MyVest Corp. is trying to interest banks and other financial services companies in an automated wealth management service designed to bolster their private client divisions.
The MyVest Strategic Portfolio Network allows banks, brokers, and advisers to provide high-net-worth investors with a choice of investment strategists, said Chuck Lewis, the president and chief executive of the San Francisco technology firm.
The service makes it more affordable for banks to offer managed accounts to more clients, Mr. Lewis said. He declined to discuss the pricing structure.
It could be a useful service for banks because of the choice and flexibility it offers customers, Mr. Lewis said. "Many turnkey asset management firms have one chief investment officer and they have their view of asset allocation," he said. "We think that's limiting."
The strategic portfolios are personalized, tax-optimized, and regularly rebalanced. All of a client's accounts - including individual retirement accounts, trusts, and a spouse's investments - can be managed as a single sum of money.
The network allows financial advisers to outsource the management of individual accounts to portfolio designers. Clients can access account information through the Internet.
Mr. Lewis said strategists continuously monitor the accounts, reviewing markets, managers, and mutual funds to determine when to adjust a client's allocation.
Banks that have a private client trust portfolio management practice are most likely to use the service, Mr. Lewis said.
MyVest's network product is designed for small and midsize banks, while its software offering fits best with larger banks. "The software is for larger banks because it allows them to use their own IT capabilities and other resources," Mr. Lewis said.
Banks that have clients in multiple states are ideal customers due to the product's automation, he said, because that feature makes it easier to handle clients across a broad geographic area.
The system automates the immediate implementation of the managers' choices for individual client portfolios, he said.
MyVest has spent the past three years developing the product and is just now bringing it to market. Mr. Lewis said the firm has a sales team in place and is attending industry conferences to advertise its services but has no bank clients.
It recently signed its first client, Sanders Morris Harris Inc. Working with MyVest will let the Houston investment firm bring wealth management services to a wider range of clients, said Bill Floyd, the president of SMH Partners, Sanders Morris' broker-dealer arm.
"Because of the time and expertise required, financial institutions could previously only afford to provide prime adviser wealth management to clients with assets of $10 million or more," Mr. Floyd said in a MyVest press release to be issued today. "MyVest automation has lowered the cost of delivery, making it profitable to provide this service to virtually all high-net-worth households."
Using MyVest's product, banks and other investment advisers "can have choice all in one system," Mr. Lewis said. The platform allows for multiple strategists or investment managers, he added.
Geoff Bobroff, an asset management consultant in East Greenwich, R.I., said: "The managed account area is still evolving and very interesting to banks. The wealth management space is equally interesting."
Mr. Bobroff said companies such as Lockwood Advisors Inc., which is owned by Bank of New York Co. Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., offer similar services.
"One vendor may not have all the bells and whistles, but may have a different one," Mr. Bobroff said.
