Treasure Trōv

“Most RIAs today are using some form of data aggregation,” Walchek said. However, “generally there’s one line, maybe two, in the balance sheet that exposes real property and personal property. With a Trv account and the users opting in to allowing that information to flow freely, to either the aggregation platform or directly to the RIA, [advisors] will be able to see what’s been added.”

Because the information stored by Trv is actively managed, advisors can also see when the value of that property changes. “That creates a whole new capacity for them to be better informed about their clients’ whole wealth picture. They can help them with asset protection. They can help them with liquidity planning. They can help them with estate and legacy plans in ways that they haven’t been able to do before.”

Remember, it’s not just about stuff. Clients’ expensive collections represent a significant investment of time, money and heart.

“For a good number of these high-net-worth clients, the trov is a perfect picture of the passions that drive those clients,” Walchek said. “Those passions are reflected in the things that they use their discretionary income to buy, whether it be art, cars or types of wine. The passion or heart connections that can take place because that information is now more actively a part of the conversation creates a new way for advisors to connect with their clients, as well as a greater set of information from which they can draw conclusions.”

Of course, security is a primary concern. A trov, by definition, is a single source of information on all of a user’s most valuable possessions. The potential for damage hasn’t been lost on the team at Trv, and the firm uses a four-pillared strategy to protect users’ information: technology, policy, process and business model.

To address the first pillar, technology, Walchek has built a team with employees from huge tech firms like Google and Microsoft to build proprietary technology solutions, some of which they’ve applied for patents.

“We have a full-time employee, a former Google employee, whose title is director of information security and privacy,” Walchek said. “He is tasked with making certain that everything we do in the code, in the way we manage our servers, in the way we collect and move data is at the highest end of the spectrum for data security.”

The firm employs a policy that ownership of any data collected in a trov remains with the owner of the property.

“Our policy is that our users own their data—we don’t,” Walchek said. “We have no right, title or interest in the data that we collect on their behalf. They license it back to us on a limited basis for use in the application that benefits them. We know it’s what has to take place when we’re collecting this very personal information.”

The firm also addresses security in the way it conducts business day to day: the way employees talk about clients in the office, who has access to information and where servers are located, Walchek said. “We believe that data in itself is an asset and that asset can be protected in asset-protection-friendly jurisdictions.”

Finally, the firm makes no income from advertising to ensure that its business model is aligned with end users’ privacy and security needs. “We don’t collect anything that would expose our end users to goods and service providers who wish to get to them,” Walchek said of the firm’s no-advertising model. “We make money through transactions that are initiated by end users. We’ll make money through opt-in data feeds that our end users choose to participate in.”

Although Trv doesn’t charge users to use the application, some services may come with a fee, such as hiring an appraiser. Consumers don’t have to use those services to continue using Trv, though. “Using all the value that’s in Trv is absolutely free to the end user. It’s up to us to then give them opportunities to leverage that information for their benefit, and in some cases we will make money on the transactions that are the fall out of that.”