Bernstein’s advisors were using multiple tools to prepare for, conduct, and follow up on client meetings. The Salesforce mobile app, as it stands, is cumbersome, and many advisors tend to avoid using it. To solve this, Bernstein updated its proprietary iAdvisor app to incorporate the main Salesforce workflows and functionality that are needed on the go. iAdvisor enables advisors to effectively manage activities before, during, and after client meetings. Before the meeting, they can easily access logistics, attendees, and the contact’s Salesforce case and note history. During the meeting, they can access notes on the meeting’s purpose and goals as well as talking points to lead relevant and informative discussions. After the meeting, they can seamlessly create notes and cases that sync directly to Salesforce.

The Bernstein Tax Management Campaign is a preemptive response to proposed tax legislation that may materially affect our clients’ ability to achieve their wealth management objectives. The initiative is a multi-disciplinary effort to bring together thought leaders from Bernstein’s Investment Strategies Group, Wealth Strategies Group, Client Services Department, Operations, and Marketing team. The collaborative team is responsible for developing and deploying a holistic tax management framework for Bernstein private clients. The framework begins with rigorous tax and estate planning research to educate and inform our clients of proposed legislation. Next, proactive planning solutions to mitigate the impact of the proposed legislation are evaluated and customized for individual client situations. Finally, tax-managed investment strategies are structured and customized to meet individual client needs.

The Automated Client Review Book Service is a tool that automates the production and distribution of presentation materials customized to each client meeting. The materials generated include relationship summaries and objectives; variable aggregate and account-level performance, allocation, and transactional reports; previous wealth planning analyses; market overviews; and portfolio commentary targeted to the client’s holdings. The tool integrates Bernstein’s proprietary reporting platform with third-party vendors to read an advisor’s calendar and automatically prepare and share the customized materials three days in advance of any client meeting. This has significantly reduced meeting preparation time and effort, providing advisors timely and reliable materials along with adequate time to review, thereby ensuring successful and productive client meetings.

Tuppy leads the Technology, Operations, Portfolio Management Group, and Operational Risk teams for Bernstein Private Wealth Management. Within this role, she motivates and inspires the team to revolutionize the firm’s technology and operations to support the growing and complex wealth management ecosystem. She oversees agile workstreams, which empower her teams to partner with advisors and clients to future-proof their business for success, and recently added a dedicated team of data scientists to address the growing needs of the firm’s wealth management business. Tuppy also supported the launch of a new public-facing website and expanded the firm’s digital self-service capabilities to adhere to a new digital environment for our clients’ needs.

The average White family’s wealth is 8x higher than the wealth of an average Black family. What’s more – Black financial advisors have historically been underrepresented with short tenure compared to their White counterparts, despite an increasing trend of diverse clients preferring to work with advisors of a similar background. To address this discrepancy and equitably show up for Black advisors, Bernstein expanded upon its existing A|3 Collective through a 7-module intensive training program to help current and soon-to-be Black advisors define an intentional go-to market strategy. The combination of small group and individual sessions offers coaching on critical best practices – ranging from client engagement to business development – to help Black advisors build successful brands based on their unique starting points.