Faced with increasingly complex portfolios, the growing importance of unlisted assets and regulatory pressure, independent asset managers are changing the nature of their technological tools. Étienne de Bejarry, who has just opened the Addepar platform office in Switzerland, explains the architecture, automation and data processing choices that are redefining their daily work.
What are the main areas of research and development at Addepar today?
The company spends over $100 million a year on R&D, with almost half of its workforce dedicated to product, engineering and data infrastructure.
As for data infrastructure. Addepar has invested heavily in an architecture based on Databricks. It enables the processing of over 450 data streams from custodian banks worldwide. This approach guarantees high data quality, seamless integration with third-party systems and a high level of security, while ensuring the platform's scalability.
The second focus is on artificial intelligence and automation. Addepar is developing intelligent agents, chatbots and workflow automation tools designed to simplify the daily lives of its users. The aim is clear: to reduce the operational workload, limit manual intervention and enable teams to concentrate on higher value-added tasks.
Finally, a third strategic axis concerns the management of alternative and private assets. Today, Addepar manages some $8,000 billion in assets, 40% of which is invested in unlisted asset classes. Addepar has developed solutions capable of automatically reading, analyzing and processing documents issued by genGPs for reliable, seamless integration of this complex data.
Which solutions developed internationally seem particularly relevant to independent asset managers in Switzerland?
Independent asset managers operate in an increasingly demanding environment, requiring tools that are both powerful and flexible. It is precisely in this area that Addepar has focused a large part of its development efforts in recent years.
The platform is based on an advanced personalization logic. Each user profile - compliance officer, relationship manager, portfolio manager, management or risk officer - can benefit from dashboards, indicators and reports specifically adapted to their responsibilities and objectives. The tool is not designed as a fixed system, but as an evolving environment, capable of adjusting over time to the operational needs of the teams.
This flexibility also extends to the handling of alternative assets. Addepar has developed an Alternative Data Management module to automate the integration of investments often transmitted in the form of unstructured documents sent by email. This data is processed without any manual intervention, and converted directly into usable transactions, thus responding to a very real problem encountered by many asset managers in Switzerland.
How do you explain the fact that independent asset managers in Switzerland are lagging behind when it comes to digitalization?
This is largely due to the rapid evolution of their environment. Recent years have seen a tightening of regulations, notably with the introduction of the FINMA license, as well as the growing complexity of multi-bank, multi-jurisdictional portfolios. The integration of assets - structured and alternative products, for example - has become much more sophisticated.
What's more, the business of independent asset management has historically been based on human relationships, trust and proximity to customers. For a long time, technology was seen as a secondary support, or even a constraint, rather than a strategic lever. Added to this is the fact that many digital tools have been seen primarily as cost centers, with no clearly identifiable immediate benefits.
How do you see the Swiss PMS market evolving over the next few years?
It's a highly competitive market, which is an advantage for managers, who have a wide range of solutions at their disposal. However, not all players are equal when it comes to the investments required to integrate new technologies.
In the medium term, the PMSs that succeed will have been able to anticipate future market needs, by investing significantly in research and development. Managers will need to be able to do more with less, while meeting the expectations of a new generation of customers, more demanding in terms of personalization, transparency and digital experience.
The ability to offer fully customized reports, modern interfaces and mobile applications adapted to usage will become a key differentiating factor. In this context, the digital experience offered to end customers will become a strategic element in its own right.
How do you integrate unlisted assets to achieve a consolidated view of portfolios?
As I was saying, almost 40% of the assets aggregated on the platform are invested in private equity, real estate, direct investments or other real assets. To meet the specific needs of these asset classes, Addepar has developed tools that connect directly to general partners' portals, automatically analyze the documents received and generate the corresponding transactions in the platform. This approach guarantees a consolidated view of portfolios, with reliable, historical data.
In addition, Addepar has set up long-term cash-flow and liquidity projection tools, based on a vast anonymized database of private funds. These functionalities enable us to create realistic scenarios and propose relevant performance benchmarks, according to investment strategies and profiles.
What role do you see for artificial intelligence and predictive analysis in a PMS?
It is used in particular to automate the processing of documents linked to alternative assets, but also to feed chatbots capable of answering complex queries based on the data available on the platform.
Beyond these initial use cases, Addepar is working on the automation of complete operational workflows: customer onboarding, regulatory controls, bank data reconciliation. The aim is to streamline processes and significantly reduce manual tasks.
Eventually, AI will play a central role in the functional perimeter of PMS, while remaining subject to human validation. The aim is not to replace the expertise of professionals, but to reinforce it, by giving them tools capable of improving efficiency, reliability and decision-making.