I have been using Bridge Portfolio for the past three years.  It is priced mid-range, but I like that as I grown I can outsource more to them (billing, account aggregation, etc). For client access, they intergrate nicely with my website.

We use Black Diamond for performance reporting. Very good presentation, both hard copy and live online with a client, at a reasonable price. I also like that it is web based, and integrates well with several other industry apps including MoneyGuide Pro.

I had a few clients that used Black Diamond also, but some canceled it after a while.  I find Black Diamond is good for most advisors.  The advisors that canceled left because they were promised a few things that Black Diamond could not deliver on, specifically calculating projected income for their fixed income holdings.  The advisors when to Advent.  It was $60 an account with recon and consolidated reporting.  Advent turned out cheaper for one advisors as most of his accounts were larger and a flat fee per account worked better.   If you have Schwab accounts then Advent fee is over $100 an account since Advent is a direct competitor with Schwab’s Center Piece. 

Good Luck.

ash
www.FAfreedom.com - The Breakaway Experts
609-945-7100 x 101

I use Albridge and hate it.  The numbers are always wrong; the service slow and crappy.  The pricing is basically 4 bps for RIA’s which equates to 40k plus for me - so if I could find a better solution that was pretty much automated in the same price range, I’d be all over it.

We just started w/ Investigo.  It seems pretty good so far, but I am just learning how to use all of their bells and whistles.

Rather thrilled with Morningstar Advisor Workstation Office Edition, although the tool is not without its flaws. Used Schwab PC for a while, but didn’t like it very much - couldn’t do performance reporting “on the fly” (“intervals” needed to be run) . Very cheap if you do the reconciliation in house. Clients trust the brand. With Mstar doing the recon (BOS), it comes out to $1k/month. Considering the research that comes with it - probably the best deal of all my tech. Excellent service from both Back Office and tech support.

Big problem with Black Diamond was the real time benchmarking (why?).

.

[quote=san fran broker]

Big problem with Black Diamond was the real time benchmarking (why?).



[/quote]



What do you mean by this? I’ll admit the benchmarking thing with BD is an issue, but what are you talking about when you mean ‘real time benchmarking’?



I see the issue being their ability to create a benchmark for a portfolio that differs from the allocation. If you have 30% in cash as a tactical move for your aggressive portfolios, your benchmark will now have a 30% cash allocation… if that’s what you are referring to, I agree… certainly a weakness.



Can you create your own customized report through Mstar? Or do you have to use what they are selling, without any modifications?



C

We’ve been struggling with the blended benchmarks in Black Diamond too, although you also have the option to just use a static benchmark of your choice, which we’re now experimenting with.

error

error

[quote=san fran broker]
Big problem with Black Diamond was the real time benchmarking (why?).

[/quote]

What do you mean by this? I’ll admit the benchmarking thing with BD is an issue, but what are you talking about when you mean ‘real time benchmarking’?

I see the issue being their ability to create a benchmark for a portfolio that differs from the allocation. If you have 30% in cash as a tactical move for your aggressive portfolios, your benchmark will now have a 30% cash allocation… if that’s what you are referring to, I agree… certainly a weakness.

Can you create your own customized report through Mstar? Or do you have to use what they are selling, without any modifications?

C

[quote=san fran broker]BD (as of the last time I reviewed it - maybe a year ago) did performance bechmarking as of the last 15 mins for each position and for the blended account. This would (I assume) lead to a great deal of questions about why an account has been outperformed by the S&P 500 since lunch.[/quote]
I think you may have misunderstood that.  BD only refreshes the current position/valuations on a daily basis, based on a download from the custodian and subsequent reconciliation.  It would be meaningless - not to mention pointless - to attempt benchmark calculations on 15 minute intervals when the actual valuations are only updated daily.

I think you must be referring to their dynamic "blended’ benchmarks, which effectively calculate a hypothetical blended benchmark based on the exact holdings you have, which is dynamically changed as and when your holdings change.  As Captain mentioned, this can lead to questionable “benchmark” comparisons depending on the situation.

No, I incorrectly understood. Salesperson told me that price (vs. net) indexes were updated every 15 mins. Even if its only daily, I prefer to have clients analyze their performance vs. benchmarks (blended or static) on a less frequent basis myself.



This is where MAW is weak - terrible performance attribution.I agree with the dynamic benchmarking being of limited value for individual clients - a very institutional mindset and somewhat irrelevant for the average ETF using FA. . It would be nice to have for my own purposes. but with MAW, I could run the reports daily vs static benchmarks.

Morningstar Office offers the ability to create blended benchmarks-- with the ability to include any of the 250,000+ indexes, categories and securities we have data for.

http://www.global.morningstar.com/office

Thanks.