Advisors May Earn Payouts up to 100% and Diverse Unique Investment Options May Be Incorporated into Customized Investment Solutions for Clients
Advisor Group, one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks in the nation, launched its second generation platform for fee-based advisors: VISION2020 Wealth Management. The new platform is a web-based solution with cutting-edge portfolio management and trading tools, four unique investment options and simplified account administration that seamlessly integrates into existing open architecture technology.
"Advisor Group is absolutely committed to providing the industry's leading open architecture platform to advisors affiliated with FSC Securities, Royal Alliance and SagePoint Financial," said Larry Roth, President and CEO of Advisor Group. "VISION2020 Wealth Management replaces our original fee-based platform and is open architecture redefined: advisors have the freedom to manage some or all of their clients' accounts. Advisors have access to the investment solutions and administrative tools needed to effectively execute their plan. And the system pulls everything together in an easy, straightforward way. This is an integrated delivery of the research, investment products and business tools any fee-based advisor needs to efficiently and effectively build his or her practice."
The platform is available to advisors with independent RIAs as well as to advisors who affiliate through one of Advisor Group's broker-dealer RIAs at a low cost with flexible pricing schedules to address the needs of growing investment advisory practices. "VISION2020 Wealth Management replaces Advisor Group's original fee-based platform, which was recognized as a completely innovative system when it was introduced a few years ago," said Bruce Levitus, Senior Vice President of Investment Advisory Services. "The platform serves advisors who manage their clients' accounts and advisors who prefer to outsource management of their clients' portfolios," he continued. Investment options on the platform include Advisor Managed Portfolios, Unified Managed Accounts, Separately Managed Accounts, a series of Model Portfolios from six leading strategists, including portfolios designed by Morningstar Associates, LLC, a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. The platform was created in collaboration with Envestnet, a leader in wealth management solutions.
The Advisor Managed Portfolio option allows an advisor to act as the portfolio manager for clients' assets. Advisors can utilize a wide spectrum of investments to design and implement customized portfolios for their clients and have access to powerful modeling and trading tools that allow for easy execution, rebalancing and ongoing portfolio management. Customizable performance reporting functions allow advisors to brand themselves, an especially important feature for hybrid advisors. Perhaps most important to hybrid advisors is that the platform allows advisors to mix and match the four investment options to create a completely customized solution that meets their clients' unique needs. The powerful trading tools allow advisors to rebalance and trade across all client accounts, block orders through average price accounts and accommodate conditional and good to cancel orders as well, providing great flexibility to advisors who choose to manage their clients' portfolios.
"We are proud to have collaborated with Advisor Group to build custom capabilities for the Wealth Management Platform. These capabilities give sophisticated advisors the power to express their investment philosophy directly through open-architecture technology," said Bill Crager, President of Envestnet. "Many advisors today want the ability to manage their clients' individual holdings as well as work through models. Together with Advisor Group, we developed a group of advanced, flexible tools that empower advisors to do so. We see this as deepening a ten-year strategic partnership."
VISION2020 Wealth Management is a comprehensive solution that provides flexibility while addressing key areas of importance to fee-based advisors, including in-depth research, a five-step proposal process that takes advisors from program research to account establishment quickly and intuitively, and intelligent reporting that combines technology with simplified administration – clients can access their account information online or receive a paper statement and the billing process automatically calculates and processes fees, easing the administrative burden on advisors. The new platform seamlessly integrates with VISION2020 Advisor Portal (Advisor Portal), an innovative website designed to improve business efficiency, time management and client relationships. Each area of Advisor Portal was designed directly with advisor feedback through face-to-face meetings, focus groups, design reviews and pilot testing. Every feature on the site was developed with advisors in mind and tested to ensure efficiency, ease of use and functionality.
"We are very pleased to work with Advisor Group to offer a suite of investment options built from the more than 100 fund families available through the VISION2020 Advisor Portal," said Patrick Reinkemeyer, President of Morningstar Associates. "These broadly diversified, risk-based portfolios are designed for investors at every stage of investing, from growth-oriented global allocations to tax-sensitive income allocations."
Advisor Group is one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks in the United States and consists of FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates and SagePoint Financial, Inc. These independent broker-dealers, with more than 4,800 independent financial advisors, are all wholly-owned subsidiaries of Advisor Group.
Contacts:
Advisor Group
Linda Malamut
Manager, Corporate Communications
310-772-6533