Archway Technology Partners is to acquire WealthTouch Holdings, creating a firm with $200 billion in assets under reporting.

Archway Technology Partners, the Indianapolis, IN-based provider of software products and outsourced services for the investment management and private wealth management sectors, is to acquire WealthTouch Holdings, which provides investment reporting services to the ultra high net worth community.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. WealthTouch confirmed that the deal closed last Thursday.

The combined company will have nearly $200 billion in assets under reporting and serve “the full spectrum” of the private wealth market, said Craig Pearson, president of WealthTouch. Archway, led by chief executive Jason Brown, has offices in Indianapolis and New York City, while WealthTouch is headquartered in Denver, CO.

Archway's products support the accounting, investment management and reporting functions for single and multi-family offices, investment advisors and hedge funds.

Client reporting in the limelight

According to the Family Wealth Alliance's Inaugural Client Reporting Study, numerous factors have recently combined to sharpen the industry’s focus on client reporting issues. Technology is of course playing a major role in how the industry is addressing evolving needs around reporting, with firms such as Archway and WealthTouch gaining prominence as providers of secure platforms - for advisors and clients - that are accessible 24 hours a day/seven days a week and can quickly generate “drill-down” portfolio performance statements.

Even back in 2012, a study by Family Office Exchange found that 80 per cent of family offices provide their clients with a quarterly financial report - yet the task of doing so consumes almost a third of the average family office's time. While paper has historically been perceived as the safest and perhaps most convenient medium for sharing information, the explosive growth of online channels – indeed across many aspects of everyday life today – has created demand for instant access to information, and in particular that which relates to individuals’ financial affairs.

In another move in September - highlighting increased momentum of the desire among many industry players for cloud-based solutions - the pure-play cloud computing business firm Actua Corporation said it is expanding in the financial services sector with the acquisition of New York-based wealth and investment platform FolioDynamix - see more here.

Both deals reinforce how technology is driving significant change across the wealth management and family office sectors, as well as prompting a wave of consolidation that many experts anticipate is set to continue.