Kelley Rating (one asterisk = lowest, five asterisks = highest):
- Ease of navigation, design of interface and learning curve ****
- Instructional documentation and help system ***
- Carries out the goal of the product as advertised *****
- Overall usefulness ****
Rockit is a technology-enabled, web-based service that performs wealth management services for multi-family offices, single-family offices, high-net-worth individuals and financial institutions. It addresses the need for customized and specialized professional services for complex family wealth situations and financial institutions.
The Rockit technology and services were developed for the management of the Rockefeller family office. Rockit has been offered since 2000 and was re-branded as Rockit Solutions LLC in May 2008. Rockit Solutions, LLC is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rockefeller & Co., Inc wealth management firm.
The Rockit solution suite provides the information and tools to support family office executives and other professionals through an integrated technology platform. Complex data from multiple and diverse sources (including custodians, outside managers, brokers, banks and others) is collected, aggregated, verified, processed and reconciled daily.
Competitors
Other programs and web-based services provide data reporting and management services comparable to Rockit.
Wealth Touch offers investment reporting, expense management and bill payment options.
Advent for Family Offices is also designed to meet the investment management and reporting requirements of single-family and multi-family offices through portfolio modeling and accounting and performance analytics.
Wealth Passport from Northern Trust is a web-based platform that offers data aggregation and reporting capabilities with detailed summaries of net worth and performance measurement data.
What’s It All About?
The Rockit team includes accountants, analysts and administrators who design and manage client information and reports, including custom data criteria and statement formats. While Rockit performs the data collection and processing, data from all managers or custodians is accessible to family members, family office personnel, advisors and tax and legal professionals.
Rockit Command is the proprietary technology platform for the Rockit services. It compiles an integrated general ledger and provides a single view of the information collected and processed. Clients can see and use data through a single secure portal (a client-level view called Portfolio View), which provides access to holdings, transactions and investment performance information. The Portfolio View includes daily performance comparisons and monitoring, market value summary by manager and asset allocation.
Rockit Data Integrity Services performs automated reconciliation and pricing activities, as well as other daily information management processes. Marketable securities maintained in the Rockit system are priced by an independent pricing service. Values are updated daily.
Other assets that need to be specially valued can be included. Valuations for non-marketable holdings (for example, real estate) are updated on a regular schedule based upon information provided by clients or other outside sources.
Value summaries can be drilled down, by manager,to the individual asset level. Data is posted to accounts as received and the general ledger is updated simultaneously and reconciled at the principal and income level. A change in market value summary is provided to the client. A full account history is available and never purged. Family members are notified by email as required and an inbox is maintained for them.
Rockit also maintains principal and income trust accounting functionality. Customized trust reports are available for use by accounting and trust professionals, when trusts are part of the family asset and management structure.
Clients can apply various filtering criteria to create customized reports, including periodic and on demand reports. Database research and financial projections are also available. Rockit works with the client to design the spectrum of reports that best meet the client’s information needs; clients can create a periodic Statement Package using either standard or customized reports. The Rockit service will tailor the client’s periodic Statement Package to facilitate the transition from the client’s legacy system.
Over 200 standard reports and customized reports are available for users at various levels of sophistication. The standard reports include investment monitoring, tax preparation and financial administration (categorization of transactions, integrated general ledger principal and income balances and expense management reporting). Partnership accounting and tax services are available as an added level of service.
On-demand reports include a holdings report with a display of assets in summary or detail; a transactions report; and realized and unrealized gains and losses with tax details. The Advanced Views area provides ad hoc reports filtered by the user according to date ranges and specified securities. The Documents and Statements section electronically delivers documents, statements, other reports and communications to the client. The flexibility of the report packaging mechanism allows for statement selection at the recipient level. For example, the client’s accountant receives a different package of reports than the investment officer of the family office.
Query tools with additional filtering criteria allow clients to drill into holdings, performance results, transactions, ledger balances and journal entries in depth for the creation of tailored reports. Reports can be exported and saved electronically in Excel, Access, Rich Text Format or PDF.
What About Help and Support?
Live instructor led training is provided to professionals using Rockit
Where Do You Get This Software?
Rockit is priced based on the level of complexity needed by the client and the design services required.
This service is available from:
Rockit Solutions, LLC
333 Ludlow Street
North Tower, 8th Floor
Stamford, CT 06902
Phone: 866-497-9111
Website: http://www.rockitco.com/
An email contact form is available through the website.
Bottom Line
Rockit is a blend of professional services and technology that provides wealth management professionals with relief from back-office burdens.A wealth of professional reports and client information are available on demand. Rockit allows the client to have extensive hands-on access to family office data in the manner of a web-based service. It lets the client focus on the decisionmaking critical to family office success.
For further analysis and discussion of the information flow, collaboration needs and technology procurement in the family office context see Jon Carroll’s articles "Is Your Family Office Techno-savvy?," (August 2006) Trusts & Estates 56 and "Family Office Technology," (August 2009) Trusts & Estates 40, available at trustsandestates.com.
Trusts & Estates magazine is pleased to present the monthly Technology Review by Donald H. Kelley—a respected connoisseur of the software and Internet resources wealth management advisors use to further their practices.
Kelley is a lawyer living in Highlands Ranch, Colo. and is of counsel to the law firm of Kelley, Scritsmier & Byrne, P.C. of North Platte, Neb. He is the co-author of the Intuitive Estate Planner Software, (Thomson – West 2004). He has served on the governing boards of the American Bar Association Real Property Probate and Trust Section and the American College of Tax Counsel. He is a past regent and past chair of the Committee on Technology in the Practice of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
Trusts & Estates has asked Kelley to provide his unvarnished opinions on the tech resources available in the practice today. His columns are edited for readability only. Send feedback and suggestions for articles directly to him at [email protected].