Case study

Enhanced client experiences with holistic, tailored portfolio views 

One crucial outcome of a partnership with Addepar has been the impact of the new technology on the experiences of the firm’s end clients. From the benefits of the client portal to the firm’s delivery of tailored portfolio performance views, Addepar has enabled Saranac to provide an enhanced user experience — alongside access to superior data and analysis

“Clients really love that we are able to give them the views that they want — views that are now tailored to each specific user,” says Benjamin Akesson, Investment Advisor. “Our clients have been very happy with Addepar overall, and particularly when it comes to private markets and discreet holdings, which has typically been a very hard space to track. But with Addepar, it's been easy; we input the information and can then simply pull up a dashboard of how each investment’s been performing. 

“A lot of our clients are multi-banked and might have up to nine different custodians,” Akesson adds. “They’d spend a lot of time logging into each portal looking at what's going on or trying to consolidate analysis manually. Whereas now they've got it available to them at their fingertips through the client portal.” 

Alongside improved views and the benefits of the client portal, Saranac also found Addepar’s reporting tools improved the firms’ efficiency and the quality of their reporting. 

“Our legacy system had shortcomings when it came to our reporting process, especially for complex portfolios including alternative investments,” says Rick Bains. “Addepar streamlined the whole process and hugely improved the ability to aggregate data across liquid and illiquid assets, providing a holistic view of portfolios with a world-class reporting tool that was highly customizable for our various bespoke client needs.” 

We selected Addepar because it allowed us to handle complex portfolios — enabling us to be the best stewards of our clients wealth.

Rick Bains,
Head of Technology

Improved efficiency enabling better, more timely client interactions 

For Saranac, another significant benefit of partnering with Addepar has been its impact on efficiency and — subsequently — client interactions. Through access to hundreds of data feeds, alongside the automation of many previously time-consuming manual tasks, the firm has noticed a jump in efficiency.

And through this reduction in manual work and access to a breadth of quality data, the firm has found it can respond to clients faster and more effectively. 

“It's just increased accuracy: the analysis is more timely and less prone to error because there's no manual work involved,” says Benjamin Akesson. “Now, we’re talking minutes instead of days spent on detailed analysis and manual work. 

“One huge benefit of this has been an increased ability to offer better advice and answer questions in a more timely manner. For example, a client could ask us about their exposure to a specific country or about a concentration risk. Before, we’d have to go and pull data from say Morningstar or Bloomberg and bring it all together. Now, we can do that within Addepar very quickly by using the filters or specific views. We can even share them with clients so they can self-serve through the portal. It works really well,” says Akesson. 

Boosted scalability as Saranac grows

Finally, Saranac highlights the overall boost to its scalability as a result of transitioning to a quality technology solution. From retention to pitching, Saranac finds Addepar is received well by clients and prospects in different markets. 

“What Addepar has allowed us to do is scale our offering and to do so with less human resources than we would've needed otherwise,” says Akesson. “It is not just client retention — even with prospects, we’ve found that having Addepar has really helped. We’ve set up demos and when we run through them, clients are always very impressed with how everything looks. You can tell it’s a very good product. I think it has been great for us. 

Bains adds, "We selected Addepar because it allowed us to handle complex portfolios — enabling us to be the best stewards of our clients wealth. Addepar could offer data aggregation capabilities, advanced analytics, custom reporting features, and ability to handle complex portfolios including alternative investments” 

Successful scalability also included Saranac’s OCIO service. The firm has experienced exponential growth across the UK and Europe, as a result of the firm’s commitment to delivering the service — and crucially, its transition to the Addepar platform. 

“At the heart of Saranac’s OCIO service is a cutting-edge technology platform powered by Addepar,” explains Akesson. “Saranac delivers the complete OCIO lifecycle, from strategic planning to implementation, ongoing management and bespoke customisation of the Addepar platform.” Overall, Addepar has supported Saranac in meeting firm-wide scaling objectives and overcoming all primary challenges. 

“Addepar has lived up to our expectations so far, and helped us to exceed client expectations,” concludes Bains.

At the heart of Saranac’s OCIO service is a cutting-edge technology platform powered by Addepar...

Benjamin Akesson,
Investment Advisor