I hope you and yours had a Happy Thanksgiving!
If you find yourself in a turkey-induced coma or in a daze from midnight doorbuster shopping, you might want to take a moment before you dive into this week’s stories of interest:
Endorsing B.Y.O.D.: Save Money, Gain Productivity from Securities Technology Monitor
[As an adviser, you are probably already using your own personal mobile device in your practice. But this excellent article explores your options for encouraging your employees to bring their own devices into the fray (and what you can do on the technology side to protect and secure device communication).] iPhone 4S sales are off the charts, even with its battery issues. iPad sales are similar. Android now is the most popular operating system for mobile phones. So why aren’t you encouraging your employees to bring their own devices to work?
Impeccable Timing is One Sign of a Mature Firm from Financial-Planning.com
[Here’s a vignette of ARGI Financial Group with some interesting takeaways:
- According to the article, they clear about $6 million in revenues. On their Form ADV Part 2, they list assets under management of $207 million. Do the math and the average fee collected across all accounts is 2.9%. Wow. They disclose fees of 2.5% for accounts under $1 million and 2.0% for accounts between $1 and $5 million. There must not be much competition in Kentucky if they can easily charge 2+% on assets.
- Next is their change of custodians. Note that under TD Ameritrade, they’ve been fairly successful in growing to the point where they are. Ok, no surprise.
- But the third’s the kicker. ARGI uses Interactive Advisory Software, or IAS. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard of firms with revenues of this size who are actively using IAS. Wow.]
Louisville, Ky.-based ARGI Financial Group’s business is running smoothly now. The firm has two other offices in Bowling Green, Ky., and Cincinnati. It serves about 800 families, with an average net worth of about $1 million. But it wasn’t easy to get to this level — the firm had to overcome some operational hurdles before business really took off.
