Winthrop Wealth

Legacy System Impedes Expansion 

Many Winthrop Wealth clients have been with the firm since its inception. In early 2010, Max and Lucas Winthrop launched an initiative to focus on the children and grandchildren of those early clients. It quickly became apparent that the firm’s legacy technology would limit how they could serve these multigenerational households. To deliver the high-touch client interactions these second and third generations demand, Winthrop advisors needed to spend less time on labor-intensive work like manually toggling between multiple systems and producing client portfolio performance reports.

“The one-advisor-does-everything model does not scale” recalls Chief Executive Officer Max Winthrop, “as advisors spent more and more time exporting and calculating financial data to prepare for client meetings.”

Winthrop Wealth needed an easy-to-use, fast, and reliable portfolio reporting system to ensure they deliver a seamless high-touch client experience with consistent data.

Getting there wouldn’t be easy. There were hurdles to producing custom reports, the ever-present potential for integration headaches, and the need for advisors to manually inspect reports to ensure clean custodial data reconciliation. “Trust is integral to Winthrop’s client relationships. We needed a partner that understood this, and would not only help establish confidence in data accuracy but also act as a single source of truth for our reporting and analysis,” recalls Banchick. 

Superior Tools Empower Advisors to Become “Rock Stars” 

"Trust is integral to Winthrop’s client relationships. We needed a partner that understood this, and would not only help establish confidence in data accuracy but also act as a single source of truth for our reporting and analysis."

Max Winthrop

As he led the firm’s digital strategy, Banchick’s evaluation criteria for performance reporting platforms was clear. Must-haves included outstanding functionality, ease of use, strong security, and world-class support. After an exhaustive review process, Winthrop selected Addepar. “We chose a partner that is robust, flexible, and will empower our business into the future,” says Banchick. Three features, in particular, drove their choice.

First, Addepar’s automated verification tests incoming data for inconsistencies as well as unusual situations like large one-day gains or losses. “When there’s an outlier, Addepar works to resolve any custodial data issue before we know there is an issue,” says Max Winthrop. “That reduces our reliance on staff to manually inspect data, so our team can focus their energy on high value activities.” 

Second, Addepar’s report builder lets advisors create rich visualizations of portfolio data with benchmarks, tables and charts, plus dynamic text that updates on the fly. “Our clients deserve visually appealing reports, and with Addepar advisors can add an attribute or resize a chart without a programmer or consultant,” says Lucas Winthrop.

"Addepar’s out-of-the-box integration enriches our Salesforce records, and makes our overall platform that much more valuable."

Michael Banchick

Lastly, Addepar’s ecosystem of integration partners means Winthrop can extend the power of performance reporting across the enterprise. “Addepar future-proofs our tech stack and lets us add portfolio data directly into Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud,” says Banchick. “Not only do we avoid the cost and headache of a big integration project, we provide advisors with visibility into portfolio data alongside the full client relationship history. Advisors can access contextual and relevant financial details at a glance and are able to answer client questions without jumping between systems. This complete picture creates the situational awareness advisors need in order to have informed conversations, and provide advice with confidence at scale. That makes them wealth management rock stars,” says Banchick. 

New Tech Revolutionizes Client Experience

"Addepar future-proofs our tech stack."

Max Winthrop

Because they adopted Addepar, Winthrop Wealth advisors are now dedicating more of their time to high-touch client interactions.

“Strong technology choices have helped us transform into a true ensemble model where the advisor cultivates more intimate client relationships,” says Max Winthrop.

Automatic data verification means cumbersome manual efforts are no longer needed to produce reliable reports. “Addepar has been key to improving operational efficiency,” continues Max Winthrop, “and with automatic data verification and report customization, advisors have the most comprehensive and accurate picture of a client’s portfolio.”

Selecting the right technology partners made getting there easier too. “Addepar’s out-of-the-box integration enriches our Salesforce records, and makes our overall platform that much more valuable,” says Banchick.

Addepar helps firms like Winthrop transition from the chaos of a one-advisor-does-everything model to a scalable business where advisors are more productive. “Firms that figure out how to unlock advisor capacity and increase productivity in this way will have a competitive advantage,” says Max Winthrop. 

Winthrop Wealth: Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advice offered through Winthrop Wealth, a Registered Investment Advisor. Addepar, Inc. and Winthrop Wealth are separate entities from LPL Financial.