Waddell promises platform for top reps

In a break with its past, Waddell & Reed Inc. will offer its advisers updated technology and next year will introduce a new outside platform for its top 300 or so registered representatives, company executives said at a press conference in New York this morning. A common knock in the industry on Waddell & Reed Inc., the independent-contractor broker-dealer unit of asset manager Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. of Overland Park, Kan., has been its lack of technology and adherence to systems that can date back decades. For its more than 2,100 affiliated reps, the firm currently uses an antiquated "check and application" system, in which brokers write out orders for mutual funds and send them to the home office . To address that issue, the broker-dealer, which is self-clearing, plans to partner with Pershing LLC of Jersey City, N.J., and will introduce a new platform in 2008 for its top producers, said Thomas W. Butch, president of Waddell & Reed Inc. and senior vice president, chief marketing officer of the parent company. Mr. Butch, along with Henry Herrmann, CEO of the parent company, met with reporters this morning. Along with the broker-dealer, Waddell & Reed Financial runs and distributes two fund families and currently has over $50 billion in assets under management.