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Regulatory Changes Help Level the Playing Field for Investment
Advisors
Online Client and Account Management Software Translates to Big Impact for Advisor Firms
Boston, MA –
07/10/04
The competitive landscape is changing for small-to-medium sized Investment Managers, RIA’s (Registered Investment
Advisors), and TPA’s (Third Party Administrators). Due to their size and resources, these groups were previously unable to
access the type of online functionality that eases otherwise onerous processes like prospect tracking, client enrollment,
account establishment, forms management, and online reporting. Now, thanks in part to regulatory changes such as the Patriot
Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, Know-Your-Client, etc., that’s all changing.
“From a service and efficiency perspective, we’re
accessing a way to compete with the larger firms”, says Matthew Saltzman, President of newcomer Mercury Wealth Management,
LLC. Mercury, a Boston-based Investment Advisor targeted at medium-to-high net worth individuals, has come to market bearing
a new solution, called Advisor StationTM, that leverages the advantages of an ASP model, keeping costs to a minimum while
offering-up services and features that mirror and expand on those offered by much larger financial institutions.
Mr.
Saltzman states that, “In addition to improving services to end clients, regulatory changes such as KYC (Know Your Client),
Sarbanes-Oxley, and the Patriot Act are forcing all players in the Investment Advisory arena, large and small alike, to substantially
alter their day-to-day business processes and work-flow.”
What used to be a relatively painless 2-page client enrollment
form is now, often times, an involved 8-page document capturing everything from risk tolerance to detailed investment goals.
Additionally, the forms associated with opening the respective accounts for these clients require a great deal of manual effort.
Mercury is utilizing an online automated application called Advisor Station that was built in partnership with financial software
specialists, Bonaire Software Solutions.
Advisor Station captures all the required client information, generates
goal-planning calculations and asset allocations, contains an advanced Fund Screening tool, opens client accounts, then pre-populates
all the forms associated with those accounts. Additionally, the application incorporates industry-leading Market Research
Data vis-à-vis MoneyLine Telerate’s WebStationTM. The application itself is segmented into advisory categories of Retirement,
Education, Estate Planning, “Life-Goal” Planning, Insurance, Tax Planning, and Philanthropic Planning which allow the assigned
Broker Representative to have a comprehensive landscape of their clients’ needs while meeting the new regulatory requirements.
The
result is a holistic approach to managing client and account relationships that is becoming increasingly demanded by investors
and mandated by the SEC and other regulatory agencies. While firms like Mercury lack the large internal technology & regulatory
compliance staffs and vast development resources to address the oncoming requirements themselves, the online subscription
model offers a low-cost alternative that provides the same type of efficiencies currently utilized only by larger institutions.
In addition, the account establishment and forms generation capabilities offered by Advisor Station are leading the industry
into a new era of process efficiency.
The result is a solution that better satisfies both client and regulatory agency
requirements while substantially narrowing the technology and workflow efficiency gaps between large and small firms.
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About Mercury Wealth Management, LLC
Mercury
Wealth Management is comprised of seasoned financial professionals who have established a partnership of branch offices dedicated
to helping clients meet their financial objectives. Through Mercury’s affiliated companies and strategic partnerships, our
independent advisors have the capability of offering a wide array of quality products, investment opportunities, and wealth
management services. For more information about Mercury Wealth Management, visit its Web site at www.mercurywm.com
About Advisor Station, LLC
Advisor Station represents the most advanced and comprehensive set of Wealth Management
tools available in the marketplace today. The components have been designed by advisors and built by financial software specialists.
The Advisor Station application suite provides end-to-end functionality and data consolidation to address the full compliment
of tasks and challenges faced by financial advisors and the respective firms they represent. For more information about the
Advisor Station Wealth Management Platform, please visit www.advisorstation.com
About Bonaire Software Solutions,
LLC
Bonaire Software Solutions, LLC provides services, software components and applications to meet the changing needs
of today’s financial community. Products and services focus exclusively on the financial services industry and both the business
and technology staffs possess outstanding long-term experience gained from senior-level buy-side and sell-side positions.
Bonaire’s business and technology staffs have a comprehensive understanding of the entire trade process from initiation through
compliance and have spent years designing and developing front, middle and back-office systems in this domain. In short,
we bring value to the table at every step of straight-through-processing and excel at providing Web-based transactional solutions
that integrate and perform seamlessly with existing legacy systems. For more information, please visit www.bonairesoft.com
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