Bill Winterberg, Author at FPPad

Market76 security, business model, and innovation discussion with co-founder Frank Eden

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in On Air

On Friday’s On Air broadcast, I connected with Market76 co-founder Frank Eden to discuss how the CRM startup is attempting to reinvent adviser use of relationship management software.

Note that CEO Ethan Eden was originally scheduled for the interview, but he had a last minute emergency that prevented him from appearing. Frank Eden was gracious to step in on last-minute notice.

Market76 is a new provider in the financial adviser CRM space, having launched its platform publicly in mid-2011. The company is still relatively unknown among most financial advisers, save a few reviews on RIABiz.com.

The main discussion points in the interview below include how Market 76 handles security of its clients’ data, monetizes the software to generate revenue (Market76 is free to adviser users), and pushes the envelope in what CRM software can do.

(click to view on YouTube)

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 18

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

Ethan Eden, founder and CEO of Market76

This week’s FPPad On Air guest is Ethan Eden, founder and CEO of Market76, and we’ll cover what’s new in CRM software and how his company’s product is different from the traditional systems with which advisers are familiar.

You can view the broadcast on the FPPad On Air page beginning at 4:15pm ET or get the link through my Twitter feed.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

RegEd Expands Social Media Archiving and Surveillance Solution with a Content Library and Multiple Lexicons Continuing its Leadership in Compliance Technology from Arkovi.com

[Here are two solutions to the age-old question on social media: what should you post, and how do you keep posts compliant? First, RegEd now offers a library of pre-approved content suitable for social media (for those of you who constantly have a broker-dealer staring over your social media shoulder) and a broader range of words and phrases the program uses to scan social medial posts for potential compliance issues. What’s not to like?] RegEd, the leader of compliance technology in the financial services industry, announced today two major features, the social media content library and multiple-lexicons, as part of their Social Media Archiving and Surveillance solution, powered by Arkovi.

12 key events of 2012 that rocked the RIA technology landscape, Part 1 from RIABiz.com

[In what essentially represents a top 12 list (Part 1 has 6 items) of tech related RIABiz stories of 2012, contributor Lisa Shidler recaps some of the major and minor trends that will no doubt play a growing role in how advisers manage and grow their business.] Our identification of big technology events that happened in the past year starts with Salesforce, Junxure, Techfi, NetX360, IAS and MoneyGuidePro. As we move toward number one in our second installment, the names in many cases become less familiar, not more so, which indicates just how fast RIA technology is moving.

Download Technology Tools for Today’s High-Margin Practice for your Kindle today

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Technology

All-new edition of the financial adviser’s practice management book now available for Kindle delivery

Ten years ago, two practice management consultants to financial advisers teamed up to write the book on tools to run a high-margin practice, Virtual Office Tools for a High Margin Practice.

David J. Drucker and Joel P. Bruckenstein partnered to deliver timeless practice management recommendations to financial advisers

Today, David Drucker and Joel Bruckenstein are household names among advisers.

What started as a side hobby has grown into a robust suite of practice management newsletters and technology conferences, now branded under the Technology Tools for Today moniker.

So in early 2012, Drucker and Bruckenstein approached me to contribute to an all-new edition of the aging Virtual Office Tools book and update it with information and resources on current technology and tools.

Now the new edition is available for download to your Kindle device and app. It’s titled Technology Tools for Today’s High-Margin Practice: How Client-Centered Financial Advisors Can Cut Paperwork, Overhead, and Wasted Hours (Bloomberg Financial), and my contribution appears in Chapter 8, Client Portals and Collaboration.

Order the book below. I hope you enjoy it (especially Chapter 8!), and I welcome your comments and feedback that you can leave below (or contact me privately).

(Note: Amazon.com affiliate links, I earn a small commission if you decide to buy after clicking)

How to add pre-configured workflows to popular adviser CRM software

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Efficiency

workflow diagram

Adding workflows to CRM can be a time-consuming process. Here’s one plug-and-play solution for popular adviser CRM software.

You may not hear the following message from FPPad all that often, but it seems that in other trade publications, columnists continuously profess how adding workflows to your business drives scalability and profitability.

Sure, it’s true, and sure, it sounds great, but just when you’re ready to add workflows to your existing technology tools, you realize it’s not a 2-hour process.

Far from it.

Fortunately, there is a new solution for advisers that provides a huge library of pre-configured workflows, AND they come ready to drop right in to popular CRM software.

So if you’re part of the 50,000+ users of two specific CRM solutions, read on to find out how you might benefit from pre-configured workflows for your business.

I covered all the details in this month’s Morningstar Advisor column, Enhance Service and Profits With Workflows. Go read it now!

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 11

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

This week’s guest on FPPad On Air is Peter Giza, former CTO at RedBlack Software, LLC, to talk about emerging technology trends that have the potential to change the financial advisory industry for the better.

Note that today’s broadcast begins around 1:15pm ET instead of 4:15pm, so check the FPPad On Air page this afternoon for the link to watch.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Laserfiche 9 Unites ECM and BPM from MarketWatch.com

[I just returned from Laserfiche’s Empower 2013 conference, and I must say there is a lot of excitement surrounding the new business process management (BPM) capabilities in the latest version of the company’s software, Laserfiche 9. I bet most advisers have no way to execute automated workflow in their business, let alone implement BPM. But with a large number of potential document management customers, financial advisers may soon warm up to the possibilities available by using software such as this.] Today, Laserfiche announced the immediate availability of Laserfiche 9 at its annual Empower 2013 conference. The new release unites enterprise content management (ECM) and business process management (BPM) functionality across the Laserfiche product line.

NetDocuments Launches 13.1 Release with Secure Document Delivery from MarketWatch.com

[Another document management provider, NetDocuments, released some very useful features in version 13.1 this week, including the ability to share documents with users outside of your organization using secure URLs, avoiding the need to force those users to create a NetDocuments account. It’s very similar to the way Dropbox (and others) allow users to create a unique URL that enables access to documents and folders without the need to have a Dropbox account. There are a number of other new features also described in the press release.] NetDocuments today announced the 13.1 release of its leading cloud-computing content management and collaboration service. This latest release contains more than 20 new and updated features, including document delivery via a secure link and a new search engine.

Adding a contact’s Social Media profile addresses to their record from Redtail Technology

[Social is the name of the game these days, so any way you can connect to the social stream coming from clients, the better. Here’s a new feature from Redtail CRM that at least helps you consolidate links to clients’ social profiles. While not as robust as social aggregation solutions like Newsle and Rapportive, advisers can see what clients are posting in one easy click.] You can add a contact’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest or MySpace addresses to their contact records, in order that you might quickly access information that is currently relevant to them.

6 ideas you can implement today from Advisor Websites

[This is a notice for an upcoming webinar hosted by Advisor Websites, Mobile Assistant, and Redtail. All of the vendors will cover tips on getting the most form your mobile devices, how to capture lead information online, and better engage clients through technology.] When? Tue, Jan 29, 2013, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST. Who should attend? Reps or their marketing/administrative staff.

TRX receives US Patent for Analysis Expert functionality

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Software

Innovative dashboard for portfolio rebalancing is now a patented method

Last year I connected with Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) CEO Sheryl Rowling to learn about the rebalancing software for advisers. In our discussion, Rowling highlighted the innovative Analysis Expert dashboard for which TRX filed a patent.

Watch the video interview from T3 2012 about the patented technology (starts at 3:05): http://youtu.be/JrpKkRuxok8?t=3m5s

Now, TRX just announced that it attained US Patent 8,321,320, granted November 27, 2012 for “Portfolio Management Analysis System and Method.”

“Advisors have been telling us all along that our approach to providing the needed technology to automate the portfolio rebalancing process was unique and innovative,” said Cheryll Lurtz, TRX co-founder and CIO, in a press release.

“Now with this patent, advisors using TRX can uniquely benefit from that intellectual capital that was generated from the experiences in tax-efficient rebalancing developed in advisory practices,” added Lurtz.

Click here to view the TRX press release (43 Kb PDF)

Financial adviser marketing tools for the Digital Age

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Practice Management, Software

inbound marketing

Get onboard with these top tools for marketing in the Digital Age

As a financial adviser, you have the potential to benefit tremendously from the proliferation of new online marketing tools.

Now that we’re fully enveloped in the Digital Age, you have many new techniques and resources at your disposal to market your business and services to those who can benefit the most.

What’s so different about marketing in the Digital Age?

Digital Age marketing is characterized by “inbound marketing,” as opposed to “outbound marketing.”

Inbound marketing is the free, value-add content you create and post online for others to find, based on their needs (and, more importantly, search engine queries). It’s what the person on the left in the image above is doing.

Outbound marketing is more traditional, where you advertise using billboards, email blasts, and prospect seminars in the hopes of exposing your company/brand/profile to as many people as possible. It’s what the bullhorn guy on the right of the image is doing.

So which Digital Age marketing tools should you start using?

I wrote a succinct guide to marketing in the Digital Age for the January 2013 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning.

Click here to read Tools for Digital Age Marketing from the Journal of Financial Planning.

Simple strategies to enhance your written communication to clients and prospects

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in On Air

Written communications make up a significant portion of your client “touches,” between all of the emails, newsletters, and blog posts you write.

But sometimes your messages to clients fall flat.

There are a few simple strategies you can employ to make your communication more effective and engaging. In this latest On Air broadcast, Neil Rhein of Bull’s Eye Financial Communications shares his favorite techniques you can use to make sure your message is heard.

(click to watch on YouTube)

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 4

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

Don’t forget, FPPad On Air returns today at 4:15pm Eastern with more live broadcasts of technology and practice management discussions. Visit my Twitter profile or Google+ page for the link to watch beginning at 4:00pm Eastern.

It’s the first Bits & Bytes update for 2013! Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Competing in a Saturated Market from AdvisorOne.com

[Mark Tibergien lays it out pretty clearly: if all financial advisers use the same words to describe what they do, how can they ever expect to stand out from the rest? So here’s a thought. Stand out because of your technology. Be as paperless as possible. Accept electronic signatures. Present from your iPad. Publish a public version of your calendar your clients can use to book meetings. Create your own screencasts. There are just a few ways you can use technology to do something that your competition isn’t.] The point is the lack of clarity in financial services business models and the profusion of practitioners plying their trade using virtually the same branding has created a saturated market.

Orion Forges New Technology Partnership With Orchestrate from PR Newswire

[You’re likely very familiar with what Orion does, but Orchestrate and their main product, ProcessComposer, is probably a mystery. However, one of the Schwab IMPACT award winners two months ago was the Foster Group, from where Orchestrate was born. If you’re a Salesforce CRM shop and need some way to enhance it with workflows, ProcessComposer is one option. Now I have to admit, I have a podcast waiting to be edited on both the Foster Group and Orchestrate, but it’ll be another week before I can edit that for publishing! So stay tuned.] In their quest to deliver their technologies to additional advisory firms, Orion and Orchestrate have embedded their technologies inside Salesforce’s AppExchange, and have now entered into agreements to leverage each other’s respective technologies.

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