In today’s video spotlight, John Prendergast, co-founder and CEO of Blueleaf, discusses a variety of topics relevant to advisers as the advice delivery model continues to evolve. Learn what Blueleaf does for both advisers and consumers and how the company challenges assumptions and learns new insight by testing and experimentation.
Listen live this Friday at 3PM Pacific for my productivity tips on KLAV 1230 AM Financial Fridays
Here’s a chance to hear some of my favorite productivity tips for free right from your desktop.
I will be the guest on KLAV 1230 AM radio Financial Fridays this week, hosted by Leonard C. Wright, CPA/PFS.
Financial Fridays starts at 3PM Pacific time and my segment will start around 3:15PM.
The agenda will features tools, apps, and practices that apply to financial advisors, business owners, and individuals alike, so there’s something for everybody.
KLAV 1230 AM audio is streamed live over the Internet, so click here to open the audio feed.
Video Spotlight: Jim Lonergan of The Connors Group highlights The Machine Advisor
In today’s video spotlight, I spoke with Jim Lonergan, CEO of The Connors Group, where he details The Machine Advisor, an “investment decision support” software application to help advisers better manage portfolios. The Machine Advisor does generate daily buy and sell alerts, but Lonergan says that it’s more than just a “black box” when it comes to managing and trading portfolios.
The new iPad’s three best features for financial advisers
The new iPad’s been out for one week. Here are three features most relevant for advisers.
My new iPad arrived late Friday last week, and I’ve quickly acclimated to its updates and capabilities in the days since. Three features of the latest generation of Apple’s blockbuster tablet give financial advisers even more reason to adopt the device in their personal and business routine.
In today’s Morningstar Advisor Quickview, find out what three features they are and how advisers can get the most out of the latest iteration of the iPad.
Video Spotlight: My Virtual COO President Jennifer Goldman on restoring advisers’ work/life balance
Financial advisers struggle to balance the many obligations of managing a successful business. For many, there’s the feeling that there simply just isn’t enough time in the day to do what they want; service clients and grow the business.
That’s where someone like Jennifer Goldman comes in. As president of My Virtual COO, she solves pain points and disorganized or non-standard internal processes on behalf of an adviser’s business. In this spotlight interview from the T3 conference, hear how Goldman and her team hope to provide the work/life balance that her clients seek.
Video Spotlight: Eric Clarke, President of Orion Advisor Services, on additional integrations and mobile apps
I last spoke with Eric Clarke, President and CEO of Orion Advisor Services, at the TD Ameritrade Institutional 2012 Conference on his company’s integration with Veo® Open Access.
In my latest conversation with Clarke at the T3 Conference, he provides an overview how Orion delivers value-add services beyond performance reporting, including e-signautre support, rebalancing and trading engines, account billing, web portals, branded mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Video Spotlight: Andrew Peddar, CEO of North America at StatPro, on new ways to visualize portfolio analytics
Advisers, particulary those who manage portfolios in an active fashion, are no strangers to portfolio analytics software. Several popular tools such as Morningstar Principia and AdvisoryWorld have been industry staples for years.
But a new portfolio analysis system came to my attention at the T3 conference in February called StatPro Revoluition. It’s a cloud-based portfolio analytics platform aimed at delivering consolidated, visually-appealing reports to both advisers and clients on demand.
I sat down with Andrew Peddar, CEO of North America at StatPro, to get his take on how StatPro is positioned relative to the competition in the analytics segment.
FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 16
You’re lucky today, as you get a pass on this week’s Bits and Bytes. While where were a number of alerts that passed my screens this week, none of them truly warranted an update as most articles just briefly touched on actually using technology in your business.
Nevertheless, you might enjoy the RIABiz series of the top ten individuals to watch in the RIA space for 2012, including Eric Clarke of Orion Advisor Services (#8) and Neesha Hathi of Schwab Advisor Services (#2), though make sure you see my comment about the omission of Jon Patullo of TD Ameritrade Institutional.
Oh, and did you know there is a landing page for the T3 Conference held back in February? AdvisorStudios put this together, and make sure you catch the three spotlight interviews I did on site.
Now you must excuse me, I have a new iPad to unpack from a FedEx box…
New iPad app from Personal Capital ups the ante for online advice delivery
Personal Capital just upped the ante for financial advisers looking to connect with Gen X and Gen Y via mobile devices.
In an email delivered to subscribers today, Personal Capital announced the release of its free iPad app. For full details about the app, view the entry in the iTunes store.
The app delivers a lot of what clients and advisers have seen in the past from other online financial platforms such as Mint.com. Users can view account balances, see investment account allocation, and manage cash transactions in checking, savings, and credit card accounts.
But the potential killer feature of Personal Capital’s iPad app is its integration with FaceTime, the video calling app created by Apple. From the email:
You can also have a conversation with your advisor via FaceTime. It’s one-on-one interaction to help you better understand your financial situation, initiated by a simple screen tap.
Users now have the ability to tap and talk to their personal adviser directly from their iPad. No more phone calls, no more triaging by the front desk manager, no unanswered voice mails. That, I feel, is real disintermediation of financial advice delivery.
How are you prepared to compete?
