Charles River Development, a State Street Company, today announced the launch of Charles River Wealth Hub (Wealth Hub), a communications platform that connects managed account program sponsors and their asset manager distribution partners through a secure network environment. Wealth Hub is delivered as a cloud-based service using Microsoft® Azure.
Wealth Hub serves both model-based and discretionary separate account managers as well as the wealth management organizations that operate separate account and unified managed account programs. It streamlines operational interactions between asset managers and wealth management sponsors, and enables sponsors to provide advisors with access to a broad selection of separate account investment strategies.
“Launching the Wealth Hub is an important milestone in the evolution of Charles River’s wealth management platform, one that opens up industry-wide possibilities. We believe that our principles-based, open architecture approach to separate account operations will help alleviate procedural bottlenecks and facilitate much wider distribution of asset managers’ investment products across the industry,” said Randy Bullard, Global Head of Wealth, Charles River.
Wealth Hub’s integration with leading separate account industry technology platforms and service bureaus enables operational connectivity to a wide range of wealth management programs. Firms can connect to the Wealth Hub via an API or a web-based interface. Wealth Hub will also be integrated with State Street AlphaSM, State Street’s open, front-to-back investment servicing platform, for managers interested in outsourcing certain aspects of portfolio servicing.
According to Bullard, “By collaborating with industry competitors and providing free access to asset managers, we hope to level the playing field and open up new channels for information sharing across the industry, while also reducing the operational cost and complexity historically associated with separate accounts. The Wealth Hub is already a critical piece of the larger industry separate account ecosystem, and its importance will grow as we on-board additional program sponsors and asset managers.”
