As Commonwealth finishes up a strong year of growth, Wayne Bloom, its CEO, pointed to some of his firm's 2021 successes and plans for 2022 that include the coming launch of next-generation versions of its three major advisor-facing tools and a major investment in its cybersecurity initiatives.
Commonwealth's revenue so far this year is up about 21% from the same period a year ago, while fee revenue is up 28% and assets under management are up about 30% to about $270 billion, he told ThinkAdvisor during a recent phone interview.
About 85% of advisor revenue is now fee-based at the firm, he noted, adding: "Commonwealth actually looks more like a national RIA than it does a traditional broker-dealer."
About 200 of the firm's more than 2,000 advisors have dropped their Financial Industry Regulatory licenses and are now affiliated with Commonwealth on a fee-only basis, he said, adding that about 80-100 advisors had dropped their FINRA licenses as of about a year ago. "I think there's several more that are sort of in the queue" to transition to fee-only, he added.
As the company noted at its recent National Conference, the firm's advisors are thriving in a challenging year. Other data that the firm shared at the conference included Preferred Portfolio Services, its managed account platform, growing to over $155 billion.
"We have seen steady growth in the number of clients relying on financial plans, which we find has a significant impact on investor confidence and discipline," Bloom told ThinkAdvisor. "We have also seen an expansion in the compensation methods advisors use for this crucial work," he said.
"Having comprehensive capabilities and access to subject matter experts can serve as a differentiator and a driver of growth," he also said, noting, "it can deepen relationships and insulate advisors from fee compression."
Advisor Tool Enhancements
Commonwealth is "finishing up work on the next generation of three major advisor-facing tools," Bloom said, referring to: Client360 Beta, Trading & Model Management, and Digital Onboarding.
Client360 is the firm's flagship tool that he noted "contains everything an advisor needs to serve their clients: Portfolio management, document management, CRM, performance reporting [and] financial planning." That tool is "getting a brand-new look and feel and improved functionality across the board," he said.
Trading & Model Management, Commonwealth's rebalancing tool, is "getting even smarter, allowing things like equivalencies and locks to be customized per account, per model or across an advisors' business," he said.
Digital Onboarding, meanwhile, represents the "evolution of our Client Account Wizard, which allows new accounts to be opened in real time, and existing accounts to be edited," he said. The new version "will allow all signatures to be bundled into one DocuSign email, and for more client digital engagement," he explained.
