Client Reports Run Clean When Every Custodian Break Is Cleared
What it takes off your plate
The Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent is what keeps your performance numbers trustworthy before anyone opens a report. The AgentWorks Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent clears the daily reconciliation queue in your portfolio accounting system, so your operations lead starts the morning answering clients and advisors instead of chasing unmatched positions.
Here is how the morning goes at most advisory firms. The custodian feeds land overnight. By the time the office opens, the portfolio accounting system shows a list of exceptions: positions that do not match, lots with missing cost basis, a stock split posted as a sale, a merger that left a household holding shares of a company that no longer exists. Someone, usually the most experienced person in operations, spends the first hour of every day clearing that list before a single performance number can be trusted.
And it compounds. One bad feed day that slips through can put wrong numbers into a whole cycle of client reports, and then the advisor is explaining a correction to a household instead of talking about their plan.
What the Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent does, step by step
The Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent starts with the messages that close the loop on a break, then does the matching work.
- Tells the team where things stand. Before the office opens, it sends operations and the advisors a short note: the queue is clear, or these households have open breaks and their numbers should not be shared yet.
- Asks the custodian about true breaks. When a position or transaction cannot be explained from the feed, it writes to the custodian's service desk with the account, the discrepancy and the question, and follows up until there is an answer.
- Answers advisors' questions. When an advisor asks whether a household's numbers are ready for a meeting, it replies with the reconciliation status for every account in that household.
- Matches positions. It compares custodian positions with your portfolio accounting records, such as Orion, and clears every item that matches once timing differences are accounted for.
- Repairs cost basis. When a lot arrives without cost basis, it pulls the basis from the transfer paperwork or the prior custodian's records on file and fills it in, noting the source.
- Posts corporate actions. It records splits, mergers, spin-offs and name changes the way your accounting system expects, so a split is not reported as a sale.
- Escalates the rest. Anything it cannot resolve from the records goes to your operations lead with the evidence gathered, ranked by which households have reviews coming up.
The Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent does not decide how a disputed transaction should be booked. It follows your firm's reconciliation procedures and leaves judgment calls to the person responsible for the books.
Where the work is recorded
An agent that cannot record its results is a chatbot. Every repair the Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent makes is logged in the portfolio accounting system with what changed, why and from which source, so an auditor or your operations lead can trace it later.
Every message to a custodian, and every open break that affects a household, is also noted on that household's record in the CRM your team already uses, such as Redtail or Wealthbox. When a client calls about a strange line on a statement, whoever answers can see the open question and the custodian's latest reply.
So the next morning your operations lead opens a short list: the few true exceptions left, what the agent already asked the custodian and which households they affect. The rest of the queue is clear, and performance reports can run.
Clean positions also carry into year-end work, such as making sure every RMD is taken on time without a December fire drill.
What your people do instead
Your operations lead spends the first hour of the day on the clients and advisors who need them: the household moving an account in from another firm, the advisor who needs a distribution set up before the afternoon meeting. The exception queue that used to own the morning is down to the handful of items that need a person's judgment.
Your advisors walk into reviews knowing the numbers on the page are right. The conversation with the household is about their goals, not about why last quarter's report was corrected.
The agent keeps the matching, the custodian follow-ups and the status notes moving. Your people keep the relationships. With the back office steady, advisors have room for growth work too, such as thanking every CPA who sends a referral and calling prospects back first.
One next step
Not sure reconciliation is the first workflow to hand over? The free Financial Advisor Industry Assessment shows which workflow an agent should take first in your firm. To see the AgentWorks Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent alongside the rest of the advisory team, visit the Financial Advisor industry page.
See where the Custodian Data Reconciliation Agent would start in your financial services business.
I'm Harris, the Financial Services ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
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