I apologize for the infrequent updates lately to FPPad. So what’s been keeping me so busy in the last few weeks?
The end of a calendar year is especially busy for most independent wealth management firms, and ours is no exception. Between closing the books, communicating quarterly estimated tax payment information, creating client reports, and calculating fees, there are lots of processes and procedures to follow to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.
In addition, when I’m out of the office, I’m very busy coordinating the final sessions for the FPA of Oregon & SW Washington’s annual Mid Winter Conference, plus I’m teaching AARP TaxAide classes every Saturday. So I think I have good excuses for not posting!
Part of what has also been keeping me busy is the process of selecting my successor for the firm. Frequent readers know that I’m moving to Dallas, TX this summer and will leave my position as Operations Manager in Spring 2009. So between that and the processes I highlighted above, I haven’t had time to create much new content for the blog.
To give you a reward for getting this far, allow me to share some of the links I’ve posted on Twitter to interesting technology and industry developments over the last few weeks.
- BillWinterberg: TechRepublic on the best business tech out of #CES 2009: http://twurl.nl/zpqiiq
- BillWinterberg: Financial Advisers: Do you agree with TowerGroup that SEC functions should be rolled into FINRA? http://twurl.nl/vjxxsu
- BillWinterberg: ByAllAccounts users: You need to update client login credentials with security question information for all TIAA-CREF accounts!
- BillWinterberg: sees my blog FPPad.com featured on WealthFly’s Year of the Advisor Blog post. Cool! http://twurl.nl/8ioq6i
Finally, fees are on my mind, since I’m training others in the office to manage the billing tools we’ve created as part of my continuation plan. How to you calculate and bill your clients? Do you:
- allow your B/D and/or custodian to calculate and debit fees for you?
- calculate fees using portfolio management software and direct the custodian to make debits?
- calculate fees with other tools (e.g. Excel)?
- follow a combination of the methods above?
- check the fees taken by the custodian to validate that clients receive your fee breakpoints across all accounts?
Hopefully I’ll have some time once again in the near future to go deeper into the fee discussion. For now, I’m headed back to the grind.
