Disruption. Innovation. Changing the paradigm. 

Technology, and the agile wealth management firms that take advantage of it, are pushing the boundaries. Whether it’s FinTech disruptors, changes to how wealth managers do business, or the ever-changing balance between simplicity and customization, technology is the essential, underlying foundation that empowers your industry.

We’ll explore some of the major trends in wealth management performance and reporting, and what they could mean to your business. 

Moving from On-Premise, Locally Installed Systems to On-Demand, Cloud-Based Wealth Management Services

Before the Software as a Service (SaaS) revolution, wealth management firms would invest large amounts in locally installed hardware, networks, and other infrastructure. Add to this the expense of purchasing, configuring, and installing performance and reporting software, and the CapEx and ongoing costs add up very quickly.

That’s changing, fast. Wealth management firms are moving away from legacy reporting systems and towards a cloud-based future, with scalable, on-demand performance management services that require little upfront cost and easily controlled, competitive pricing. 

The shift from traditional, on-premise functions to cloud-based wealth management software has several other advantages:

Allowing for Fast and Easy Wealth Management Software Upgrades

Because SaaS reporting applications are hosted centrally, it’s not as difficult for wealth management vendors to add new features and functionality. Developers make changes to the code, test it for quality, and then work with you to deploy it—so you can get access to the latest version soon after release. 

Staying on Top of Wealth Management Performance Security

Strong, reliable security and encryption are vital for wealth management. Vendors put safety first, ensuring that business information and financial performance details have best-in-class protection. When information is protected at every stage, you and your clients will have peace of mind.

Growing Your Wealth Management Services as Your Firm Expands

You can add in extra performance, reporting, and other capabilities as you need to. Most SaaS solutions have a modular approach, allowing you to scale up services as demand increases. You never need to spend more on capacity that you won’t use.

Transitioning from Siloed, Standalone Data to Context-Rich, Integrated Wealth Management Systems

Legacy wealth management software often works in isolation, making it difficult to transfer information between different systems. This can result in erroneous data from miskeying or conversion, compounding errors elsewhere in your reporting. This makes audits more difficult and means your wealth managers may be working with inaccurate information.

The latest wealth management performance software and services are built around integration—consolidating and aggregating data from multiple sources.  This gives your wealth managers a centralized view, allowing for better decision making and well-informed discussions.

Integrating Data from Multiple Wealth Management Sources to Provide “One View of the Truth” 

Wealth managers don’t want to have to review multiple systems to get accurate reporting. Consolidating information from different areas and presenting it in a clear and consistent report means they can keep the most important performance facts front-and-center. The latest wealth management reporting technology flawlessly integrates with in-house and external data sources to provide at-a-glance insight across financial markets, portfolios, economic influences, and more.

Adding Important Context to Help Wealth Managers Understand and Explain Performance

Being able to contextualize information helps your wealth managers tell a story through the data. Just as data doesn’t exist in isolation, neither should your wealth management reports. 

Understanding underlying factors like economic performance, benchmarks, allocations, and diversification means wealth managers can highlight the most important points, talk about different scenarios and models, and properly explain risk, reward, and other vital factors.

Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Automate Low-Value Tasks

You want to ensure that your employees, networks, and partners are focused on high-value tasks and profit-generating activities. Modern wealth management performance systems use AI and machine learning to provide actionable insights that will enhance and improve client investment strategies. 

Shifting from Fragmented, Reactive Compliance Management to Industry-Leading Best Practices

Wealth management compliance and regulations change fast and you need to keep up. It can be a nightmare to keep multiple legacy systems updated to meet compliance regulations. Centralized best practices provide a consistent approach across all of your firm’s advisors and accounts—making things easier for compliance managers and executives.

Modern, cloud-based wealth management reporting ensures that all of those compliance factors are built-in—meaning you can be confident that your performance data meets SEC and other regulatory frameworks. 

Ensuring that All of Your Performance Management and Reporting Meets Mandated Requirements

Wealth management compliance varies depending on the international markets of operation. From industry-specific regulations, like SEC requirements, to legislation that impacts how you manage and control data, like GDPR, there’s an over-growing landscape of compliance needs.

Your wealth reporting and performance management solution can remove a lot of these headaches. Software vendors need to meet regulatory frameworks wherever their clients do business, so you can be confident that general information practices, and specific wealth management rules are being met.

Utilizing Wealth Management Technology Best Practices to Enhance Your Wealth Management Reporting

Fintech providers are continually optimizing their products to provide a robust feature set that meets all client needs. These vendors have crafted a best-practice approach, based on ongoing improvements that demonstrate the value of their products. Wealth managers can take advantage of these best practices when using cloud-based software with cutting-edge development that is updated frequently based on industry changes and standards.

There’s no need to continue relying on legacy systems. The rapid evolution of cloud-based wealth management software means firms can take advantage of the latest developments, without significant upfront investment. The combination of on-demand pricing, continual updates, robust security, integration, best practice, and compliance makes wealth management SaaS a logical choice.

We can help you understand how—download our checklist to evaluate the value of your legacy systems.