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Smartleaf rolls out model vendor portal, improves its model distribution service

Smartleaf Inc., a provider of overlay portfolio management solutions to the wealth management industry, today announced the addition…

Smartleaf Inc., a provider of overlay portfolio management solutions to the wealth management industry, today announced the addition of an online portal for model vendors.
This portal is part of Smartleaf’s Model Distribution Service and is meant to help streamline the process of updating models because it provides the model vendors themselves access to a secure site where they can enter and maintain the models.
After an integrity check the models are then available for use by subscribers.
Smartleaf’s MDS provides contracting, billing and invoicing services for the model vendors.
Meaning that vendors sign a contract with Smartleaf, not directly with clients, lowering the number of contracts the model vendor has to manage; and it also allows model vendors to specify the price of their models, the terms and conditions of use, and which Smartleaf clients are allowed to purchase their models.
“The innovative part here is that once it is there [available on Smartleaf’s model service] it just cascades down to the model user, there is no implementation complexity,” said Jerry Michael, president of Smartleaf in an interview.

While I know there is no shortage of models available in the managed account world I am less certain what the rest of the “portal” or “sharing-of-models” landscape looks like from a technology and management standpoint but it seems worth the effort to explore as advisers increasingly tell me that their firms are using them.
It does sound as though the Smartleaf service could simplify the process of updating and maintaining models and alleviate some of the headaches that model subscribers go through (and possibly lower the costs for them too).
“By bringing automation to the process of updating and transmitting models, we’re helping to create a market for buyers and sellers of models,” said Mr. Michaels in Smartleaf’s prepared statement.
“This is a necessary step in facilitating the rapid growth of models-based overlay portfolio management,” he added, which to me certainly seems like sound logic.
For more information please visit Smartleaf’s Model Distribution Service pages online.