Aggregator hopes to attract more RIAs and breakaway brokers from big firms. RIA rollup firm United Capital Financial Advisers has engaged fee-based investment platform provider FundQuest to provide sales and productivity tools, back-office operations, portfolio accounting services, best-of-breed investments, and transition support teams. The result is a framework for assessing client investment requirements on the front end and a back-office for packaging and processing investment products United Capital has but together on its own (using third-party providers like Placemark and Altegris) and an array of open-architecture products provided by FundQuest, including blended active and passive strategies and income-oriented portfolios.

Scale for sale

"There has never been a better time for independent firms and advisers to leverage outsourcing; this market environment has forced the fixed costs of advisory businesses under a microscope," says FundQuest's president and CEO Jim Fox. "FundQuest's economies of scale and variable-cost model will enable United Capital to rapidly expand their network and add new services and products without making major expenditures for infrastructure or administrative resources."

From United Capital's perspective, the tie-in with FundQuest lets it "provide RIAs and independent advisers with the best set of wealth-management tools, technology, products, and support services available today," according to its CEO Joe Duran. "[United Capital's] regional offices can accelerate business growth and control profit margins by leveraging adviser productivity technology and back-office operational services from FundQuest."

So equipped, United Capital is in better shape to "attract breakaway brokers from firms like Merrill Lynch as well as independent RIAs looking to materially improve their practices," adds Duran.

New ground

With FundQuest providing data aggregation for performance reporting, operational and workflow-management technologies, portfolio-accounting integration, and sales and financial-planning tools, United Capital advisors can work with multiple custodians and report on "held-away" assets.

FundQuest's U.S. national accounts chief David Robinson figures that "United Capital is breaking new ground by building the flexibility to meet the unique and highly diverse needs of both independent RIAs and traditional high-end full-service wirehouse reps" in a partnership with FundQuest that "extends beyond research and technology into practice and case management and the complete managed account workflow and investor experience."

Newport beach, Calif.-based United Capital has 17 offices in the U.S., and $9 billion in assets in advisory and under administration.

Boston-based FundQuest, a subsidiary of Paris-based BNP Paribas, has around $40 billion in assets under management and administration in the U.S. and Europe. -FWR

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