“You can’t have solutions just for high net worth; you need broad-based solutions,” says Evan LaHuta, Pershing’s head of client experience. “We have recently thought about how we serve different clients and how we’ve segmented them. It was once commonplace to segment based on size and complexity, or on whether we were serving an investment manager or a wealth manager, but as technology has taken an increased role in the relationship, we’ve started segmenting our clients based on how they consume our technology.”
While some RIAs look to Pershing to provide all of their technology solutions, others knit together a custom ecosystem using Pershing’s platform, third-party software and their own technology build-outs, relying on the custodian to help them craft the best solutions for their clients, says LaHuta.
In 2018, Pershing will launch NetX360-Wealth, the next generation of its RIA platform, which LaHuta says will allow advisors to optimize trading to create the most efficient solutions for their clients. Streamlined proxy voting capabilities are also going to be implemented across the NetX360 platform. The custodian is also planning to roll out a deep integration with Salesforce that will ease the on-boarding and account-opening process. Pershing will also introduce eight to 10 more APIs over the next year.
Pershing’s NetX360 wealth management portal creates a single point of access for advisors to manage their businesses, perform transactions and conduct research. Advisors’ NetX360 dashboard is a customizable home page allowing advisors to set up their own relevant displays of content. The platform also allows client on-boarding with straight-through processing, creating fewer hang-ups as clients are moved from data entry to affixing signatures and funding their accounts in a paperless procedure.
Thanks to Pershing’s relationship with BNY Mellon, advisors are able to handle bank- and brokerage-custodied assets on a single platform. Recent additions to NetX360 include updated planning applications, account aggregation and document sharing and e-signatures.
Folio
Unlike some of its larger peers, McLean, Va.-based Folio was built as a technology firm first and does not come from the traditional custody and clearing business. In some ways, that gives the firm an advantage, says Greg Vigrass, president of Folio Institutional.
“We’re seeing to our great joy that the market seems to be coming to where we are with the whole notion of digital engagement and how advisors serve and interact with their constituents,” says Vigrass.
Like Fidelity, Folio is moving ahead with a next-generation robo-advisor platform geared toward advisors who want to add one as a complement to their traditional practices.
Folio’s advisor dashboard is a highly customizable practice management command center, built from widgets that advisors can mix and match at will. On the trading side of things, Folio provides sophisticated tax management capabilities, including its Tax Football optimization tool. The trading platform also enables security, sector and industry exclusions to help filter certain investments from client accounts.