Announcements

What's Improved Advisor Experience | Managing HouseholdsAdded 'Select All' functionality to the Manage Household pages. Note: only 40 households can be activated at once.Click Here for more information on managing households. 

What's Improved DocVault | Upload & ShareThe document upload workflow now allows advisors to share document(s) directly with one or many specified household(s) during the document upload process, eliminating a step in sharing documents. More details here.Reports | Expanded Template Parameters and Net Contribution Toggle All Report templates offer all report parameters as options for a report, giving advisors even more ways to configure reports exactly as they want them. Users can toggle Net Contributions on and off via the parameter selection stage.Click here for more information on configuration parameters.  Knowledge Bot | Support LinkWe’ve added a link for our “contact support” page to the Knowledge bot - don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything! What's Fixed Reports | DisclaimersFixed a bug that caused the incorrect performance methodology to be shown in the disclaimer.Advisor Dashboard | Time PeriodsFixed an issue where the incorrect max date was displayed on dashboards.

What's New DocVault | Bulk UploadsLast release we brought you bulk downloads, this week we’re releasing the complimentary bulk uploads. Advisors and Firm Managers will find the Add Documents workflow now supports bulk uploads, making adding multiple documents at once significantly easier and faster.  Click here for more details.Bulk uploads are limited to 20 files at a time. This feature supports the following file types; jpg, jiff, png, svg, csv, doc, rtf, pdf, ppt, txt, and xls.   Advisor Experience | Knowledge BotTo help make sure users have the right information at their fingertips when using the system, we’ve implemented a Knowledge Bot within the UI.Users will find a small blue icon in the lower right Clicking this icon will give access to key information, such as Knowledge Base content, Guides, and Release Notes.What's Improved Billing | Household BillingAdvisors will be able to select all managed accounts for billing from the Household billing page. Updated Household billing details page to include Managed/Unmanaged indicatorReports | Page Order, Search, & Asset Class LabelsFixed bug which caused the "Performance by Asset Class" page to display in the wrong order. Advisors searching for Reports can now search with a chosen time period. (1 year is set as the default period shown) Added descriptive labels for the donut charts on the Asset Class Analysis page.Integrations | BlazeUsers will now be able to SSO directly into Blaze Portfolio from the Advisor experience. What's Fixed Advisor Dashboard | Tax LotsIf your custodian is Schwab, FMR, or Pershing, you will now see Tax Lot data in the Advisor dashboards.

What's New DocVault | Bulk DownloadsDocVault provides bulk downloads for advisors to quickly download multiple documents at once. Click here for more details. Bulk downloads are limited to 20 files at a time. Automatically produces a file called "downloads.zip." The table of documents in the Advisor UI has been updated to make the "Preview Document" icon easier to find and for the document details to appear when the row is clicked. What's Improved Reports | Custom TemplatesWe've added the ability to edit the name and delete user-created Report Templates from the Report Landing page. Reports | Income & Expense Report The income & expense report has been updated to sort transactions in ascending date order. (Previously, transactions were sorted by size.) What's Fixed Reports | Cost and GainsWe've fixed a bug that caused Cost and Gains columns to show up for reports not including Cost and Gains data, resulting in empty columns.   

What's New Advisor & Investor Experience | Light ModeLight mode is here! We heard your feedback - you asked and we delivered.Users, both Advisors-side and Client-side, can now toggle between light mode and dark mode for their experience. The option is in the top-left of the Advisor/Client preferences page. For more information, click here for Advisor Light Mode and click here for Client Light Mode. (Note: Advisors previewing the Client experience will preview the Client UI in the mode the Client has selected. For example, an Advisor who has the dark theme view for themselves previews a Client using the light theme - the Advisor will see the Client UI in the light theme.) Reports | New "My Reports" SectionWe're continuing to add functionality to the new(ish) report building suite. Thanks for all the great feedback; keep it coming. Users will now find a "My Reports" section on the Reports landing page, which contains all the custom templates the user has created. Click here for more information. What's Improved DocVault | Sharing NotificationsAdvisors, Clients, and Firm Managers will now receive a notification whenever a document is immediately shared, indicated by a yellow circle on the bell icon in the top right of the UI. Click here for more information. When an Advisor shares a document with a Client, the Firm Manager will get a notification they have an approval to make. When the Firm Manager approves the sharing then the Client will get a notification in their UI that a document has been shared.  What's Fixed Reports | Income and ExpenseFixed a bug that was incorrectly calculating net income and expenses.  

What's Improved Advisor Experience | Simplified Client ActivationTo help save Advisors time and ensure Advisors can deliver exceptional client experiences, we’ve streamlined the process for adding and activating client users.We've added an "Activate" button at the end of the “Add Investor User” workflow, so that after a client is added to the system the Advisor can go directly to the activation page. (Previously, Advisors would add a user, save the user, and then navigate to the Activate page and activate the newly created user from there.)Advisor Dashboard | Custom Global Time Periods  In the last few releases, we've given Advisors the ability to configure and save the global time period for all their widgets in the Dashboard. We're extending those capabilities by adding custom time periods to the global options. With the right data in the right format at your fingertips, you can deliver more value to your clients. Advisors can select and set a “Custom” timeframe from the Global selector, and on the Holdings and Transactions widget. (Previously, the “Custom” option was available in only the Balance and Performance widgets.) What's Fixed Reporting | Scheduled Reports not being deliveredFixed a bug that prevented Weekly/Monthly Email Reports from being sent to Investor users.DocVault | Billfin folder appearing for non-Billfin usersFixed an issue that caused the Billfin folder within Docvault to display for non-Billfin users. 

We wanted to provide an update on our post-TD/Schwab conversion efforts at CircleBlack as of Thursday, September 7, 2023:Over Labor Day weekend, we successfully updated TD accounts and rep codes to be Schwab accounts and masters. Yesterday, Wednesday, Sept. 6, we successfully ingested the newly converted Schwab files for September 5 close-of-market data. Our Data and Operations teams carefully stepped through our planned quality assurances processes to link new Schwab positions with the existing position data across all our firms and environments. There may be minor data issues as a result of some of the differences in how TD and Schwab handle cash and cash-related securities but we are continuing work through those issues. Accounts were updated with 9/5 market values late last night. Today and over the next several days, Advisors should expect Schwab accounts to be updated by mid-day Eastern time given the delayed file delivery from Schwab and our continued to data quality assurance checks. Note that performance calculations will be available for Household and Accounts. Holding or position-level performance calculations will be caught up over the next few days. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out at help@circleblack.com.

 What's New In-App Notifications | Release NotesContinuing our efforts to provide RIAs with the best possible user experience, we’re implementing guides and notifications in the CircleBlack platform user experience. In the future, you’ll be able to get task-specific instructions and in-app training for features and functions, saving you time and helping you get more value from CircleBlack. For now, we’re starting with notifications!The first time Advisors, Firm Managers, and other non-Investor users log into CircleBlack after a release they will see a one-time pop-up with a brief description of the changes and a link to the full release notes.  Reports v2 | New Reports Landing Page We're excited to release new functionality for Reports v2, which is already getting excellent customer feedback due to the ease of generating reports and the options for customization. Keep the feedback coming!We've released a new Reports Landing Page with bright, informative thumbnails illustrating the report type. Reports v2 can be found under the top section of the reports landing page under Client Portfolio Reports. Click here for more information. We've added an option to the custom color theme controls, released two weeks ago, to reset a Frim's report theme color to the default CircleBlack Blue. What's Improved Advisor UI | Household activation & Default Time PeriodsThe Household activation interface has been tweaked to ensure that when Advisors are activating Households in bulk, they can only select those Households they are assigned, preventing errors in the activation workflow. In the last release, we introduced global time periods to make it easy to update all time-bound widgets at once. Now, we're adding the ability for Advisors to save their preferred time periods as a default, ensuring that their preferred view will be retained when they return. Click here for more information.

We wanted to share a message that Schwab published earlier this week to all their vendor partners regarding the delivery of Schwab files following their Labor Day Weekend TD conversion. On Wednesday, September 6 -- the first day that Schwab will deliver both their newly converted TD files along with existing Schwab files for September 5 market close -- Schwab expects a 3-4 hour delay in the delivery of their files given the greatly increased volume in files.Given the delayed file delivery from Schwab and an extra quality assurance process CircleBlack is implementing to handle the new files on the morning of September 6, we do not expect updated Schwab data to be available in CircleBlack until the evening of September 6.Schwab also shared that for the following days after Wednesday, September 6 to expect at least a 2 hour delay in the delivery of their files. CircleBlack has added computing and process capacity to handle the increased file volume but we wanted to set expectations given these forthcoming delays from Schwab.Given the expected delays next week, we advise that if you need to run a client report, we suggest generating the report with an “As of” date of September 1 or earlier. We will continue to communicate how CircleBlack is handling the TD-Schwab conversion and advise of any changes or updates to our plan. We appreciate your patience and partnership through this transition.Below is Schwab’s message delivered to all vendor partners earlier this week:Due to the millions of additional TD Ameritrade Institutional accounts converting to Schwab over Labor Day weekend, we anticipate the following impact to delivery times:For September 5 data files: Due to one-time conversion-related processing, we expect the core broker-dealer and cost basis files to be available 3-4 hours later than usual. For September 6 data files and for the foreseeable future: We expect the core broker-dealer and cost basis files to be available to you approximately 2 hours later than usual.Please keep in mind that these timeframes are estimates and actual file availability could vary.While the files will be available by the time of our Service Level Agreement of 8:30 am ET, we realize that this is later than you are accustomed to receiving them. We will monitor delivery of files post conversion and continue to do everything we can to process and deliver the files as fast as possible. We hope these changes do not cause any inconvenience to your current processing schedule. Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns at IntegrationSolutions@schwab.com.Thank you for working with us through this transition.The Schwab Integration Team 

As firms and advisors that custody your clients' accounts at TD Ameritrade, we wanted to provide you an overview of CircleBlack’s preparations for the TD-Schwab conversion this upcoming Labor Day Weekend (Sept 2-4) and what to expect once the conversion is complete.Our headline message is that once the conversion process is complete, when you log in to CircleBlack, your TD accounts will simply become Schwab Institutional accounts. That means when you click into an account in CircleBlack, you will have the full and continuous account history and performance data from when the account was at TD.To that end, there will be no changes to your firm’s assets under management, no changes to your Account Code mappings, no changes to your households or account groups, no changes to your clients' Investor portal experiences, and no changes to how we send your account data to our integration partners. In effect, it will feel like you have had your accounts at Schwab for as long as you’ve had them at TD.To provide this seamless transition to Schwab, the CircleBlack Data and Operations teams have been receiving and processing files from Schwab over the last two months that map your TD rep codes and accounts to Schwab’s masters and accounts. These mapping files form the foundation of the transition. We also map all the underlying position and security data to Schwab’s data format. We are finalizing our pre-conversion tests in a non-production environment to ensure the Schwab cutover runs as expected.We know this conversion to Schwab has been a long time coming and challenging for firms. Our goal at CircleBlack is to make this transition as straightforward for you as possible. Below are some FAQs, and if you would like to schedule a call or ask us any questions directly, please reach out to CircleBlack’s Head of Customer Success, Matt Valkovic, at mvalkovic@circleblack.com.FAQsQ: When can I expect my accounts to show as Schwab accounts in CircleBlack?A: On Saturday, September 2, after we process the final daily files from TD Ameritrade, we will execute our conversion process to convert account numbers, rep codes/master account numbers, and security identifiers. Those changes will be visible through our systems sometime during that day. The changes will be incremental rather than happening simultaneously, so you may see some data points changed but not others while our conversion process is in progress.Q: We use your BillFin integration – what impact will the conversion have on our billing process?A: BillFin will execute their conversion in parallel, so billing can be run as usual post-conversion. We strongly urge that no billing be run on Saturday, September 2nd, while each organization runs its conversion processes. We also recommend that no billing be run on the 3rd or 4th to allow all organizations to test their conversion processes and address any follow-up issues.Q: Accounts from CircleBlack push into my integration partners – will those partners update the data to Schwab accounts?A: We have analyzed each of our integrations and determined the appropriate plan of action. In general, each partner will perform a parallel conversion based on data provided directly by Schwab or CircleBlack.Q: What happens if there’s an issue during the conversion? Is there a backup plan?A: CircleBlack is extensively testing its conversion process prior to conversion weekend. We will handle most unexpected issues over the conversion weekend in real-time before the markets reopen on Tuesday, September 5th. In the worst case, if necessary, we will restore our systems to their pre-conversion state, leave TD accounts as of September 1st close of business while we resolve any issues, then re-run the conversion process and catch up with daily file processing.

What’s Improved Advisor UI | Customization and StreamliningTo make comparisons easy and reduce clicking, Advisors can now change the time period globally from a dropdown at the top of the page rather than individually on time-bound dashboard tiles. Click here for more details. To ensure Advisors can quickly get to relevant information, Firm Managers can choose if the Dashboard displays Firm View or My Portfolio View for Advisors. To make it more intuitive to manage Households, the “Householding” button used to create new Households has been moved from the Manage < Clients tab to the Manage < Households tab. DocVault | Alerts and notificationsTo make it easier to see when new documents have been uploaded, the Folders on DocVault now display a yellow icon to the left of the item count text when documents have been added. Click here for more details. Asset categories (from Morningstar) | Intangible Asset TypeTo better address users' different assets, we’ve added Intangible Assets as a category for manual assets. Click here for more details on Asset Classes. Reports v2 | EnhancementsBuilding reports that suit Advisors' needs is now simpler, as Advisors can save preferred benchmarks as part of custom report templates. When selecting holdings pages on the Report Parameters screen, Advisors will find tooltips that detail what will be included in the report. We’ve increased the readability of charts by updating the colors used to represent the different Broad Asset Classes. Integrations | Blaze PortfolioWe’ve made it easier for Advisors to navigate to Blaze Portfolio by adding a new point of entry on the Integrations page.   

What’s New Reports v2 | Customization and PersonalizationFor those firms we’ve enabled, we’ve had great feedback about our Reports v2 - thank you to everybody who let us know what they like and where they’d like more. This sprint, we’ve released a couple of upgrades:Firm Managers can now set a firm-wide Report Theme Color within V2 Reports by picking from a color palette or entering RGBA, hex, or HSLA values. Click here for more information. We’ve added an option under the Parameters step of report generation, allowing users to select between Landscape or Portrait orientation for the report. We expect to release Reports v2 to all firms in the coming weeks.Client Experience | Mobile app: multiple users can access householdContinuing our focus on our mobile users, we’ve deployed two quality-of-life improvements:Investor Portal users with access to multiple households can now easily switch between households within the app, making it easier to obtain information needed without having to log out and log in again as different users.  Mobile users can now manage their profile details (e.g., name/email/phone number) and preferences (e.g., two-factor authentication preferences) from within the app. What’s Improved In the Document Vault, the “By Household” document view has been moved to the left navigation as one of Folders options, directly under “All Documents,” and removed from the tabs at the top of the page. 

Special Release! Next-Generation Reports from CircleBlack CircleBlack is delighted to release the first phase of our next-generation Reports v2.The first phase -- our “Beta Version” -- includes a refreshed look-and-feel to our PDF reports, a more streamlined process for generating reports using templates, and additional parameters for more intuitive grouping of data. In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing a new report Landing page that will allow Advisors to easily create and re-use report templates as well as the ability to customize report cover pages.When Advisors login and go through the normal Report generation workflow, look for the “Client Portfolio Report - Beta Version” in the Report type drop down menu. Reports generated from this option will have the new look and feel and the new template workflow.    An important note: the existing CircleBlack PDF reports will remain in place alongside the new reports for the next few months as we continue to rollout our new reporting features. Many thanks to our customers who participated in and guided the design and development of these reporting tools, and, of course, to the many individuals and teams at CircleBlack who contributed to this milestone as we strive to be the most customer-focused and easiest to work with Advisor Platform.Let us know what you think! Please send feedback to the Customer Success Team at help@circleblack.com. Phase 1 - Reports v2 Highlights: Updated the look and feel of reports, improving clarity and reducing content spilling over pages. Increased data density ensures the information you want is front and center. Additional parameters for developing reports, including the ability to choose multiple parameters to use as parent/sub-groupings. Savable and editable custom templates - once configured to their liking, advisors can choose to update the current template or save the configuration as a new template.To get started with Reports v2, click here.For a general overview of Reports v2 and update Reporting help articles, click here.

What’s New Client Experience | Enable Multi-User Investor Portal AccessTo help advisors serve the growing number of households with sophisticated needs, we’ve enhanced our capabilities around multiple logins for the same household.  Enabled unique login credentials for family members (such as a spouse or child) who need access to the investor portal, increasing security and usability. Provide convenient access rights management so trusted agents such as accountants and lawyers can be given access when needed, and removed when needed. Implemented multi-household ownership structures; for example, business owners who share a corporate account can access the shared account but be able to switch to their personal and private accounts with ease. Mobile app: Users of the mobile application can now update their own profile and preferences Click here for more information on multiple members of a household access the investor portal.Accounts Architecture | Investor Portal Managed vs. UnmanagedTo help give advisors a ‘single pane of glass’ view of investors’ portfolios, we’ve improved our capabilities to include and exclude managed and unmanaged accounts from dashboards, widgets, and reporting. Firms can designate accounts as either “Managed” or “Unmanaged,” which will be easily identifiable by an icon next to the account name. In the Investor portal, users can view their portfolio, account dashboards, and accompanying widgets by toggling the display/inclusion of “All Accounts,” “Managed Accounts,” or “Unmanaged Accounts.” Click here for more information on the Investor Portals managed/unmanaged feature.Document Vault | Folders Panel, Firm Manager Access, and Document OwnersWe’ve made several enhancements to the Document Vault to make sure advisors and investors can quickly and easily access critical documents.We’ve updated Document Vault to provide folders to organize documents. Folders default to  “All Documents,” “Reports,” “Invoices,” “Custodian,” “Uploaded by Me,” “Uploaded by Investor”. Firm Managers can now access all the documents in the Document Vault. The Document Vault now includes a new column in the document list that shows the document owner (uploaded or generated). Click here for more information on the new folders panel view. What’s ImprovedEnhance Holdings widget to display “Cost Basis” and “Unrealized Gains.” Improved labeling of household names when managing household settings. Improved logo placement interaction in the investor portal and mobile app. Adjusted permissions for editing households so that the Firm Manager role can no longer edit households unless they are also an Advisor of that household.

What’s New Advisor Experience | Display Cash Balance & Percent in Cash in AccountsOn the Accounts list page at the Firm, Advisor, and Household levels, we added two new columns: Cash Balance and % in Cash The Cash Balance column shows the balance of cash and cash equivalents in that account. The % in Cash column shows the percent of cash and cash equivalents in that account.Document Vault | Enhancements to document sharing experience & document accessWe improved the process to share documents between Advisors and Households. Now, if a document has not been shared with a Household, the Share Details page calls that out. The Share Details page also more quickly displays which Households a document has been shared. Our Documents by Household now also include Reports generated at the Account level for a particular Household. For example, if you generated a performance report for a single account in a Household with multiple accounts, the Account report is available in the Household’s list of documents.Client Experience | Mobile App Enhancements & ImprovementsWe released the following enhancements and fixes to the Investor mobile app. We expanded the types of files Users can upload to their Document Vault through the mobile app. Users will be able to upload the following file types: CSV (.csv); Doc (.doc, .docx, .rtf) Image (.jpeg, .jpg, .jpe, .jfif, .png, .svg, .svgz) PDF (.pdf) PPT (.ppt, .pptx) Text (.txt) XLS (.xls, .xlsx) CSV, Doc, Images, PDF We added the ability for Users to download documents that are available in their Document Vault through the mobile app. This will give Users more flexibility around saving and viewing the documents in their Document Vault. Fixes and smaller enhancements include: Fixed Biometrics Login Bug: We fixed the issue where biometric login - fingerprint and face recognition - was working inconsistently for our mobile app. Biometric based logins will work consistently for Users who opt to use that feature. Yodlee: We released an update to better handle the Yodlee Fastlink 4.0 experience within our mobile app. This makes the process of adding held-away accounts smoother for Users. This release included multiple minor bug fixes and enhancements that improves the overall user experience and security of our mobile app.  What’s Coming Reporting | Next Generation ReportsWe’re very excited to announce that next month we’ll be releasing our next generation Client Reports and redesigned Reports landing page.  The new Client Reports will retain CircleBlack’s client-friendly look and feel but will feature an updated, modern design, improved data density, and streamlined configuration options. CircleBlack’s existing reports and report generation workflow will remain in place for approximately three months before they’ll be turned off. 

What’s New Client Experience | Enhancements to firm customization of Investor PortalWe added two enhancements to the preference that allows that Firms to customize the widgets on the Investor portal. The first is the functionality to allow or not allow Investor users to change the firm default layout. We added a checkbox under the Investor Experience Settings section in Firm Preferences. The second enhancement relates to MoneyGuide and Risk Partner integrations. Firms can now include the Financial Planning and Risk widgets as part of their firm default layout.  Click here for additional information.Reporting | Firm Daily ReportsCircleBlack offers the ability to send daily files of your firm’s essential account, position, and transaction data to an SFTP destination of your choice. We updated these daily files to further parse out key client information data like household emails and client address data.  Contact the Customer Success Team at help@circleblack.com to learn more our Firm Daily Reports. You can also click here for additional information.Accounts Architecture | Managed versus UnmanagedIn our last release, we announced that we can can start enabling Managed-Unmanaged functionality for interested firms. We had a great response and some excellent feedback! If your firm is interested in this capability, please reach out to the Customer Success Team at help@circleblack.com to have it enabled. Click here for additional information. What’s Coming Client Experience | Mobile App Enhancements & ImprovementsIn the next few weeks, we will be releasing enhancements and fixes to the Investor mobile app. We will be expanding the types of files Users can upload to their Document Vault through the mobile app. Users will be able to upload the following file types: CSV (.csv); Doc (.doc, .docx, .rtf) Image (.jpeg, .jpg, .jpe, .jfif, .png, .svg, .svgz) PDF (.pdf) PPT (.ppt, .pptx) Text (.txt) XLS (.xls, .xlsx) CSV, Doc, Images, PDF We will also be adding the ability for Users to download documents that are available in their Document Vault through the mobile app. This will give Users more flexibility around saving and viewing the documents in their Document Vault. Fixes and smaller enhancements will include: Fixed Biometrics Login Bug: We will be fixing the issue where biometric login - fingerprint and face recognition - was working inconsistently for our mobile app. Biometric based logins will be be working consistently for Users who opt to use that feature. Yodlee: We will release an update to better handle the Yodlee Fastlink 4.0 experience within our mobile app. This makes the process of adding held-away accounts smoother for Users. This release will also include multiple minor bug fixes and enhancements that improves the overall user experience and security of our mobile app.

Advisor Document Vault: View by HouseholdsWe enhanced the Advisor Document Vault so Advisor users can now view and search Documents by Households instead of seeing a single list of Documents. You can also add Documents directly from the new Household view. Note: we have forthcoming enhancements that will add Account- and Group-based reports to the Household-based Document Vault. To view the new update, login to CircleBlack Advisor, click on the Engage tab and select Document Vault in the sub-menu.Accounts Architecture: Managed vs. UnmanagedWe announced last month that we were adding functionality that allows Advisors to differentiate between Accounts they advise or manage directly for clients (“Managed”) versus accounts they don’t manage but have a view into through the platform (“Unmanaged”).  An example of “Managed” accounts are Accounts that come directly from custodians like RBC or Charles Schwab that Advisors have discretion over. An example of an “Unmanaged” account is an employer 401k account that Investors link and share through the Investor Portal for which the Advisor has no control over. We are now ready to start enabling this functionality in the Advisor Dashboard and in our Reports. If your firm is interested in this capability please contact the Customer Success Team at help@circleblack.com.  Click here for additional information.

What’s New Client Experience | Firm customize widgets on Investor PortalWe added the ability for firms to control the widgets displayed to their clients in the Investor web portal. This allows firms to provide a customized Investor portal experience to their clients and highlight the information they want their clients see. Any user with firm-level access can access this feature by going to Settings -> Preferences and navigating down to Investor Experience Settings. Click here for additional information.Reporting | Summarized View of Income & Expense ReportWe enhanced the Income & Expense Report by adding a table with sub-totals of Income & Expenses generated for the report period included by default in all Income & Expense reports We also added an option to allow Advisors to choose to include the transaction details or not. Reporting | Provide option to add income generated from Options Trading to Income & Expense Report We also added Options Trading as an Activity Type in the Income & Expense Report. This will allow Advisors to show clients a summarized and/or detailed view of Options trading transactions that generated income.Advisor Dashboard | Additional BenchmarksWe added additional ETFs to the standard list of ETFs available as benchmarks: NASDAQ-100 QQQ Dow Jones DIA Russell 2000 IWM Emerging Markets VWO S&P Mid-Cap IHJ All Countries Ex US ACWX We also added the ability for Advisors share their blended benchmarks with other Firm Users

What’s Coming Soon Over the last month, the CircleBlack Product and Engineering teams have been hard at work building out extensive back-end architectural updates that pave the way for exciting front-end features and functionality that will be released in May and June. This weekend, we released those back-end updates.Significant back-end changes for Investor User AccessThis weekend’s release included significant back-end changes that will provide Advisors more flexibility in setting up clients' access to the Investor portal. We are targeting end of June for this functionality This includes the ability to associate multiple Investor user logins with a single Household, i.e. one login for each household member. It also will include the ability for an Investor user to access multiple Households, i.e. allow two business owners to access a shared corporate account while still keeping their own personal accounts private.Infrastructure updates to allow Firms to customize Investor Portal widgetsWe also released back-end infrastructure updates that will allow Firms to customize the widgets that display in the Investor web portal. We expect to release the front-end functionality later in May. Firms will be able to pick which widgets their clients can access and in what layout configuration.Accounts Architecture: Managed versus UnmanagedWe are adding functionality that allows Advisors to segregate Accounts they advise or manage directly for clients versus accounts that they do not. A clear example of this are the Accounts that come in to CircleBlack directly from your custodians like Schwab or Fidelity. These accounts will be tagged as Managed. When your clients login to the Investor portal to link and share their held-away accounts like an employer 401k, these accounts will be tagged as Unmanaged. Advisors have told us having this ability to distinguish between these account buckets is critical to conveying how they are delivering for their clients. The CircleBlack interface will allow Advisors to view Firm, Advisor, and Household account data across All, Managed, or Unmanaged Accounts. Reporting and the Investor portal will also include this distinction too.What’s Improved Speed of loading data on the Holdings WidgetWe optimized the speed of loading all the data the displays on this widget so when you or your clients navigate to the Household or Account dashboard, the holdings data displays just as quickly as all the other data on the dashboard.Enhanced the display of Model Names in the Investor PortalWe improved how model names are displayed in the Investor portal so your clients have a much clearer understanding of the models and strategies assigned to their accounts.

What’s New Advisor Dashboard | Set Custom Time Periods on Performance WidgetsIn our March 7 release, we added functionality to set a custom time period on the Balance Graph widget. In this release, we added the same custom time period functionality to the Performance and Performance by Asset Class widget. Custom Time Period functionality on Balance and Performance widgets is available in Household, Account, or Group Dashboards.Advisor Dashboard | Performance Methodology IndicatorThe Performance and Holdings Widgets also now include a help indicator icon for viewing Performance Methodology Type (Time-Weighted or Dollar-Weighted Return), Gross or Net of Fees calculation, and if returns greater than 1 Year are Annualized or Cumulative. What’s Improved Advisor Dashboard & Investor Portal | Preferences Validation for Phone NumbersWe added validation for users to easily update a phone number if they update preferences like 2-Factor authentication.Reporting | Save Parameters in Generate Report WorkflowWhile generating reports, previous parameters selected will be saved if an advisor needs to navigate to previous step. Previously context selected was always cleared when a user navigated back.

What’s New Reporting | Page Ordering FunctionalityWhen generating PDF Reports, Advisors now have the ability to select and save the order of the pages of their Reports.  Advisor Dashboard | Set Custom Time PeriodsIn the Balance tile widgets throughout the Advisor interface -- the Household, Account, and Group Dashboards -- Advisor users can now set and view the balance graph for a selected custom time range. Current functionality has allowed advisors to look at balances using fixed time periods like 1 Month or YTD. A forthcoming release will allow Advisor users to set a custom time period on the Performance tile.Client Experience | Set Household Preferences across multiple householdsOn the Households tile, we added a drop down to easily set preferences like performance methodology and Email Reports delivery across multiple households.Client Experience | View Model Names on Accounts in Investor PortalThe Investor portal will now display model names on accounts for firms that have models assigned to accounts.    What’s Improved Advisor Dashboard | Analyze Risk on Account GroupsAdvisor users can now analyze risk on Accounts Groups if you have an existing Risk partner integration.Reporting | User Experience ImprovementsWe updated the Default Settings logic to always load the latest default settings. We fixed an issue for Firm Manager users who were trying to generate reports for their own book of business; selecting their Advisor name now correctly filters on their households.

What’s New Advisor Dashboard & Client Experience | Add Performance to Holdings Widget On the Holdings widget in both the Advisor dashboard and Investor portal, we added a Performance column.  A new time period selector has also been added in order to view performance on holdings in a given period. Click below for additional information:    Reporting | Display multiple Benchmarks on Performance ReportsAdvisor users can now select up to two benchmarks (blended or default options) when generating a performance report.  On the Report, the benchmarks will display on the Overview page, Portfolio Activity Summary page, and on the Multi-Period table and graph pages. Click below for additional information:    Advisor Dashboard | Add Graph to Performance by Asset Class WidgetWe added a graph to the Performance by Asset Class Widget we released in January. The graph will display the top 5 performing asset classes on the respective Household, Account, or Group Dashboards.  The graph can be viewed by expanding the widget to its full page size. Click below for additional information:   

What’s New Client Experience | Firm Preferences Setting Performance Methodology & Type for Investor PortalWe added a firm-level preference that allows firm managers to set the performance methodology (TWR or DWR) and type (Gross or Net of Fees) in the Investor portal. Previously, the Investor portal performance methodology was only able to be set per household. Now, this functionality allows firms to set desired settings firm-wide. Click below for additional information: Advisor Dashboard | Setting Multiple Benchmarks in Performance WidgetWe added the ability for Advisors to assign multiple benchmarks in the Performance widget on the Household dashboard.  In a future release, we'll be adding this functionality to our Performance Reports. Click below for additional information:  What’s Improved Billing | Include & Exclude Household from Billing FunctionalityWe fixed the user experience on Engage > Household Billing page Now, if you select the "Include for Billing" checkbox, all accounts in the Household are marked to be included for billing. Similarly, if you de-select the "Include for Billing" checkbox, all accounts in the Household are not included for billing. Click below for additional information:Advisor Dashboard | Notifications for Bounced EmailsWithin our Notifications Bell icon, we’ve always showed the status of Reports generated. In this release, we added a notification for bounced emails. The most common bounced emails are Household Activation Emails sent by Advisors to client emails. If you’re activating households for the Investor portal, you can quickly check the Notifications to ensure the emails were delivered successfully.  

What’s New Advisor Dashboard | New Performance by Asset Class Widget (Table)Adds a new Performance by Asset Class widget to the Household, Account, and Group Dashboards in the Advisor platform.  In this release, the widget includes a Table that shows the Asset Classes and their respective Performance and Contribution values over a selected time period.  Note: because this is a new widget on the Dashboard pages, be sure to click the Edit Layout button in the upper right corner of the Dashboard pages and then Add button to select the Performance by Asset Class option. Advisor Dashboard | Preferences Button added to Household Info WidgetAdds the Preferences button to the Household Info Widget on the Household Dashboard within the Advisor platform. The Preferences button provides quicker access to the page where Advisors can set preferences in the Investor portal.    Client Experience | Enable Benchmarks for Investor PortalGives Advisors the ability to assign benchmarks to their Households’ Investor portal. The first part of this enhancement includes the ability to assign one benchmark at the household level. For more details, see:   

What’s New Client Experience | Add TWR Performance Option to Investor PortalAdds a preference that allows the Advisor to choose the performance calculation methodology by household in the Investor portal to be either time-weighted return or dollar-weighted return.    Reporting | Display Cumulative PerformanceAdvisors will see a new checkbox preference titled Annualize Returns Greater than 1 Year. If Advisors want a report with cumulative performance numbers, they’ll be able to deselect this checkbox when generating the report. Additionally, the report’s disclosures will replace the annualized disclosure language to state: “Returns are calculated on a cumulative basis for all reporting periods.”    What’s Improved Reporting | Rebalance Proposal ReportWe improved the display of the Rebalance Proposal Report within our Models & Rebalancing functionality. If Advisors have Models assigned to Accounts, they can generate a PDF report showing the account’s current allocation and the model’s allocation. For more details, see: