We’re always looking for how and where we can add the most value for our wealth manager clients, so you in turn can add real value to your end investors. And the front office is a particular area of focus.

This is the sharp end of the wealth management proposition, the all-important point where investment performance is optimised and the client experience won or lost. So receiving the WealthBriefing European Award for Best Front Office Solution feels like not just a win for us, but for our clients and their investors.

Portal power
The SS&C Advent front office solution suite, which includes our Investrack portal and Genesis portfolio construction and rebalancing system, offers a powerful range of integrated capabilities to support each stage of the client journey.

That journey starts with prospect research and onboarding.

The onboarding process has always been challenging for wealth managers, advisors and investors alike – long questionnaires and application forms; extensive documentation requests; repetitive, time-consuming, manual system inputs.

No longer. Investrack optimises onboarding by automating the account opening and investment proposal processes. Questionnaires automatically capture contact information and prospects’ risk profiles. Risk ratings generated by a tailored suitability assessment allow firms to instantly suggest the right product to match the prospect’s investment objectives and risk profile. Where wanted, investors also have the option to self-on-board instead.

Our portal is redefining the ongoing client experience too. An intelligent document management repository stores, organises and maps all the documents and collateral firms want to distribute to clients, from offer documents to targeted research. Clients can take advantage of intuitive self-service trading functionality through their mobile-optimised investor dashboard, and enjoy instant access to portfolio information and a complete view of their investments through any device. Secure, two-way communications let them stay in touch with advisors.

Solving portfolio management pain
Portfolio construction and rebalancing is another wealth management pain point. Portfolio managers, firms’ most valuable and expensive resource, have typically seen large chunks of their day tied up with the “mechanics” of portfolio management.

We’ve solved that problem too.

With Advent Genesis, managers can construct portfolios, manage models, create orders, rebalance accounts, monitor and control portfolio drift, and adjust strategies quickly and efficiently, enabling users to create bespoke portfolios in a standardized manner. Tight integration with our order management system and custodial data provide a seamless path from investment decision to trade creation, execution and settlement, eliminating the need for offline workarounds. The result is faster, more informed trading decisions and actions, and automated portfolio construction and rebalancing, at less cost and lower operational risk.

Thanks to such capabilities, your investment and client servicing teams can devote more time to those high value tasks that really make a difference to your investment performance and client satisfaction.

Tackling tomorrow’s challenges
But while winning this year’s award is welcome recognition of the effort and resources we have committed to helping our clients, we won’t rest there. Investors’ expectations and needs are changing all the time, and with it the service pressures on wealth managers. Today’s capabilities won’t be sufficient to meet tomorrow’s challenges. So we’ll continue to invest and innovate.

Every year we commit to delivering new features to users on a semi-annual basis, to help them better engage with their clients, drive greater efficiency, and tackle emerging operational and regulatory issues. Knowing we have their backs helps our clients plan for their futures too.

By partnering together, we can all achieve the results we seek. Awards are nice. But for me, that partnership and the improvements we achieve are the true reward.