It has been a long time since I last examined the SunGard WealthStation platform, so when SunGard invited me to take a look I was happy to do so. Blaine Maxfield, chief operating officer of SunGard's wealth management business, believes WealthStation is well-positioned for growth in both the enterprise and the independent RIA channels.

Maxfield believes that clients' trust in advisors has been severely shaken over the last several years. Financial planning, he says, plays a key role in building that trust. In addition, aging boomers are aware that they need financial planning advice. As a result, financial service professionals will increasingly incorporate financial planning into their wealth management practices. If Maxfield and his team have their way, many of these advisors will do their planning with WealthStation.

An Introduction
WealthStation is a flexible wealth management platform that users access through a Web browser. Microsoft Internet Explorer is the only browser officially supported, but I briefly tried WealthStation using Firefox and Chrome on a PC, and everything appeared to work fine. I also accessed WealthStation using the latest version of Apple's O/S and Safari without incident. But when I navigated to an integrated site offered by a third party, some screens did not draw correctly, although they came across well enough to get the job done.

WealthStation can be configured in many ways. When installed throughout an enterprise, the platform can be highly customized by adding optional modules, back-office services and third-party integrations. SunGard currently offers institutions add-ons for client management, cost-basis reporting, trading and rebalancing.

For independent RIAs, SunGard offers a "Software as a Service" model. This simply means that SunGard hosts the software on their servers, and RIAs access the software through a Web browser. The standard offering includes a scalable financial planning application as well as asset allocation tools. In the near future, through agreements with third-party vendors, SunGard plans to offer independent RIAs the ability to bring other functions, such as portfolio management and reporting, into WealthStation.

When you log in to WealthStation, you land on the dashboard. The dashboard is comprised of multiple widgets, which users can configure to their liking. These widgets are pages within the dashboard page that contain various types of information. Currently, widgets in my test account included "Top Ten Accounts Ranked by Total Assets," a watch list of equities or indexes, alerts, and "Right Bridge Opportunities," which identifies sales opportunities.

The "Right Bridge" widget could be a very useful business-planning tool. Clicking on the expand button next to a client's name reveals a client's needs by importance or urgency as ranked by a scoring engine. So, if life insurance rated as the most pressing of three needs, it would be listed first. This widget also ranks your services by the number of clients who need them, which can help you deliver them more effectively. For example, if the widget indicates that most of your clients need life insurance, WealthStation can help you create related marketing templates, as well as schedule client appointments and time with experts on life insurance.

Like other Web pages, most widgets contain hotlinks that let you drill down further into an application. If you click on a client's name, for example, you are transported to the client's snapshot page, which includes more widgets that let you see asset allocation, a list of assets and accounts, a net-worth graph, and notes and alerts.

Navigation, for the most part, is intuitive. To the right of most screens is a tool bar that allows you to search for any client or account by typing a name. You can also create a list of favorites for easy, speedier access.

When you are in the financial planning, asset allocation, rebalancing and other modules, a pane appears on the left with project items that are checked automatically as you complete them. You also can use this pane to navigate from one page within a module to another with the links at the top.

When you are on the dashboard, the links at the top of the pane might include Clients, Accounts, Trading, Reports, Research, Documents, workflow and Settings. When you select a client and navigate to the client snapshot page, the menu options change. They now include Client Info, Financial Planning, Investment Management, Account Inquiry, Trading and Documents. The Client Info tab includes personal information and provides links to related family members. From this menu, you can also access client assets, liabilities and notes and alerts.

The financial planning menu allows advisors to plan by "concept" or by "series." With the "concept" option, an advisor can use WealthStation to look at a single aspect of a client's overall financial situation. A concept might be college education funding, or it might be a Roth conversion analysis, to give just two examples. The "series" option offers three, more comprehensive planning levels: Foundations, Planning and Advisor.

The Foundations level offers basic planning. It covers asset allocation, retirement, education and survivor needs. The financial planning results are limited, however. For example, in most cases, a look at asset allocation generated just four asset classes. The ability to input data and model financial planning scenarios is limited as well. That is probably as it should be. The Foundations module is best suited to novice planners, less affluent clients, or those situations where you want to give a client or prospect a quick, strategic overview. One nice thing about using Foundations is that data flows through to other levels, so once you enter data, it can be used in more advanced planning levels later on.

The middle level is Planning, which allows an advisor to consider disability insurance, income taxes, IRAs, long-term-care insurance and many other client concerns, but works better for less complex situations.

The Advisor level is the most detailed and the most comprehensive. Required data entry here is much greater, but so are the capabilities. For example, the asset allocation module might produce a mix with ten asset classes as opposed to four in Foundations. One can customize strategies, say to account for tax sensitivity or produce hedges for inflation hedge.
This level also offers various analytical tools such as portfolio back-testing. The estate-planning tool is helpful and includes excellent flowcharts and graphics. It can project estate growth, estate taxes and distributions. You can create alternative scenarios to illustrate the benefits of various estate planning techniques.

WealthStation Strengths
WealthStation's greatest strength is its flexibility. Enterprises can create a comprehensive advisor workstation with a single user login. Additional modules can be plugged in from SunGard or third parties that provide CRM, financial planning, portfolio management, trading, rebalancing, research and more. Users can choose the level of planning sophistication that the job demands.

The interface is another strong suit. The Web 2.0 feel, with the ability to customize pages through the use of widgets, and the multiple navigation options make WealthStation a comfortable program to learn and use. It also provides easier ways for an advisor to collaborate with clients because much can be done online. For example, an advisor can ask clients to review or complete forms online, as well as view a planning scenario.

WealthStation Shortcomings
One glaring problem with WealthStation is that it doesn't prioritize a client's goals as leading competitors do. Goals don't always flow in chronological order. For example, if a client wants to purchase a yacht this year and retire in five years but his retirement funding currently is $100,000 short, WealthStation will spend the dollars on the boat and then indicate the retirement goal is underfunded. Advisors can work around this problem, but it is an annoyance. Furthermore, a fixed dollar limit can't easily be assigned to all goals. For example, a client who wanted to buy a Lexus every three years but who recently took a salary cut might now want to spend less and buy a Honda or a Hyundai instead. Some competing programs integrate this kind of range of acceptance for individual goals. WealthStation is not there yet.

Another minor annoyance: Not every module falls within one of the three primary planning series, so even if you are using the advisor series, you may still have to go to individual outside modules to plan for some rather common events (like Roth conversions, for example).

By design, the Monte Carlo module is treated as an add-on. This decision reflects the reality that not all of SunGard's institutional clients want to make MCS available to all their reps. More troubling is the lack of a clear explanation regarding how the MCS works. There are some very talented and knowledgeable folks at SunGard who can explain it to you, but don't look for it under the "assumptions" button or in the help screens.

One area where firms can add value is by supplying good defaults. My test account did not shine here. My default for Monte Carlo iterations was only 100, though I'm told the default for the retail RIA account is 200. Up to 200 may be sufficient if you are solving for the mean, but not if you are trying to solve for outliers. The defaults I experienced might not be typical because I was using a demo server, so I'll give SunGard the benefit of the doubt here.

The Verdict
Overall, SunGard's WealthStation has much to offer. Its interface and flexibility, administrative controls and client access options make it a strong contender in the institution space. I'd like to see some of the orphan modules integrated into the Advisor series workflow, but that is not a major issue. The ability to prioritize goals would certainly strengthen an already appealing package, however.

WealthStation is slightly less attractive for independents today, although the gap appears to be rapidly narrowing. In order for WealthStation to be as attractive to independents as other competitors, two things need to happen. First, SunGard needs to improve documentation and add additional training channels. Based upon what I've heard, SunGard expects independents to learn how to use the platform primarily through weekly online training seminars and calls to tech support. Not all advisors learn that way, nor can all attend at the appointed time. SunGard should provide written documentation, targeted training videos and other tools that competitors provide.

Integration capabilities are outstanding for institutions, but less so for independents. That's because SunGard has yet to ink many integration deals with third parties, although rumor has it that some are in the works. If independents had access to integrated online forms, research feeds, portfolio management/reporting and rebalancing tools from third parties, this already good offering would be much more compelling.

WealthStation has the ability to support these integrations; SunGard just needs to follow through on making them happen. When they do, WealthStation will likely add many independents to their list of satisfied clients.