Integrated Investment Portal Raises the Bar

The new-look Carrick Concierge platform has taken wealth management to a whole new level. It enables your personal financial advisor to be with you every step of the way – and gives you sight of your investment portfolio and financial planning needs at a glance. 

As an independent financial advisory firm, Carrick deals with many product providers, fund managers and investment houses. This means responsibility for a large variety of statements and different types of reporting mechanisms. The company’s tradition of providing holistic, integrated and client-centric wealth management, driven by technology and innovation, means the development team never sits still. When Carrick Concierge launched in 2017 the aim was to give clients’ access to live valuations and up-to-date data and pricing of their portfolios. This month sees the updated Concierge platform with added benefits, go live.  

“We brought Carrick Concierge to the table to allow our clients to integrate all their investment options and portfolios onto one easily accessible platform and be able to access daily reports,” explains Rashay Makan, Group Operations Director at Carrick. “That might sound really straightforward but three years ago when we launched Concierge this wasn’t the case.” 

Carrick Concierge members have secure access anytime, anywhere, to their personal profile and investment portfolio with real-time market valuations. You are able to edit your profile as well as request service from your dedicated advisor, and have access to the highest levels of service for your financial planning requirements due to Carrick’s partnerships with industry leaders in the fields of foreign exchange, tax, international property, offshore bank accounts, trusts, wills and estate planning. While the new features and benefits are tech enabled, the Carrick service philosophy is what drives the thinking so it had to be a dual approach. “We really wanted to build a great tech platform to allow for seamless integration and to complement the financial advisor role,” explains Makan. 

Here’s what to expect from your new Concierge: 

• Your global investment portfolio integrated in one place.
• There is a secure vault with encryption for document storage so paperwork like wills, personal assets and valuations can be stored safely 
• An integrated communication system enables clients to interact with their advisors or a Carrick representative in real time. “If you have a pressing question, the platform allows you to have conversations with your advisor to discuss those issues immediately instead of waiting for an appointment,” explains Makan. “This is extremely useful in a market that changes at such a rapid pace.” 
• Exposure to real-time market data. Instead of just seeing your information on your portfolio, you can see how that corresponds with what’s happening in the market. “As an example, I can see what the rand/dollar exchange rate was when I took my money offshore, how the rand has performed over that period and how it is affecting my investment now,” explains Makan. “It really is about bringing practical market information to the client so that they can analyse their portfolio.”  
• As all the information is integrated, the advisor’s job is a lot more concise. They can see what is happening with their clients’ portfolios, the impact of the markets on the portfolios and therefore narrow down the relevant focus points to be addressed.  
• It enables advisors to pinpoint what the clients are interested in or concerned with and offer relevant insights.  
• The system is secure – it is cloud based, has two factor authentication and end-to-end encryption. 

While there may be complex data processing behind the scenes, for the clients the benefit is real-time integrated wealth management. “This is just another step in an ongoing process,” says Makan. “We have a dedicated team of developers that is focused on continued enhancements to ensure our clients literally do have a personal advisor at their fingertips.”