The management of data in financial services is a perennial challenge. Acquiring the data is expensive, and the quality of the data is often uncertain. In 2011 alone, financial institutions will incur expenditures in excess of $15 billion on data and data management. At the same time, data drives every trading and investment decision, is transmitted along the service chain, and is the root cause of many risk and liability mitigation challenges for both the sender and receiver of data. This research note demonstrates how to prepare for transformative changes in the data management space over the next three to five years by investing in six pillars of innovation in data management.

The top two investment priorities for wealth managers focus on the advisor desktop as they shift their focus from a product to a client-experience-driven model. To meet client demands and remain productive, advisors need an effective desktop solution supporting better system integration that drives productivity, firm and held away aggregation and customization. Successful technology vendors will design offerings to integrate with other desktop component providers to better assist wealth management firms in building a best-in-breed desktop.

The 2011 FPA Experience was held September 14th through the 18th in San Diego California. The over-arching theme of the event was "client first" and this was supported by the many seminars, general sessions, and events focused on solutions for an increasingly more diverse and complex client base. This note focuses on six major themes of the event, including retirement income, aging clients, alternative investments, client diversity life planning and technology trends. In addition, it offers recommendations for wealth management firms to get ahead of these trends, and truly put the needs of the client first.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software has been part of most advisors' desktop software applications for at least five years, yet CRM remains a work in progress as wealth management advisors look to improve their connections with clients. The focus of this TowerGroup Research Note is the wealth management industry's movement from an account-centric approach to putting CRM at the center of the interaction. Note that CRM covers a broad range of capabilities from data integration and workflows to campaign management and business intelligence but contact management or e-mail and calendar software do not have the full functionality to be considered part of the CRM category.

Asset levels may have recovered over the last few years, but the financial crisis left an indelible mark on the competitive positioning of US investment managers. Between 2007 and 2009, except the top three spots, every firm between #3 through #13 changed rankings, which was an unprecedented amount of change within such a short time. This TowerGroup Research Note describes the current state of the investment management business, the way that the competitive position of US managers has changed in the last four years, and key lessons that investment firms have learned from the financial crisis.

Globally, the financial services industry will increase spending on outsourcing services and technology at a rate more than twice that of overall IT spending through 2015. Driving the growth are the need to update technology despite tight budgets and deferred investment and vendors' pricing and delivery innovations and expanded domain expertise. This Research Note forecasts spending on outsourcing by the industry through 2015 and examines the forces of change. The report discusses how outsourcing vendors should respond to these forces and how financial services institutions can benefit from competition among vendors to meet rapidly changing business and marketplace expectations.

Trading, pricing, valuation, and risk management all rely on trusted position data. Technology for reconciliation, the matching of internal balances, transactions, and holdings with the external records of brokers and custodians, can guarantee that trade details captured on portfolio managers', traders', and accountants' trade blotters and ledgers match the real world. Sophisticated tools are being used to match end-of-cycle statements in all processes where comparing like for like matters. This Research Note covers trends in processes and technology to automate securities reconciliation. It introduces a worksheet for calculating total cost of ownership of reconciliation tools.

Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act empowers federal authorities with unprecedented reach and oversight of the over-the-counter derivatives markets and introduces provisions likely to alter the derivatives space. The market structure will have to adapt to a new and potentially more efficient process, with certain swaps having to trade on registered swap execution facilities and clear through central counterparties. The implications of this shift are far-reaching and will change the way securities firms and their service providers manage their business. This Research Note offers context and perspective on the ways these key changes will impact securities firms and service providers.

New rules and regulations written in 2010 and 2011 are bringing about the biggest regulatory change for the global securities and investments industry since the 1930s, with enormous impact on all aspects of the industry's functioning. Although exact details of the various pieces of regulation are not yet final, it is imperative for all securities firms and their service providers to analyze the relative as well as the collective impact of these regulations. This Research Note analyzes 11 major pieces of regulation facing the industry and compares their impact across four dimensions: business, IT and operations, overall influence, and geographic scope (regional versus cross-border).

This TowerGroup Research Note is a review of the leading vendor solutions in securities reconciliation, the process of matching internal balances, transactions, and holdings with the external records of brokers and custodians. The report evaluates the market-leading vendors of stand-alone reconciliation applications, Broadridge City Networks, Electra Information Systems, Fiserv, SmartStream Technologies, SS&C Technologies, and SunGard, highlighting vendor trends and describing each vendor's solution architecture, functionality, and customer base. Coverage excludes component-level reconciliation software sold as part of a general-purpose accounting or settlement platform.