Duration: 7:02
Level: Beginner

PortfolioAnalyst ® is a powerful analytical tool housed within Advisor Portal that consolidates, tracks, and analyzes the portfolios, offering multi-custody solutions, advanced reporting, custom benchmarks, risk metrics, and powerful on-the-go allocation and performance analytics. This lesson will review how financial advisors can use PortfolioAnalyst to manage their clients’ portfolios.

Study Notes:

PortfolioAnalyst is a powerful analytical tool housed within Advisor Portal that consolidates, tracks, and analyzes the client’s complete financial performance.

PortfolioAnalyst Dashboard

To access PortfolioAnalyst in Advisor Portal, open the left side navigation menu and select PortfolioAnalyst. The account for which the data is currently being shown will be reflected in the blue pill at the top of the page. Use Add/Edit button to change the account or group of accounts to be analyzed.

The advisor can change the time period, frequency, and whether returns are calculated as Money-Weighted or Time-Weighted returns. By selecting the Add button under Benchmarks, the advisor can also select up to 3 benchmark ETFs or indices for comparison.

Below are widgets that display different portfolio analyses and metrics. There are 12 total widgets, and the advisor can customize which widgets are displayed or hidden in the PortfolioAnalyst home page by clicking on Widgets in the upper right corner. Hide widgets by selecting the red X to the left and add available widgets by clicking the green plus sign. Position the widgets in the preferred order by clicking on the three lines icon to the right and dragging and dropping the item in the desired order. Select the “Move to Top” feature to quickly make a specific widget the first option. Click Save at the bottom once done.

Clicking the blue arrow in the right corner of any widget will launch that specific page with expanded details.

PortfolioAnalyst Reports

The PortfolioAnalyst reports can be used to compare the client’s portfolio allocation and performance to over 300 benchmarks. The reports can be accessed by clicking the Reports button in the upper right corner. The Default reports use Time-Weighted returns and use SPXTR, EFA, and VT as the benchmarks. The default reports can be run in 3 formats:

  • Snapshot PDF, which is a 1-2 page high-level overview
  • Detailed PDF, which provides more in-depth portfolio analysis than the snapshot report, and
  • Detailed CSV format.

The default reports cannot be edited but the advisor can create customized reports by clicking the plus sign in the upper right corner of the Custom Reports box. Custom reports allow advisors to choose which sections to include in the report, the benchmarks used for comparison, and Time-Weighted or Money-Weighted returns. Once an advisor creates a custom report, they can generate the report at any time by clicking the blue arrow icon, or the report can be edited by clicking the pencil icon.

Both default and customized reports can be enabled for automatic delivery to the advisor or to their clients. The Reports Delivery box will configure reports to be sent to the advisor whereas Client Report Bulk Delivery will configure automatic delivery to the advisor’s clients.

Advisors can also add their commentary in the form of a cover letter to the PortfolioAnalyst custom reports by creating a Synopsis. Note there is no character limitation when creating a synopsis.

Additionally, if a standard ETF or index benchmark does not provide an adequate basis for comparison, advisors can also create custom benchmarks by weighting multiple ETFs or indices. Customized benchmarks are managed by clicking the Configuration box in the upper right corner.

To create a new custom benchmark, click the plus sign in the right corner of the Custom Benchmark section. Enter a name and abbreviation to use for the new benchmark and then select the ETFs or indices to be included and enter the desired weightings on the right-hand side. Note that the weightings must add up to 100%. Once the custom benchmark has been created, the advisor can create a custom report and select the new benchmark using the advisor’s abbreviation for the benchmark.

Within PortfolioAnalyst, clients can link their external investment, checking, savings, annuity, incentive plan, and credit card accounts to better understand their current financial state and plan for the future. External accounts can be added either by the advisor, or by the client themselves in the Client Portal and they can then permission their advisor to view those external accounts.

The advisor can add the external account from the Configuration page by clicking the plus sign in the upper right corner of the External Accounts box. Select from popular institutions or use the search bar to look up the institution where the account is held and follow the onscreen prompts to add the desired accounts. Once an external account is successfully added, it takes one business day for the data to be updated in PortfolioAnalyst.

Advisors can also add assets or liabilities that do not have online access, such as real estate, auto or other assets and liabilities by clicking the Offline Account option, and then following the onscreen instructions.

Model Portfolio Reports

Additionally, PortfolioAnalyst reports can be run for a model portfolio which allows advisors to track the performance and allocation of their models instead of just the performance of their clients’ accounts. If the advisor has at least one client invested into a TWS model portfolio, they will see a Models panel on the Configuration page with the option to Activate this Feature. The model data will be loaded into PortfolioAnalyst, and a confirmation message will appear once it has been successfully added.

The advisor can now run default reports for the models, create custom model reports, and enable model reports for delivery in PDF or CSV formats. Advisors can also choose to consolidate either the default or custom reports that will consolidate all models into one report.

For more information on the PortfolioAnalyst and its reporting capabilities, please see our website or user guide.

Resources

PortfolioAnalyst Overview

PortfolioAnalyst User Guide

Sample PortfolioAnalyst Reports


4 thoughts on “PortfolioAnalyst for Advisors”

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Disclosure: Interactive Brokers

The analysis in this material is provided for information only and is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. To the extent that this material discusses general market activity, industry or sector trends or other broad-based economic or political conditions, it should not be construed as research or investment advice. To the extent that it includes references to specific securities, commodities, currencies, or other instruments, those references do not constitute a recommendation by IBKR to buy, sell or hold such investments. This material does not and is not intended to take into account the particular financial conditions, investment objectives or requirements of individual customers. Before acting on this material, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and, as necessary, seek professional advice.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Interactive Brokers, its affiliates, or its employees.

Disclosure: PortfolioAnalyst

The projections or other information generated by PortfolioAnalyst regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Please note that results may vary with use of the tool over time.