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Household / Account Summary
Household / Account Summary

Understanding the numbers in the Household/Account Summary report, why the calculations were chosen, and how to use the report with clients

Chelsea Flood avatar
Written by Chelsea Flood
Updated over a week ago

What is included in the number you are looking at?

Summary of Changes section

  • Period (A) - Displays two periods on the report, denoting in plain words the time period for each row

  • Period Start & Period End (B) - specifies the start and end date for each row’s period displayed. For the report period of inception to date, Atlas will choose the first date for which it started capturing the necessary performance data to report. Note: this may be different than the accounts open date on the custodian as a result.

  • Beginning Value (C) - Indicates the Total Market Value (MV) at the start of the row’s period. This number includes accruals, and as such may not match the client statement value.

  • Net Contributions (D) - Indicates the MV of the net flows in and out of the account for the row’s period. This includes cash and asset in and out flows. (i.e. Cash Deposits + Cash Withdrawals + Securities In + Securities Out)

  • Total Income (E) - Indicates the total income including interest and dividends/earnings. This does not include accrued income (i.e. income that has earned, but has yet to be received)

  • Net Appreciation (F) - Indicates the market appreciation for the period row. Another way to think of this is the account or households market growth net of any cash or asset flows and income (i.e. Ending Value - Beginning Value - Income - Net Contributions)

  • Ending Value (G) - specifies the MV at the end of the row’s period reported. This includes accruals

Note: You're welcome to review this recording for an in depth explanation of the Household/Account Summary report. 

Valuation Summary section

Note: none of the following "high level" asset classes are advisor editable. These refer to Bridge’s security master classification table. Our security master is a maintained by a combination of custodial data and classification data provided by outside vendors including ICE. Misclassifications sometimes occur, such as an ETF appearing as Equity despite the underlying holdings being Fixed Income, but these can be easily be changed by our team and we monitor for such occurrences. These values may all include asset accruals.

  • Account Number (A) - Specifies the account number in the reported row as received from the custodian. If the account is manually added, Atlas will auto generate an account number for it (e.g. for hedge funds or private equity positions)

  • Account Name (B) - Specifies the account names; Atlas default uses the name provided by the custodian, but you can have our support team update the name to whatever you prefer for reporting purposes.

  • Cash and Cash Equivalents (C) - Indicates the current MV as of the report date for cash and money market positions in the account

  • Equity (D) - Indicates the current MV as of the report date for equity positions in the account

  • Fixed Income (E) - Indicates the current MV as of the report date for fixed income positions in the account

  • Other (F) - Indicates the current MV as of the report date for ‘other’ positions in the account. This typically includes non publicly traded assets like REITs, PE positions, and hedge funds.

  • Total Value (G) - indicates total value of the sum of the other 4 high level asset classes

  • Discretionary Held-away Accounts (H) - Indicates the value of any Held-away accounts aggregated by Atlas.

Why have we chosen to include and/or calculate the number the way we do?

Many of the numbers on the summary report are very straightforward. The most common questions that pertain to the numbers on this sub-report tend to be on the Summary of Changes section.

The numbers included in that section were based on a broad range of feedback from advisors on key information needed to get a "snapshot" of account changes. Together they give a complete picture of a client's account or reporting household without being overly cumbersome to share with a client by overloading them with too much data. For example, income is only reported at an aggregate level, because at this summary reporting level, most clients may not benefit from knowing the individual income type breakdown. For those clients who do benefit from increased detail, additional sub reports that provide such breakdowns are also available.

How can this report be used in a client review to help boost your clients' confidence, increase transparency, and answer questions?

The vast majority of advisory firms using Atlas choose to include this sub-report because of how quickly it can help get you and your client up to speed on their account(s). Some best practices and tips on how to get the most out of this client include:

  • Use the side by side time period comparison in the Summary of Changes section to help keep your client grounded on long term results in both bull and bear periods.

  • If you have set savings goals with your client, use the net flows as an accountability point to check in on their progress.

  • If the client is in retirement/drawing down on their account(s) or otherwise seeking to generate income from their investments, use the income change summary as an accountability point and reminder of the value of your services to their financial goals.

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