Here are this week’s stories of interest:
Fidelity to play midwife to RIAs-in-the-making now that WealthCentral is firmly on its feet from RIABiz.com
[What does a custodian do once they have their “technology part (largely) finished?” According to Mike Durbin, Bob Oros, and David Canter of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, the custodian continues to bolt on value-add components to its adviser toolkit, with a nod to expanded practice management, marketing, and valuation and M&A resources.] With nearly all its advisors finally transitioned onto its ambitious new technology platform, WealthCentral, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services is feeling confident in the foundation it’s provided for advisors, especially the breakaways that have been its bread and butter. Now, the second-largest custodian is ready to offer consulting style services — marketing consultations, strategic planning sessions and M&A facilitating — to help create new RIAs, not just attract breakaways.
Junxure CRM Announces Integration with TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo from Junxure.com
[TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo® Open Access has been available to third-party vendors since January 2011 (see: TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo® Open Access to enhance trading, fee billing, and client on-boarding processes), and currently has over 60 vendors integrated in one from or another. Finally, Junxure CRM is integrated with Veo® Open Access to access client account data held at TD Ameritrade Institutional inside Junxure and manage alerts along with Junxure workflow.] Continuing its reputation as a leader in technology integration for financial advisors, Junxure is excited to offer CRM integration with Veo® Open Access from TD Ameritrade Institutional.
Schwab Performance Technologies Announces Improvements from FA-Mag.com
[Schwab’s OpenView Integrated Office™ offering (say that three times fast!) will now integrate with web-based document management software NetDocuments. It’s a fairly straightforward pairing, as NetDocuments has been closely tied to Salesforce CRM for a number of years now, and because Integrated Office is a Salesforce overlay, dropping in NetDocuments is a no-brainer. According to sources inside Schwab, access to the program is included in the cost of Integrated Office. My last pricing quote from Schwab was $10,000 per year for two seat licenses and up to 150 accounts, which Brian Shenson announced at the T3 Conference earlier this year.
Oh, and PortfolioCenter ™ gets an update on securities management and fee billing modules, plus the PortfolioCenter Hosted product will be rolled out “soon” at a cost of roughly $48/account/year. And I don’t think that price includes any outsource reconciliation services a-la BOSS.] A Charles Schwab & Co. subsidiary that offers technology services for independent financial advisors announced changes today that improve document and portfolio management systems.
Cambridge Launches eSignature Program and New Website for Independent Financial Advisors and Their Clients from HearldOnline.com
[Woah, Cambridge just laid the smack-down on most major custodians. For the longest time, custodians have alluded to the use of esignature technology like DocuSign to facilitate a truly end-to-end paperless process for most forms. Evidently, Cambridge is now offering just that to its reps, all free of charge (or at least, rolled up in Cambridge’s cut of GDC).] Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. (Cambridge) announced it is launching a new eSignature program for use with clients by its independent financial advisors. Partnering with DocuSign, Cambridge is rolling out an electronic signature option compatible with most desktop and mobile devices used by rep-advisors and their clients.
Invesco Unveils Mobile Access to Investment Insights, Product Information and Business Building Ideas with New App for iPad from Invesco.com
[In a trend among investment managers, Invesco now offers an iPad app advisers and investors can use to access news, commentary, product information, and videos. You could access all that from Invesco’s website, but why would you want to when you can curl up on the sofa and browse the app in your downtime? By the way, this app is very well executed. No fluff here. See the demo video below.] Invesco, a leading investment manager, announced today the launch of a free iPad® app, available from the App Store(SM), that will provide on-the-go access for financial intermediaries and investors to essential investing resources.
