Our From the Desk of the COO series features stories, strategies and solutions from GeoWealth’s Chief Operating Officer, Jack Hannah. This ongoing series will provide insights for those working in, or heading up, back and middle offices. Enjoy these views from our resident Operations Guru, Jack!
Jack, how has UMA technology transformed RIA operations and the client experience?
Most of you probably remember the traditional method of managing separate accounts for the same household. Every investment strategy or model existed as a separate account, with its own set of securities.
Whether it was a home office model, a large cap value strategy, or a professionally managed account (the list goes on) for the same household, each required a separate account number, separate statements, separate 1099 reports, creating obvious and significant burdens for both clients and advisors.
Thankfully, innovation tends to trump tradition when it comes to driving operational efficiency. Sleeving, or housing multiple models in one account, enables advisors to consolidate a client’s investments, reducing their operational challenges and making it far easier for clients to get a comprehensive view of their accounts. This is also known as a UMA, or Unified Managed Account.
Let’s sort through a more specific example. Imagine a client has a home office model in a portion of their account. You, as the advisor, recommend investing a portion of their account into a third-party managed model available on the GeoWealth platform. This particular client also has legacy positions they never want to sell, and they prefer to always keep $100K in cash (no matter what cash a manager might have in their model).
Sleeving allows all these different pieces to interact inside a single registration. Using the GeoWealth platform, you can easily see these accounts broken out as though they’re separate. No opening multiple accounts, no switching between views, no separate reporting, no moving funds back and forth.
Each line item has its own performance data, holdings data, and transaction data broken out inside the sleeve, so it’s easy to understand exactly how each piece is performing without individually analyzing every line item on its own, creating monumental efficiency for advisors and transparency for clients.
And unlike many technology platforms, GeoWealth doesn’t charge additional fees for sleeving, enabling an unlimited number of sleeves in any particular account. Curious to learn more? Schedule your one-on-one demo here: geowealth.com/schedule-a-demo
Until next time! Thanks,
Jack
P.S. Got questions? Want to chat through your current operations headaches? Hit me up at jack.hannah@geowealth.com.
MORE IN THIS SERIES:
- PART 1: My Path to COO and What I Learned Along the Way
In the first installment of this series, I detail the journey from my very first job right out of college on the bottom rung of an RIA firm to my position now as Chief Operating Officer at GeoWealth and everything in between.
- PART 2: The Top 4 Operational Bottlenecks at RIA Firms
In this article, I identify the four most common operational roadblocks I’ve seen get in the way of RIA scale and growth, as well as how to address them.
- PART 3: 3 Operational Risk Factors Creating Liabilities for RIAs
Operational risk factors can cause significant – and expensive – liabilities for RIA firms. Here are the top three biggest offenders.
- PART 4: The Evolution of RIA Operations
I take a look back at the way it used to be (PortfolioCenter, anyone?) and highlight the major strides we’ve made in trading, billing, and client experience.
- PART 5: In-house vs. Outsourced Middle Office Operations
As firms grow in complexity, add new advisors, and introduce more sophisticated investment strategies, managing trading in-house can become cumbersome at best and risky at worst. - SEE ALL
