Separately managed accounts can be confusing, but the paperwork and operations behind them need not be—or at least that’s the thrust of a new effort by Smith Barney Consulting Group.
Smith Barney is in the midst of rolling out its new Integrated Investment Service, which aims to streamline the account-opening process, to cut down paperwork and to give reps better tools for monitoring client accounts.
"The idea was to make an experience where the client is only going to sign one consulting contract and one set of documents," says Frank Campanale, chairman and CEO of Smith Barney Consulting Group. "It’s to pull all of this information together in such a fashion so they’re looking at one super-account."
The system, which underwent several months of testing, was rolled out in the middle of August and will be introduced gradually to Smith Barney branches through the end of October at a rate of about 50 per week. About 50 branches currently use the system.