Third-party firms out to help managers be more responsive to intermediaries. Fee-based investment-platform provider Envestnet has a new service for investment-product manufacturers rather than distributors. The Chicago-based firm's Envestnet Manager Portal (EMP) is a business console that gives asset managers the ability to view and maintain real-time activity reports for specific portfolio strategies.

"Envestnet is bridging the gap between the asset manager and financial advisor," says Envestnet's executive v.p Viggy Mokkarala. "With the EMP, asset managers are able to manage portfolios, provide services to financial advisors, and access business building reports that can help them grow relationships."

Sales tool

EMP is meant primarily to help asset managers scale their distribution and increase exposure with financial advisors, but -- because it lets them modify portfolio strategies, and create alternative-account customization -- it also has advisor-service applications. It's additionally a tool for tracking strategy change and viewing daily and composite information.

"We have more than 20,000 registered users on our platform," says Envestnet's president Bill Crager. "What we've done is allowed the asset manager to directly access those advisors utilizing their specific products, allowing them a more hands-on approach to managing the needs of their clients."

Tacoma, Wash.-based investment manager Russell Investment Group is already using EMP.

"We partnered with Envestnet for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was their technology and reporting capabilities," says Russell's business-development director Bill Cantus. "The [EMP] portal provides me the ability to manage my sales staff appropriately, to focus on the right distribution partners and highest opportunity prospects, and leveraging the remainder of the Envestnet organization for a broader reach."

"As a partner to financial advisors, we understand the importance asset managers play in the investment portfolio process," says Mokkarala. "Through the EMP and other services, Envestnet is building a bridge that will contribute to the highest level of service and support to our advisors."

Envestnet manages and administers over $45 billion in assets across 440,000 investor accounts. -FWR

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