The challenge
India’s wealth management landscape has undergone a rapid evolution in recent years. Once centred around equities and mutual funds, investment firms now have to expand to cater to clients’ needs. And clients are increasingly insisting on a broader range of structured products that include private markets and alternative investments.
When building a wealth management platform, the InCred Capital team recognised that complex financial products need robust tech infrastructure. That entails tech that can handle not only the data, but reporting, as well as compliance. Those requirements made siloed tools and manual reconciliation unviable.
As Vikram Agarwal, COO of InCred Capital, explains, “Clients are looking for more sophisticated product ideas. Every product has its own idiosyncrasies in terms of transaction fulfilment, corporate actions, and reporting, and that can’t be managed without a proper technology solution.”
For InCred Capital, the challenge wasn’t just data capturing. It was maintaining a single source of truth across every client and product, while retaining flexibility for future growth.
The solution
The primary reasons for selecting WealthSpectrum were twofold. Given the relatively narrow market in India, there were a few competing software providers that could handle the task needed. And secondly, WealthSpectrum came with a proven track record.
WealthSpectrum had a solid reputation of consistently managing transactions and reporting without error. Its reliability, coupled with its widespread adoption by industry peers, strongly favoured its selection.
Furthermore, according to Agarwal, the platform’s long tenure in the industry has resulted in numerous product iterations. Meaning that along the decades, WealthSpectrum had undergone such extensive development that it was able to address and handle even the most infrequent edge-case scenarios.
Consequently, the product is highly effective and well-regarded, particularly by the operations team, who appreciate its ability to manage all data and edge cases.
The impact
WealthSpectrum’s open architecture made it the natural fit for InCred Capital’s ambitions. And the platform has since become a cornerstone for both the company’s daily operations and its long-term strategy to deliver enhanced client service.
It delivers several key benefits that streamline operations and ensure accuracy:
- Unified client data: All client KYC, holdings, and transactions live in one system.
- Customisable fields: Teams can define and capture new data elements unique to their workflow.
- Open API access: Facilitates integrations with other tools and custom reporting environments.
- Proven scalability: Years of industry iteration mean it can manage edge cases and complex reconciliation without manual intervention.
Moreover, since WealthSpectrum has an open architecture, it ensures future scalability. The platform enables the quick integration of new financial products and allows reporting capabilities to be easily customised in response to evolving market needs. As Agarwal summarised, “It’s helped us keep everything in one place, and that’s made a big difference to operations.”
Advice to wealth management firms
When asked what advice he’d give to other wealth management firms looking for technology, Agarwal emphasised the importance of a flexible technology strategy. “No single application will do everything,” he stated. Instead, he advises peers to “keep an open mind and plan your ecosystem accordingly,” focusing on integrating specialised tools rather than seeking an all-in-one solution.
So, firstly, when selecting a wealth management system, it is important to prioritise flexibility. Opting for platforms designed to evolve seamlessly with emerging asset classes and dynamic reporting requirements is crucial. Secondly, it is essential to invest in experienced talent, ensuring that teams are proficient with the chosen platform to guarantee efficient and uninterrupted operations.
Finally, firms should adopt a modular mindset, recognising that a single system will typically satisfy only 70–75% of their needs. Therefore, the remaining requirements should be addressed by strategically building or integrating supplementary solutions around the core platform.