When making the announcement, our CEO noted that these significant scalability milestones demonstrate how the FolioDynamix platform architecture has allowed our clients to place all of their fee-based programs into a single solution with a single vendor, which in turn helps them create greater efficiencies, streamline business processes, improve transparency and lower overall costs. In other words – platform scalability directly impacts business results.

How quickly and effectively you can take on more clients, grow assets and deliver on client service level agreements all depend on the scalability of your technology. Important scalability features you should consider when planning your wealth management technology upgrades include:

• Both horizontal and vertical scalability that give you a variety of deployment and expansion options
• Seamless integration with your existing applications to provide your advisors with a single interface to manage all accounts
• Software-as-a-service and Cloud deployment models that provide automatic scalability – as the business grows, so does the capacity of the technology platform without you or your IT group having to do anything
• Inherent, flexible scalability that with allow you to grow to any number of users and accounts

FolioDynamix is a modern, web-based solution that can be deployed in-house or accessed in a hosted software-as-a-service solution. FolioDynamix is unique in that it allows you to choose the wealth management capabilities and functions that are most critical to you, configure the solution to your unique needs, and gain access to a complete software suite for managing the full wealth management lifecycle – all on a single integrated platform with a single code base. Its modern, open architecture was designed with ease-of-use and scalability as key factors.

As pressures to increase advisor productivity and drive new business growth continue, you and your wealth management business need to consider the scalability factor of your technology infrastructure – or risk losing agility and competitiveness.

* Note: “Assets under Administration” represents assets currently utilizing the FolioDynamix technology platform – not to be confused with “Assets under Management” which is a defined regulatory term that represents the dollar amounts of assets over which a registered investment adviser provides investment supervisory services. FolioDynamix does not provide investment supervisory services for the referenced assets under administration.

Investment proposal generation is critical to the first impression wealth management firms make with clients, and it sets the stage for the client relationship and investment strategy over the life of the account. FDx Propose is one of the most comprehensive solutions on the market. You can learn more by reading our recent 2-part blog series − proposal generation methodology and proposal generation technology.

Innovations in technology, governance and reporting have made rep-as-PM programs less risky for wealth management firms and more empowering for financial advisors who want more control over client performance. With the right controls in place, rep-as-PM programs can be a winning strategy for everyone.

Among what we believe will be the most positive outcomes are:

• By deploying a rep-as-PM program to qualified advisors, the home office can attract and retain top-tier talent by empowering advisors to play a stronger role in client portfolio management, while still effectively managing risk.
• Rep-as-PM programs give advisors an opportunity to grow and showcase their talents, expand their career potential and more directly affect client performance – thus shaping their value and reputation in the industry.
• Rep-as-PM programs can serve as a catalyst for clients to build a closer relationship with their advisor, take a more active role in defining their goals, and keep the advisor accountable and on point to deliver results.

At the end of the day, the rep knows the client the best. Therefore, wealth management firms should put the technology and programs in place to enable advisors to deliver the best client results possible. Innovation is critical to the success of any industry, and the wealth management industry is no exception.

FolioDynamix has established itself as the modern solution of choice for top wealth management firms, and today it announced the release of Version 6.1 of its FDx SingleSight^SM wealth management software platform. The new release features enhanced business process management workflows, wealth monitoring and management dashboards, and complete integration to the FDx Connect model exchange hub for seamless access to research and third-party money managers.

This product launch represents a continuation of the innovation that has enabled FolioDynamix to emerge as a leader in wealth management technology. Read more about the FDx SingleSight 6.1 Wealth Management platform enhancements. 

Learn how FolioDynamix can help your grow your wealth management business by addressing the complete wealth management lifecycle.

Mark is a strategically focused and operationally oriented financial executive with over 30 years of experience in finance and corporate strategy, including managing the IPOs of two companies. Most recently, Mark was the Chief Financial Officer of Ringleader Digital, where he raised a significant round of financing and oversaw all financial operations and M&A analysis. Mark has also held financial executive positions with mFormation Technologies, Caminus (acquired by Sungard) and GT Interactive, and held senior auditing positions with Deloitte LLP and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Mark holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Boston College and is pursuing an M.B.A at Seton Hall University.

As stakeholders in our success, we expect our clients, partners, employees and investors will all benefit from Mark’s contribution to the FolioDynamix team!

Are you happy with your firm’s reporting capabilities? If you offer different investment programs is it necessary to use different performance systems for different reports? Do you outsource reporting? Can you account for held-away assets? And finally, how does all that materialize in the client presentation – are you able to consolidate all investment performance data into one client-friendly unified managed household (UMH) view?

FDx Perform from FolioDynamix can address all of your performance reporting and analysis needs. Since every module in the FDx SingleSight wealth management technology platform is built on one singular code base, all of the modules are natively integrated. This gives you the ability to run multiple investment programs (rep as PM, rep as advisor, UMA, etc.) and report on them all from a single view, without the need for outside system integration.

FDx Perform offers:

Household, account and sleeve level views:

• Daily time-weighted returns
• Month-to-date, quarter-to-date, year-to-date and inception-to-date dollar weighted returns
• Sleeve level performance detail for all of your UMA or multi-modeled accounts
• Choose to include held “unmanaged assets” and/or report on held away assets for consolidated, unified managed household views

Powerful composite reporting:

• Composite functionality allows for the configuration of customized composites which can be constructed based upon account and/or sleeve relationships to various managers, advisor affiliations or customized combinations of accounts.
• Create your own custom or blended benchmarks for assignment and reporting.

Flexible report creation and scheduling:

• Client friendly graphical performance overviews
• Flexible report scheduling with user defined parameters
• Multi-factor ad-hoc report generation via the FDx SingleSight advisor desktop
• Performance pack bundling and delivery for outside printing

Unmatched customization:

• Create your own performance packs to include any combination of our available performance charts and tables along with customized commentaries, glossaries and disclaimers.
• Construct as many different templates as you need and customize with different logos, color schemes, and tailored footers by page.

Offer the programs your clients demand and report on them all through FDx Perform. FDx Perform has been built to handle your most dynamic performance reporting needs – across all accounts and all investment programs. With proven scalability and ease of use, FDx Perform is unmatched in the industry and can provide you with a unique competitive advantage.

Contact us for an online demo of FDx Perform or explore the other modules of the FolioDynamix wealth management technology platform.

This is part of a FolioDynamix blog series on “Getting to Know the FDx SingleSight Platform,” which is designed to introduce you to new tools and best practices for growing your wealth management business.

Consider the following questions:

• How do you want to run the program: centralized or decentralized trading control?
• How do you trade accounts that are not model based?
• Do you have accounts spread across multiple custodians?
• What trading functions are most important to your firm’s users?

In order to grow your business, you must attract new clients, retain and grow existing accounts to increase assets under management (AUM). These objectives are dependent on your ability to effectively monitor and manage all of your accounts.

FolioDynamix created the FDx Manage software-as-a-service module to address these needs with an eye towards scalability and efficiency. With an intuitive web-based interface designed to enhance visibility, productivity and performance for advisors and portfolio managers, FDx Manage delivers:

Four distinct trading tools that allow flexibility and control across many types of accounts within many different programs:

• Multi-level rebalancing: Asset type, asset class, portfolio segment, or even security level
• Security swap: One-to-one or one-to-many position swapping
• Manual trade: User controlled block trade creation
• Trade to target: Bulk order generation; specify target share amount, desired percentage or dollar amount

Support for many types of investment programs:

• Mutual fund wrap: Facilitate intra-fund family exchanges through FolioDynamix’ fund family manager.
• UMA: Use specific multi-account tools for sleeve-level security tagging and cash allocation.
• Rep as PM: FDx Manage can handle both discretionary and non-discretionary trading in the same order block and properly route trade order flows.
• Rep as Advisor: Use the built-in order flow to reassign block execution to another user by unique user ID.
• Multiple programs: If you are running multiple programs, FDx Manage gives you the ability to designate the desired mix of centralized or decentralized trading control and assign those capabilities by program or user ID. FDx Manage provides granular permission-based access to all system functions and investment programs, giving you the capacity to run different kinds of programs with different types of users – all on a single technology platform.

Support for multiple custodians:

• If you have accounts across multiple custodians, do you have a system that can work across them and not slow down your trade processes? FDx Manage is custodial agnostic so you can search, sort and route trades via multiple custodians.

Consolidate on FDx Manage and you can eliminate costly overhead. Different investment programs have different requirements and running those multiple programs at the same time can pose unique obstacles to sponsor firms. FDx Manage was designed to be the one solution that addresses all of these obstacles – user entitlements, trade control, and multiple custodians. Let FDx Manage provide the power and flexibility your wealth management platform requires while consolidating existing platforms and streamlining business processes. 

Contact us for an online demo of FDx Manage or explore the other modules of the FolioDynamix wealth management software platform.

This is part of a FolioDynamix blog series on “Getting to Know the FDx SingleSight Platform,” which is designed to introduce you to new tools and best practices for growing your wealth management business.

FolioDynamix is of the opinion that future rep-as-PM growth will be at least as great as UMA growth, and most likely greater on a dollar basis. As the fee-based platform industry evolves, reps have become increasingly active in managing their clients’ own portfolios versus handing them off to be run in a centralized capacity. The evolution of user-friendly interfaces to take institutional-grade wealth management tools out to a rep has driven increased interest for hands-on advisors looking for a home to park their clients’ assets.

The industry is also slowly moving in a direction to offer a true hybrid UMA, where a rep actively manages a portion of the client’s account, while rounding out the same account with investment manager model-driven products and mutual funds or ETFs. In order to facilitate this movement, the chosen sponsor platform will have to be flexible enough to handle multiple flavors of UMA programs, while remaining more user-friendly for the reps to actively manage their client accounts or sleeves of their client accounts.

When looking at it from an assets under management (AUM) perspective, unified managed account programs will account for a large chunk of assets in a smaller account set. UMA accounts generally carry a larger account minimum, which will provide for larger base of asset flow, but smaller account volume, relative to rep-as-PM accounts. Additionally, where the rep-as-PM growth will be mostly new assets, a portion of the unified managed account growth will be attributed to the cannibalization of the SMA programs, moving those existing assets into UMA programs.

Statistically, many reports represent program growth on a percentage basis. However, with unified managed account programs at approximately one-third the size of the industry’s rep-as-PM programs ($130.2B v $408.2B according to Cerulli), equal asset flows into the two programs represent a great impact on a percentage basis to UMA programs.

Proprietary investment models can serve as the foundation of a wealth business value proposition. Whether these models are developed at the home office or by financial advisors running rep as portfolio manager (rep as PM) programs, investment models can be a key competitive differentiator. In addition to portfolio performance, there are several factors to consider when assessing the overall effectiveness of your model creation and investment model management approach:

• How much time and effort is taken to implement and run investment models – are you still manually calculating and trading investment models across your accounts?
• Is the management of your investment models efficient?
• Do investment model management activities detract time from other equally important duties?

The reality is that investment model administration is often hindered by antiquated processes that can be a costly drain on a portfolio manager’s time. Implementing the right technology can significantly improve efficiency and effectiveness, allowing portfolio managers to spend less time on administration and more time on investment analysis, business development and client relationship management.

FDx Model, from FolioDynamix, is a multi-dimensional investment model management tool that delivers 5 integrated capabilities to help you transform your investment model practices into a competitive differentiator:

1. Support for varying degrees of complexity and several distinct levels of modeling. How do you create your models: asset type, asset class, or security level? FDx Model can accommodate all of them, and even allow for nesting of models within each other.
2. Web-based model creation and flexibility. Creating models in the FDx Model system is fast and easy – upload them into the system or create them online. Create models on a percentage or a share class basis. Access all of your models in a single repository for better visibility and compliance, as well as agility in applying changes.
3. Single user interface for on-going investment model management across all investment programs and accounts. From a single web-based interface, portfolio managers can assign models to different investment programs: UMA, MFW, rep as PM, rep as advisor, etc. This ability to apply models consistently across multiple programs can eliminate model proliferation in your system and enhance efficiency. Day-to-day changes can be applied quickly – either online or through an upload for application across selected client accounts.
4. Centralized control for investment model customization and monitoring. Create and assign drift tolerances by security, asset classes, or asset type on an absolute or relative basis. Establish position holds and security restriction replacements through defined priority rankings and varying time periods – allowing you to predefine and execute your “next best” choices when the system encounters client-level restrictions. Because FDx Model maintains your investment directives when it encounters unique client restrictions, manual intervention is minimized.
5. Effective reporting and analysis. FDx Model allows for the reporting of historical snapshots as well as the auditing of investment model changes within user defined time periods. Track how models have changed over time and audit those changes by user login.

FDx Model provides a level of efficiency and ease of use that is unique in the wealth management industry. Bulk model management and fine-tuned portfolio management controls empower firms and users to get the most out of their investment model-based programs. FDx Model can enhance your business practices and increase your overall practice growth.

Contact us for an online demo of FDx Model or explore the other modules of the FolioDynamix wealth management technology platform.

This post is part of a FolioDynamix blog series on “Getting to Know the FDx SingleSight Platform,” which is designed to introduce you to new tools and best practices for growing your wealth management business.  

FolioDynamix designed FDx Propose with your key business criteria in mind. Available in a web-based, software-as-a-service environment, FDx Propose will give you customized proposal generation with just the right amount of system flexibility, down to the user level – with low overhead, rapid deployment to advisors and easy accessibility. 

How is FDx Propose different from other investment proposal generation systems? In addition to modern architecture and the most current business expertise, here are some of the key features that set FolioDynamix apart from other solutions:

• Household level investment proposal and IPS – Illustrate all of a client’s accounts within their household allocation. Account for assets held away through the ability to “enter product name” – providing the client with one all-encompassing view of their financial situation. Generate an IPS based on the scoring of a risk tolerance questionnaire to clearly show clients the distinct goals and objectives of their investment plan. Individualize the IPS with account-specific restrictions, contributions or distributions for client acceptance and sign-off.
• Current Allocation – Illustrate a client’s current holdings down to the security level for comparison to what you are proposing and the analytics to accompany it.
• Strategic Allocation – This is the embodiment of the household level investment proposal. You have the ability to be very strategic on how and where you invest the assets of certain accounts. FDx Propose allows the concentration of certain holdings in one account vs. another on an asset class by asset class basis. The solution can even account for taxability of the account registration and the inherent tax efficiencies of the underlying asset class. For instance, you can place all high turn-over, lower cap holdings in a tax-deferred account while keeping the overall household allocation consistent with the scoring of the risk tolerance questionnaire. 
• Multiple proposal generation paths with different RTQ’s assigned – As a firm you can incorporate different user paths within FDx Propose and assign a unique RTQ to each. You can control the amount of program flexibility that is available to your advisors and home office employees through the system’s robust administration functions.
• Multiple programs within one proposal – Select from multiple investment programs and illustrate them account by account within a single investment proposal.

Contact us for an online demo of FDx Propose or explore the other modules of the FolioDynamix wealth management technology platform.

Note: This post is part of a FolioDynamix blog series on “Getting to Know the FDx SingleSight Platform,” which is designed to introduce you to new tools and best practices for growing your wealth management business.