Company: NetWorth Services, Inc, Phoenix, AZ
Company Description: NetWorth Services, Inc. is a software solutions provider that is setting the industry standard in client tailored software and web applications. NetWorth Services was founded in 1997 and during its established 14 year history, it has been recognized as an innovative leader in providing unique automated solutions to both the institutional and retail markets.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Software - Financial Management Solution

Nomination Title: NetWorth Services' Netbasis Redesign

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 500 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date.

In response to the increased demand for an accurate and efficient automated cost basis calculation solution, NetWorth developed its innovative flagship product, Netbasis in 1997. The first of its kind, the complex calculations and rich data was unparalleled in the marketplace. As a pioneer of cost basis solutions, NetWorth was first to market with several of the features and operations currently offered by other cost basis vendors today.

Although the Netbasis application is delivered through a very user- friendly interface, the power of its engine and breadth and depth of its database is unmatched. The vast Netbasis database of historical pricing and corporate actions going back as far as 1925 and allows for accurate cost basis calculations in seconds -- even when securities have long and complicated histories of mergers, spin-offs and stock splits -- for a wide range of investment instruments including: NYSE, NASDAQ, and other major exchange listed stocks, ADRs, closed-end funds, REITs, OTC securities (Bulletin Board and Pink Sheets), UITs, mutual funds, and debt instruments such as options and bonds.

Netbasis enables users to capture and track lot shares acquired under myriad circumstances, including reinvestment, employee stock option and other stock plans, voluntary cash purchases, transfer of ownership, cash or stock dividends, and corporate events. It does in seconds what could take days, or more, under manual approaches.

In 2002, the IRS chose NetWorth as a vendor to verify cost basis information for their 2001 NRP Random Audit Study, where Netbasis identified over $11 Billion in under-reported capital gains taxes, which was reported in the 2005 National Tax Gap Report. The results of that study became an integral part in spearheading the current Cost Basis Legislation, which required brokers to report cost basis to their clients beginning in the 2011 tax year. Although the legislation was intended to help investors, brokers were only responsible for securities purchased after 1/1/ 2011. This caveat left the majority of investors on their own and resulted in a huge disparity between what brokers reported and what investors were required to report to the IRS. To complicate matters, there were new forms that did not reconcile.

In 2011, NetWorth Services released a redesigned Netbasis application that implemented new features in compliance with the new legislation. This fresh and forward-looking redesign of Netbasis included an innovative, user-friendly interface that further simplified the process of entering complex investment data. New features also include estate valuations, gifting and tax optimization. Cost basis results can also be uploaded to the new IRS 8949 or Schedule D Forms.
The cost basis legislation allows investors to choose their own sales method.

In order to choose effectively, the Netbasis redesign boasts an exclusive feature that calculates all of the sales method options and displays them all simultaneously, so the user can select the most advantageous option.

Netbasis redesign was an application intended to help investors and taxpayers comply with the new legislation, but ultimately became a critical solution to the reporting problems for investors and tax professionals alike.

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Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

In 1997, Nico R. Willis founded NetWorth Services, Inc., a financial web application and SaaS software company, which offers a suite of financial solutions adopted by many leading financial institutions, Fortune 500 organizations, accounting firms, as well as individual investors. Netbasis was used by the IRS to audit capital gains returns for its landmark 2005 Tax Gap Report. Willis leverages his 15 years of experience in the financial services industry to oversee the strategic growth and development of the company. Before founding NetWorth, Willis was an investment broker and held the title of vice president for various well-known financial institutions.