Portfolio Solutions® began as a specialized investment management firm in 1999. Over the years, the firm has achieved strong results, growing to over $1.5 billion in assets under management. However, to maintain this pace of success in today’s more complex and competitive environment, CEO James S. Gladney knew Portfolio Solutions® needed to make a strategic pivot from focusing on specialized investment management to offering a full suite of wealth management services.
“We needed to change the client service offering of the firm from just investing to providing a much broader financial experience, as that is what is expected today and what clients want,” said CEO Gladney. “As part of that focus, we took a strategic look at who our business partners were and tapped into them to help us with the transition. Ultimately, the Black Diamond® Wealth Platform became the catalyst to help us change our strategy.”
Gladney’s team wanted to bring all of Black Diamond’s capabilities to the forefront to engage clients with a more modern, digital experience.
“We were using basic reporting, but knew we were under-utilizing all of the amazing features and capabilities of Black Diamond,” Gladney noted. “Under the new model, we wanted to give clients a better picture of their finances. Upgrading their experience was the bridge from just investment management to a more complete wealth management firm.”
Gladney and his team enthusiastically introduced clients to the Black Diamond Client Experience portal. “In the past, clients would log into the custodian to see their balances and positions, which resulted in a disjointed experience,” Gladney said. “We wanted them to have a relationship with our brand, not the custodians;” the ability to offer a white-label portal that is both personalized and powerful is simply transformational: we better framed their relationship directly with Portfolio Solutions®.”
Portfolio Solutions® effectively transitioned clients to the new model and is now expanding their relationship with Black Diamond. “We used a standalone rebalancer, however, it wasn’t meeting our needs. The process was clunky, at best, with multiple data sets and the need to manually navigate back and forth between systems,” Gladney said. “When we reviewed Black Diamond’s Rebalancer, our team was impressed with the advanced feature set. For example, a Programs dashboard enables us to group portfolios based on trade related settings, for timely and efficient reporting that drives operational efficiencies and reduces errors. Additionally, we are better able to facilitate our team approach by easily segregating portfolios that may require additional attention and service.”
For Gladney, the most valuable aspect of Portfolio Solutions’® relationship with Black Diamond is the service culture and spirit of innovation.
“There are always new features being released, and the people are simply fantastic—they’re genuinely great partners. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time by harnessing the power of a truly strategic technology partner. Black Diamond is so much more than a piece of software,” Gladney said.
If you would like to learn more about how Black Diamond can help your team deliver a sophisticated and modern client experience, request a personalized demo today.
