LPL Financial to Offer SmartVision Analytics from Marietta-Based eVestment via LPL's Vendor Affinity Program

Investment advisors looking to have smarter, more in-depth and more complete conversations with clients are quickly gravitating to eVestment’s new SmartVision Analytics solution. The cloud-based solution gives advisors the full picture of trends in the investment world, including unique insights into the market-moving investment trends of large institutional investors like pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and foundations.

LPL Financial, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer*, is the first company to incorporate SmartVision Analytics on a vendor platform. It is being offered to its advisors through LPL Financial’s Vendor Affinity Program, a new initiative designed to help advisors reduce the complexity and costs of running their businesses. The program offers a centralized repository of vendors who have been reviewed by LPL and have agreed to provide their products and services to LPL advisors at discounted prices.

Investment advisors making decisions based on retail investment data alone are missing about half of the story. Of the multi-trillion-dollar pool of investable cash around the world, about half is controlled by institutional investors. Their investment moves tend to lead retail investment trends by several months and, until now, were among the hardest for investment advisors to track.

SmartVison Analytics is powered by eVestment, a leading institutional data and analytics company that provides data on more than 70,000 active investment vehicles including traditional, hedge fund, private equity and mutual funds. With this wealth of data in an easy-to-use tool, SmartVision provides a real-time view into the investment options institutions are reviewing and considering, offering another level of insight that is not available anywhere else.

“We recognize that technology is a major contributor to creating increased efficiency and driving greater productivity in our clients’ businesses,” said Victor Fetter, LPL Financial managing director and chief information officer. “Being able to connect LPL clients with leading technology solution providers adds a new dimension to the level of service and support we can provide to clients to help them manage and grow their businesses.”

“We’re excited about the opportunity to offer SmartVision Analytics to LPL’s financial advisors through its new Vendor Affinity Program,” said Jim Minnick, eVestment co-founder and CEO. “With SmartVision Analytics, LPL’s advisors will have the opportunity to choose our services, which can offer better insight with access to institutional investment trends and strategies, analysis at the strategy and portfolio level and reporting to clearly convey an advisor’s unique viewpoint to clients.”

SmartVision Analytics is available to North American financial advisors through enterprise-wide or individual subscriptions. To learn more about SmartVision Analytics, please visit http://www.smartvisionanalytics.com/.