Sharholder Services Group

[ASU]

I am planning on using SSG as my custodian for my new RIA. I currently use the professional version of FM. If I upgrade to the adviser version, will I be able to download transactions directly? The ultimate custodian of the funds will be Pershing. Have you had anyone use FM with SSG and if so how did it work.

[Mark]

Hi ASU,

With SSG you would get Pershing formatted data files from them, which you can then import into Fund Manager. This is an institutional interface, only available in the Advisor version. See the "File / Import / * / Pershing..." commands. For some detailed information on importing from the Pershing format, see the online help:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/help/pershing.html

We do not know who is using which interface, but I would say this Pershing interface is not as widely used as some of the other institutional interfaces. If you have any troubles/problems, please let us know.

[ASU]

Just so I understand, it will not be like how I use it today with say, Fidelity (personal account), where I connect with the server and transactions are downloaded. Every time I reconcile or import transactions I will have download a file from Pershing and import that file to FM. Is that right?

As far as prices are concerned, can I upload positions and transactions only and use FM to grab historical prices and real time prices on the securities. It seems like there are many different files, so can you choose to only import some information.

The whole process seems pretty labor intensive. In the help section is says other methods besides InfoDirect may be available. Do you know what those might be so I can ask SSG?

I am a big fan of FM and I want to make this work.

Thanks,

[Mark]

Hi ASU,

You are correct, this is not the same as the transaction "retrieve" feature you're using with your personal Fidelity account. The "retrieve" feature is a retail (personal) capability, and requires you have a username/password for every account you retrieve. For advisors managing money for clients, this is often impractical, so the brokers make an institutional file set for advisors that contains transaction/position/pricing information available for all their client's accounts. With a single import you can import transactions for all your client's accounts, and don't have to know their usernames and passwords.

For an advisor the typical flow would be to download your daily set of files, and import transactions. The single import handles all your accounts in one shot. When you import transactions, this also pulls in all pricing, so you just do a single import daily, or you can queue them up if you want. You can either import a single file, or all files in a folder, so if you only want to import weekly/monthly, you can do that too.

I believe SSG utilizes InfoDirect, but am not sure. I would suggest calling them up, and telling them you are using Fund Manager, and want to know how you can start getting your Pershing formatted data files for import. If you have troubles getting an answer, we have a contact at SSG that I could forward to you, and could probably help.

[ASU]

OK that helps. Thank you. I did not know it would be for all client accounts at once.