All HiddenLevers Reviews
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Brian
Investment Management, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
A Great Tool for Advisors and Clients
I was I think a fairly early adopter of HL (2016). I have loved the software since day one. The service team is great as well and listens to the ideas provided by users.
PROSPortfolio stress testing is excellent. It's a way for us to more easily explain potential risks and opportunities for clients and prospects, and to tell the story as to "why" we are doing what we are doing on behalf of our clients. The ability to generate an analysis to a full blown proposal and IPS in one tool is terrific. The War Rooms are great and thought provoking. I love the sense of humor and imagery in constructing the presentations.
CONSI think the hedging wizard seems to be lacking a bit. I believe there is a greater opportunity to incorporate more economic data and charting for users to maybe take business away from the Y charts of the world. If there were a better integration into core website design companies, there may be a way to provide a few selected stress tests to help clients and non-clients alike consider their exposure, and serve as a lead generation for advisors. If you can bring back CE for the long form presentations, that would be awesome (
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
HL was simply better.
Kory
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Powerful tool for facilitating discussions around risk
Overall, we have been pleased with using Hidden Levers for the risk conversation with clients and see much potential for expanded use in the future with other pieces of the software (specifically the IPS functionality and proposal). The support team at Hidden Levers, specifically those handling the chat support, has been outstanding in their responsiveness to any questions we had about the software. If they don't have the answer right away, they always follow up with updates.
PROSThe most impactful components of Hidden Levers are the risk tolerance workflow, stress testing, and integrations with our other software. The risk tolerance questionnaire takes a simple questionnaire to see their risk tolerance next to the risk profile. The financial planning tool and the recommendation section allows the advisor to guide the conversation toward a solution that fits their risk tolerance but also addresses the risk required to reach their goals. Stress testing has been especially useful in putting clients at ease during these past turbulent months, allowing them to see potential scenarios and how their portfolio might perform in the best, bad, and worse cases. Integrations with our performance and financial planning software allows us to easily bring in live data in for clients, saving time and effort in maintaining consistency across platforms.
CONSI feel that the financial planning piece in the risk tolerance workflow is the weakest piece. I am more likely to use my financial planning software for running Monte Carlo situations than Hidden Levers because of the limited functionality and inability to look at multiple scenarios easily. Most data entry is intuitive but there are still a few places where it takes quite a bit of time to get used to the layout of the system, specifically for entering holdings data and within the financial planning area.
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
Ultimately, we chose Hidden Levers because of the simplicity of the risk questionnaire, integrations with our existing software, the ability to show multiple economic scenarios and their potential impact on portfolios, the IPS functionality, and the price.
Tavis
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Functionality vs Professional Visuals
I'd give Hidden Levers a middle-of-the-road grading overall. Personally and as a firm we often take issue with the professionalism of the website and desire more appealing reporting. However, the functionality of the software is very much there and the cost/benefit is a great ratio.
PROSI like a lot of it's functionality, especially the ease of use in creating and analyzing portfolios. We also as a firm like Hidden Lever's risk analysis questionnaire. Householding is easy and the functionality is mostly there.
CONSDefinitely the visual imagery used in the software. The reports are alright, and they get the job done, but they are also relatively unprofessional compared to some other reporting software I've seen. But the website itself is just childish in many ways. I don't like the thumbnail icons and a lot of it just looks goofy.
Chip
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2021
Effective tool for constructing model portfolios and analyzing the risk of a prospect's investments
We are regular users of Riskalyze in designing and modifying our model portfolio allocations and in analyzing 401k/403b holdings for our clients and prospects. We find the software easy to use, reliable, and the customer support team - who are available either by chat window or phone - are very knowledgeable and helpful. We are very happy with our decision to integrate Riskalyze into our practice.
PROSThe fact that this software has both a client-facing application that helps clients to really dive down to a client's individualized risk score, and also has a portfolio analysis application that helps us fine tune the risk profile of each of our models, makes Riskalyze a great tool to help clients see which of our model allocations make the most sense for them. We also use Riskalyze to analyze the risk of a prospect's investment allocation. Many of the prospects we meet with are surprised to learn the level of risk that they are currently taking on in their investment portfolio compared to their "real" risk tolerance as determined by the Riskalyze questionnaire.
CONSSometimes certain share classes of mutual funds that we try to enter into an allocation to analyze don't have a Riskalyze score assigned. However, Riskalyze allows us to assign a different share class of the same fund as a proxy for Riskalyze analysis, so we are able to get a complete picture of the risk profile of the allocation we are analyzing.
Bob
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2020
HL Review
This provides us with a straightforward, portfolio stress-testing software that is easily understood by our advisors and their clients. No issues there. I want to see HL continue to push forward with development and functionality.
PROSThe product is quite intuitive and easy to explain to potential users with a clean and appealing UI. Layering the data allows for a simple, surface-level view for clients but provides the flexibility for advisors to drill down into the information much further. It provides a clear picture of what is happening/could potentially happen and allows for meaningful interaction with various levers on the scenarios screen.
CONSI would say that the area in greatest need of growth is with integrations. Of all the feedback I get, that is perhaps the most frequent response. It integrates well with Orion, but needs to create more robust connections to other products (Redtail, Advizr, etc).
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
Difficulties with customer service and responsiveness.
Lauren
Financial Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
HiddenLevers helps me demonstrate value
It's been good! It's a built in part of our process. The risk tolerance questionnaire has to be turned in with each new account, but it goes above and beyond other RTQs by providing the analysis and crash testing scenarios.
PROSTypically, I utilize HiddenLevers to analyze the existing portfolio vs. the proposed managed strategy. I like that it shows both risk and reward. These are two elements that I try to consistently teach clients about. I think HiddenLevers does a really good job illustrating that taking 10% more risk equates to 1-2% more reward with about the same difference on the downside.
CONSSometimes it's difficult to select households and show the breakdown of the allocation. I love using HL to show the allocation breakdown, because it gives me all the information I need to properly explain the portfolio and teach my clients about the overall and underlying investments.
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
To provide a more in-depth view of our management strategies for our clients.
Peter
Financial Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Thoresen Review
account / portfolio allocation monitoring / re balancing. Risk assessment.....now connected to client input!
PROS-- Open interface - user friendly (i.e. Cut/paste from excel) -- concept / philosophy of Risk Score and relatability to world events. -- GUI - awesome! Nice layout / tools / summary of information
CONS- Loss of saved preferences (i.e. households - accounts get dropped or benchmarks get reset). My hunch is most of this is integration related (albridge). -- data integrity concerns: example - year end performance errors on MF's due to year-end distribtutions. These events make me suspect
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
At time, HL seemed more intelligent vs Riskalyze seem to "dumb it down" - almost black box ish
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
Looking for more user (my clients) friendly tool for better client engagement.
Michael
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2020
Integral part of my wealth stack
I've really enjoyed working with the evolving software that supports our desire to provide smart decision-support that is advisor-centric and client-focused. The software is feature-rich when it comes to working with individual securities and custom-assets--some competitors take short-cuts that do not yield high quality outputs.
PROSEase of high quality analytics with easy to understand interface for clients.
CONSAs the company has ramped, it's harder to get turnaround on bugs, fixes, and desired features.
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
Features and roadmap as introduced by [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and later emphasized by [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and development team--A Constant desire to get better and serve fiduciary advisors like me.
George
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
HiddenLevers Review
It's by far the best risk tolerance software and great to show clients how they are allocated, risk exposure as well as potential gain and loss overtime
PROSI mostly use the reports to show clients their current allocation and stress testing their portfolios to make sure they are invested in the correct allocation for their tolerance. I also use it to compare different portfolio's for clients and prospects and to look at the current holdings in each of our models, since they are updated in real time. We use HL for every client meeting we have. It's by far the best risk tolerance tool we've found!
CONSYes, we'd like to be able to easily add indexed annuities and other products like the ETFs with some downside protection.
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
Our team found that HiddenLevers was a much better risk tolerance tool than riskalyze.
Sean
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Dynamic risk modeling tool that helps drive conversations and improve portfolio designs
We are modeling portfolios and winning assets in competitive situations. Additionally, we are educating clients on the risks in their portfolio and how certain ideas and/or strategies may affect the risk/return profile of their portfolio.
PROSStress test risks, potential downside, sharpe & sortino ratios and the drawdown comparison in the proposal tool. These are the go to talking points and items of consideration for most of the investors we work with.
CONSRelies quite a bit on risk statistics, which are almost always incorrect given that portfolios are most often actively traded over time. This can stall conversations early on and must be positioned appropriately in order to be able to utilize valuable insights on the page (potential downside, sharpe/sortino, drawdown).
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
Ease of use, cloud vs desktop, cost, underlying risk model, and a memorable conversation with Raj (founder) who answered the phone when i called one afternoon 3 years ago and told me he wanted to make risk as cool as skateboards; i dug that.
David
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
The Good and The Bad
Very positive and an excellent method for documenting fiduciary recommendations.
PROSEase of use, integrations with Wealth Vision, and quick ability to add investments through customer support.
CONSPortfolio comparison report requires ability to customize, or be improved. The report, specifically the large arrows front and center, are not conducive to client presentations and require skipping around. Furthermore, a rebalancing function would benefit the platform so we can show what rebalancing efforts add or detract from portfolio management over one, three, or five years.
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
Ease of use, and a better fit with our procedures.
Richard
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
Building better Client Portfolios
I consider HL an excellent risk management tool. Staff support is great. Client facing presentations are easy to explain and understand. And the software is intuitive in usuer interface. High marks on all accounts.
PROSThe software provides a detailed analysis of the key drivers to a portfolio's risk and return. It allows the user to quickly understand portfolio strengths and weaknesses relative to a specific benchmark or custom portfolio. It's also highly intuitive and reasonably easy to use.
CONSI think the market is beginning to trade increasingly off factors and less off Morningstar style boxes. I note [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] at JPM often dismisses style boxes but will entertain questions about how momentum is impacting performance. Therefore, an analysis of how much a portfolio's return is driven by momentum vs. dividends vs. Size vs Growth v Value (Fama/ French/ Cahart) relative to a standard benchmark such as the S&P500 would be a nice value add.
Justin
Financial Services, 1 employee
Used weekly for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
HL Review
Overall, my experience has been great. I've been very happy.
PROSI love the simplicity of inputting portfolios into the tool. Navigating the tool is easy and smooth - I'm impressed by the speed in which you can navigate the software. I don't know anything about IT, but it seems to perform really well. I like the ability to compare portfolios side-by-side. I utilize the risk tool to show clients how their portfolio is allocated compared to their risk score.
CONSThe cash flow financial planning tool is pretty bad. But it doesn't need to be. I think you guys should look at what RetireUp does and try to emulate what they do. It's a simple tool and I'd think it's pretty easy to build (compared to other more robust tools). I'd love to see HL create a feature that competes with RetireUp.
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
Features. Riskalyze is so focused on the risk number. That's just one data point. I like that I can create proposals and analyze portfolios and ideas with HL.
Cory
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
Best Investment Proposal Tool I've Seen
This tool is game changing for financial advisors and investment teams. The ability to bring in accounts from nearly anywhere, then stress test those and create proposals, leads to an efficient and scalable process. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it in my life.
CONSThere are so many things you can do within this tool it's hard to master all of them. Two years in and I'm still learning some of the unique features.
Trenton
Financial Services, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Great for client interaction and simple analysis
It's great for having discussions of risk with clients, being able to demonstrate the risk in their portfolio, comparing risk in a way a client can understand.
PROSI love that you can copy and past data from excel directly into HL. It makes it incredibly simple to input prospect info.
CONSWhen looking at portfolio information, it doesn't have the option of using a morningstar style guide. Instead it gives percentages of asset classes, that make me have to look around. The mornignstar style guide is much more intuitive.
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
Kawanti is more backtesting, where HL is more looking forward.
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
Love the changing scenarios which really keep the software relevant for existing clients. It also is better for comparing portfolios for prospects.
Henry
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
Excellent resource for Portfolio Managemnt
Excellent. Best product I have used outside of Bloomberg.
PROSThe scenario analysis function is extremely useful to answer client questions about a specific event or concern. Additionally, there is good functionality in terms of compare and contrast portfolios to different benchmarks. From a "risk management" perspective there is sufficient data that can be mined to show the changing nature of a portfolio risk during different market environments.
CONSI would like there to be a mid-tier price point between single user and the 8 user option. I think this would benefit smaller firms to upgrade. A more flexible custom report feature would be good too.
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
Much better analytics
Chris
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Great product, service is ok
I would rate a 6/10. The product is good, a little pricey but the service is lacking.
PROSEase of use for planner and client. Thorough yet simple so clients can understand.
CONSService isn’t the best. I was a user before our organization and I basically had to redo all clients after. No call to let me know, and offer assistance as a user already on the system.
Jacob
Financial Services, 51-200 employees
Used more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
2
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2020
Overall Very Helpfull
Overall I think it's incredibly useful for clients. Many do not really know how much risk they are willing to take until they go through this exercise with us.
PROSThe software is very easy for clients to understand. We have had positive feedback from clients after they take the initial survey and then when we explain the results to them to further a discussion about investments.
CONSI've had a lot of difficulty uploading outside client investments into the software. I have had issues with different tickers not being recognized, and needing to figure out whether to add an additional "-" or "." between letters to get the software to read it correctly.
Rick
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
HL Power
This is a game changer for us as a firm. Many clients and prospects love to see stress tests and hypotheticals based son various external events.
PROSI like the Stress Test Scenarios the most probably. helps with clients who are concerned about the markets or who have a lot of cash to deploy. We can show them the relatively sensitivity of their portfolio to many different potential outcomes. Extremely helpful.
CONSWish the quality of the reports was a little better. Maybe enhanced graphics, etc.
Chung
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used monthly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2020
Excellent for Presentations
Overall, HiddenLevers is essential to our business. When our words aren't enough to convey to clients why something they want isn't the best choice, a quick report could speak volumes to them.
PROSThe most impactful part of using Hidden Levers is using the scenarios. The way it portrays a client's portfolio against financial disasters of the past really gives relatability to the client when discussing the the importance of risk to financial planning.
CONSWhile integration into our software was not a big hurdle, the biggest improvement to the software could be an easier way of editing the report. Changing who worked on the report and who it was prepared by should be changeable. And also printing options for scaling the information for landscape/portrait format, as well as filling in excess whitespace around charts for better presentation.
Logan
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed August 2020
Wealth Advisors Group - Hidden Levers
Easy to create portfolio, decent risk profile, good risk survey
CONSReports do not look professional!!, we do not feel like we can put in front of clients.
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
Cost - Riskalyze is more expensive.
Dan
Financial Services, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
My thoughts
Good
PROSProposal generation, economic indicators
CONSThe way risk is determined is more obtuse and complicated than riskalyze. That needs to be cleaned up. The stress tests show too extreme of examples
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
Meeting with [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] assistance and better, more broad solution than peers
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
Your proposal system is far superior and customer service was better.
Andrew
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Unique tool, needs improved functionality
Overall good. Very appealing interface for clients that helps them understand their risk. Improvements in workflow would go a long way.
PROSVery clean interface for clients. Scenario testing is unique and captures clients' attention.
CONSIntegration with firm models is clunky creating many duplicates (user should be able to screen only the models they want to see). Risk surveys can be difficult to track for multiple parties in one household or for multiple goals (each new survey replaces the previous one).
Michael
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2020
Useful Platform
Overall very happy with this product, it is easy to add portfolios and proposals and the interactive features of stress testing give such a good visual to clients.
PROSThe ease of uploading data and the way the data presents
CONSI think the downside number can be misleading when comparing against the risk score.
Reasons for switching to HiddenLevers
This product was better.
David
Financial Services, 2-10 employees
Used monthly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2020
Solid tool for generating client-facing reports
Overall, HL is a useful tool to have in the wheelhouse.
PROSThe hedging features are valuable when building client expectations and discussing risk. It's nice to be able use both pre-built and custom economic scenarios to demonstrate how various economic changes may affect outcomes.
CONSThe software is backward-looking when evaluating investments. It's tough to do forward-looking Tactical investing when all the data looks the other way.
Reason for choosing HiddenLevers
N/A. I was an original beta tester, still with the product. It's cool seeing it evolve, although I no longer get the new features, which is less cool. But hey... Business. I get it.