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I've Googled it. Trust me. It seems every site that talks about a wealth management platform already assumes one knows what this is.

Is a wealth management platform a set of ideals, a software system, a book, a robot...? Does it keep an account of your money, or does it recommend how you should invest it? Or both?

A specific one like Black Diamond - what differentiates this platform over any other?

Who uses a platform - an investment firm, a person looking to invest,...?

I am curious and clueless. Thanks.

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    What is the context where you came across this term.
    – Dheer
    Oct 10 '17 at 4:20
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    Does "platform" imply anything other than software these days?
    – user541686
    Oct 10 '17 at 8:43
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    @mehrdad Yes, it does. A platform in finance may be a collection of accounts run through a provider (big bank or fund of funds) and have no software component whatsoever. This how I have seen the term most frequently in finance.
    – farnsy
    Nov 5 '17 at 4:25
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It's a tech buzzword.

OK I'm being a bit glib. A Wealth Management Platform is a software system designed to help people track their investment portfolios and research new investments. Sometimes, trusts and small investment firms will use these platforms as well but they will often have more specialized separate systems for portfolio tracking and research.

There is a large variety of platforms out there all trying to be the best platform for you... or someone else. Some will have websites and be open to all with money and some will be applications and only target some types of investors. Some will have robo-advising (Wealthfront), a human adviser (Merrill) or have none at all. Some will have nice graphical tools to track your portfolio or great research tools or both (I try not to recommend products on this site). Some can be designed to nudge you into their ideology (Vanguard).

All, though, have a technology team behind them to make investing easier for you (or their investment advisers) or to sell you their products. You get the picture.

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    Not trying to rag on Vanguard. They have good products but also an easy to identify ideology.
    – rhaskett
    Oct 10 '17 at 4:49
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Most businesses have some sort of software to manage their client data. Most of these various software and/or services are industry specific. Black Diamond seems to be a client management tool targeting investment advisers.

From the black diamond site

Reach an unparalleled level of productivity and transform your client conversations.

You don't need one of these unless you're a professional investment adviser with so many clients you can't track them yourself or need more robust reporting or statement generation tools.

For your purposes most regular brokers, Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, TD, etc, have more than enough tools for the retail level investor. They have news feeds, security analysis papers, historical data, stock screeners, etc. You, a regular retail investor doesn't need to buy special software, your broker will generally provide these things as part of the service.

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