How Chicago Partners drove 25% client growth using Powder’s API
AUM
$6.5 Billion
Headquarters
Chicago, IL
Number of Advisors
40
Clients
2,600
Annual Growth Rate
25%
Technology
FinTurk, Orion, eMoney
The Challenge
In 2023, Chicago Partners developed a platform called FinTurk to provide the firm with granular client service tooling and customization. Before partnering with Powder, advisors had to manually enter statement data from prospects into this system in order to evaluate a portfolio in detail. Every holding, every tax lot, was physically typed in along with its quantity, price, market value, cost basis, unrealized gain and loss, account name, and account type.
Manual document review
The initial problem Chicago Partners set out to solve was the current process of extracting holding data from investment documents by hand. The burden of copying and pasting details from statements into FinTurk for every new client consumed a significant amount of time — each prospect required an average of two hours of dedicated data entry, with more complex portfolios taking upwards of eight hours to complete. With Chicago Partners bringing on ~500 clients a year, that meant a total of 1,000 to 4,000 hours was being spent on manual data entry instead of investment analysis.
Fragmentation across multiple systems
In addition to the time burden, Chicago Partners also relied on multiple disconnected systems to generate portfolio recommendations. Without seamless integration, advisors had to navigate between various tools to complete their tasks, downloading and uploading data on an ongoing basis. This made it difficult to maintain a consistent data flow, detracting from the firm’s ability to deliver fast, personalized client service and limiting their ability to scale operations.
With Powder, Chicago Partners has seen:
95%
Reduction in Manual Data Entry
2-8 Hours
Time Savings per Prospect
45 Minutes
Time to Integrate Powder's API
The Results
Not only did Chicago Partners increase efficiency with Powder's document parsing, but the team further enhanced the experience by integrating Powder's API into FinTurk. This cohesive workflow has transformed the firm's operations, as advisors can now upload financial documents directly into FinTurk for automatic parsing without having to switch between multiple systems.
Timely and actionable data
Powder provided Chicago Partners with access to verified and clean portfolio data in a fraction of the time. By replacing a multi-hour manual review with a five second statement upload, advisors can now make informed investment decisions quickly and deliver robust custom proposals. The automated data processing means that Chicago Partners can respond proactively to market changes and optimize asset allocation strategies in real time. Advisors and analysts no longer have to stare at documents and waste time typing information into multiple systems — Powder does the heavy lifting while they can focus on delivering thoughtful portfolio recommendations.
A single unified platform
The next evolution of the partnership was to bring the power of Powder natively into FinTurk via API. In less than an hour, the FinTurk team created an "Upload with Powder" button for advisors to simply drag and drop files into FinTurk. The platform is then automatically populated with an accurate and comprehensive breakdown of accounts, holdings, and granular investment details. Advisors now have all tools at their disposal in a single, unified ecosystem without ever having to navigate outside of FinTurk. This single solution not only removed a multi-stepped process, but it also streamlined portfolio management and increased overall operational agility.
API Overview
Chicago Partners leveraged the following endpoints to quickly integrate Powder into FinTurk:
POST /file_uploads
A document is uploaded directly in FinTurk in any supported format (PDF, PNG, JPEG, and XLSX)
GET /file_uploads/{:id}
FinTurk receives the status of an uploaded document. FinTurk also leverages a webhook for real-time updates.
GET /file_uploads/{:id}/data
Extracted data from the file is returned to FinTurk, creating a breakdown of accounts and holding details.
About the Firm
Chicago Partners is a rapidly growing financial advisory firm managing over $6.5 billion in assets across 2,600 clients. With 40 advisors, the firm differentiates itself by providing highly customized portfolios tailored to individual client needs and asset location, rather than relying on standard models. This personalized approach has contributed to Chicago Partners' impressive growth of 25% and 27% in AUM over the past two years. The firm's platform, FinTurk, which is now available as a standalone offering, allows advisors to pull data from Orion to analyze portfolio allocations, manage deliverables, and automate cash sweeps.
