Yesterday’s Showcase featured the following speakers, and a summary of each session is included below:

• Day One Recap and About the Family Office Exchange
  With FOX’s Kent Lawson, Director, Technology Integration Services, and Glen W. Johnson, Chief Operating Officer
  • FOX was founded in 1989 in Chicago, with offices in Chicago, Madrid, New York and Dallas
  • The FOX Member Community has 770 Wealth Owners from 330+ Families
  • 2,550 Family Office Engaged Staff Members
  • 3,695 Advisors from 107 Firms
  • 12,000 Followers of the FOX Public Network
  • $500MM Investable Wealth of Members
  • 64% Operate a Business
• Family Office Best Practices for Selecting Enterprise Technology
  With Jack Kristan, CPA, CIA, Partner, Plante Moran, and Natalie Schwarz, Senior Manager, Plante Moran
  • What is the value of a performance needs assessment and identifying a strategic vision for a software replacement?
    • Needs assessment, RFI’s, Due diligence, implementation planning
    • Identify gaps in people, process and technology
    • Define software scope and requirements based on current and future needs
    • Evaluate cost/benefit of upgrading current software
  • Ensure your office improves operations
    • Duplicated Efforts, Cycle Time, Searching and Indexing, Internal Controls, Role Ambiguity, Past Practices, Multiple Sources
  • How does a structured selection process ensures you find the best fit solution
    • Software functionality, vendor organization, technical aspects, cost
  • How to mitigate risk through contract negotiations and statement of work development
    • Opportunity to reduce software cost, mitigate implementation risks by developing a detailed SOW, leverage concessions negotiated by other family offices
  • Best practices for software implementations
    • Redesign business processes and workflows, increase internal controls, leverage out of the box functionality, avoid customization, focus on training and change management, promote strong executive sponsorship, develop a dedicated project team, track project performance

• Navigating the Uncertain Waters of Security and Technology Risk
  With Karen Brooks, Chief Information Security Officer and Vice President of Technology Risk at Addepar
  • Vendor management, key items to consider:
    • Certifications (SOCII)
    • IT environment
    • Human Resources
    • Encryption
    • Policies
    • Access control
    • Anti-malware

• • Ransomware – Are you prepared?
    • 150% spike in attacks
    • 2-Factor Authentication
    • Keep systems patched
    • Clear incident response plan

• Confluence of Wealth in the UHNW Space: Family Office, Trust and Private Client
  With Subir Chatterjee, President and Chief Executive Officer, RockIT Solutions, LLC, and Stuart Hendry, Head, Operations & Performance, Fi-Tek, LLC and RockIT Solutions, LLC
  • The complexity of family offices increases as they service more generations
  • The complex needs of family offices are translating to HNW/UHNW clients
    • The HNW/UHNW sector is growing rapidly with needs for new products
    • Total Wallet Reporting is increasingly being pursued in servicing the mass affluent
    • Increasing interest in investing in specialty assets
    • Interest in generational wealth management is increasing
    • Bill pay for the masses
  • Confluence of the Family Office Service Model and HNW/UHNW Service model
    • Family office service providers are challenged servicing the varying needs of a family office
    • Family members have varying degrees of investment sophistication and needs
    • The RIA industry faces the same challenges
  • A Unified Service Offering is necessary
  • Fi-Tek and Rockit are focused on services that are set up for any level of sophistication in a cost effective manner
  • Private Wealth Management Technology Suite -  Private Wealth Solutions
    • Wealth Management
    • Global Family Office
    • Alternative Investments
  • Fi-Tek’s leading tech solutions are seamlessly integrated and can bring a wide array of products and solutions to meet the challenges of today’s private wealth market.

Technology Demonstration Summaries:

• Demo 1 – Addepar

              Nick Weaver

• • Clients are MFOs, SFOs, RIAs and banks
  • Many SFO clients coming off of spreadsheets and PowerPoint
  • Normalizing data through custodial feeds, any asset class
  • Addepar also has a marketplace for investment ideas
  • They have a concept of ownership structure in Addepar, and you can view ownership in many different ways
  • Groupings, such as vintage year, are used to manipulate reports
  • You can store PPM data in Addepar, as well as files such as capital calls and investor statements
  • Demonstrated the report writing tool, same look and feel as PowerPoint
  • Many different templates such as hedge fund reports and a basic balance sheet
  • There are templates that can be added such as investor letters
  • Very easy to toggle between family members
  • How is Addepar different from other platforms? Look under the hood, the integrity of the data is the most important aspect. Addepar has developed a very customizable tool, and clients have input on how it is built
  • Addepar is not a CRM tool – it is not a key feature, but does have a CRM lite
  • Can you talk about Addepar consultants? They love working with consultants, and they keep a tight partner network.
  • What other custodians do you work with? International custodians such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, Itau.

• Demo 2 – Sage Intacct

             Walter Hicks

• • A modern solution for family offices
  • Continuous multi-entity consolidations
  • Flexible reporting and dashboards
  • Streamlined processes and controls
  • Intacct is role based and has many different controls
  • Each user can create their own unique dashboard – no limit to the number of dashboards
  • Entities can be consolidated for reporting purposes
  • Are there workflow approvals in the system for invoices? Yes. There is an approval queue for users to access.
  • Visibility into financials is done via dashboards, dimensions and reporting
  • The Controller dashboard might feature expenses, closing schedules, and approvals
  • You can collaborate on the dashboards, link it to the actual GL batch, and tag other users
  • The system can notify you of outliers or issues in specific journal entries that you might need to review
  • The GL outlier capability helps you to spot things that are unique and different that the user might need to take a second look at
  • All of these capabilities help to streamline business processes
  • There are many standard reports that come with the system
  • One highlight is the financial report writer, in addition to the standard library. These reports can be modified with the report writer.
  • Reports can be run in pdf, excel and csv and can be automatically scheduled
  • Report writing does not require technical expertise, they can easily be modified by any user
  • Groups can be used to run reports in different formats
  • Seven different dimensions come with the core product and are important for reporting
  • Can the system generate trust statements? Yes.
  • How is the system distinguished from Addepar?  Sage is not built for investments; it’s built for financial reporting.
  • Sage can bring data in very easily through APIs or using csv templates, and they have partners who can provide integration services as well
  • Salesforce, ADP, Concur and Addepar are marketplace partners that can integrate with Sage, as well as many others
  • The general ledger has open API integrations, accounts payable, intercompany billing and intercompany eliminations (due to/from)
  • Accounts payable can store attachments such as invoices for a reviewer
  • Can Sage Intacct create tiered escalations for approvals?  Yes, absolutely.
  • Please reach out to Sage directly for further information!

• Demo 3 – Backstop

             Dan Lowry

• • Built on strong fundamentals – unmatched foundation, world-class service, enterprise-quality security
  • Can help you make the best-informed decisions
  • Unique value – Ease of use, configurability, integration, reporting
  • We know data automation and integrations are key to your success
  • Backstop will be white-labeled for your firm; each user has their own login
  • Has an advanced search tool across the entire system
  • Ownership structure chart is easily visible in the system
  • Looking at one family member, you have access to basic personal information, ownership details, tasks, reminders, opportunities
  • Links to relevant documents are easily accessible
  • Can search all activity across the system for John Adams easily
  • Quick adds for new activity or contact, as well as a meeting
  • Can notify other users and they will receive an email with the content of new activity
  • Backstop is compatible with Outlook and can toggle between the two
  • Investments are viewable on screen by asset class
  • Can view summary of assets, performance, transactions, commitments and balances
  • Private equity fund view has all information about the fund such as vintage year, asset type, and capital called, as well as fund communication and correspondence
  • Detailed photos of art can be saved and added to reports
  • An example of a windfarm investment included attributes of that specific type of private investment
  • Reports can be saved as a favorite within the main menu
  • Due diligence module holds a large number of details, which then populates the highlights and monitoring module
  • Supports several analytic calculations
  • Scheduled reports can be run and emailed
  • Pivot tables are available within the system to grab information easily
  • The dashboard has visuals such as charts and graphs that display consolidated information
  • What types of systems do you typically integrate with? Financial services like banks and brokers, forms integration like SurveyMonkey, Mercer, Box, Morningstar, PowerBI, plus a full open set of APIs. They can also push and pull documents such as pdf’s, like K1s.  Can pull transactions, market values, and also has a full accounting system.  Can make sure a family has one set of data entry.  They have a broad ability to integrate.  Data you own, plus data you don’t own.
  • How long does onboarding take? Depending on the level of functionality, can take 3-6 months.

User Group Roundtable Summary:

• SEI Archway

           Q&A:

• • SEI was founded in 1968, and the Archway platform was launched in 2002.
  • 400+ Wealthy Families
  • Solutions:
    • Archway platform
    • Archway client portal
    • Consolidated reporting (service)
    • Personal expense management (service)
    • Partnership administration (service)
  • Complex family office structures – nested ownership
  • Core functionality – General ledger with portfolio module, accounts payable, asset management, accounts receivable, and investor module
  • Can produce consolidated financial statements
  • New interface was released in December 2020
  • Open APIs are available, or can link to FTP site
  • 2021 & Beyond – Strategic Focus
    • Cash management STP, bespoke on-screen reporting, expanded digital workflow, next level data aggregation & connectivity
  • The Archway platform is a hub for your ecosystem, and can consolidate all the information
  • Enhancements and Product Upgrades – our process
    • User feedback
    • Frequent upgrades
    • Peer dialogue
  • Can you elaborate on the payment process using Archway?
    • Archway can produce wire instructions and then send to the institutions
  • Family Office Technology – Trends
    • Process digitization and automation
    • Hybrid and remote roles
    • Virtual family offices and outsourcing
    • Client apps and mobile portals
    • Data warehouses and data lakes
    • Open architecture and technology ecosystems
  • Partnership with Canoe to digitize statements
  • Are there any asset classes that are NOT supported on the system?
    • No
  • Can you talk more about bill pay and the integration with bill.com?
    • Archway itself has AP capabilities within the platform
    • You can integrate with bill.com as well, but setup in Archway would be a better option, as bill.com will only import journal entries
  • Can you talk about different outsourcing service models?
    • They do have outsourced services and administration. Some families have a hybrid approach – in house and outsourced.  Bill pay can be a separate service, as well as consolidated reporting.
  • Archway is building 6-12 new data feeds each year

• RockIT Solutions

          Q&A:

• • How does Partnership Accounting work in RockIT
    • Within RockIT partnerships are set as independent entities.  Partnership will hold investment and will automatically allocate to owners daily.
    • Functionality exists for special allocation.
    • Only partnership allocation
    • If Tax work is needed, we will export to GoSystems and 1099s.  Tax ready information is provided
    • Global Wealth – unitized funds, parent to child ownership activity
    • HedgeTek – GL links and more complex allocations such as side pockets. RockIT is fully integrated.
    • 16 professionals at RockIT to manage this process.  Tax advice is part of this overall process.
  • Are there nesting limits
    • There is no nesting limits
  • K1 Data for entities – can they plug into OneSource
    • Yes, both directions
    • Just hired a new head of Tax Accounting
  • What experience is there for MFO using RockIT?
    • MFO is fine
    • RIA with many UHNW clients becomes a problem
      • Last implementation was 6 months, but mostly due to lack of data management and unification of data
    • SFO is really the bread and butter
  • How do you handle data feeds and data migrations
    • WE are great data managers using multiple sources and resources for gathering the data
    • If there is a GL conversion takes more time to migrate and convert.  This is complicated.
      • Books will not match historically, a designated date will be used as cutover
  • How do you handle the customized clients?
    • Design processes that can be used across multiple needs
    • Development/customization if requested, but finding singular paths is better.
  • How does RockIT work with NextGen and transfer of wealth.
    • A mobile app was launched and will be relaunched in a much more visual matter
    • A business intelligence tool has been incorporated with ease to other tools like PowerBI, Tableau
    • Younger generations are making sure the ownership of data and extractable data is included as a RockIT client
    • Focusing on alert based widgets, and more interactive involvement with the data
      • True for all delivery platforms
    • Data visualization is becoming the new path for younger generations and in a more contemporary way.
    • New integration and relationship with Fi-Tek has allowed to incorporate AI, RPA, Bots, and make the changes
      • Hard to implement, but on the technological roadmap
      • Automated bill-pay
      • Data quality top notch
  • How far out is the new?
    • This year
  • RockIT does Bill Pay
    • Doesn’t link invoice to transaction
      • Should we build it?
      • Should we partner with a Bill.com
  • What is the end state for RockIT.  Doc management, communications, client portal
    • Do we want to partner with Summitas, etc.
    • RockIT wants to own the data feed.  Wants to own the data management
    • CRM is likely to partner, not build.
    • Goal is to make API’s self Service
      • Has API integration, but not yet self service
      • Building huge API library
  • Modularizing the platform
  • Multi Asset and Multi Structure – wants to be able to service the data.  How the client uses the data, who they use for reports, who they integration with, is really up to the client.  We want to make sure those options are available and that the data is clean.