How did 2016 become the “most successful year to date” for wealth management platform developer, eMoney Advisor? According to CEO Ed O’Brien, it was all about getting back to basics.

“This year we returned to our roots with an innovative product strategy that broadens the availability and quality of advice delivered through advisors,” O’Brien explained. This week O’Brien’s company announced record growth in 2016 including a more than 30% increase in revenue since the end of 2015, and a nearly 59% gain in revenue since eMoney Advisor was acquired by Fidelity Investments in early 2015.

Some of the 2016 highlights for eMoney Advisor include:

• Released more than 80 updates and enhancements to its emX Suite
• Unveiled a new advanced analytics product
• Launched the Fiduciary Framework initiative

“For this past year in particular, we worked hard to implement a strategy that creates more opportunity for advisers to experience the value of eMoney and benefit from the unique and varied ways our technology can set them apart,” said O’Brien.

From left: Chad Porche, SVP, head of design, and Kyle Wharton, SVP, business development, demonstrated EMX, the eMoney Advisor platform, at FinovateFall 2014.

Recently featured in our look at top trends in Wealth Tech, eMoney Advisor serves wealth management firms who have concluded that it is easier and more efficient to partner with an established specialist rather than “go it alone” when it comes to providing their wealth managers with the technology they need to best serve their clients. “Firms are realizing the cost to build and maintain the type of streamlined, technology-enabled experience required to compete today is prohibitively high,” O’Brien said. Adding that companies must be mindful of technology expenses as well, he points out that the solution “in the long-term” is a balancing act. “It’s about a technology partner, not a technology provider,” he said.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, eMoney Advisor demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2014. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with Waddell & Reed Advisors that will make emX Pro platform available to the firm’s network of more than 1,800 financial advisers. A winner at the 2016 Wealth Management Awards this fall, and one of the best places to work in Philadelphia according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, eMoney Advisor also shared a preview of what it has in store for 2017. New products and services from the company include a digital advice platform, developed in partnership with Fidelity, a new lead-generation solution, a “robust API strategy,” and a service for 401(k) plan participants. The company says it plans to add 100 new workers by the end of 2017 to help accommodate growth.

eMoney Advisor, acquired by Fidelity Investments in 2015 for $250 million, is offering advisers the tools they need to compete against the robo-advisers that seem to be taking over wealth management. This week, financial planning firm Waddell & Reed has partnered with eMoney to leverage its emX Pro platform.

Waddell & Reed will deliver emX Pro, along with solutions from Envestnet and Docupace, to its network of 1,800 financial professionals to enhance planning, proposal, and processing for advisers and their clients. Ed O’Brien, CEO of eMoney Advisor, said that emX Pro will help Waddell & Reed advisers to “build deeper, more collaborative client relationships, expertly plan investment portfolios and deliver sound financial advice while helping make sense of their business’s big-picture, including a view of assets held away.” O’Brien adds that using emX Pro gives the advisers “a distinct competitive advantage.”

Founded in 2000, eMoney debuted emX at FinovateFall 2014. emX delivers a suite of interactive wealth management tools to help advisers identify business opportunities and deliver an experience to serve a client’s financial planning needs, from basic to advanced.

eMoney is based in Radnor, PA and serves 37,000 financial professionals. The company, whose top clients include TD Ameritrade, RBC Wealth Management, MetLife, Mass Mutual, New York Life, and Allstate, has 360+ employees and $1.7 trillion in assets under management. In March, eMoney Advisor brought on Ed O’Brien as CEO, taking the seat of the company’s founder, Edmond Walters.