovation Symposium, we reviewed several of the most promising concepts to turn ideas into action, and our investment in Track is the next logical step in that process. We see great potential for adapting and leveraging this type of service for advisors across each of our IAB subsidiaries.”
Trent Bigelow, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Track Technologies, says: “We started Track to make life easier for people who operate as sole proprietors and small business owners, because they should spend more time on the real work that matters instead of burdensome busywork like taxes. The labour trend is clearly shifting more and more to the 1099 independent contractor space, yet millions of self-employed Americans will have to handle their own tax withholding every time they get paid. Ladenburg’s investment will allow Track to accelerate its development and reach new audiences. Financial advisors serve many clients who are the ideal users of Track. I am excited to move forward with Ladenburg in this next phase of our business.”
Malamed says: “Our investment in Track is consistent with Ladenburg’s ongoing mission of leveraging our financial capital, intellectual capital, technology and other resources to find new ways to add significant value for our IAB firms, our advisors and their clients. By making an early-stage start-up investment, Ladenburg gains an exceptional level of insight into the technology product pipelines of the future, while providing us a seat at the table in shaping these technologies to the benefit of our advisors, as well as an opportunity to generate value on the investment itself.”
