“2015 was a huge year for technology at Shareholders Service Group,” says Dan Skiles, president of SSG. The firm leverages Pershing’s NetX360 platform, which went through a major upgrade in 2015. Skiles says that SSG released the new platform to SSG advisors in 2015, but the version that SSG rolled out contained significant customizations that optimized it for use by SSG RIAs. In addition to the platform rollout, SSG also provided something often overlooked by RIAs: technology training on the new platform. Training allows advisors to get up to speed rapidly on the new platform, and it allows them to more fully leverage the new capabilities.
This new release embraces the Windows 10 tile look and feel. For those advisors already familiar with Windows 10, the interface should be very comfortable. The search capabilities are much improved as well. Type in the clients’ names, and you see all information relevant to them, including their accounts, the individual investments they own, and more. Results can be filtered to narrow one’s search.
This past year, SSG established new third-party vendor relationships and enhanced existing ones. These relationships provide integrated solutions with the SSG platform. The firm added Junxure Cloud and an integration partner. SSG now offers Laser App Anywhere to its advisors. It also established a relationship with Vestorly, a content marketing solution for advisors. And it established a relationship with WealthAccess, a digital wealth reporting and investment monitoring solution for advisors. This provides mobile access, account aggregation and reporting to clients, as well as data mining capabilities and other functionality to advisors.
SSG’s relationship with MoneyGuidePro’s financial planning software continues to grow. There are now almost 200 SSG advisors subscribing to MoneyGuidePro. There are approximately 100 advisors taking advantage of SSG’s customized, discounted version of Black Diamond. The company also has a substantial number of advisors taking advantage of its partnerships with Envestnet, Morningstar, Orion TRX (now part of Morningstar) and AssetBook, according to Skiles.
For 2016, SSG has started a new partnership with ActiFi that will allow SSG advisors to leverage the latter’s Roadmap technology and monthly webinars hosted by ActiFi in which advisors can learn best practices and improve their business processes.
Scottrade
Scottrade executives responsible for advisor technology were very subdued when I spoke with them last year, but that doesn’t mean they were idle. There was an internal restructuring so the firm could better serve the needs of advisors. A new service center was opened. In addition, Scottrade released incremental upgrades to its platform for advisors at least quarterly, established some new strategic arrangements with third-party providers and strengthened existing ones. AdvisoryWorld, AssetBook, BOSS, E-Valuator, Oranj, Quovo, Sycamore and yHLsoft were among the providers added in 2015.
Other new relationships included Advicent, Advisor Websites, Everplans and PaperClip. In total, Scottrade has established 69 relationships with third-party vendors. Of those, 36 providers are focused on core functions such as CRM, financial planning, portfolio management, rebalancing and enterprise content management.
Of the 36 core software providers, there is some level of data integration, but currently only a few offer deep integration. Those include ASI, Laser App, MoneyGuidePro and Redtail. Others may share data through daily file exchanges or FTP.
2015 was also the year that Scottrade enhanced advisors’ ability to do things on the platform that formerly required the intervention of a Scottrade staff member. Improvements to the platform included a single multi-block trading page, a dashboard with widgets, an enhanced message center and proactive alerts.
While much of the work accomplished in 2015 took place behind the scenes, we expect some notable improvements this year. According to Brian Stimpfl, senior vice president of program strategy and operations at Scottrade Advisor Services, his firm will deliver significant technological advances in 2016 while maintaining the high level of service that its clients enjoy.
Perhaps the most important initiative of 2016 will be the company’s open application program interface (API) initiative. An open API will allow existing partners and future ones to more easily achieve deep, two-way integration with the Scottrade platform. As is the case with other custodians, Scottrade will vet vendors on a number of criteria, including security, before allowing an integration to go forward.
Another initiative is to streamline the account opening process with the goal of offering straight-through digital on-boarding powered by Laser App with e-signatures.
Yet another initiative is to allow Scottrade advisors to better work with third-party asset managers.
Taken in total, one can assume that Scottrade is hoping to offer its advisors a platform capable of competing with robo-advisors on price and features. Combine digital on-boarding, a risk profiling process and low-cost asset management with a good web experience for the end client and you have an answer to the digital platforms. Scottrade seems to be developing those capabilities.
Finally, Stimpfl suggested that Scottrade would offer a turnkey technology platform for advisors, much as Fidelity did initially with WealthCentral and Schwab does with OpenView Integrated Office. The goal is to provide competitive pricing, tight integration and the ease of adoption and use for those who want it. “We want to make things easy for advisors,” says Stimpfl.
Parting Thoughts
While just about every custodian we’ve covered over the last several months offers similar core functionality, there are differences in their approaches to technology. Advisors who invest the time to determine the best technology fit for their firms will be richly rewarded!