John Wise is excited about the opportunity to combine financial planning with proposals in a way that saves advisors time and relies on sophisticated technology.
The founder and CEO of
That's why he wants
By combining William Blair's wealth management expertise with InvestCloud tech, the two sides hope to establish SYSTM as a "one-stop-shop" that can handle planning, client proposals and reporting in a single data model.
"(William Blair) was like the perfect partner because they actually just wanted to do that. And we've been looking for this partner for some time. Basically William Blair, through SYSTM, is bringing what I would describe as big-boy functionality to all our RIAs," Wise told Financial Planning.
InvestCloud currently serves 27.5 million accounts representing more than $6.5 trillion in assets under management.
"When we started this company, we said that any investment manager can have access to a first-class digital platform in the cloud. That was our mission statement. But we always found it harder for the smaller advisor. And it wasn't because of the technology. It is largely because the accounts party really needs to be an RIA themselves," Wise continued. "This is the perfect scenario to provide best-in-class functionality to people of all spectrums. And obviously SYSTM isn't just for small people. It can go to big people who want the benefits of dealing with someone who is an advisor themselves so they can add exceptional value."
SYSTM's launch was the first of three integrated functions that make up the essence of the platform. Called the "
The marketplace is a TAMP offering for advisory firms looking to streamline search and selection for advisors. The single platform for buying and selling SYSTM-vetted investments and strategies launched with 1,500 live accounts representing $1.4 billion in assets across 95 different strategies.
Last week, SYSTM continued to pour the foundation of its future by
Hamer spent the last 13 years holding a variety of leadership roles at Envestnet. He was most recently Envestnet's principal director of technical consulting.
Brad Goodman,
Goodman, who joined William Blair in 2015 after leaving Hightower Advisors, said at its core, SYSTM is built by wealth advisors for wealth advisors. He said the effort has been in the works for a number of years and is driven by the needs of William Blair's base of 110 advisors across 10 offices with average production of more than $3 million per advisor.
"We really struggled with the ability to find the right platforms for those advisors. Not only to run their businesses, but to grow and succeed and find the right efficiencies to operate," Goodman said. "Everyone's looking for efficiency. Everyone's looking to find ways to focus on clients and become more efficient. Obviously, client focus is priority No. 1, but growing their business is also important. We're not opening offices in every city. So for us to grow as a business, it was 'how do we take advisors that are already extremely successful and make them even more productive than they are today?' That wasn't going to happen with an off-the-shelf product offering that we could find in the marketplace."
Goodman said upon meeting with InvestCloud teams, leaders from William Blair fell in love with their approach to wealthtech.
"For one, the design focus — being able to customize and put the uniqueness of how we think that design should come together with the core functionality or calculators behind the scenes with a single data model. And so and that's the key to all of this," Goodman. "One data model that pulls together trading, financial planning, client portals, client reporting, CRM, all in one platform. What's so important about that is that we don't have to, our advisors don't have to, other firms don't have to spend time managing that data and making sure that it's accurate or making sure that it matches between platforms. They can focus on running their business.
"How should a really well-run ultrahigh net worth private wealth business operate?" he continued. "Use that as the starting ground. We're not going to dictate this is how you have to do it. But here's a framework to start from. If a firm wants to then modify, customize, change it for their uniqueness … it's nimble enough to do that."
He added that getting to this point where SYSTM has finally grown from desire to reality is just the beginning. He said the needs of advisors and clients change daily, so celebrating the launch as if his firm has reached the finish line would be a sign that they're running the wrong race.
"I feel like we're in the first inning. I feel like this is a problem that I have seen since day one of my time in the industry, since I was employee (number) 13 at Hightower," Goodman said. "And so even when we get this right and this is well executed and we're solving this problem for clients in the marketplace day in and day out, our job is never going to be done. But to me, that's the most exciting part of this because it's more about the journey than the end result."
SYSTM officials say the coming months will see the launch of additional functions within the ecosystem alongside the marketplace. The first is a full-service platform for advisors to center their day that integrates everything needed to support a diversified client base, including financial planning, client portal, reporting, CRM, access to structured products and alternatives, banking capabilities, insurance and more.
The other is a suite of solutions that will provide advisors with top industry research, due diligence and direct access to thought leadership. The goal is to deepen the intellectual resources advisors can bring to their clients and strengthen their professional relationships.
