Oct 24, 2025 - Last Updated: Oct 27, 2025
As life evolves, so do financial goals. The self-directed meme stock trader who once spent all day investing on their computer now has a mortgage, a family, and less time to actively manage their portfolio. This isn’t just an anecdote; it’s a powerful demographic shift. A 2024 Schwab Modern Wealth Survey shows that 41% of Millennials and 40% of Gen Z have embraced robo-investing strategies — as opposed to 25% of Gen X and 11% of Boomers.¹
This leaves many successful fintechs facing a new organic growth puzzle: How do you expand your services beyond self-directed trading to include new investment models like robo or hybrid digital advice? You have two options: build it yourself or buy a solution.
Building your own embedded investing platform
The first option is to build it yourself, which seems viable until you consider that it requires becoming a true brokerage infrastructure expert — and potentially adding the overhead of hiring hundreds of advisors. Building a modern platform from the ground up is a costly and complex endeavor that can take years to complete.
Another building approach includes assembling components (often called “point solutions”) yourself from an array of providers. The advantage here is that you’re not building from scratch — but there’s a risk that these modules won’t quite fit together, leaving you to fill in the gaps.
Either path forward is doable for fintechs of all types, as long as you can afford a significant capital investment and a considerable distraction from your core mission.
Buying an embedded investing platform
There are many investment technology solutions available today. Buying a solution can be a more efficient and cost-effective option, especially if you’re hoping to launch on a shorter timeline, but there are some real challenges with this approach.
Consider asking potential providers a few pointed questions to determine if the solution you’re buying has modern features that next-gen investors want, like access to real-time data (not delayed by overnight processing) and an intuitive mobile app. Questions like:
Does your platform include configurable risk and goals questionnaires that map to the right portfolios for the end investor?”
“Do you offer white-label mobile app UIs that can integrate with our current app?”
“Do we get tools to create and rebalance portfolios over time?”
Ascend Investor: A real-time, configurable platform of client-facing wealth tools
Here at Apex, we’ve invested the time and money to build a digital platform that we believe will be the cornerstone of embedded investing for years to come. Ascend Investor — built on our AscendOS infrastructure — isn’t a rigid, one-size-fits-all product. It includes flexible components that can empower you to create an investment experience that aligns with your business goals.
Add robo investing: Busy investors who don’t have time for self-directed investing often prefer a “set it and forget it” option. The Ascend Investor robo solution allows you to factor in investor’s preferences for a more personalized approach, delivering the experience through front-end UIs that are available off the shelf and configurable to your brand. For example, clients’ Risk Tolerance Questionnaires (RTQs) are algorithmically integrated with our Rebalancer, which includes the Model Marketplace with prebuilt models to automatically offer up suitable portfolios. You’ll be able to provide ongoing personalization at scale — without the legacy administrative burden.
Add hybrid digital advice: Are you considering adding a part-robo, part-human advisory model? We call it Augmented Advice™, and it’s designed to assist advisors in serving more clients by integrating advanced technology tools with a hands-on approach that builds trust. When investors are earlier in their wealth accumulation journeys, they can opt for a robo service; as their financial needs evolve, they can ask for advice through their client portal or mobile app.
Self-directed investing: Ascend Investor’s self-directed tools allow you to embed robo or Augmented Advice models directly into your existing platform. This approach is ideal for non-trading entities seeking to incorporate trading capabilities into their platforms, helping them potentially expand their business and strengthen customer relationships.
You want to use an embedded investing platform to grow, right?
Of course you do. Let’s talk about a few strategies you could pursue with Ascend Investor.
Retain your maturing client base. If you’re currently experiencing a surge in outflows, this challenge may be your most urgent. Lucky you, Ascend Investor can help cut deployment time by 50%² so you can stop the bleeding before it’s too late.
Attract next-generation investors. How old are Millennials these days? They’re 29 to 44,³ including early career and middle-aged investors. Add in Gen Z, who are 13 to 28, and there are over 140 million next-gen investors you could be targeting, most of whom are over 18.⁴ And they want convenient, digital services — like real-time portfolio updates and an intuitive mobile app. Both are included in Ascend Investor.
Build a modern stock rewards program. If your business is focused on increasing revenue from loyalty members, consider adding Stock Rewards from Apex. This new reward is designed to help increase customer stickiness and is powered by fractional shares — think $10 worth of your company’s stock — to help transform shoppers into sticky shareholders who spend more with your brand.
Add efficiency to your 401(k) rollovers and force-outs. If you’re a third-party administrator in the retirement planning industry, you can accelerate fund transfers using our digital money movement solutions, along with pre-built, self-directed, or robo-trading user interfaces. Additionally, utilize Ascend Investor tools — such as front-end UIs, RTQ portfolio mapping, and a unified Ascend Workstation — to help reduce the administrative workload for your team.
You can leverage Apex’s FINRA Registration
If you’re just entering the embedded investing space, you might not know much about FINRA. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the body that regulates brokerage firms in the U.S., and registration is required if you want to offer investment-related services.
Becoming a registered FINRA member can be a complex, time-consuming, and expensive undertaking for your company. That’s why you can leverage our existing FINRA registration (through Apex Direct) and compliance framework to launch your investment offering. We’ll manage the brokerage operations and regulatory obligations behind the scenes — so you can focus on what you do best.
Plus! Powerful tools you might not know you need
In addition to the white-label UIs that help shorten your development timeline, Ascend Investor is built on our powerful AscendOS platform. This foundation gives your team access to a host of features, automations, and tools that make day-to-day work more efficient. Here are just a few highlights — get a copy of the fact sheet for all the details.
- Account opening in seconds with the power of AscendOS⁵
- An embedded, real-time ledger so you can have access to your up-to-the-minute data 24/7
- Built-in business intelligence tools to help power data-based decision making
- Automations to replace previously manual tasks such as rebalancing and corporate actions
- Financial crimes detection tools
By Connor Coughlin
Chief Customer Officer
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