Value Defined: Having the Right Tool for the Task

For nearly 15 years, we’ve experienced an incredible bull market that’s led to heightened investor confidence regardless of expertise. Wherever you made your bets, your money was almost guaranteed to go up. Investors threw caution to the wind, whether it was crypto or SPAC’s, and continued to make loftier bets. Financial advisors, however, knew a downturn would come. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the market remained over-exposed to equities and has felt the brunt of the impact of this market correction.

Times like the present is when the value of a financial advisor begins to truly shine.  Whether creating a more balanced portfolio or performing periodic rebalances to ensure their clients aren’t taking on unnecessary risk, advisors can help protect investors from themselves. It’s tough to step away from the table when you are on a heater, a behavior the casinos in Vegas have relied upon for years to amass their fortunes. Therefore, advisors demonstrate their critical role in their clients’ lives by acting as the voice of reason. They remove themselves from the wild, emotional swings that we know all too well and can put a clear, strategic plan in place to navigate these difficult economic times. 

Nonetheless, for the advisor to play this role and do it at scale, they need the right tools to do their job.  With just a handful of clients, the advisor may be able to manage their portfolios in excel or a custodial platform. However, once they start growing their business to 50 or more relationships, they will need help. This is where the SS&C Black Diamond Wealth Platform Rebalancer’s power really becomes indispensable. This tool monitors almost half million client portfolio accounts daily and alerts when clients most urgently need attention. In addition, the Rebalancer can help understand if a client has significantly deviated from their target or if they’re potentially sitting on an excessive amount of cash that needs to be put to work. Therefore, having this real-time feedback saves advisors so much time and ultimately ensures that clients are accurately invested at all times. 

During 1H 2022, a significant spike in activity within Black Diamond’s Rebalancer occurred. For the first time in more than a decade there were substantial tax-loss harvesting opportunities advisors could take advantage of. Additionally, advisors needing to liquidate positions en masse across their books leveraged the tactical trading workflows to do so.  And with access to FIX trading directly in the application (almost half billion traded year-to-date), advisors can efficiently execute trades for their clients without jumping between multiple systems. 

In conclusion, the current downturn serves as a clear reminder to us not only of the value financial advisors provide but their need to have the right tool to guide their client’s needs. To learn more about the Black Diamond® Wealth Platform, request your personal demo, call 1-800-727-0605, or email info@advent.com.