(Photo: AP)
Schwab Advisor Services made enhancements to its Institutional Intelligent Portfolios automated investment platform that include a new account conversion feature enabling RIAs to simply and quickly transfer investors' existing Charles Schwab brokerage accounts to advisor-branded automated investment accounts.
The paperless process allows advisors to incorporate automated investing into their practices while freeing more time to spend with clients and efficiently grow their businesses, according to Schwab.
"Automated investment management helps advisors scale their businesses while complementing the invaluable wealth management services they already provide to investors," said Lauren Wilkinson, Schwab's vice president of digital advisor solutions, in a statement.
Past enhancements made to the platform include an increase number of available funds, now 2,700 mutual funds and 1,400 ETFs; unlimited portfolio-modeling capabilities, including infinite model creation and custom drift settings; the ability to handle inherited IRA accounts; and an option for advisors to initiate the digital account open process on clients' behalf, enabling firms to provide an even higher level of client service. More than 1,100 firms have signed on to use the solution to date, Schwab said.
AssetMark Introduces Savos Personal Portfolios
AssetMark added Savos Personal Portfolios to its platform, which can be customized to meet clients' needs and adapted as those needs change.
The new offering incorporates individual stocks, yield-focused fixed income and a tactical strategy that AssetMark said "seeks additional equity exposure when the markets are rising and reduces equity exposure to avoid large losses in downturns."
Savos Personal Portfolios provide a "personalized investment experience with features that are typically only available at much higher investment minimums and fees," according to Jason Thomas, CEO and chief investment officer of Savos Investments, the AssetMark division that's managing the new offering.
The features include a "personalized client proposal, a personalized tax analysis and tax-sensitive portfolio transition, custom investment allocations to tailor solutions to each client's personal goals, and account-level tax loss harvesting and ongoing rebalancing to keep portfolios in line," he told ThinkAdvisor.
Principal Makes Enhancements to its Retirement Record-Keeping Platform
Principal Financial Group enhanced its retirement record-keeping platform to "make administration easier, more flexible, personalized and help drive better participant outcomes."
Principal recently completed its acquisition of Wells Fargo's institutional retirement and trust business, which had close to $830 billion in assets under administration as of the end of last year. As part of the integration that followed, Principal is incorporating capabilities from the Wells Fargo platform into its own proprietary record-keeping platform that it said will serve Principal and transitioning Wells Fargo customers moving forward.
