Understanding and Using Financial Products

Overview

In Practifi, we’ve created the Financial Products object to make a sensible landing spot for any financial product your wealth management firm might offer to clients. These product offerings, combined with the service offerings captured in Service and Deliverable Types in Practifi, represent your firm’s overall value proposition to clients and prospects.

This article outlines the various financial products available in your Practifi organization and how to enable financial products for use. If you have questions on how your firm can use financial products, please reach out to your firm’s Client Success Manager for assistance.

• Understanding Financial Products
• Using Financial Products
  • Private Investments
    • Investment Setup and Management
    • Pipeline Management
    • Performance Tracking
    • Closing Investments
  • Retirement Plans
  • Investment Products
• Enabling Financial Products
• Available Fields

Understanding Financial Products

The Financial Product object in the Practifi data model provides a place for tracking and managing a range of financial products. These include:

• Private Investments where your firm is raising funds to deliver a particular project, such as a real estate development. 
• Investment Products that your advisory firm offers your clients, such as ETFs and index funds.
• Retirement Plans offered by workplaces in the US, such as 401(K)s.
• Superannuation Funds joined by workplace employees in Australia.
  • Please note: Due to the specialized implementation nature of Superannuation Funds, this article does not describe the behavior of financial products when used to manage them.

Your firm may choose to use financial products in Practifi if:

• Your firm wants to manually manage Private Investments or Retirement Funds.
• Your firm uses Envestnet for generating proposals.
• Your firm has another type of product offering you want to actively manage within Practifi and are willing to customize the product to suit your needs.

There are a few reasons why your firm may choose to use the Financial Product object. In the case of Private Investments, there’s a need to track the investment’s life cycle, pipeline and performance. In the case of Investment Products and Retirement Plans, a single page of all the proposals and accounts related to a particular Product or Plan that included its own product/plan features and any attached notes or files is an efficient way to capture the complete picture of the product. Bringing this data set into Practifi allows you to achieve this functionality while using standard Practifi features to provide better team collaboration, engagement tracking and document management. Additionally, Field History Tracking enabled on this data allows your firm to apply more scrutiny to data updates made within your organization.

Financial Product records are accessible from pages in the app navigation menus in Practifi and have a section-based record page similar to Entities, Divisions and User records. This is because they are part of a specific Entity’s “comprehensive profile,” like an Asset or Contact. Instead, certain Deals, Services and Assets are all related to a specific Financial Product record.

You can use financial products with other features located in Practifi. Financial products can be used to create Rulebook entries, check RMD eligibility for Assets and control which Processes and Task Templates are available for selection on the Client record page.

Using Financial Products

The following sections will outline how the different financial products can be used within your Practifi organization. The way financial products are used varies depending on the type of product involved. Depending on the financial products used and where your firm finds value, these steps may or may not be used by your firm. If you have questions about how your firm can best use financial products in Practifi, please reach out to your firm’s Client Success Manager for assistance. 

Private Investments

Private Investments where your firm is raising funds to deliver a particular project can be tracked in Practifi using the Financial Products object. The following sections outline how to establish a Private Investment record in your organization and manage the potential opportunities and performance of the investment. 

Investment Setup and Management

To establish a Private Investment record in Practifi:

1. Create the Service Type used to track the “agreement” a client makes to provide funds for the investment.
2. Create the Private Investment record using the New Private Investment button on the Financial Products or Private Investments app page.
3. Set a Start Date and End Date based on what the expected fundraising period will be. 
4. Link the Service Type created previously to the financial product via the Service Type lookup field.
5. Use Practifi’s native capabilities to manage the product, such as the Feed, Processes & Tasks, Notes & Files and Activities. 

Pipeline Management

To manage potential Private Investment opportunities that your firm may have with clients, the following functionality can be used:

1. You’ll create a Deal record when a client or prospect has expressed an interest in contributing funding. When creating a Deal record or using the Promote to Prospect action:
   • If the selected Service Type is related to one or more Financial Product records, you will be prompted to answer a What financial product are they interested in? question on the next screen.
   • This question populates a Financial Product field on the created Deal record.
2. You’ll mark a Deal as Closed Won when a firm commitment to contributing funding has been made, but the funds have not yet been deposited. If the Deal record is marked as Closed Won, a Service record is not created. This is because there is no ongoing agreement to deliver services involved, as this is a one-off funding commitment.
3. When the money arrives in the account, you’ll use the New Funding Deposit button found in the Investments section of the Financial Product’s record page or the New Asset button on the client’s record page to record the deposited funds. 
   • When using the New Funding Deposit action:
     • You’ll be prompted to answer which Closed Won Deal record the deposit relates to. 
     • Once selected, you’ll have the opportunity to update the amount value before saving the deposit record.
     • The created Asset record has a Category of “Funding Deposit.”
   • When using the New Asset action, the Financial Product and Service lookups must be populated manually with the appropriate values, and the Category must be manually set to “Funding Deposit.”

Performance Tracking

To track the performance of a Private Investment, the rollup fields located in the Targets & Performance field section summarize the investment’s performance:

• Number of Open Deals: The total count of Deals related to the Financial Product record that are not either Closed Lost, or Closed Won.
• Number of Assets: The total count of Assets related to the Financial Product record that has a Category of “Funding Deposit.”
• Potential AUM: The total AUM of Deals related to the Financial Product record that are not either Closed Lost, or Closed Won.
• AUM: The total Current Value of Assets related to the Financial Product record that has a Category of “Funding Deposit.”

Closing Investments

To close the investment, you’ll need to update the Stage to “Closed” and update the End Date field value to today’s date.

Please note: Closing an investment does not trigger any additional automation, such as closing open Deal records. These will need to be closed manually.

Retirement Plans

Retirement plans are managed identically to Private Investments, detailed in the Private Investments section above, except using a New Retirement Plan action and plan-specific fields on the Plan’s record page. 

Please note: Unlike Private Investments, there may be a need to manage the client’s participation in a retirement plan on an ongoing basis, which suggests the need for a Service record. Services are currently not created automatically for these Deals.

Investment Products

Investment Products are currently only supported by the Envestnet integration. If your firm does not have Envestnet integration enabled in your organization, you cannot use this type of Financial Product. For additional information about the Envestnet integration, please consult our Using the Envestnet Integration and Enabling the Envestnet Integration articles.

• These products are created automatically whenever an Envestnet Proposal that selected that particular product is saved to Practifi. 
• Use Practifi’s native capabilities to manage the product, such as The Feed, Processes & Tasks, Notes & Files and Activities. 
• Various characteristics of the product found in Envestnet are saved alongside this financial product record:
  • Quick Facts: Product Type, Strategist Style, Asset Class, Risk Score, Risk Rating, Account Minimum, Inception Date, Average Annual Turnover
  • Fee Notes: Billing Mode, Fee Disclosures
  • Portfolio Characteristics: Average Market Cap, Median Market Cap, Adjusted Price/Earning Ratio, Price/Book Ratio, Return on Equity (1 yr), Debt to Total Capital, EPS Growth - Past 5 Years, Current Yield, Model Weighted Average Gross Expense Ratio, Model Weighted Average Next Expense Ratio
  • Asset Allocation: Types, asset classes and percentages
  • Fee Schedule: Types, range, amounts and percentages
• The proposals that include the product appear in the Proposal Registrations section of the record page and provide a one-page view of the product’s characteristics and its related proposals. 
• The product’s Managing Firm is also stored as an Organization record related to the Financial Product record. This differs from Envestnet, where this is just field-level information, and no record representing the firm exists. Use Practifi’s native capabilities to manage the relationship with and regulatory obligations to the managing firm.

Please note: Envestnet products are not automatically related to any investment accounts (Assets) created off the back of a proposal’s acceptance, only the proposals themselves. If your firm would like these links to exist, they must be created manually.

Enabling Financial Products

To enable financial products in your Practifi organization, the following steps must be performed:

1. Add app pages to the navigation menus in Practifi. 
   1. Navigate to the Lightning App Builder in Salesforce Setup. These app pages are labeled identically when viewed in the App Launcher. However, by accessing them from here, you can view the underlying names, which include the name of the app to which each page belongs. For example, Practifi - Advisor - Financial Products Page.
      • For Private Investments and Retirement Plans, there are dedicated pages for these financial products. If you are enabling those using those products in isolation or want these products more clearly separated in your organization, you will also want to use these dedicated pages. For Investment Products, only the Financial Products page is available.
   2. Open the app pages corresponding to the apps you wish to enable financial products for, and within them, select the Activation button in the upper right-hand corner. 
   3.  In the Activation modal, open the Lightning Experience tab, select the corresponding app and click the Add page to app button. Then, place it in the desired position in the navigation menu. 
      • Please note: App navigation menus hide the last 13 visible items. This means you’ll need to position the Financial Products item higher than that in the menu to display this option. 
2. Add permission sets to users from the Additional Features page in the Settings app. 
3. Review field history tracking to ensure these suit your firm’s needs. The table below in the Available Fields section displays fields with field history tracking enabled by default. 
4. Review the object’s compact layout to ensure that the fields that display suit your firm’s needs. The variability of applied use cases means that this layout requires customization to add your desired fields, as the only field that appears by default is the record name. 
5. For Private Investments and Retirement Plans only: Confirm the following rollups are activated in your organization:
   • Number of Open Deals
   • Number of Assets
   • Potential AUM
   • AUM

Available Fields

The table below displays field availability based on the financial product used. This table does not include standard fields such as Name or Created Date, as these are available across financial products and do not require additional information.

Name	Field Type	Field History Tracking Enabled by Default	Envestnet Investments	Private Investments	Retirement Plans	Super Funds	Description/Notes
AUM	Currency	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total Current Value of Assets related to the Financial Product that have a Category of “Funding Deposit."
Account Minimum	Currency	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Adjusted Price / Earning Ratio	Number	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Asset Class	Text	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Average Market Cap	Currency	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Average Annual Turnover	Percent	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Batch	Lookup	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Billing Mode	Text	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Current Yield	Percent	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Debt to Total Capital	Number	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Description	LongText Area	✅  Changes only, not old and new values	✅	✅	✅	✅
EPS Growth Past 5 Years	Percent	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
End Date	Date	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
External Id	Text	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Fee Disclosures	LongText Area	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Group	Text	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌
Inception Date	Date	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Investment Due Date	Date	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌	The date by which the fundraising goal needs to be reached.
Investment Minimum	Currency	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Investor Eligibility	Picklist	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Managing Firm	Lookup	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Median Market Cap	Currency	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Model Weighted Average Gross Expense Ratio	Percent	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Model Weighted Average Net Expense Ratio	Percent	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Number of Employer Prospects in Hierarchy	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of employer prospects related to a fund below this one in the fund hierarchy.
Number of Assets	Number	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total count of Assets related to the Financial Product that have a Category of “Funding Deposit."
Number of Open Deals	Number	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total count of Deals related to the Financial Product that are not either Closed Lost or Closed Won.
Number of Employer Prospects in Fund	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of employer prospects related to this fund.
Number of Employers in Fund	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of active employers related to this fund.
Number of Employers in Hierarchy	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users, but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of active employers related to a fund below this one in the fund hierarchy.
Number of Member Prospects in Fund	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users, but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of member prospects related to this fund.
Number of Member Prospects in Hierarchy	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users, but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of member prospects related to a fund below this one in the fund hierarchy.
Number of Members in Fund	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of active members related to this fund.
Number of Members in Hierarchy	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total number of active members related to a fund below this one in the fund hierarchy.
Number of Participants	Number	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
Parent Financial Product	Lookup	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
Plan Type	Picklist	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Potential AUM	Currency	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total AUM of Deals related to the Financial Product that are not either Closed Lost or Closed Won.
Price/Book Ratio	Number	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
QDIA	Text	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	The Qualified Default Investment Alternative for a retirement plan.
Related Divison	Lookup	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	The Primary Division of the record owner.
Return on Equity (1 yr)	Number	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Risk Rating	Text	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Risk Score	Number	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Service Type	Lookup	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Set As Created Date	DateTime	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	This field is to facilitate the setting of the Created Date field with Bulk API upsert. This is not intended to be used for any other purpose and should not be populated from any other context.
Sharing Scope 2	Text	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Sharing Scope 3	Text	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Sharing Scope 4	Text	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Sharing Scope 5	Text	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Sharing Scope	Text	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Stage	Picklist	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Start Date	Date	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	The default value is today’s date.
Strategist Style	Text	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Total Account Value in Fund	Currency	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total currency value of active accounts held by members related to this fund.
Total Account Value in Hierarchy	Currency	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	Rollup field calculated using Lookup Rollup Summaries. Appears as read-only in page layouts when viewed by standard and super users but appears as editable to system administrators. The total currency value of active accounts held by members related to a fund below this one in the fund hierarchy.
Type	Text	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌