Scivantage acquires Portfolio Director to bolster performance reporting

In a move aimed at enhancing its performance reporting capabilities, Scivantage has acquired Portfolio Director, a supplier of investment management technology products, from Scottrade Financial Services Inc. Portfolio Director's primary products are Portfolio Director Web, aimed at both advisers and retail investors, and Portfolio Director Desktop, an “umbrella solution” for small-shop advisers to manage client investment data. “The three main attributes are portfolio analysis, reporting tools and client billing (for advisers),” said Steve Walkenbach, president of Malbec LLC, a subsidiary of Scivantage. “Right out of the gate, it'll be offered to advisers but we also see a need in the retail environment. We want to bring that professional quality to the larger retail investing population.” As Scivantage moves forward with implementing investor-facing functionality, the company will use its traditional pipeline to get the product out to its adviser customer base. When ready, the delivery channel for individual investors will take the same route as its current retail products — through enterprise arrangements with online broker-dealers. The benefit to retail investors will be a transparency and a better ability to hold their adviser accountable, Mr. Walkenbach said. “Your typical investor logs into account for the day to see if they're up and down overall, maybe check some quotes and get some news. Then they'll log out either having a good or bad feeling about their account,” he said. The product intends to help investors match feelings to facts. “We want them to know whether they're appropriately managing risk and tracking trends like selling too early, buying too late,” Mr. Walkenbach said. “We're still building the functionality but one basic example is the concept of a report card. A lot of our investors will use the tools as a vehicle to manage the big picture,” he said. “It should tell you right off the bat: you did 40 trades last year, you were profitable on 22, lost on 18. Average profit for trade was X and your average loss was Y.” This should be attractive to bigger brokerage firms that have adviser arms because it will give the retail investor a better sense of when they're doing poorly. “This transparency should give something to the brokerage, especially since the brokerage can still retain the account if it moves over to the advisory side,” Mr. Walkenbach said.