How Sharesight helps advisors track net worth and simplify compliance

We talk to Ryan Jones, Partner, Accountant and Financial Advisor at Jones Louros, about how he uses Sharesight to manage his clients’ investment trusts. Ryan also discusses how he uses the Xero integration to track clients’ net worth and streamline annual compliance, and how Sharesight adds value for his clients by giving them a true picture of their returns.

What made you decide to use Sharesight?

I was personally looking for something to give me a holistic view of my investments. I was listening to a podcast and heard about Sharesight, so I decided to sign up for a trial. I loved the Xero integration and the performance of Sharesight, so when I was looking for a platform for business, specifically to manage investment trusts, I decided to look into Sharesight. I found Sharesight really streamlined and much better than other platforms, which were too clunky.

How do you use Sharesight in your business?

At Jones Louros we have a mix of clients: some are high end clients with investment portfolios between $50-$100 million, while others are family-run businesses, which I mainly deal with. Being both an accountant and financial advisor, I provide advice not just on a business level, but also a personal level, which I enjoy.

For any investment trusts we’re managing, we use Sharesight. I have all the performance dashboards running through Sharesight and we give access to clients. The important point for us is the integration with Xero. It helps with our annual compliance at the end of the year, which without Sharesight was a nightmare. It’s streamlined that process and made it so much quicker.

For individual clients, if they have a small portfolio with their broker, we’ll use Sharesight and Xero as well. We keep the personal balance sheet in Xero for those clients. Using Sharesight helps to feed those balances into the balance sheet, as well as dividends. We basically keep a net worth sheet in Xero for those personal clients.

How Sharesight adds value for clients

Sharesight gives our clients a holistic point of view in terms of their performance. Historically they might have only looked at capital returns and not taken into consideration their overall income – especially those on-platform clients (relying on their broker) who just don’t understand their true returns. With Sharesight, it’s already in front of them and they can see it straight away, which is hugely important.

Which feature do you find the most useful?

I am finding the consolidated view feature really useful. Going forward, I intend to categorise clients’ investments based on risk profile, such as growth or balanced, so I can see how they’re performing against the other risk profiles. I have also been using the consolidated view with some clients who have self-managed super funds, personal investments and investment trusts. Getting a consolidated view of the three to see how they’re performing as a whole has been hugely advantageous.

I also use the performance report regularly. As I mentioned previously, a lot of people only look at their capital growth, but showing clients the income aspect of their performance with the performance report allows them to understand what their real return is. And the other big one for us, because we’re accountants, is tax compliance reports such as the CGT report.

Try Sharesight today

If you’re an accountant or financial advisor looking for an investment tracking platform that both you and your clients will love, there has never been a better time to trial Sharesight and enjoy:

• The ability to aggregate – Track any combination of brokers or managed funds and over 36 worldwide exchanges.
• Automated portfolio admin – Automatically track new trades and dividend income (including DRPs).
• Powerful performance reporting – Access Sharesight’s performance reports at your fingertips instead of waiting for a third party.
• Advanced tax reporting – taxable income, capital gains tax and unrealised CGT.
• Direct portfolio sharing – Grant access to staff and clients according to the level of access they require: Read, read/write, or admin.

Put Sharesight to the test with a free 30-day no-risk trial – there are no billing details or credit card required and you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time.

Sign up today and a Sharesight Account Manager will be in touch to help you get started.

FURTHER READING

• 7 reasons why Sharesight is better than a spreadsheet
• Benefits of Sharesight's professional plan vs WRAP platforms
• 6 reasons why accountants love Sharesight's professional plan