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Cumulative Net Investment

Understanding the numbers in the Cumulative Net Investment report, why the calculations were chosen, and how to use the report with clients.

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

With the Cumulative Net Investment report, you can now easily see how much money your client has invested with you relative to the portfolio value. Quickly and visually communicate your client's net returns on a dollar basis.  

What is included in the number you are looking at? (calculations, source, etc.)

This graph displays two lines - the cumulative net investment in an account as well as the market value of the account. The cumulative net investment represents the total amount of money a client has given to an advisor since starting the relationship. The market value line represents the change in value over time. ACAT transfers into an account are treated as deposits, regardless of whether they are cash or securities.

  • Formula: Cash Deposited + Securities Deposited - Cash Withdrawn - Securities Withdrawn


We plot the above formula cumulatively over time, and we level-set the start of the timeseries with the beginning balance in that time series.

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

It is helpful to know the total amount of money a client has given an advisor during the relationship as well as how that compares to the value of the account. 

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

This report is particularly useful to highlight recommendations made by advisors in relation to how much a client has contributed. Consider the following tips and best practices to leverage this report in your client reviews:

  • Easy way to answer the question, "how much money have I made?"

  • Trains clients to look at more than just performance

  • Contextualizing your clients performance in either a bull or bear market to help them stay grounded in long term thinking

  • If your clients have questions about past returns, this report can be an excellent way to help answer them in the context of a broader review of account(s) and the current returns

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