Regulators are increasingly interested in the fintech data aggregation tools used by financial advisors to consolidate their customer’s financial information, especially for assets that are held at other institutions. The Texas State Securities Board issued guidance on July 23, following similar advisories by the Delaware Investor Protection United of the Delaware DOJ in May 2025, Ohio Division of Securities in March 2025, and private warning letters reportedly sent to advisors by the Missouri Securities Division in May 2024 and by Washington state regulators in December 2023. FINRA issued a Regulatory Notice in 2019 reminding firms of their responsibilities when providing consolidated financial account reports.

Advisors will use these tools to access client data in accounts, including 401(k)s and banks, to better manage overall portfolio allocations. Recently, these tools have gotten far more sophisticated, with technology like Pontera allowing advisors not only the ability to collect an aggregate the information while advising their clients or providing account statements, but allowing them the ability to view and trade in accounts held away from the advisor, such as 401(k) accounts. These tools clearly reduce friction for customers who want their advisors to manage assets that can’t be moved into accounts traditionally controlled by their advisors, but regulators have concerns about security and disclosures to customers.

Texas’ approach focused primarily on ensuring advisors conduct their due diligence on the tools they use and provide proper disclosure to their customers.

Among the due diligence items to focus on:

• Understanding the functionality of the platform and what customer information is collected and stored by the vendor.
• Careful attention to the agreements with the provider to ensure it does not provide the vendor with the ability to take actions inconsistent with the advisor’s intended use.
• Review the platform’s cybersecurity and privacy protections, including its history of data breaches, current certifications, policies around risk assessments or audits, and how customer credentials are maintained and protected.
• Understand what records are maintained and ensure compliance with books and records requirements.

Among the areas for disclosure highlighted by Texas:

• Disclose risks to customers, including general risks and specific risks, with reference to FINRA’s Know Before You Share guidance.
• Review the disclosures provided by the platform to customers and any consents that customers will be required to give.
• Disclose the fact that the aggregator does not have a relationship with the custodians and any implications thereof.

Finally, Texas reminded advisors of their fiduciary duties as it relates to managing accounts, which would apply to accounts to which advisors are given access through data aggregators. Texas also warned that, “Advisers should assess an investment advisory fee that reasonably reflects the services it is providing. If an adviser is only viewing information about client assets, the adviser should take this into account in the type of fee it can assess, if any. If the adviser manages held-away assets, the adviser should compare the services it provides to held-away assets to services otherwise available to the client, such as advice provided by their employer plan or affiliated service providers, and the alternatives to the client, such as the impact of leaving these assets unmanaged.”