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Why the Advisor Community Is Rapidly Adopting Account Aggregation

What Is Account Aggregation?
Account aggregation is an electronic service that retrieves a client’s bank account, investment account, and outstanding liability account balances from multiple financial institutions’ websites into one display, while not interfering with these accounts, to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the client’s assets and liabilities. As the advisor community continuously strives for higher quality investment advisor tools, account aggregation is playing an important role as an advanced feature of wealth management software.

A rapidly growing number of US-based financial institutions are offering online financial services with account aggregation. Wealth management software and additional advisor tools are also including account aggregation as a part of their online feature set. Account aggregation makes detailed financial monitoring and analysis in wealth management software and other types of advisor tools possible.

Account Aggregation & Wealth Management Software: What’s the Attraction?
The attraction of account aggregation in wealth management software lies in the ability to electronically access personal account information from disparate sources. Without account aggregation, advisors conducting wealth management planning are required to visit individual accounts, note the balances and transactional data needed, and then copy the details into another source to conduct their analysis. It goes without saying that this is a lengthy and labor-intensive process. Since account balances continually change, the process has to be performed routinely to ensure advisor data is up-to date and accurate. Advisor software utilizing account aggregation is quickly replacing this traditional labor-intensive process. New and innovative wealth management software prides itself on speed and convenience; thus account aggregation is an essential component for wealth management software success.

Account aggregation, featured in wealth management software, assists advisors in gaining the competitive edge by providing a detailed and holistic look into their clients’ accounts. Advisors can gain superior insight into their clients’ financial status using wealth management software that offers account aggregation. Advisors can alert their clients of significant account balance changes, expiring stock options, and various other items of importance by utilizing advisor software. With the help of account aggregation and the wealth management software that offers it, advisors can avoid the extensive data collection process and analyze multiple accounts with ease and accuracy for an in-depth look at the client’s asset allocation and financial situation.

Wealth management software offering account aggregation provides great value to advisors and their clients. Some of the benefits of using advisor software with account aggregation include:

  • The ability to manage multiple account balances effectively
  • A single-source platform from which to conduct financial  planning
  • Tailored alerts for significant changes in account balances or asset allocation  
  • The ability to identify lower and higher performing accounts
  • The ability to identify errors in assets or liabilities
  • The ability to provide financial analysis quickly with the most recent account data

Account Aggregation and the Future
With increased market volatility, smart advisors are placing more emphasis on holistic planning and looking for opportunities to provide additional value using wealth management software and other investment advisor tools. By offering financial advisors with a more complete view of their clients’ financial situation, advisor software with account aggregation can help further this goal. As clients continue to diversify their portfolios and invest in multiple areas, wealth management software that utilizes account aggregation will continue to solidify itself as a vital and effective investment advisor tool.