BOZEMAN, Mont.,

Oct. 4, 2018

/PRNewswire/ -- XY Planning Network, the leading turnkey financial planning platform for fee-only financial advisors, is proud to announce Mineral Interactive ("Mineral") as the winner of its third annual Advisor FinTech Competition. Mineral, a digital marketing and technology firm recently acquired by Carson Group, was recognized for its next generation client digital marketing and onboarding tool "Approach." Mineral competed against five other finalists pitching live demos of their software at the #XYPNLive Conference, which brought together over 650 attendees including more than 75 companies exhibiting on

September 23-26

in

St. Louis, Missouri

. The finalists were selected from 24 startups that submitted to the FinTech competition and was overseen by an elite panel of judges including:

XYPN Co-Founder Michael Kitces, advisor technology guru Bill Winterberg of FPPad, and Jeff Merkel, co-founder of digital life insurance company Ladder

. "The XYPN FinTech Competition was created to provide new advisor technology companies with a platform to showcase new tools that can help financial advisors better serve Gen X and Gen Y clients," said

Kitces.

"There is a huge technology gap in the industry for advisors – most solutions being developed today are geared more at product sales, or replacing advisors, not helping advisors to run a more efficient business and deliver better advice to clients."

Mineral's Approach platform was designed to empower advisors with safe document sharing channels and create more efficient meetings with clients through a series of customizable questions, which range from basic family and contact information to risk tolerances. Advisors can also tailor the platform with their firm's own unique branding – including a logo and website colors.

"It was amazing to see such a diverse network of advisors come together to connect and learn from each other at XYPNLive," said

Mineral Co-Founder and Carson Group CMO, Jud Mackrill

. "Technology is a huge game changer for an advisors' practice, and as technology vendors, it's important to create resources for advisors to use independently. XYPN shares our vision of helping advisors run more efficient practices, and we're thrilled to be a part of the future of the industry." As the winner, Approach will be featured on

Bill Winterberg's

FPPad.com and

Michael Kitces's

Nerd's Eye View blog at Kitces.com. The company will also be featured on the popular #XYPNRadio podcast and appear on XYPlanningNetwork.com.

The other finalists of the competition included: Life Stage Insights, Payitoff, Take Command Health, Touchstone Pathway, and Yourefolio.