By implementing PureFees, DundeeWealth® simplifies their fee process, reducing overtime and costs
Project Goals
DundeeWealth Inc. recognized that their fee process needed to evolve. The firm's complex, inflexible, and labour-intensive fee calculation system was becoming more and more difficult to manage. Not only was it burdening DundeeWealth with increasing administrative costs, management also had a limited selection of reports with which to keep themselves informed. DundeeWealth's sales team was also eager to implement new fee types based on trades and transactions that could not be supported by the existing system.
Originally built from two separate systems (a commercial portfolio management system and an in-house billing program), the fee process required substantial manual intervention to reconcile. Overtime was increasingly required for administrative staff to compensate for the shortcomings of the system.
The administration team was running as fast as it could just to keep up with the fees being charged. It was very apparent that the existing technology was constraining DundeeWealth's business decisions and limiting their potential growth.
In 2008, DundeeWealth took action. Management made strides to rationalize and streamline its processes. PureFacts Financial Solutions was engaged to move DundeeWealth to a modern, flexible fee calculation platform.
Solution Approach
PureFacts' multi-disciplined team worked closely with DundeeWealth to steer the project through Analysis, Automation and Deployment.
First, PureFacts' business analysts worked with DundeeWealth's management team to redesign the fee calculation process. As part of the optimization and streamlining process, previously unrecorded rules and special conditions were analyzed and documented to prepare for the automation phase.
The business analysis identified data errors and inconsistencies as a major issues, as well as primary sources of inefficiencies and frustrations.
The PureFacts solution consolidated the data into a single database with automatic feeds keeping it accurate and up to date. This reduced manual processing and enabled the sophisticated data analysis that is crucial for management reporting.
Finally, PureFacts configured and deployed the PureFees module as DundeeWealth's new fee calculation engine. PureFees is a proven, robust platform with industry-leading flexibility that automates workflows, systemizes rules and exceptions, and eliminates the need for manual processes. Not only does PureFees support a host of modern fee calculation methodologies and fee types, but it also provides comprehensive fee-related reporting.
Key Benefits
Today, DundeeWealth enjoys the benefits of calculating its fees using a modern, flexible platform that has made the entire process - from initial set-up through posting - far smoother and accurate. The number of active fee schedules in use at the firm was reduced by over 95%, while still allowing individual advisors to negotiate fees with each of their clients (within defined ranges). Standardized Advisor Reports are now posted to an internal site where individual advisors can access them at any time thus removing yet another administrative burden.
Costs have decreased substantially after implementation of the new system, largely through the elimination of administrative staff overtime.
Risk at the firm has also been reduced through systemized business rules (and exceptions), better reconciliation, increased security, automated audit trails, and the outright elimination of many potential sources of error.
DundeeWealth was also able to leverage the PureFees software to increase revenue through the implementation of Trade Fees, a complex set of business rules that could not be supported by the legacy systems.
Why PureFacts?
PureFacts' unique combination of financial industry experience, business process expertise and deep technical knowledge allowed for the design and delivery of a robust, flexible system. PureFacts also advised DundeeWealth on current best practices. The standard PureFees software module proved to be an excellent platform for this project; delivering comprehensive functionality, reducing implementation risk and enhancing long-term maintainability.
Future Plans
Since the successful completion of this work, PureFacts and DundeeWealth have undertaken a number of other projects together, resulting in further operational efficiencies for the client. Along with PureFees, DundeeWealth now uses PureFacts software for client statement generation. In addition, Goodman Private Wealth (an investment management arm of DundeeWealth) has implemented the entire PureFacts Wealth Management Suite.
Client Overview
DundeeWealth Inc. is a Canadian owned, independent wealth management company. The company has its headquarters in Toronto, Canada and, through their partners and subsidiaries, has more than 1,200 employees in North America and Europe. DundeeWealth is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and trades under the symbol DW.
DundeeWealth creates and provides investment solutions as well as capital markets and advisory services for financial advisors, institutions, corporations and foundations through three businesses: investment management, capital markets and financial advisory.
DundeeWealth is a trademark of Dundee Corporation, used under license by DundeeWealth Inc.
“Since we have implemented PureFees, our fee calculation process has become far smoother and cleaner. We have been able to eliminate many hours of overtime by our administrative team each month - a terrific cost savings and morale booster.”
Michaelene O'Malley
Director - Managed Investment Services
DundeeWealth