The latest technology news in the wealth management sector from around the world.

CAIS, Schwab Advisor Services
CAIS, the US-headquartered alternative investment platform for independent financial advisors, is expanding its technology integration with Schwab Advisor Services. 

The move will enable advisors to execute more and more ticker-traded alternative investment products and subscriber-based funds on the CAIS platform.

CAIS said the enhancements will remove duplicative workflows and the manuel chores of handling investment, while giving advisors more oversight and more time to talk to clients.

“Through the CAIS-Schwab collaboration, advisors can streamline transacting in the full spectrum of alternatives on the CAIS platform – streamlining workflows while strengthening oversight,” Brendan Cuddihy, chief operating officer of CAIS, said in a statement. 

“The expanded Schwab-CAIS integration represents a meaningful step forward not only for our business but also for the industry as a whole,” Chris Wilde, managing director of trading and investment operations at Focus Partners Wealth, said. “By consolidating subscription-based and ticker-traded alternatives onto a single platform with robust oversight, we are simplifying execution while ensuring that we can rely on the integrity of the data we are working with.”

Founded in 2009, CAIS is headquartered in New York City with offices in Austin, Texas; London, UK; and Red Bank, New Jersey. CAIS serves over 2,000 wealth management firms that support more than 62,000 financial advisors who oversee approximately $7 trillion in end-client assets.

Interactive Brokers
Nasdaq-listed Interactive Brokers said this week it has upgraded its professional tax planning toolkit by launching Tax Planner, via its PortfolioAnalyst offering.

Users create personal tax profiles from inputs such as income from other sources, deductions, withholdings, and tax rates. Tax Planner uses the tax profile as well as activities from their Interactive Brokers accounts to help estimate tax bills and assist with tax planning throughout the year, the firm said. 

PortfolioAnalyst is Interactive Brokers’ portfolio management solution that consolidates accounts across financial institutions, tracks account performance and activity, and provides tools for analyzing an entire portfolio and planning for the future. 

“The new Tax Planner gives investors a higher degree of oversight over the tax implications of their trades,” Milan Galik, CEO at Interactive Brokers, said.