Creating Meaningful Conversations: Black Diamond’s Group By Anything Initiative

The relationship between a client and their advisor is a partnership, working together to reach goals. That is why successful financial advisors create an open dialogue with their clients that generate strong connections. One of the many challenges advisors confront is being able to present data to their clients in a meaningful, intuitive way tailored to an individual’s personal needs and values. Until recently, the standard reporting display options have been sufficient for creating these stories. However, as wealth changes generations and technology is more involved in the conversation, we recognize the importance of a flexible and customizable experience. This is where the Group By Anything initiative from SS&C’s Black Diamond^® Wealth Platform comes into play.

Generate actionable reports that tell the whole story

We believe advisors should be able to create reports and a client portal experience that reflects the personalized investment decisions made and addresses the investor’s individualized concerns. Key client data comes into the Black Diamond platform through many different avenues, including:

• Partnering with Custodians to support account data
• Integrating with market data providers to supplement that data
• Incorporating client-specific CRM data
• Supporting options for advisors to supplement standard industry data with custom-defined information

As a part of the Group By Anything initiative, Black Diamond is adding flexible groupings across all reporting topics, allowing advisors to define custom reporting tags for Portfolio, Account & Asset levels. Advisors can then leverage these tags within groupings to create the specific narrative they want to share with their clients. These new groupings are available across all reporting areas for a consistent advisor and investor experience.

Understanding Group By Anything

Let's walk through an example of how an advisory firm can use Group By Anything. Let's say a firm maintains a custom asset field entitled "Liquidity," which they define as how quickly the security is likely to be converted into cash. An advisor would like to review information relative to liquidity to ensure they are meeting their client's goals. With Group By Anything, the advisor can mark the field as reportable, assign a color scheme to various options and create a client report showcasing the information. The image below displays how an advisor would see this information within the Client View application within the platform.

We envision taking this topic through many iterations. Phase two would empower advisors to filter by anything similar to how they can now group by anything. For example, if an advisor wanted the above chart to only display “Highly Illiquid” assets, Group By Anything would enable this functionality.

In summary, the Black Diamond product team created the Group By Anything initiative to empower advisors with the tools they need to present each unique client’s investment story without limitations. As advisor needs and the wealth management landscape continue to change, holistic and flexible reporting capabilities remain top of mind. The team looks forward to seeing how the expanded reporting aids advisors in creating long-lasting client relationships.

To learn how the SS&C Black Diamond Wealth Platform can support your advisory firm, request your personal demo, call 1-800-727-0605, or email info@advent.com.