As soon as the firm got up-and-running with YCharts, Ryan said his “Aha!” moment was the “good, old fashioned, friendly customer service” he received from his customer success manager throughout the onboarding process.

“I am not being polite or sugar-coating it when I say EVERY time I have a question or idea, it is answered and addressed quickly,” Ryan beamed. “The culture, energy and sharp team YCharts has built is a big deal to me.”

In addition to his interactions with the YCharts team, Ryan was equally impressed with what he’s seen from the platform itself. He’s been especially enthusiastic about the modern elements of the platform, it’s clean design and user-friendly interface.

Of the auto-complete search fields throughout YCharts, Ryan said “I need more auto-complete in my life. When I’m looking for something in YCharts, the system will have it pulled up before I type the first word.”

But search bars aside, Ryan’s most compelling realization about YCharts was that it enables him to communicate better with his clients. Some of his clients like his “deep dive” research, while others simply like to look at “picture pages.” No matter the client or their preferred method of communication, Ryan leans on YCharts to simplify complex topics when educating his clients.

“YCharts is the key ingredient in my ‘Picture Books’ that I create for clients,” Ryan shared. “I humbly swallow my words because the illustrations are perfectly clear when presented without narrative.”

With all the distractions that today’s investors experience in their day-to-day lives, Ryan makes sure that he’s a calming presence and keeps his clients focused on the bigger picture.

“As a portfolio manager, our challenge in the digital age is making sure you routinely zoom out with a wider lens,” Ryan said. “While everybody else is debating forests and trees, I want to make sure my clients know we are keeping track of the ground and sky around them, and those oceans of capital around them all.”

Krueger & Catalano holds so-called “stock tournaments” at the end of every week in order to “re-score” the stocks they’re holding or watching. As managing client portfolios is a big piece of their business, Ryan is thrilled that YCharts is the engine behind this weekly exercise and all their other research.

“Our data source bracketologist is YCharts,” Ryan says. “And to facilitate the ‘first round’ of our stock tournaments, we’ve developed a scoring model in the YCharts Stock Screener to identify the companies that we feel have competitive advantages.

”Once Ryan has screened down to a manageable list, he carries that Watchlist into Comp Tables for more granular comparisons. While most try to evaluate the size of a company’s moat, Ryan uses YCharts to answer one of his favorite un-crowded questions: “What is the direction of change for any sized advantage a company has?” This approach, and YCharts’ related capabilities, have helped Ryan make smarter investments that aren’t often clear for many to see.

And after reflecting longer, Ryan said, “like McCormick in your kitchen cabinet, YCharts is probably in even more “dishes” than it gets credit for in our research process.”

Ryan’s advice to fellow advisors who are considering YCharts is to “follow that curiosity.” He’s certainly glad he remained curious about tools that made life easier for advisors and their clients

“What I love most about YCharts is knowing I will get an answer to any question under the sun, and I’ll learn some solutions for problems I didn’t even know I had.”