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Advent To Offer Financeware Applications to Financial Advisors

A new suite combining Advent's portfolio management and accounting solutions with Financeware's wealth management applications is expected sometime in October.

Advent Software and Financeware.com are integrating Advent's portfolio management and accounting solutions with Financeware's wealth management applications and plan to offer the clients of both systems the combined suite sometime in October.

The combined product, Advent Office Suite, will be accessible from either company's Web site, with the aim of adding a more personalized touch to investment management through Financeware's life-goals-oriented financial planning tools. President and CEO of Financeware.com David Loeper says that there has been a large shift in the investment management business from sheer "growth of portfolio" results to more life-connected financial achievements, such as reaching a specific level of wealth so a client can retire to a specific lifestyle. "Wealth management is really a function of helping the client crystallize those things that are the antithesis of what they want from their life," says Loeper.

Two of Financeware's tools that will be offered in the suite are FinancialPlanAuditors and WealthSimulator. FinancialPlanAuditors uses historical market data to estimate the likelihood of meeting financial goals, and WealthSimulator uses Monte Carlo simulation for probability analysis. In addition to the specific programs, Advent Office Suite allows professional financial planners to communicate with their clients from anywhere using the Web. "We are a communication tool for the advisor and the client to be able to either synchronously or asynchronously communicate on the Web," says Loeper.

Loeper says the integration of the systems will require Financeware to build an "XML receiving bucket" to interpret information received from Advent's XML interface. The integration process should take about 45 to 50 days, according to Loeper, at which time the product will be aggressively marketed to the 7,000 financial advisors that make use of Financeware.com today. On average, clients of financial advisors using Financeware have $1.4 million in investable assets--total assets under management on the system top $7 billion.

The cost of the suite for investment professionals will range from $50 to $200 per month. Currently Financeware's products are largely used by individual investment professionals, but Loeper says his company is in talks with a number of different firms that may choose to make use of the combined Advent Office Suite. Loeper says that, while the two companies may have competition in wealth management and portfolio management independently, there is no one in the market offering the combined functionality of Advent Office Suite.

Loeper explains, "There are tools out there that are designed for wealth management, and a lot of money managers are starting to use those tools, but they're not integrated with portfolio accounting systems." Advent Office Suite, he says, is the first.

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