SunGard announced today that Louisville, Kentucky-based Hilliard Lyons, part of The PNC Financial Services Group, has signed a multi-year contract renewal for SunGard's WealthStation.
WealthStation is a wealth management technology platform that combines front-to-back office capabilities including financial planning, asset allocation, portfolio construction, retirement income modeling into a single integrated, point-and-click advisor solution. Hilliard Lyons also selected SunGard's Retirement Income Simulation Expert (RISE), part of SunGard's integrated wealth management platform, for streamlined asset distribution capabilities.
"SunGard is a pioneer in meeting customer needs as the industry evolves from a transaction-based brokerage model to an advisory or consulting-based business," said John Deglow, senior vice president and director of wealth strategies at Hilliard Lyons. "SunGard's wealth management solutions have helped Hilliard Lyons accelerate key initiatives with respect to financial planning and advisory services, by providing our financial consultants with tools to serve clients effectively and coordinate financial plans in an integrated manner. The system offers various levels of complexity to match the particular needs of each client and the skill level of the financial consultant, which has helped increase our financial planning activity."
WealthStation users since 2004, Hilliard Lyons' financial consultants cite the system's flexibility, comprehensiveness, presentations and reporting as key advantages to acquiring, servicing, growing, and retaining business. Hilliard Lyons' financial planning manager, Clark Stone, said, "SunGard WealthStation is highly flexible and serves my needs as an advisor by helping me to quickly generate basic level plans and calculations in order to support our financial consultants in the field. The system answers the questions I need answered, and produces presentation-quality reports that are easy for the advisor to present and for the client to understand."
"WealthStation's fast, presentation-quality reports helps us to give clients a positive impression of our capabilities and services," said Rod Scott, senior vice president and financial consultant at Hilliard Lyons. "I spend a lot of time in the system's portfolio review area to assess goals and objectives, and reinforce it as the client's roadmap for reaching goals. I cannot imagine operating without the system."
SunGard's Retirement Income Simulation Expert (RISE), a retirement income simulation and planning module, helps wealth management service providers better respond to growing client demands for a more guaranteed retirement income distribution. RISE will help Hilliard Lyons' financial consultants to simply and accurately assist clients in analyzing their retirement income by evaluating, comparing and illustrating income goal probabilities, the risk inherent in various planning scenarios, and the ways in which annuities affect the risk of those scenarios.
"As the retirement distribution issue for baby boomers emerges, we need to be able to analyze a client's income distribution," said Mr. Deglow. "The focus is beginning to shift from retirement accumulation to distribution, so as our financial consultants and clients ask for this capability, we are well prepared and ahead of the curve in providing them with the information they need."
"We are pleased that Hilliard Lyons continues to benefit from its use of SunGard solutions for integrated wealth management and financial planning, and we look forward to helping the firm evolve its business and meet the changing needs of its clients through our expanded relationship," said Blaine Maxfield, chief operating officer of SunGard's Wealth Management business. "With the addition of RISE, financial consultants at Hilliard Lyons will have the tools to provide realistic planning at retirement, which is critical to helping clients reach a desired standard of living, achieve financial goals and avoid the anxiety of falling short on income."