In today’s digital world, simple things like making a dinner reservation or hailing a cab can be done with the click of a button. Even complicated and complex functions like wealth management are slowly moving towards automation.
The wealth management sector is experiencing disruptive changes as clients now expect to be served digitally, be it via a self-directed tool or with the help of an advisor. Wealth managers who leverage these technologies future-proof themselves and lay the groundwork for success in terms of scale, client services, and business growth.
However, these transitions can be a challenge, even for the most tech-savvy financial advisor. Advisor Software (ASI) simplifies the process by bringing automated functionality to the systems you already use. ASI focuses on advancing the science of wealth planning so financial advisors can focus on the art of advice delivery.
It provides cloud platforms to empower today’s advisor and wealth management companies. Customized to suit the needs of each client, ASI’S products address a range of advisor functional needs, including Digital Advice, Planning, Proposal Generation, Portfolio Construction, Rebalancing, and Investment Analytics.
ASI is the first organization to develop an independent, enterprise-level portfolio rebalancing solution, as well as the first goal-driven, end-to-end financial technology platform designed to evolve with the client as their needs, circumstances, and overall capital market conditions change.
The company is powered by a research team that provides in-depth analytics for its products with sophisticated Monte Carlo solutions, risk modeling, stress testing, and holistic financial planning. Complex problems are solved and presented in a simple and easy to- understand user interface.
A Veteran Leader
Advisor Software’s Founder, and currently the Chairman and CEO, Andrew Rudd is an expert in asset allocation, modern portfolio theory, risk management, and performance measurement. When founding ASI in 2001, Andrew wanted to create a company that would deliver world class analytics to the retail financial services market.
He is also a co-founder and former chairman of Barra, Inc., where he served as CEO from 1984 to 1999. Dr. Rudd was also Professor of Finance and Operations Research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Andrew has co-authored two industry-leading books on institutional investing, Modern Portfolio Theory: The Principles of Investment Management and Option Pricing. Additionally, he has written various journal articles and research papers on a wide range of domestic and international investment practices and theories.
Dr. Rudd received his Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Mathematics and Physics from Sussex University in England, and earned a M.Sc. in Operations Research, an M.B.A in Finance and International Business, and a Ph.D. in Finance and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley.
“While technology can improve the way advisors manage the financial lives of their clients, the advisor client relationship is the most important part of the equation. All of our applications have been developed with this in mind, advancing the science of wealth planning so advisors can focus on the art of advice delivery,” asserts Andrew.
Addressing Clients’ Needs
Advisor Software’s products address advisors’ functional needs. They are aimed at a wide range of financial institutions and professionals, enabling asset management firms, broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, online brokerages, custodians, and providers of investment services and products to deliver more insightful, actionable investment advice and build stronger, more profitable client relationships.
The company has already built a loyal client base of RIAs, banks, asset managers, warehouses, and independent broker-dealers. Its clients enjoy some of the lowest time-to-market rates in the industry.
Advisor Software’s integrations with popular tools and custodians let advisors move seamlessly between applications and automate routine workflows, saving them time and unlocking new operational efficiencies. The organization help advisors and leading financial enterprises create operational alpha through technology.
Technological elements like behavioral questionnaire, Behavioral IQ®, are sometimes regarded as an additional expense or a way to cut down on human wealth managers. However, these products actually save financial advisors time by guiding clients toward investments that make sense for them and also keep them comfortable while generating revenue for the firm.
Clients today want personalized experiences and ASI believes that it is every financial advisor’s duty to provide it. Technology is merely a way to scale your business functions.
A Different Organization Making the Industry a Better Place
Advisor Software’s unique attributes are the unrivalled depth of its API technology and the independent research it employs. With over 175 unique APIs and patented technology, it is able to build customized solutions for enterprises of any size. ASI can deploy its robo advisor platform in a matter of days, not weeks or months.
All of its software applications and APIs are sold strictly as a SaaS model. The organization does not charge based on basis points or Assets Under Management (AUM). Just because Advisor Software’s tool helps a client add 30% new business does not mean a larger check for ASI. This model helps with budgeting and is the basis of the solid, long-term relationships ASI enjoys with many of its customers.
Advisor Software’s recent growth is fueled partly by its one-of-a-kind Wealth Management Cloud platform – an end-to-end suite of sophisticated analytics, APIs and SaaS applications for the wealth management industry. Used by thousands of financial professionals, ASI’s portfolio of services and resources encompass: Goal-Based Financial Planning; Risk Tolerance Assessment; Rebalancing; Digital Advice; Proposal Generation; Investment Planning; Portfolio Analysis; Portfolio Management; Reporting, and Alerts.
Helping Advisors Deliver Better Advice
ASI’s wealth management cloud is one-of-a-kind platform that helps financial institutions and wealth managers to deliver better advice to their customer in a more flexible, efficient and scalable way.
- Digital Advisor: This smart, scalable digital application automates onboarding and advice delivery, so advisors can focus on deepening relationships with clients. Digital Advisor is a complete, turnkey automated investing solution from lead generation and model selection, through portfolio monitoring and rebalancing, so clients can efficiently serve accounts of any size.
- Behavioral IQ: ASI has built an innovative, research-based digital solution that measures a person’s relevant behaviors and knowledge, uniquely creating a measure of both their ability and propensity for making appropriate financial decisions.
- Portfolio Rebalancer: Portfolio Rebalancer is a portfolio management application that scales to firms of any size. It includes portfolio construction and model management, investment proposal generation, account monitoring, portfolio rebalancing, diagnostics, and reporting. It helps ASI’s clients to grow their topline and increase operational efficiency with the wealth management industry’s most complete portfolio rebalancing app.
- Client Acquisition: ASI Client Acquisition Solution is an institutional-caliber portfolio construction and proposal generation platform that allows advisors to create more personalized investment plans, deliver more consistent advice, and convert more prospects to clients.
- goalgamiPro: ASI believes that goalgamiPro is the best Financial Planning software solution for financial advisors with too little time on their hands. With goalgamiPro, one can create goalbased financial plans consisting of a household balance sheet and cash flow plan, then generate professional goal achievement reports for your clients in a matter of minutes.
- Wealth Management APIs: Wealth Management APIS helps to leverage ASI’s robust library of APIs. The organization has build and deliver end-to-end, extensible APIs that can be used within your existing wealth management applications.
A Research-Driven Company
Advisor Software was the first in the industry to develop many of the wealth management applications and APIs that are widely used today. Driven by independent research, Advisor Software often uncovers needs in the industry before the professionals on the front lines realize they have the need.
For example, ASI built the first self direct advice application for Sharebuilder long before other organizations saw the benefit of workflow automation with robo advisors. Advisor Software welcomes those challenges and enjoys educating people about new and improved ways to run a wealth management business.
Advisor Software believes that the coming years will be quite exciting for the organization. The company sees behavioral finance becoming more integrated with holistic financial planning and retirement planning. It wants to help advisors use tools like Behavioral IQ to coach their clients about investing while managing not just their tolerance for risk but also their tolerance for loss.
Entering the Ever Competitive Vertical
Andrew Rudd’s principal motivation in founding ASI was the realization that financial advisors would benefit from an institutional approach towards portfolio management, and that technology could enrich the advisor-client relationship.
Each new initiative launched by ASI shares the goal of improving the quality of services provided to the end-client. To achieve this, ASI introduced application over investment advice, financial planning, more recently behavioral finance (Behavioral IQ) and Digital Advice platform. This goal-based investment platform allows clients to either be self-directed or advisor assisted enabling a streamlined approach to on boarding and maintaining the new and existing clients.
Source :-The 20 Most Innovative FinTech Solution Providers 2018
