SunGard says it has integrated Albridge Solutions’ client data into its financial modeling and planning application. The integration provides the companies’ mutual customers, which include registered investment advisors (RIAs), individual financial planners, and home office reps at broker-dealers, insurance companies and banks, with the ability to access Albridge’s consolidated data through SunGard’s Planning Station.
Blaine Maxfield, president of SunGard’s wealth management solutions business, says the biggest challenge in wealth management is having a complete view of a client’s financial situation. “SunGard’s integration with Albridge helps users to leverage the data consolidation strengths of Albridge and use that information in a data collection process with SunGard’s financial planning tools, which help advisors create an unlimited number of ‘what if’ planning scenarios and then update them instantly with account data from Albridge,” he says.
SunGard says the financial planning process requires a baseline of data to be entered by the user, such as accounts and holdings, values, and CUSIPs/symbols for allocation analytics. Typically, this data is obtained either electronically through integration with a data aggregator or a direct data source such as a back office, or manually entered by the planner. The process is especially challenging for RIAs that traditionally maintain custody assets at multiple institutions. Therefore, consolidating client data from these multiple institutions into one data stream to feed an advisor’s wealth management platform is critical to helping achieve greater productivity and data accuracy, and providing high-quality customer service, says SunGard.
“Wealth management technology solutions that provide one consolidated view of clients’ accounts help advisors to more fully understand their clients’ assets and measure the success of their financial plans,” said Jake Rohn, executive vice president at Albridge Solutions. “Our open architecture approach helps financial advisors to efficiently access an accurate, holistic view of client data through SunGard’s best-of-breed financial planning tools and wealth management solutions. Our mutual customers can then focus their efforts where it matters most for their businesses-expanding and deepening client relationships.”
The Albridge integration with SunGard’s Planning Station, a stand-alone solution as well as a component of SunGard’s Wealth Station wealth management technology platform, is achieved via XML-based Web Services and will be provided to users in a Software as a Service (SaaS) or ASP environment. Albridge also provides replicated data services to a number of users of SunGard’s Protegent Surveillance solution for suitability and pre- and post-trade compliance.