Case study

Three firms, one platform: Addepar’s role in the Laird Norton Wetherby merger

With a rich history dating back to 1967, the Laird Norton Trust Company was established as a family office for the Laird Norton family. In 1979, the firm began offering its trust services more broadly and expanded into investment services, leading to the creation of Laird Norton Wealth Management. Today’s firm is the product of a transformative merger — bringing three firms together under one roof. With shared values and a passion for client service, the firms seized the opportunity to unite and form Laird Norton Wetherby (LNW). LNW offers both RIA and trust services to its global clients, serving them from offices across the U.S.

“Twenty-five years ago, we were a $1 billion RIA,” says Tad Trammell, Managing Director of Operations and Reporting. “Now, we’re pushing $16 billion. We serve clients just starting their wealth journey and others who are part of fifth- or sixth-generation families.”

With this ongoing growth and the need to seamlessly integrate the people, culture and systems of three different firms, LNW was facing a challenge. What technology solution would best meet the firm’s future needs, while providing an implementation experience that could quickly and seamlessly unite the different tech infrastructures? LNW chose Addepar and hasn’t looked back.

LOCATION

Locations across the U.S.

EXECUTIVES

Kristen Bauer, CEO

ESTABLISHED

1967

HEADCOUNT

183

AUM

$16 billion

THE CHALLENGE

Unifying three firms

Before implementing Addepar firm-wide, LNW was juggling multiple tech solutions, including legacy systems that were lacking in functionality. As a result, asset classification lacked consistency and workflows were often inefficient. 

We were merging three successful, independent firms, each with their own systems, processes and ways of doing things. From a purely tech and data standpoint, we needed everything in one place.

Trevor Hicks, Chief Technology Officer

Operational management of alternative investments and delivering custom client experiences

At the same time, LNW’s client base included increasingly complex ownership structures, dozens of custodians and a rising volume of alternative investments. The firm needed a flexible, modern platform — one that could support scale, offer custom reporting capabilities and integrate seamlessly with the rest of their tech stack.

“We couldn’t continue to make so many manual snapshots each day,” says Trammell. “The manual management of alternatives had become unsustainable.”

Minimizing operational disruption with successful change management

The migration involved incorporating the $16 billion in assets under management onto an Addepar database, with active client usage — a complex process that required both precision and care. 

“Because we needed to redefine our processes and workflows, an implementation like this was even more challenging than usual,” says Hicks. “Looking at the change management process and figuring out a solution to tie everything together with minimal disruption was a challenge.”

As a result, choosing a tech partner with a comprehensive and fine-tuned onboarding and implementation process was a high priority for the firm.

With Addepar, Laird Norton Wetherby experienced:

40 hours

saved managing alternatives per week

~20 hours

faster responding to client requests

1,000+ hours

saved in reporting per year

THE RESULT

Delivering a seamless transition

When it came to LNW’s change management challenges, how well did Addepar deliver and what were the results for the firm?

“The Addepar team was completely committed and involved,” Trammell says. “They understood what we were trying to accomplish and took initiative. There was a real sense of partnership that made all the difference.”

Hicks agrees, “What became crystal clear during implementation was that we weren’t just paying for software, we were paying for people, skills and a level of support that exceeded expectations. It was top-notch.”

Thinking longer-term, the need for open architecture and lasting integrations was vital for the firm to continue operating seamlessly after transitioning to the Addepar platform. “The openness of the platform, the APIs and integrations available were crucial,” says Hicks. “We needed our systems to be fully integrated and the fact Addepar could offer this to us was very important.”

What became crystal clear during implementation was that we weren’t just paying for software — we were paying for people, skills and a level of support that exceeded expectations. It was top-notch.

Trevor Hicks, Chief Technology Officer

Enhancing operational efficiency

Since completing the transition to Addepar across the board, the operational impact has been significant, from time saved to more accurate data management. The firm explains that Addepar sits at the core of its daily data process.

“Nothing starts in the morning until Addepar is set up and ready to go,” says Trammell. “Now our investment teams can pull data themselves, so they're much more self-service in evaluating performance — they’re loving Addepar life!”

This improved efficiency has also included the operational management of alternative investments, a key challenge for the firm. “We were spending hundreds of hours every week on the operational management of alternatives,” says Hicks. “With Addepar and other integrations, we’re saving about 40 hours a week just on that. And we’re feeding more custodians now, with better quality data.”

Asset classification is another crucial area where the firm has noticed drastic improvements, after the inconsistent naming conventions that arose from the use of different systems and platforms. The impact is not only efficiency, but the delivery of a higher quality and more accurate service. 

“With Addepar, we built an asset classification system that means we are all speaking the same language,” says Trammell. “Before, we had to touch the same asset three times to get it to classify the way we wanted it to. Now, we classify at the lowest level and the top levels are filled in automatically, which is a hugely simplified process with a lot of the manual work removed.”

Providing a best-in-class client experience

In numerous ways, LNW has seen client experience affected since implementing Addepar. One major shift has been in client reporting. Before, LNW was generating quarterly PDF reports for clients to provide updates on portfolio performance. Now, the firm uses the client portal within Addepar, which offers clients timely access to portfolio insights whenever they would like. The impact of this has gone beyond client experience, as the firm has found this shift also led to huge savings in time spent on reporting. 

This freed-up space allowed the firm to spend more time on higher-value activities alongside reducing the firm’s client response time from 24 hours to just three or four. “We used to spend so much time generating and reviewing quarterly reports,” says Trammell. “Now clients can log into the portal and see exactly what they need, exactly how they want to see it. It’s up to date, it’s configured for them in the portal — and we’ve saved thousands of hours annually as a result.”

Indeed, it is this tailored, customizable offering that has been so important to the elevated client experience the firm is able to now deliver. 

Finally, the management of alternatives, while boosting efficiency and accuracy for the firm from an operational standpoint, has also been significant when it comes to meeting the evolving needs of LNW's high net worth clients. “The management of alternatives — the additional transaction types, increased flexibility on tracking and the ability to manage complex ownership structures in Addepar — we’re much more aligned with the higher-end clients that we were bringing over and hoping to attract in the future,” says Hicks.