Fidelity Investments is integrating Black Diamond's new BlueSky portfolio management and reporting system with Fidelity's WealthCentral platform.
Fidelity Investments and Black Diamond Performance Reporting today announced that they have established a strategic relationship to integrate BlueSky with Fidelity's WealthCentral. This marks the first time that Fidelity has expanded the number of applications through WealthCentral since the addition of Northfield's Rebalancing system, and it marks the first time ever that WealthCentral users will have a choice of competing applications in a given software category.
Black Diamond's BlueSky portfolio management and reporting platform, is Web-based and has been recognized because it's easy for others to use and customize. It enables advisors to outsource and automate daily reconciliation of their clients' investment information, including assets not held at Fidelity. BlueSky also allows advisors to run comprehensive, customized reports on demand and view data on Black Diamond's Web platform.
Fidelity has successfully integrated products from other third-party providers, including Oracle, Emerging Information Systems Inc. (EISI), Advent Software and Northfield Information Services. Fidelity expects to integrate additional third-party solutions in the future.
"We are excited about our expanded partnership with Fidelity and how this will enable us to provide a great experience for our shared clients," said Reed Colley, CEO and founder of Black Diamond. "While we've already been working together to support over 80 shared clients, our BlueSky platform's integration with WealthCentral, as well as our shared commitment to serving our clients, takes the relationship to a whole new level."
"Working strategically with proven firms such as Black Diamond to establish deep integration differentiates WealthCentral from other platforms and reinforces our commitment to helping advisors achieve greater efficiencies and accelerate their growth," said Michael R. Durbin, president of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services. "We've received very good feedback from clients regarding Black Diamond, so this was a natural move for us."
WealthCentral is currently used by more than 600 RIA firms, and adoption has been strong over the last several quarters. Since its official launch in 2009, WealthCentral has offered contextual integration, which allows client information entered in one application to automatically flow through to and be referenced in links between the other applications being used.
Through WealthCentral Black Diamond will offer batch and on-demand client reporting, composite reporting, client billing, multiple levels of aggregation, customized asset allocation models, cost-basis tracking, tax-lot entry and a private-label customer Web portal that includes vault capabilities for client performance reports. It also allows advisors to customize asset classifications, home pages and reports.
WealthCentral will enable one-click access to accounts and portfolios in BlueSky and the need to re-enter data will be minimized.
Cost-basis data will be synchronized between WealthCentral and the BlueSky platform so that the information is consistent, which will become even more important as the IRS phases in new cost-basis reporting requirements for custodians beginning in January. Reporting systems that lack integration could find reconciliation of cost-basis data between custodial platforms challenging.