FMG Buys Texting Platform MyRepChat

FMG Suite is growing, once again, by acquisition.

The San Diego-based SaaS provider of marketing content, automation, and websites for financial advisors announced Sept. 19 its acquisition of Minnesota-based MyRepChat – a client text messaging platform for regulated industries.

“Texting has become one of the most important communication channels for financial advisors and their customers. People respond to text way faster than they do to an email,” said FMG CEO Scott White, adding that before the acquisition, FMG offered mostly email and social media engagement between advisor and customer. “MyRepChat fits nicely in that they take care of the texting channel.”

White said FMG will integrate its existing compliance solutions with MyRepChat’s to ensure financial advisors’ text communications don’t run afoul of regulations, like rules preventing advisors from promising and predicting stock returns.

“They can’t just say anything they want,” he said. “So everything they say from a marketing standpoint, has to route through their compliance department and get approved before it goes live – and FMG has that.”

The MyRepChat app’s compliance component also includes archiving text messages for the required seven years.

Extending Capabilities

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but White said that FMG was keeping the entire MyRepChat team, including former CEO Derrick Girard who will take on the position of president of MyRepChat. The acquisition doubles the size of FMG’s engineering team, of which a “large contingent” was already based in Minnesota, White added.

“This partnership is a natural and logical evolution for our platform, extending our capabilities and benefits to FMG’s customer base,” Girard, said. “We are excited to join forces with the market leader in advisor marketing technology and are looking forward to the enormous benefits our combined strengths will bring to our customers.”

With those combined strengths, FMG envisions adding a chat feature to advisor websites that “seamlessly and compliantly” integrates with the advisor’s office phone number registered with the MyRepChat app, allowing incoming website chat messages to appear as a text on the phone of designated team members, said  FMG Chief Marketing and Experience Officer Susan Theder.

“This means their designated staff member could be on the beach yet still seamlessly respond to a chat message from a prospect visiting their website – all in a fully compliant manner,” she said. “As the digital landscape continues to evolve, so do the communication expectations of clients. The addition of MyRepChat to the FMG platform revolutionizes the way our advisors can connect with their clients and prospects.”

‘Acquisition Spree’

FMG was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Craig Faulkner, who later sold the company to Los Angeles-based private equity firm K1 Investment Management in 2016 and White was brought on board as CEO.

“That’s when we started our acquisition spree. We started rolling up other players in the industry to create the largest marketing platform for financial advisors,” White said.

Those other players include the 2016 acquisitions of CRM platform company Advisors Assistant and website marketing provider Advisor Launchpad.

In 2017, FMG acquired Agency Revolution a provider of marketing automation to PNC insurance agencies – “the largest in that industry,” White said.

FMG bought Marketing Pro in 2018, a marketing automation with “a tremendous amount of marketing content” and 5,000 customers, White said. That same year FMG bought marketing coaching firm Platinum Advisor Strategies, that became the foundation for FMG’s “do it for me service” providing outsourced marketing professional services.

FMG acquired competitor in the SaaS-for-financial-professional space Twenty Over Ten in 2020. That year, FMG was itself was sold by K1 to another private equity firm, Aurora Capital Partners.

In July of last year, FMG acquired Vestorly, a company specializing in AI-driven content curation for wealth management firms.

The acquisition of MyRepChat marks FMG’s eighth acquisition in seven years, which has been a driver of the company’s 10x growth since 2016, White said. FMG clients include industry leaders LPL Financial, Cetera Financial Group, RFG Advisory and Baird.

FMG Suite

Founded: 2010
CEO: Scott White
Headquarters: San Diego
Business: SaaS marketing platform for financial advisors
Employees: 375
Website: www.fmgsuite.com
Notable: FMG is rated first in market share and customer satisfaction from 2019 to 2023 in the T3 Software Survey Report.