Getting Started: Home Office & Advisor Leadership
This guide is designed for home office and advisor leadership users who support the research and model-building process across the firm. It walks through how to use the Fund Screener to filter and score investments, the Comp Table to compare and narrow down options, and the Portfolios tools to build or maintain firm models. You’ll also see how the Portfolio Optimizer can help refine allocations, and how the Report Builder can package everything into a consistent report for advisors or clients. The goal is to make it easier to research investments, build models, and share standardized resources with your firm.
Staying Compliant with Report Builder
Researching Funds with Screeners
Analyzing Funds with Comp Tables
Creating Firm Portfolios
This video demonstrates how to create portfolios that can be shared directly with advisors. You’ll walk through the different tabs, like Performance, Allocation, Stress Tests, and learn best practices for firm wide distribution.
Step by Step Instructions
- Head to the Portfolios tool and create a new portfolio by selecting Create New → Blank Portfolio → Model Portfolio → Create to open the Portfolio Editor.
- Enter holdings manually or click Upload Data and use the downloadable template to input weights, dollar values, or shares, then upload and Submit.
- Enter a portfolio title and adjust settings such as benchmark, rebalance frequency, advisory fee, start of series, level, and as of date as needed.
- Click Save in the top right to store the new portfolio in the system.
- Review each aspect of the portfolio by navigating through the available tabs.
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Performance (returns, comparables, upside/downside capture)
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Allocations (asset class, region, sector, style, etc.)
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Stress Tests (historical scenarios or custom time periods)
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Data (historical performance and risk data)
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- To share the portfolio, click Share in the upper right corner, select your share group and then choose the edit permissions.
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Optimizing Firm Portfolios
This video demonstrates how to optimize firm-approved portfolios. You’ll see how to run the optimizer, evaluate outcomes, and publish portfolios for advisor use.
Step by Step Instructions
- Select a portfolio to load into the optimizer. You can enter in minimum and maximum allocation limits for holdings to set how far weights can deviate during the optimization.
- Adjust the time frame by selecting a start and end date and then choose the optimization strategy.
- You can review the optimization results by viewing the efficient frontier and comparing the original portfolio vs the optimized portfolio as well as review updated allocations, performance summaries and the correlation matrix.
- To keep the results, click Export as Model Portfolio and save as a new optimized portfolio.
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Staying Compliant with Report Builder
This video demonstrates how to build reports that balance advisor flexibility with compliance requirements. We’ll cover mandatory vs customizable sections, disclosures, and report branding.
Step by Step Instructions
- To adjust your Report Branding and Disclosures, head to your Account Settings page. You can access this page by hovering over your name in the upper right corner of the page.
- Any updates to your report branding or disclosures will automatically cascade to all advisors in your primary share group, helping ensure firmwide consistency and compliance.
- You can further customize reports for compliance by heading to the Report Builder tool. Here you can create and edit reports and choose from a wide array of disclosure modules.
- You can also give advisors controlled flexibility by using the Sections feature in Report Builder. This lets you designate certain module groups required, such as Disclosure, while keeping others optional, like Performance or Allocation.
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Researching Funds with Screeners
This video covers creating research screens using category filters, performance metrics, and structural criteria. We’ll also walk through applying and saving scoring models for more systematic evaluation.
Step by Step Instructions
- Select Modify to refine your screener results using qualitative criteria such as peer group, share class, fund family, and more.
- Select Add Filter to further narrow your screener results using quantitative criteria such as peer group rankings, performance metrics, risk metrics, and allocation.
- To remove multiple share classes, select Remove Duplicates in the upper right corner.
- Select Metric Columns to add additional data points to your current screener results without further narrowing the universe.
- To incorporate a scoring model, select Scoring Models → Open Saved Model. This enables you to systematically compare all funds and evaluate them against a defined series of metrics.
- To save your work, select “New Fund Screen (unsaved)” in the upper left corner, then choose Save As.
- Once saved, you can share the Fund Screen with your team by selecting Share in the upper right corner and choosing the share group and their edit permissions.
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Analyze Funds with Comp Tables
This video shows how to load saved screens into comparison tables for deeper analysis. You’ll learn how to add scoring models, apply metric sets, shortlist funds, and share tables with the broader team.
Step by Step Instructions
- Open your saved screener results by selecting Lists --> My Lists --> Fund Screens
- Use the metric search bar to add financial metrics, or select Browse to view the full catalog of available metrics.
- You can also apply a saved metric set and any saved scoring model to standardize your analysis.
- Pin any securities of interest by selecting the pin icon next to the security’s ticker symbol.
- To save your work, select “New Comp Table (unsaved)” in the upper left corner, then choose Save As.
- Once saved, you can share the Comp Table with your team by selecting Share in the upper right corner and choosing the share group and their edit permissions.
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