BridgeFT's WealthTech API platform provides endpoints to facilitate and expedite the Release of Information (ROI) process between Advisors, BridgeFT, and Custodians. The Release of Information process is a crucial step in the onboarding process for new Advisors. To grant access to accounts information for BridgeFT, each Advisor should submit an ROI request to their custodians. This process is not standardized and can span several days or even weeks. Our ROI Requests API is designed to streamline the process for our Clients, enabling them to submit ROI requests on behalf of their Advisors using a unified interface. This helps eliminate inefficiencies such as:

• Prolonged ROI processing times;
• Miscommunications between Advisors and Custodians;
• Delays in onboarding new Advisors to BridgeFT;
• Delays in data flows to BridgeFT.

The ROI process is not standardized across the industry and varies from custodian to custodian. There are several different ways for submitting ROI requests, which are commonly used by custodians:

• Submitting requests through custodians' Client Portals using Advisors' login credentials;
• Filling out a designated PDF file and signing it via DocuSign;
• Sending text requests to custodians via email.

Unfortunately, we can't automate all of these cases due to technical limitations. However, we provide thorough instructions about the ROI process for each of the custodians supported in BridgeFT in the Custodial Data Feeds Authorization Guide.

Our ROI Requests API helps automate the ROI process for custodians who accept requests submitted via email. When you invoke this API on behalf of your Advisor and provide all of the Advisor's information, it automatically generates and sends ROI emails to the custodian, Advisor, and BridgeFT.

ROI Requests API Overview

Sending ROI Request

To submit an ROI request on behalf of your Advisors, you need to provide the following required information when making an ROI API call:

• custodian - The Advisor's custodian whom is providing accounts data and should receive this ROI request;
• advisor_codes - The Advisor's Code or Rep Code in the format recognized by the custodian. Multiple codes are accepted if all the accounts belong to these Advisors are managed by the same custodian;
• owner_name - The representative person (such as the Advisor) on whose behalf you are requesting data feed authorization;
• firm_name - BridgeFT Client Firm Name (this is your firm name), who sending an ROI request;
• sender_name - BridgeFT Client representative who triggering an ROI request;
• cc_emails - Any persons who should be involved in the ROI process and receive a copy of the ROI request. These could include Advisor's team contacts.
• reply_to_emails - Email addresses of the Advisor or Advisor's representatives. These email addresses will automatically receive responses from the custodian when they use the "Reply To" function in their email inbox.

Request

Let’s consider the following example scenario:

• There is an Advisor company called “JJ Advisory”. John Johnson works for JJ Advisory and has an advisor code of “03394934” and an email address of [email protected];
• The accounts data for “JJ Advisory” is held in custody by Pershing which has a custodian code in BridgeFT as “PER”;
• Simultaneously, “JJ Advisory” is a client of “Acme Financial,” an actual BridgeFT client (Firm), with their representative person being Alex Alexen.

With this setup, to bring JJ Advisory’s data into the BridgeFT platform on behalf of John Johnson, Acme Financial can employ our ROI API to send the ROI request to Pershing on behalf of John Johnson.

The final ROI API request will appear as follows:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.bridgeft.com/v2/org/roi-requests/send-request' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {YOUR_TOKEN}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
   "custodian": "PER",
   "advisor_codes":["03394934"],
   "owner_name":"John Jonson",
   "firm_name":"Acme Financial",
   "cc_emails":["[email protected]", "[email protected]"],
   "reply_to_emails":["[email protected]"],
   "sender_name":"Alex Alexen"
}'

Response

In the response API returns an information about the ROI request which has been sent:

{
   "advisor_codes": ["03394934"],
   "cc_emails": [
         "[email protected]", 
         "[email protected]"
       ],
   "created_at_utc": "2023-07-31T18:10:30.344341Z",
   "custodian": "PER",
   "error": "",
   "firm_name": "Acme Financial",
   "id": 50,
   "object": "org.roi_requests",
   "owner_name": "John Jonson",
   "reply_to_emails": "[email protected]",
   "sender_name": "Alex Alexen"
   "status": "Sent",
   "updated_at_utc": "2023-07-31T18:10:30.344341Z"
}

What Happens Behind the Scene

When the endpoint is called, the information provided in the body parameter is used to automatically create and populate an email template in the format required by the selected custodian.

Here is an example of the ROI email we have generated using the provided information from the API request:

Hi Pershing Team,

I’d like to initiate an ROI data feed authorization for Bridge Financial Technology to gain access to my accounts data and Advisor Codes via a direct feed integration with BridgeFT. This includes any client and custodian portals that assist in data feed management and also all files that may be referenced as source material for troubleshooting.

My advisor code(s) with your platform are as follows: 03394934.

Please hit the “Reply” button and provide confirmation of receipt.

For additional information or questions please reach out to [email protected].


Thank you,

John Jonson

Subsequently, this email is automatically sent to the designated custodian as well as any email addresses provided in the cc_emails field of the API request. Additionally, the BridgeFT Support Team receives these emails by default, ensuring they are prepared to assist you should any questions arise during the data feed authorization process.

Please note that only one email will be generated and sent to one custodian per API call. If you wish to contact multiple custodians to initiate the ROI process, please make another API call indicating a different custodian.

Errors Handling

In rare cases, the ROI request may fail due to the following reasons:

• If any mandatory body parameter is missing, improperly formatted, or contains incorrect fields;
• If the email addresses provided in the cc_emails and reply_to_emails fields are invalid or incorrect.

In such instances, you might receive a 400 Bad Request error. If this occurs, please carefully review all input parameters to ensure they are correctly sent.

If you encounter a 401 Unauthorized error, kindly regenerate your API Access Token, ensuring its validity, and provide it in the API request.

Lastly, for any 5xx errors, please reach out to our Customer Support team via the Zendesk Portal. If you're unsure about how to use the portal, please refer to the BridgeFT Support Portal Guide.