Tech Bits
Tech survey, Scivantage and Windham
Davis D. Janowski
Adviser survey highlights technology pain
In a recent survey, 321 advisers were asked to identify their three biggest areas of difficulty out of 10 system areas.
Most problematic were document management, customer relationship management and portfolio management.
As part of the survey, advisers were also asked questions about custodial support.
“An interesting disconnect in the survey results comes from the fact that while custodian support is rated highly generally, respondents didn’t rate custodians as offering them support in these three most painful areas,” said Mike Slemmer, principal of The Collaborative of Minneapolis and co-founder of Advisors Trusted Advisor.
The survey was conducted in May by ATA’s parent company, Medfield -based The Collaborative (The-Collaborative.com), a business development firm focused on financial services and technology businesses, and Advisors Perspectives (advisorperspectives.com) based in Lexington Mass., a newsletter and database company specializing in wealth management-related issues.
In terms of document management, advisers wanted more help in dealing with the explosion in paperwork from custodians and regulators; with regard to CRM systems, a lack of integration with other systems was cited as the biggest problem; in the area of portfolio management, advisers decried a lack of good trading tools and efficient rebalancing.
The survey results were being publicized as part of the launch of AdvisorsTrustedAdvisor.com, a new wealth management website. For more information, visit
AdvisorsTrustedAdvisor.com.
Scivantage to power Scottrade Advisor Services’ platform
With an eye toward supporting its continued expansion, the Scottrade Advisor Services unit of St. Louis-based
Scottrade Inc. has selected a web-based product from Scivantage of Jersey City, N.J., a provider of front- and middle-office technology solutions, to power their new adviser platform.
Scivantage Professional is an integrated suite of applications that aims to provide a more efficient workflow.
From a browser-based interface, Scottrade advisers will be able to open and maintain brokerage accounts, execute trade orders and manage client portfolios. They will also have access to Scivantage
Maxit, a cost-basis, tax management and portfolio reporting offering.
For more information, visit
Scottrade Advisor Services online.
New version of Windham Financial Planner available
Cambridge, Mass.-based Windham Capital Management LLC has released a new version of its Windham Financial Planner product that boasts improved reporting capabilities.
Part of what makes the software unique is its ability to analyze asset behavior during periods of market turbulence by incorporating estimates of a portfolio's exposure to loss throughout a given investment period. To do this, the software employs both analytic methods and Monte-Carlo simulation.
An annual license for the software costs $5,000 (or $1,250 per quarter).
For more information, visit
Windham Capital Management online.
