First Bank has a long history of providing its growing clientele with banking and wealth management services, dating back to 1906. It remains a family-owned business with a mission and philosophy to help family-owned businesses, their families, and employees thrive through the generations, just like they have.
Finding the Right Solution
As part of its growing wealth management division, First Bank was searching for a new trust accounting system to better meet its investment management needs. According to Janna Thoman, Head of Wealth Management Operations and Compliance for First Bank,
“We were focused on finding a better investment management solution, most notably the ability to produce more flexible client proposals, as well as to have a nicer online portal, vs. the basic one we had before, which was just not user friendly,” Thoman said. “For our advisors, we needed to have the ability to work individually with clients and have them see differences in their current portfolio on one intuitive and elegant screen.”
As a result, Thoman and her team reviewed several industry platforms, but none provided the capabilities, scale, and price points that First Bank was searching for. Additionally, when reviewing other technology options, they found that those platforms weren’t set up to provide the key aspects of trust accounting.
However, the decision to switch was easy once Thoman was introduced to SS&C’s Black Diamond Wealth Platform as part of SS&C Innovest’s trust offerings.
“Working with Innovest and Black Diamond provided much more efficient workflows, combined with their Managed Services offering. The complete solution has made a big difference in our operations and ability to delight both our advisors and clients. SS&C truly provides us with a superior experience, and when it comes to reporting, it is always customized exactly how we want it, rather than defaulting to existing templates.”
The Right Choice
This service and technology offering was critical to First Bank, as it synched nicely with its mission. “We have a motto—‘client first’—that we hold ourselves to, and as a result, that has a huge impact on our operations and service models,” Thoman noted. “Black Diamond’s flexibility and customization capabilities have been a real difference maker for us.”
Thoman and her advisors also appreciate the Black Diamond mobile app. “We’ve heard from our clients that it is much more intuitive and easier to navigate than our previous one, which was just a website accessed via a browser vs. being a truly native mobile app.”
Additionally, Thoman is impressed with the service levels of the managed services group. “The team at SS&C has been wonderful—they helped us manage an extensive systems conversion on a very tight time frame, something that made our lives much easier. Ongoing, it is a real comfort to know that our core systems are backed and managed by a leading organization like SS&C.”
SS&C Innovest’s forward-thinking technology solutions and managed services are the choice of many of the industry’s largest Trust Companies, Wealth Management firms, Retirement Platforms, and Philanthropic organizations. To learn more about how the SS&C Innovest can support your unique business needs, call (800) 727-0605 or email info@advent.com.
