The Client
The Wealth Manager is a privately-owned firm that provides investment management, manager selection and monitoring, asset allocation, and other financial services. The Wealth Manager also provides advice to financial institutions and families around alternative investments.
The Opportunity
In order to take the firm to the next level, the Wealth Manager knew they had to put significant effort into marketing their investment returns. Because the Wealth Manager had historically focused on providing services that were customized to the needs of each investor, they had not previously looked at returns across strategies firmwide.
The Solution
The Wealth Manager decided to seek out a solution that would allow them to more proactively market their investment performance to attract new clients and grow assets under management. The firm reached out to their investment industry contacts, who in turn referred them to Kreischer Miller. Based on our experience with other clients facing a similar dilemma, our proposed solution was to conduct an initial assessment of key issues and future goals and then create a customized reporting package, so that only minor tweaks would be needed on an ongoing basis.
During the initial assessment, our highly experienced directors and managers worked to gain a thorough understanding of the Wealth Manager’s documentation, current goals, and future objectives. We then met with the firm to outline our assessment of their reporting needs:
- Strategies covered and the ability to carve-up and/or combine multiple strategies
- Time period covered and the ability to take snapshots of any timeframe
- Manager selection and the ability to view individual managers or an aggregate across managers
- Additional criteria, such as taxable vs. nontaxable and the ability to expand criteria
- Easy transferability to a clean and organized reporting template
- The ability to reconcile
This initial assessment provided the Wealth Manager with immediate feedback about areas that needed greater focus in order to achieve their goals. More importantly, the process provided insight into what other advisors were doing and opened their minds to avenues that were not initially contemplated at the start of the project.
As the firm continued to gather information and hone their goals and objectives, we served as a resource and helped guide them through the process. Many of the Wealth Manager’s final objectives were tightened and additional objectives were added to save time going forward.
After the initial assessment was complete, we began the creation of the model and reporting package. Constant communication between the Wealth Manager and Kreischer Miller throughout the process led to further enhancements and checks and balances. After providing the Wealth Manager with on-site training and instruction manuals, the firm was able to take over the ongoing maintenance of the model and reporting package.
The Outcome
As a result of the engagement, the Wealth Manager now has a clean, organized report package to assist in achieving their primary goal – growing assets under management. Working with Kreischer Miller also helped the firm identify and achieve two important additional goals: a new way to review past performance and a flexible model that would grow with them.