Performance Reporting
NWCM believes in total transparency of the investment management process. Clients should have access to information about their account when they need it—not just when their advisors have determined there is a need. Consequently, we post information about the client's account to our website as frequently as daily. Other reports are updated monthly, most often by the 5th or 6th business day of the month. Extensive quarterly reports are completed and mailed within 10 business days of the quarter's end. All quarterly reports are archived on our website for easy retrieval.
Investment Reporting
To assist us in generating investment reports, we have licensed Axys3, the industry standard for portfolio management software, from Advent Software, Inc. NWCM considers other lesser-priced software programs (widely used in our industry) as wholly inadequate for the task of monitoring client portfolios. We rejected the idea of outsourcing reporting entirely to a third party—another cost-saving trend in our industry. NWCM has chosen instead to maintain the critical function of investment reporting in-house using the very best software. Each deposit and withdrawal is annotated as to source or destination to facilitate review and audit. Each day we reconcile our accounts with the custodian to ensure that both our records and the custodian's are accurate. Trust reports are posted daily to our website for client access.
Our full-time programming staff has successfully integrated Axys3 functionality with proprietary software development to:
- Ensure that day-to-day investment oversight is conducted in a manner consistent with the Statement of Investment Policy established for each account; and
- Enhance the quality and speed of delivery of investment reports to clients.
Standard reports, updated daily and posted to our website for client access, are as follows:
- Account statements with updated values
- Year-to-date performance calculations by account, asset class and individual securities
- Year-to-date transactions by account
- Year-to-date gains, losses and receipt of interest and dividends
Several clients have asked for reports detailing other information, or the same information but in a different format. Because our reporting is in-house and given the expertise of our programming staff, we have the ability to create custom reports that meet the specific needs of a client. Depending on the content of the custom reports, they are updated daily or monthly.
While the availability of detailed investment information, and the speed at which it is delivered, is important, the information must be displayed in a manner that is easy to understand. Client feedback indicates that our reports accomplish this goal. We continually strive to improve the format and functionality of our reporting platform.
Fiduciary Reporting
Fiduciary Reporting tells the client if the portfolio is being managed properly and expertly. NWCM prepares three types of fiduciary reports. The first type of report focuses on the portfolio in its entirety and its compliance to the guidelines of a Statement of Investment Policy (“SIP”). A second report is devoted to the performance of managers or funds employed within the portfolio, again addressing guidelines set forth in the SIP. A third report acts as an executive summary, affording a quick visual review of the compliance of all of the portfolio's managers and funds. Key performance data is color-coded as green, yellow or red to allow fiduciaries to focus in on those managers whose performance needs close scrutiny or is in violation of the SIP.
All three reports are updated monthly and posted online for client access. Within 10 business days of the end of each calendar quarter, these reports are mailed in hard copy to the client.
The report package includes, among other additional information of interest to the client, a written statement signed by a Principal of NWCM as to the compliance of portfolio activity to the guidelines set forth in the SIP. Fiduciaries should retain these written reports for their documentation of their responsibility to conduct proper oversight of NWCM as an Investment Manager. NWCM also archives on its website for client download copies of all quarterly reports it has mailed.
Our clients find the easy-to-read format of our reports and the timing of their delivery to be key differentiators in NWCM's services.