Bleakley Financial Group – May 2020

Knowledge, experience, commitment: Bleakley leverages fintech IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Bleakley Financial Group

DIGITAL REPORT 2020

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Knowledge, experience, commitment: Bleakley leverages

fintech

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BLEAKLEY FINANCIAL

Bleakley Financial’s CDO Kyle Wesley discusses digital transformation in a growing asset and wealth management company

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leakley today has a team of some 43 advisors on its team, managing more than US$6bn in client assets. In 2015, it

decided to go independent and spin out from the umbrella of Northwestern, opting to provide advisory services through LPL Financial’s hybrid RIA 04

platform for its custodial and brokerage services.

Since then, Bleakley has doubled assets under management, attracting more than 15 new advisors since the beginning of 2018 alone.

Bleakley has expanded its footprint to a dozen offices nationwide, the latest at Dayton, Ohio. The headquarters, where most of its 80-plus staff work, remains at Fairfield, NJ and the sum the firm manages is between advisory, financial planning brokerage and 401(k) retirement planning business, according to Kyle Wesley, who joined Bleakley’s leadership team early in 2016 and has been Chief Digital Officer (CDO) since May 2019.

To an organisation like Bleakley Financial, financial technology or fintech is the key to not only to the reliable and smooth running of its operations, processes and communications, but also to its

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BLEAKLEY FINANCIAL

“ We eventually went to RedBlack, which we felt was by far the best fit specifically for our business” — Kyle Wesley, CDO, Bleakley Financial

ability to continue to expand. “I am responsible for all of our internal digital technology, setting up compliant practices when new offices are onboarding, making sure they understand that technology, making sure that we’re reviewing our internal technology and generally ensuring that we function day-to-day,” explains Wesley.

Before he came on board, Bleakley had committed to Morningstar’s tRx (Total Rebalance Expert) solution for household rebalancing alongside its

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core portfolio accounting platform Orion. It was an ad hoc decision that worked well at the time, he explains, though after a while tRx showed it wasn’t flexible enough to service clients’ portfolios across the book in a tax-efficient way and update their legacy positions. Rebalancing portfolios at scale when Bleakley has more than 10,000 accounts on its books, each containing a complex mix of assets, is a hard-to-solve challenge. “This led us to look at other platforms; we eventually went to RedBlack, which we felt was by far the best fit specifically for our business.”

Bleakley needs to be flexible around

Fourth Quarter 2019 Analysis & 2020 Expectations CLICK TO WATCH

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5:41

07 its standard portfolios and also to be

and we need to segment out different

able to move tactically to take advan-

groups because one group may oper-

tage of movements in the markets,

ate a little bit differently than another.”

something that was not easy under

The need to have multiple users of

the former system. “Now when our

the system doing 100 tasks simultane-

advisors make a decision to buy a par-

ously and efficiently is what led them

ticular asset we can see at once what

to RedBlack, he says. “We can run

the sale price is, and then go back and

hundreds of accounts a minute, where

prorate other securities down to move

previously we didn’t have that ability.

fast and at scale, seamlessly across

So as we grow, it’s just become more

our entire database. As the firm contin-

and more important that we can trade

ues to grow we need that flexibility to

seamlessly right across the whole

satisfy our clients’ needs. At the same

book of business.”

time we need to be able to administer

For Kyle Wesley, Bleakley’s com-

it; our analysts do most of the trading,

mitment to its clients from corporate w w w.w w w.bl e a k ley. com

BLEAKLEY FINANCIAL

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executives and large institutions to

had served well, but once again, added

small business owners and retirees

flexibility was felt to be needed in the

dictates the focus of the digital trans-

CRM platform, tying in advisors and

formation he leads. Last year has been

clients with sales fluctuations and a

a busy one for him and his team. As

number of other variables. The plat-

well as onboarding new businesses

form chosen was Practifi, which now

in some numbers and concluding the

overlays Salesforce. “The move was

shift from tRx to RedBlack they have

in response to the growing number of

affected a radical upgrade in their

requests we were getting from users,”

approach to CRM. For a company

says Wesley. “We encourage staff to

whose credibility lies in the trust of its

speak up when they have an idea. We

customers, this was an operation that

couldn’t execute on a number of those

had to be carried out with sensitivity.

ideas given our current Salesforce

The functionality within Salesforce

environment.” We were telling them

they could make small changes like

you’re dealing with a CRM migration,

adding a field here and there, but we

every single user in the office has

couldn’t make big changes which is

their business disrupted. As advisors

what an office our size needed.”

prepare to review for a client I need

The migration from standard

to know all the past interactions and

Salesforce to Practifi involved a true

planning notes. Now I have AUM, my

database migration as opposed to a

clients, their family members, dates

plug and play implementation, and car-

of birth, emails – everything – on a

rying this out successfully is, he says,

one page tear sheet, something we

the achievement he and the team are

couldn’t even have dreamed of in the

proudest of since it was so challeng-

old system.”

ing. “When you are making changes

And, at the same time, he’s able to

to a trading platform you are perhaps

get metrics more reliably through

affecting a quarter of the office: when

Salesforce, with neat data integrations

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Kyle Wesley Kyle Wesley is the Chief Digital Officer for Bleakley Financial Group. He officially joined the firm in 2016 but worked very closely with its operations team as a Senior Trader with LPL, one of Bleakley’s five custodial platforms. After joining the firm, he became an integral part in the expansion of its technology platform – from enhancing its reporting capabilities to implementing a new CRM system for its advisor teams. Kyle’s key focus is to continue growing the digital platform of Bleakley, ensuring that the experience benefits both the advisors and its clients. w w w.w w w.bl e a k ley. com

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“ When you are making changes to a trading platform you are perhaps affecting a quarter of the office: when you’re dealing with a CRM migration, every single user in the office has their business disrupted” — Kyle Wesley, CDO, Bleakley Financial

with Orion. “Orion is definitely the data hub of everything,” he explains.

“Data flows from custodians like LPL, Pershing, Schwab, TD and Fidelity into Orion where it’s reconciled and made available by 0830 Eastern Time each day. We can migrate that information to Practifi/RedBlack to display it to our advisors. This is a very robust system.”

At a guess he reckons the new systems have doubled the internal efficiency of the business. It has definitely increased the capacity of Bleakley’s analysts and client service associates to get data to the advisor quicker,

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BLEAKLEY FINANCIAL

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CO MPAN Y FACT S

Bleakley Disclaimer Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Private Advisor Group, a registered investment advisor. Private Advisor Group and Bleakley Financial Group are separate entities from LPL Financial.

“ We can run hundreds of accounts a minute, where previously we didn’t have that ability” — Kyle Wesley, CDO, Bleakley Financial

prepare for their meetings, and made them more proactive in growing their business. Within such a diverse organisation people accept change at different speeds, Wesley admits.

“Some people struggled with the CRM migration but now we’re getting feedback that it was the best decision we’ve ever made, and that they love the Practifi migration!”

Bleakley’s vision is to become the top wealth management firm in the Northeast area, doubling its size in the next four or five years. It will depend heavily on digitisation of its operations to achieve that. “We’re recruiting heavily right now,” concludes Kyle Wesley. w w w.w w w.bl e a k ley. com

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BLEAKLEY FINANCIAL

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2015

Year founded

$6bn

Revenue under management

80

Number of employees w w w.w w w.bl e a k ley. com

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“ We’re trying to create a company and a culture that allows advisors to do what they’re best at”

“Unlike some of the big wirehouses, we’re trying to create a company and a culture that allows advisors to do what they’re best at and make sure we actually align with their goals. When someone asks: what does your advisor do for you? We want our clients to say, “Everything – Bleakley literally does everything for me!”

— Kyle Wesley, CDO, Bleakley Financial

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100 PASSAIC AVENUE SUITE 300 FAIRFIELD NJ 07004 www.www.bleakley.com

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