Wealth aggregation is software that brings together everything a rich client owns, such as shares, mutual funds, private funds, property and art, into one picture for the client's adviser or family office. Aggregation means collecting data from many sources into one place.
Here is why it is needed. A rich family's money is spread across many places. Each place sends its own statement, in its own format, on its own date. Without aggregation, an employee in the family's office copies the numbers into a spreadsheet every month.
Consider a family in Chennai. It owns listed shares in two demat accounts, which are held at a depository. It has money with three portfolio managers. It has invested in two private equity funds, whose statements come from their fund administrators. It also owns an office building and a collection of paintings.
The software collects each statement automatically where it can. It reads data feeds from banks, brokers and fund administrators. It reads PDF statements. For property and art, an employee enters a value, usually once or twice a year. Then the software matches each holding with the right person, company or trust in the family. It also compares its own records with each new statement, to check that the two agree. Comparing two sets of records like this is called reconciliation.
The result is one screen. It shows the family's total wealth, say ₹850 crore, what each part is worth, and how much each part earned this year. It also shows how much is in shares, bonds, property and private funds, and how much is exposed to one company or one country.
The adviser sees this picture on the wealth management platform. The family office's family office accounting system uses the same values in its books.
How is it different from the account aggregator? The account aggregator is an Indian system that moves a person's financial data from one regulated institution to another, with their consent. Wealth aggregation is the adviser's software that combines all the data, from any source, into one picture.