Account aggregation lets clients link their bank and investment accounts directly to Kerdora. Instead of typing in balances by hand, the system pulls them in through a secure connection and keeps them updated.
How I think about it
Aggregation solves the "stale data" problem. A client fills out an onboarding form in January with their balances, and by March those numbers are wrong. With linked accounts, balances refresh automatically, and you're always working with current data.
It also reduces the burden on the client. Instead of asking them to look up every account balance and type it in, they authenticate with their bank once and the data flows in. Less work for them, more accurate data for you.
How it works
The connection flow has four steps:
Link — the client authenticates with their bank through a secure widget. They log in with their bank credentials (Kerdora never sees them) and authorize the connection.
Preview — Kerdora shows you what accounts were found. Each account is mapped to a Kerdora type (checking, savings, 401(k), mortgage, credit card, etc.) so you can see how it'll come in.
Review — you decide what to do with each account. Link it to an existing account in the plan, create a new one, or skip it.
Confirm — the accounts and their balances are added to the plan. Investment accounts pull in individual holdings with tickers, shares, and cost basis.
What gets pulled in
Account details — name, type, institution, masked account number
Balances — current balance, updated on each sync
Holdings — for investment accounts, individual positions with ticker, quantity, price, and cost basis
Account classification — Kerdora automatically maps the bank's account type to the right category (a "401(k) Roth" from the bank becomes an Investment account with a "401(k) - Roth" subtype)
Syncing
Once linked, accounts sync automatically when data updates. You can also manually refresh a link anytime. Kerdora detects new accounts that appear after the initial setup and flags them for your review. If an account gets closed at the institution, Kerdora marks it as removed.
For investment accounts, holdings sync on each refresh. The system does a full replace, so you're always seeing the current positions, not a running history.
One thing to keep in mind
Aggregated balances are a snapshot. They reflect what the institution reported at the time of the last sync. For most planning purposes, that's accurate enough. But if a client just made a large transfer, the plan might not reflect it until the next sync.