Consolidation software
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I just looked at Black Diamond’s software … very, very impressive. It’s the sort of reporting software I created when I was in IT, the sort of thing that should be standard for any client and CERTAINLY for any advisor.
Rollup, drill down, cube your information as you see fit either by goal (education/retirement) or by household; cost basis, naturally; include the clients 401k, banking etc.; dispense static or ad hoc reporting to the client via the web; store your printed reports as final; reports themselves are actually a pleasure to look at; and of course, compare any component to benchmarks. Has anyone actually used it? I had a 10 minute webinar-ish and obviously was impressed.It's nice, but VERY expensive. I would also be concerned about the ability to acquire your data (can you get it? all of it? in what output/format? is there an extra cost?) at a later date if you want to go elsewhere. Data portability and ownership, in my opinion, is very important.
I have experience with BlackDiamond and it is a nice software. I do not think you have to worry about getting to your data as all you data you can export to Excel. The question is going to be will your new company accept the excel format.
About expense: last I understood it is about 3 bps. Depending on the average size of your account, that may not be too expensive. Advent standard fee is about $200 per account. Also speak to your custodian. They may have a discounted pricing.
Good Luck
Two things I've found out about Black Diamond. One, they are working extensively through Pershing in order to more fully saturate the market. Through Pershing you can have the reporting on an account by account basis.
And ... it is priced by account (not household) that cost is somewheres in the neighborhood of $50 per account per year.