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Founded in 2011, GenTrust is an independent registered investment advisory firm that brings its best investment thinking — skills, research, ideas, tools, systems — to its high-net-worth clients. The firm’s approach allows it to prioritize client relationships while also having the necessary breadth and depth of institutional investment knowledge, tools and experience to deliver custom and relevant client solutions.
Alex Ruiz, a wealth management advisor and Head of Client Reporting at GenTrust, recently joined us to discuss how the firm leverages Addepar Alts Data Management to scale its alternative investment offerings to clients. With Alts Data Management, GenTrust is streamlining what was a resource-intensive process so the firm can focus on more strategic, high-impact projects for the business and its clients.
Tell us a little bit about GenTrust. What are your goals as a firm and what services do you offer your clients?
GenTrust is a registered investment advisor with offices in New York, Miami and San Juan. Our firm provides fully customized investment solutions, which are thoughtfully designed by our experienced in-house investment team.
We serve high-net-worth individuals, families and institutions, implementing tailor-made strategies to meet their unique needs. We aim to be trusted counselors to our clients, working to safeguard their wealth and grow it over time.
In order to do so, GenTrust provides custom portfolio design, implementation, management and reporting for liquid and alternative investments held with multiple custodians. We also offer risk, cash and liability management as part of our investment services. Additionally, our clients also rely on us for financial planning — so we’re really offering a full suite of services.
Before onboarding Addepar Alts Data Management, what did your process for managing alts look like?
Our process for managing alternative investment data was manual and time-consuming. At a high level, we would receive/retrieve client statements directly from the fund administrators and then manually consolidate and input the necessary data into Addepar.
Over time, we defined best practices and leveraged certain tools to help streamline various aspects of the associated workflows. However, the process remained highly manual and prone to errors.
What challenges with this process led you to look for a new solution?
While our legacy process was manageable for some time, it became increasingly inefficient as we expanded our alternative investment offerings, both in terms of the number of investments and the clients we served.
The workload associated with retrieving, consolidating, inputting and reconciling data from various funds became increasingly resource-intensive, requiring more time and effort from our team.
How does your new process for managing alternatives differ from the old?
The initial phase of our process — related to obtaining the client statements and capital call/distribution notices — has remained mostly unchanged. Our preferred approach is to gain access to a centralized portal where all relevant client documents for a given fund or fund family are available.
In cases where a centralized portal is not available, and client approval has been granted, we request that funds send all notices to a designated team mailbox specifically for investment reporting purposes.
That said, all the processes associated with getting the data into Addepar have been significantly streamlined and standardized. Previously, our team spent countless hours manually reviewing statements and capital call/distribution notices, extracting key data points, and either inputting them into an Excel template or directly into the software. This manual effort has now been eliminated.
Once we have collected all the necessary PDFs, we simply upload them into the Addepar platform and wait for processing, which is typically completed within 24 hours or less.
After processing, we review and reconcile the recorded data to ensure accuracy against the original statements and identify any potential outliers that may require further investigation.
How many hours has your team been able to save since onboarding Alts Data Management?
The time saved has been substantial. We’re able to manage the increasing volume of alternatives investment data without the need to add new resources. This has allowed our team to operate more efficiently and process data at a much faster pace.
Has onboarding allowed your team to allocate resources to other priorities?
Absolutely! The time saved from no longer having to manually review statements and notices, enter data into Addepar, or build import spreadsheets has enabled us to manage increasing volume demands while also focusing on high-impact projects that benefit both our clients and the firm alike.
As a tech-focused firm, we are continually developing new solutions and refining workflows that integrate with Addepar, many of which require significant development and cross-team coordination. Having the capacity to dedicate more resources to these initiatives has allowed us to keep pace with evolving needs and drive innovation.
Has your data accuracy improved as a result?
One of the key benefits of Alts Data Management is the standardization of how data is recorded, which has improved accuracy. Different funds often report information in varying formats, leading to inconsistencies and potential errors during data collection and entry.
Alts Data Management effectively standardizes this data, reducing discrepancies and minimizing the risk of manual errors. By automating data extraction and processing, Alts Data Management ensures greater precision, allowing our team to focus more on analysis and strategic decision-making rather than data validation.
How easy is Alts Data Management to use?
One of the key factors that attracted us to Alts Data Management was its fully native integration within the Addepar ecosystem. This provided three key benefits: it reduced onboarding time, ensured seamless compatibility with Addepar’s accounting methodology, and eliminated the need to introduce an additional software provider to our tech stack — and the associated integration and assimilation period that goes with doing so.
Alts Data Management is conveniently available as an option within Addepar’s navigation dropdown menu. Once selected, users are directed to a straightforward, intuitive interface that is easy to navigate and maintains a consistent look and feel with the broader platform, which makes adoption seamless.
Reflecting on your time working with the Addepar implementation team, how was your onboarding experience?
Our onboarding experience was excellent. The Addepar team was incredibly supportive, guiding us through every step of the process. They took the time to help us carefully structure our accounts and ownership structures while also helping ensure seamless mapping of positions to each portfolio. Their guidance was instrumental in making the transition smooth and efficient — we couldn’t have done it without them.
Nothing in this blog constitutes a third-party testimonial or endorsement of GenTrust.