OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orion Advisor Services, LLC (“Orion”), the premier advisor technology provider for registered investment advisors, has added the power of its custom SMA optimizer, ASTRO, to Eclipse Trading, its fully-integrated trading and rebalancing platform. Users of both ASTRO and Eclipse Trading can now access ASTRO’s direct indexing functionality natively within Eclipse Trading.
Unlocking scale at a disruptive price
This enhancement to Eclipse Trading’s capabilities builds on ASTRO’s disruptive success in democratizing tax optimization and direct indexing strategies for Orion’s users. Hailed as the “next frontier” of investment management, direct indexing is a powerful tool for advisors who want to offer strategies fine-tuned to the unique risk tolerance, investment preferences, and tax settings for each client. ASTRO lets Orion users take advantage of direct indexing without the need for inflexible, inefficient, and demanding third party solutions that operate separately from your rebalancer and can charge hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.
“Depending on how many assets an RIA outsources to third-party direct indexing services, the savings of switching to Orion could potentially pay for the use of the entire Orion platform many times over,” said Trent Mumma, Orion’s chief strategy officer. “Unlike basis point fee structures, ASTRO’s flat, per-account fee does not punish the success of firms with growing AUM—but rather allows for greater scale and value. We integrated ASTRO into Eclipse Trading to create meaningful back-office efficiencies for our advisors and empower them to add additional alpha, which can be passed onto their clients.”
One-stop, powerful direct indexing
The embedding of ASTRO’s direct indexing functionality within Eclipse Trading consolidates trading processes into a single platform, empowering advisors to build custom SMA portfolios around direct indexed models, review relevant trades, and submit them to the orders grid—all without leaving Eclipse Trading. With accessible and actionable data in one central location, advisors no longer need to waste time and put their data security at risk by exporting files or shuttling data to third parties.
Orion clients can create direct indexed portfolios right away—with access to five predefined models, each of which contains different buy lists, ETF holdings, tracking errors, etc. Alternatively, advisors can create their own direct indexed models, making it incredibly easy to test-drive many of ASTRO’s features within Orion’s trading platform before embracing ASTRO’s stand-alone functionality.
Once a model is chosen, advisors can implement various types of restrictions, including asset, security, sector/industry, and ESG. ESG screenings, in particular, empower advisors with the ability to align investment strategies with the values of the end investor (i.e. avoiding positions related to firearms, gambling, etc.), without compromising overall portfolio goals and growth potential. After client constraints are determined, the system recommends the securities from the model buy list that have the highest impact for the client. Trades are then sent to the orders grid, where advisors can choose to process or decline them.
Eclipse Trading will also generate alerts when direct indexed portfolios stray out of tolerance thresholds for cash, risk, and tracking error—or when they have tax loss harvesting opportunities. These alerts ensure advisors won’t miss a beat when they need to take action.
“By imbuing Eclipse with some of ASTRO’s best features, RIAs not only gain major trading efficiencies, but they can also differentiate with the personalized client portfolios mandated by Rule 3a-4 to maintain separate classification from investment companies,” said Eric Clarke, founder and CEO of Orion.
To learn more about the fusion of ASTRO and Eclipse Trading, register for our upcoming webinar.
About Orion Advisor Technology
Orion Advisor Tech exists to help fiduciary minded advisors realize their unique vision for success. Our innovative technology includes client experience tools, tax-intelligent rebalancing, efficient billing, integrated planning, and automated compliance monitoring, all aimed at empowering advisors to improve their firm’s productivity, strengthen client relationships, and disrupt traditional ways of thinking. With more than $800+ billion in AUA and 3 million accounts on our platform, we have the experience and expertise necessary to help advisors grow and win more than their fair share. For more information, please visit www.orion.com or follow news and insights via our blog.
0915-OAS-9/6/2019
