What's New in PortfolioCenter®

PortfolioCenter is the next generation of the Centerpiece® portfolio management system for investment advisors. PortfolioCenter is a state-of-the-art portfolio management system built on a Microsoft® SQL Server™ database, with multi-user access and enhanced reporting features. It is designed to provide flexible, efficient solutions for investment advisors managing the accounts of affluent investors.

New Capabilities and Functions

• Provides extensive scalability using a SQL Server as the foundation of the database.
• Provides automated backup scheduling capabilities to ease database management.
• Provides support for the newest Microsoft technology, including Vista operating systems.
• Reads enhanced Schwab files to facilitate data processing and improve reconciliation. Decimal places are now carried out 5 places, reducing fractional share reconciliation discrepancies. The transaction file now includes ex-dates and settlement dates.
• Provides basic application level security by requiring uses to login to the database.
• Uses summary tables to increase the speed of global reports by summarizing the portfolios’ share quantities and cost basis as of a certain date.
• Handles qualified assets as described in the 2003 tax codes changes, including a Qualified Federal Tax Rate field on the Taxes Tab of the Portfolio Details.
• Exports data using a Data Export Wizard. Export position, trade lot, and rebalancing data for customized reporting or uploads to Advisor WebCenter or other applications.
• Provides unlimited report profiles. Report profiles are sets of saved, customized report settings. Each user can create his or her customized reports without affecting other users’ reports or changing settings during a global operation such as batch printing.
• Increases reporting flexibility and customization through an unlimited number of report disclaimers. Assign report disclaimers by specific report and by portfolio or group.
• Provides the Group Performance Summary report, a new group-level report that displays performance for a group and its underlying members for multiple time periods all on the same report.
• Provides enhanced Separately Managed Account (SMA) reporting with the ability to designate a portfolio as separately managed and the ability to “roll up” an SMA portfolio into a single line item on a group report.
• Improves the accuracy and efficiency of managing set membership with Smart Sets that allow the definition and updating of set membership based on defined criteria.
• Provides Custom Portfolio Fields to capture and track important data on the portfolios and groups. Create Custom Portfolio Fields to track specific info and use the fields in conjunction with Smart Sets to actively manage set membership.
• Improves the speed and ease of use of updating portfolio and group details through the Data Manager that allows batch updating of many fields, including Custom Portfolio Fields.
• Provides the Account Transfer Wizard to automate the creation of transactions to close out an account's positions and re-open those positions in another account, while seamlessly transferring the original cost and trade date of each lot.

Other Changes You'll See

PortfolioCenter has a few functional differences from Centerpiece, which are listed below.

Databases

Now called datasets. They are created and managed through the new Security Administration Console program instead of the Database menu.

Logins

Every time you open the program, you are required to login.

TWR Report

The legacy Time Weighted Rate of Return report was removed. This report used Portfolio Value transactions to calculate Time Weighted Rate of Return.

The Time Weighted Rate of Return calculation is available on most performance reports, including Portfolio Performance Summary, Portfolio Performance Review, Comparative Portfolio Performance, among others.

Discontinued Global Reports

The global reports are not continued from Centerpiece to PortfolioCenter:

• Portfolio Option Expiration Report
• Global Trade Blotter
• Global Security Information Report
• Global Security Reconciliation By Position Report

Each report has at least one alternative that can give you similar information. See the Preparing for PortfolioCenter guide for more information.

Group Inception Date

Inception date of the first portfolio now displays as the inception date of the group on the account tab of the group details.

Key Information Page

Your firm relies on PortfolioCenter to help you streamline back-office operations and better serve your clients. Our goal is to ensure your firm has complete and accurate information about issues identified in the program.

PortfolioCenter features quick access to a Key Information page on our website that contains details about application issues and their appropriate workarounds, categorized by program area. This page, updated as new issues are identified, is accessible anytime from PortfolioCenter.

Select Online | Key Information from the PortfolioCenter menu bar (as shown below) to see data for your current version PortfolioCenter.