Cetera Financial Group to Launch Powerful New Data Mining

Cetera Financial Group ("Cetera"), a leading network of independent broker-dealers, announced today that it has introduced a new online tool called RightBRIDGE. RightBRIDGE is driven by a powerful suggestion engine designed to help advisors uncover holistic opportunities within their book of business and enhance relevant conversations with clients. This innovative technology has been integrated within the advisor workstations for Cetera Financial Institutions and Cetera Financial Specialists, two firms in the Cetera network. The introduction of RightBRIDGE follows a highly successful pilot program encompassing 75 Cetera financial advisors across the country.

Designed by CapitalRock, LLC, the RightBRIDGE technology uses sophisticated business intelligence to consistently and continually identify high priority suggestions for each client. Based on each client and prospective client's financial and personal data, RightBRIDGE also provides specific talking points that provide advisors the information they need to engage in meaningful client discussions. These evaluations are accomplished using the proprietary RightBRIDGE algorithm, without intervention by the financial professional. The suggested opportunities appear on the financial professional's dashboard each day, accompanied by easy-to-implement actions that may lead to growth in their business and higher levels of client satisfaction.

Catherine Bonneau, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cetera Financial Institutions, said, "Full integration between the RightBRIDGE suggestion engine, along with the aggregated data available in our SmartWorks advisor workstation, is a major step towards harnessing the power of big data. Making it available to all our advisors at no additional cost will ensure that advisors and their clients reap the benefits immediately. Our initial pilot program demonstrated a marked increase in the ability of our advisors to expand client relationships by offering compelling financial solutions in a way that responds to their clients' most relevant financial needs due to the predictive analytics. RightBRIDGE bolstered the efficiency of our advisors' workday, and improved their client relationships and retention."

One of the key attractions of RightBRIDGE is its ability to incorporate a large number of relevant "bridges," or suggestions, encompassing 24 different financial categories, prioritizing the most relevant opportunities on the basis of a continually updated account evaluation.

Gregg Ruvoli, President of Cetera Financial Specialists, said, "RightBRIDGE utilizes a wealth of client information to identify solutions for individual clients. In today's environment, with the growing emphasis on meeting fiduciary standards, there is no better time to put this type of tool in the hands of our advisors."

"We are extremely pleased to see one of the premier networks of independent broker-dealers choose RightBRIDGE for its Cetera Financial Institutions and Cetera Financial Specialists firms," commented John Hyde, President and Chief Executive Officer of CapitalRock. "Cetera understands our vision of identifying new opportunities for advisors and we are excited about this relationship. We look forward to developing our rapport with Cetera as they continue to extend the cutting-edge benefits of this robust new tool to assist advisors throughout its network of firms."

Cetera Financial Institutions caters exclusively to the bank and credit union channel, while Cetera Financial Specialists is focused on serving tax and accounting professionals who integrate wealth management into their practices. Cetera Financial Group envisions rolling out the RightBRIDGE suggestion engine throughout its network of broker-dealer firms.