Hanson McClain Advisors (Hanson McClain), a registered investment advisory firm with over $2 billion assets under management, has over 20 years of client-focused investment management and financial planning. Although Hanson McClain successfully built a book of business through its client-centric approach, they struggled with effectively communicating investment risk with their clients. That’s why when Hanson McClain wanted a technology platform for advisors to help clients understand portfolio stress testing they chose HiddenLevers.
As part of their client service, Hanson McClain understands the importance of managing client expectations and found stress testing makes it easy. “We want to provide peace of mind to clients, but also want to be transparent and realistic based on their risk tolerance,” said Rob Vaughn, Senior Director of Operations at Hanson McClain.
Bringing Stress Testing to the Masses
Previous stress testing solutions lacked usability, advisor accessibility, and client friendliness. “We were able to stress test with Bloomberg, but it wasn’t user friendly and it wasn’t something all advisors had access to,” said Jim Worden, Director of Research at Hanson McClain. Hanson McClain needed to democratize their tech with a user-friendly solution that would help advisors continue to provide clients with straightforward advice.
Hanson McClain selected HiddenLevers to equip advisors with easy-to-use stress testing to effectively educate clients. “HiddenLevers helps with managing client expectations especially when the market’s been going higher and higher and there’s this emotional tendency for new and even existing clients to want to move up in risk. HiddenLevers helps show if you move up in risk, then you might be adding risk at the wrong time based on their profile – showing them there can be a meaningful impact on their profile,” said Vaughn.
Streamlined Solutions for Better Performance
In addition to enhancing its stress testing solutions, HiddenLevers helped Hanson McClain create a seamless user experience for advisors through its Tamarac integration. “We are able to bring portfolios directly over from Tamarac and stress test them in HiddenLevers. The ease of use when you’re a RIA trying to grow is really important, so streamlining is easier when you have tech that plugs in together,” said Worden.
Hanson McClain further streamlined its process by adopting the HiddenLevers risk tolerance questionnaire as part of its client workflow. “We later looked at HiddenLevers for a risk tolerance questionnaire. We were using a 20-question questionnaire, but the HiddenLevers version was more client friendly, yielding the same benefit, and seamlessly integrated into our workflow,” said Worden.
With its institutional grade stress testing and the ability to streamline its tech, HiddenLevers helped Hanson McClain stay true to its mission to serve its clients by providing an effective portfolio stress testing solution across its organization.
