In our latest Client Reporting Playbook survey, 43% of investment managers say their clients prefer portal-delivered reports – underscoring that investors now expect more than simple digital delivery. They want a secure, real-time gateway that not only houses performance data and documents, but also delivers highly personalised insights. In fact, according to our Institutional Reporting Survey, 97% of asset owners value tailored reports —and 82% will only invest with firms that meet their specific reporting needs—pushing the industry beyond “set and forget” toward continuously engaged, integrated reporting experiences.
Clients want to see real-time data within a secure platform, including the ability to seamlessly integrate the portal with various downstream platforms.
Today’s investors expect more than a PDF drop in their inbox. They want on demand, personalised insights—delivered securely, whenever and wherever they choose.
Michelle Wright - Chief Product Officer at Kurtosys
What is an investor portal really?
Investor portals are designed to provide clients with secure online access to fund data and/or documents. This is not entirely different to the typical website experience that can already aid in personalising the experience by providing the user with the most relevant content depending on their role and geographical location. Whereas a public-facing website uses the attestation filter to profile the user, a portal is more secure and personalised, and the user will log in securely to access any content that typically includes marketing material, documents or fund portfolio performance data and insights. This is an elegant way to provide secure, restricted, and custom-filtered dynamic content to entitled users.
Key benefits of an up to date and streamlined investor portal
Transparency and an enhanced client experience
Clients want to see information that is specific and relevant to them, in the format that they prefer. Providing clients with an easy-to-use portal allows free access to not only secure documentation and marketing material, but also the latest portfolio performance figures and any key information on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.
Centralised location for information
Having a portal doesn’t only provide transparency to your clients, but for the internal team as well. All documents can be stored and accessed via one place, securely in the cloud, making life a lot easier when more people in your team will be working remotely than ever before.
Digital content available anytime/anywhere
As life becomes increasingly digitised, people expect real-time information at their fingertips, no matter where they may be. The same goes for their investments. A portal set up allows users to drill down into the detail, a big advantage over the legacy static report formats. They can easily see account activity, fund data, investment related news and updates simply by clicking a few buttons.
Less room for error
Portals allow you to be extremely specific in terms of the level of information accessible by each user. At Kurtosys, using user-friendly document and data entitlement features, we ensure that users only see content that is relevant and applicable to that specific user. These can be set at a fund or class specific level or customised according to specific needs.
Looking to the future with enhanced technology
Incorporating AI into portal experiences as well as the push towards mobile-friendly interactions means that investors are changing the way they communicate. Within the confines of a secure portal experience, advisors can now even have real-time interactions like video calls with their clients. Prompt-based interfaces and chat bots are also improving engagement with clients. Furthermore, an existing client-facing website can be easily transformed to a secure access, gated website using secure logins, SSO or Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) giving clients a seamless transition from prospect to client, while your organisation is able to draw insights from the analytics of your web user behaviour.
Regulatory compliance
Centralised data reduces the risk of reporting errors and with strict compliance and regulatory legislation. Housing important and secure content within a gated portal ticks the crucial boxes.
What to look for when choosing a SaaS (Software as a Service) company to build your investor portal
Client service
Once you have decided to outsource the building of your company’s investor portal, it is important to choose a company that puts you and your clients’ needs first.
Quality of the portal
Your clients expect a seamless experience, and that’s exactly what your service provider should be able to build. Sharing information on the portal should be easy, simple, and easy to access.
Integration ease
Your portal needs to live within your entire online structure, not separately. Your chosen service provider should provide usable solutions to make sure that your reporting, website, and portal solutions all work together seamlessly.
Security and compliance as a priority
When working with sensitive information, your service provider needs to place compliance and security at the forefront of everything they do.
What the best investor portals in the industry include
First off, any starter investor portal should at minimum include and highlight financial performance, contact details of the investment management team, be compliant according to the laws of the country you operate in and provide an overview of the company’s investment strategy.
Once your portal is ready to be taken to the next level, your portal should include usage analytics, digital factsheets, review of similar funds, and should act as a digital library of other thought leadership content that you publish.
Finally, your investor portal should act as a storage solution for all data and legal information required by your fund.
At Kurtosys, we take all things portals to the next level, and offer the below features as a standard to our portals:
Navigation
The structure of your portal is completely customisable, and its navigation can reflect its precise structure.
Client summary
Give investors an overall view of their mandates, including key data such as performance and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) scores.
Search
Put everything in your portal within reach: documents, portfolios, reports, and other content.
Insights
Combine thought leadership, video, and audio together with investment information to maximise brand exposure.
Localise
Allow clients to view content and reporting in their primary language, complete with local formatting.
User profile
Allow clients to manage their profile, reset password, and control two factor authentication settings.
Portfolio explorer
Explore and drill down into specific investment mandates. Filter, favourite, and search.
Key contacts
Ensure clients can easily find help or support when they need you.
An investor portal is more than a software or a technology. It is a behavioural evolution within the investment management industry. With increased competition, your firm needs to deliver an excellent client experience. If you are ready to take the next step, request a demo with our team today.
