At the heart of the modern wealth management organisation are the software systems that deliver, construct and manage portfolios and that model the ability of portfolios to meet needs over time.

These systems should represent the apogee of an organisation’s values, investment expertise, risk profiling, asset liability modelling expertise and, business and service processes. If they are to manage not only assets, but financial needs over time they should be capable of the following.

Without a direct relationship between the size and timing of a liability and the asset allocation of a portfolio, there can be no functional asset and liability management system.

Understanding their structure tells you how they manage your money and whether they are service or sales led, whether they do personalise your portfolio, whether they do manage financial needs and, how they manage and how effective they will be at managing risk.

These systems also tell you how much control an organisation has over the quality of the advice being given by its representatives.

Understanding these systems is key to assessing whether or not an organisation is capable of managing your financial assets to meet your financial needs over time.

These systems require two important components, an asset management component that directly relates an organisation’s investment expertise, strategy and recommendations, dynamically and in real time to the individual client’s portfolio and a liability management framework that manages the relationship between the client’s liability profile and assets over time.