Trust Company of America adds inexpensive Black Diamond technology -- in its own way

With an eye toward creating a slick package of integrated, easy-to-use software for breakaway brokers, Trust Company of America reported today that it became the latest asset custodian to make Black Diamond Performance Reporting part of its arsenal.

The small asset custodian that has made a name for itself by serving larger advisors is making the Jacksonville, Fla.,-based company’s software an option for advisors who want more elaborate and customizable reports than are currently available.

“Ours can be mildly customized. These can be hyper-customized,” says Frank Maiorano, CEO of Centennial, Colo.,-based Trust.

Trust Company of America currently has reporting capability built in from Advent Software and Schwab PortfolioCenter. Many advisors are expected to continue to use this free technology. Trust will charge a slight premium for use of Black Diamond, though it declined to specify how much.

Mainstream move

Trust has about $11 billion of assets and serves about 100 advisors; many of the big clients are TAMPS. But it has made a number of moves aimed at leveraging its capabilities toward attracting more mainstream “wealth managers.” Desirable mainstream breakaways tend to have $100 million to $350 million of assets.

The company’s hire of Bob Oros and his subsequent hire of Schwab sales talent are also part of this new plan for growth.See: How Bob Oros landed at Trust Company of America.

See: Trust Company of America’s hiring blitz nets a veteran sales team

The deal with Black Diamond is another sign Trust is edging in that direction – and even seeking breakaway brokers.

Other have recently announced partnerships with Black Diamond, including Pershing Advisor Solutions, Fidelity and Shareholders Service Group Inc.. See: Several hundred small RIAs gain access to Black Diamond software at reduced rates and See: Fidelity Institutional and Black Diamond tie the knot through WealthCentral.

Black Diamond-as-Intel

Maironano says that Trust’s approach is different.

“It’s like Intel inside. Our advantage is that your rebalancing and performance reporting will be part of the process without taking an additional step.”

The Black Diamond relationship with Trust is different from our other custodial relationships because of its degree of integration, says Dave Welling, chief solutions officer.

“First of all, Black Diamond will be bundled into Trust’s offering to their advisors as their portfolio management and reporting solution. (Note: they will continue to send data to advisors running other systems but those won’t be bundled into their technology). Secondly, the initial technology integration projects focus on the investor experience – reports, web access and mobile.”

The new technology – which embeds ByAllAccounts account aggregation technology — is also supposed to boost non-breakaways.

Aggregation

“Aggregation will provide the ability to collect data from multiple custodians to power the information displayed in performance reporting, and ultimately allowing both the advisor and investor to have a full view of the assets and their performance,” the release says. See: How some firms take on lead advisor role – and charge $100,000 a year for it.

Another edge Trust hopes to gain from Black Diamond is in delivering its capabilities by iPad or other mobile devices, said Dennis Noto, Trust’s chief information officer. “The time is coming when an advisor will sit down with a client and together they will review a dynamic, real-time performance report on mobile devices, such as the iPad, while discussing investment scenarios … and that is certainly a game changer.”

Black Diamond’s BlueSky provides extensibility to work on new technologies, such as the iPad, which will be particularly valuable for Trust’s goal of providing technology advisors can use with their clients directly.