EIFIS Guest

Our clients, from regional brokerages with an average of $100 million ins assets to large broker/dealers with over $2 billion dollars in assets under management, were searching for greater efficiency and scalability to recruit more investment managers onto their platforms, achieve recognition as top- tier financial advisors and grow client assets.  While their operations and systems effectively supported their existing business model, inherent limitations prevented the servicing of their varying client base to allow the business to scale.

 

Implement a new core brokerage and mutual fund trading system to incorporate increased volumes of on-line trading, file transmissions and user-friendly interfaces that the old system lacked and the business had outgrown. Concentration was on automating a straight-through processing approach to DTCC and FundServ platforms that included account set up, fund set up, trading and settlement, position reconciliation and income processing. With industry projections for assets under management forecasted at a 25% increase year over year for at least 5 years, the companies required more automation and less manual processing.

Specific business objectives included:

• Greater on-line capabilities
• Real-time client inquiry
• No-load mutual fund trading and revenue sharing
• Reconciliation
• Participant directed brokerage accounts
• Wealth management/trust accounting
• Automated recordkeeping interfaces
• Cost savings

We assisted with the Request for Information and Request for Proposal, and IT due diligence. We supported the RFI and RFP process by leading project management, contract negotiations, vendor reviews, client communication, development oversight, and managed full testing and production support. The RFI and RFP process took 4-6 months, which involved the definition of criteria, needs assessment and identifying/selecting the companies to involve in the RFI and a subset of these for the RFP. We were able to advise on contract terms with vendors and partners due to the knowledge, history, and scale we brought to similar projects. Our value to the project was in the expertise we brought to bear having worked in the past with mutual fund processing platforms, partners, and vendors with a focus on providing better execution, real time information and a greater selection of mutual funds and exchange traded securities.

With projects averaging at least one and a half years, the clients successfully implemented new core brokerage, mutual fund accounting and trading system platforms, re-engineered manual operational workflows, and implemented training programs for the new systems/operations services.

As a result, the clients experienced an accelerated growth of accounts, increased transaction rates from in years past, and reduced processing costs (account administration, portfolio administration, and order processing). Management was confident that over the next few years, staff and processing costs would not grow at current rates, while productivity and volume would improve.