Systems and method for determining the cost of a securities research department to service a client of the department

A method of determining the cost of an equity research department to service a plurality of clients of the department, comprising:

• surveying analysts of the department, wherein the survey asks each analyst to:
• estimate time spent collectively servicing the plurality of clients and the time spent collectively servicing other clients of the department over a specified period of time;
• categorize the plurality of clients based consumption of the analyst's time over the specified period of time into one of a number of client-use categories;
• and
• estimate the time spent by the analyst collectively servicing the clients of each client-use category over the specified period of time.
• for each analyst, calculating a compensation-weighted time spent by the analyst servicing each of the clients over the specified period of time;
• and
• summing the compensation-weighted time of each analyst for each of the clients.

A method of estimating the cost per unit of client touches for an equity research department, the method comprising:

• estimating the number of units of one or more client touch types produced by the department over a period of time;
• allocating costs of support resources of the department over the period of time to the client touch types;
• allocating costs of time of analysis providers of the department over the period of time to the client touch types;
• estimating the cost of per unit of the one or more client touch types by, for each client touch type, dividing the sum of the costs for the client touch type by number of units of the client touch type to create a standard cost per unit for the one or more client touch types;
• and
• allocating costs to the client based on the consumption of client touches by the client and the corresponding standard cost per unit for the client touch type consumed.

A method of estimating the cost per unit of client touches for an equity research department, the method comprising:

• estimating the number of units of one or more client touch types produced by the department over a period of time;
• allocating costs of support resources of the department over the period of time to the client touch types;
• determining time spent by analysis providers of the department over the period of time performing various activities;
• allocating the cost of the time spent by the analysis providers over the period of time performing tasks related to a particular client touch type to the particular client touch type;
• allocating the cost of research time spent by the analysis providers over the period of time to the one or more client touch types;
• and
• estimating the cost of per unit of the one or more client touch types by, for each client touch type, dividing the sum of the costs for the client touch type by number of units of the client touch type to create a standard cost per unit for the one or more client touch types;
• and
• allocating costs to the client based on the consumption of client touches by the client and the corresponding standard cost per unit for the client touch type consumed.