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Video Spotlight: Corey Westphal of Mobile Assistant on gaining efficiencies through voice-to-text and transcription services

Posted on March 14, 2012 by in Video Spotlight

Dictation services and voice-to-text tools should be well-known topics to FPPad readers. Mobile Assistant is one of the leading transcriptions services for financial advisers and has been featured numerous times here on FPPad.

In the latest video spotlight, Corey Westphal, president of Mobile Assistant, gives an overview of transcription services offered, addresses quality review of all dictations, and details turnaround expectations for users of the tool. Mobile Assistant also supports integrations with popular CRMs including Redtail and Advisors Assistant so notes can be automatically added to client records.

 

(click here to view on YouTube)

Video Spotlight: Advisor Websites’ Co-founder Bart Wisniowski speaks to mobile browsing and website compliance

Posted on March 13, 2012 by in Video Spotlight

Most websites for financial advisers leave a lot to be desired. The “appification” of websites, largely a result of the proliferation of mobile devices, has changed the expectations of website visitors, and most financial adviser websites remain outdated.

In this video spotlight interview, Advisor Websites’ Co-founder Bart Wisniowski talks about the impact mobile browsing has on the design and usability of websites, but also covers compliance considerations advisers need to follow to satisfy regulatory requirements with website marketing material.

(click here to view on YouTube)

Video Spotlight: Rob Kirkland tells how ShareFile can be an alternative to Dropbox for advisers

Posted on March 12, 2012 by in Video Spotlight

Dropbox is well known among FPPad readers, as I’ve covered the consumer-oriented file sharing service for its mobile apps, a highly-publicized lapse in security, and upcoming integrations with adviser technology providers.

Tackling security head on, ShareFile, another online file storage and sharing service, is taking aim at Dropbox’s lack of enterprise features and built a product it believes is best suited for financial advisers.

In this video spotlight, Rob Kirkland, Sales Executive for ShareFile, talks about the service’s approach to security and how advisers can use it to easily collaborate with an unlimited number of clients and allied professionals.

(click here to view on YouTube)

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 9

Posted on March 9, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I released several new spotlight interview videos this week featuring Laserfiche reseller CitiesDigital, portfolio accounting service bureau AssetBook, and performance report platform AdvisoryWorld. Be sure the check them out and send me any feedback you have.

First, I’ve always been looking for services like Dropbox that are easy to use, but combine ease of use with robust security features. I think I found one of those possible solutions for advisers, so don’t miss this month’s column for Morningstar Advisor, A Document Vault Your Clients Might Actually Use.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Cabinet NG Announces CNG-SAFE 7.5 from Marketwire.com

[Not to be outdone by Laserfiche’s product announcements made at its user conference in January, Cabinet NG, another document management software solution for financial advisers, has updated its program with enhanced forms processing and additional Quickbooks integrations.] Cabinet NG, provider of electronic document management and workflow management software, today announced the release of CNG-SAFE 7.5, the latest version of its complete document management and workflow software product.

EFileCabinet Releases Mobile App from CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

[eFileCabinet is not a well-known name in the financial adviser market. However, this document management software company has fairly good adoption among CPAs, so it’s just a matter of time until they start branching out into the independent adviser industry.] eFileCabinet, Inc., a provider of enterprise content management solutions, recently released the eFileCabinet Online mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The Principal Financial Group® Chooses Actiance to Provide Social Media Monitoring Platform from Marketwire.com

[Erado, Socialware, and Arkovi have made a number of the last Bits and Bytes updates, but one that has been relatively quiet is Actiance. In this press release you’ll get some statistics on the inroads the company is making in the social media compliance market.] Actiance, helping organizations benefit from new forms of communications and collaboration, today announced that The Principal Financial Group® has deployed its Socialite platform to help meet regulatory requirements that allow the firm’s financial professionals to use social media for business purposes.

Video Spotlight: AdvisoryWorld COO Michael Wilson on performance reports and platform integrations

Posted on March 7, 2012 by in Video Spotlight

AdvisoryWorld has a number of portfolio tools available capable of creating reports for advisors and clients alike.

In this video spotlight, Mike Wilson, COO of AdvisoryWorld, talks about how advisors use their platform for actual and hypothetical performance reports and the different integrations AdvisoryWorld currently supports.

(click to view on YouTube)

 

Video Spotlight: AssetBook CEO Rob Major discusses advantages of hiring an outsourced portfolio service bureau

Posted on March 6, 2012 by in Portfolio Management Software, Video Spotlight

How do financial advisers set aside more time to work with clients? One way is by outsourcing activities that aren’t client facing.

Here in this Video Spotlight, I speak with AssetBook President and CEO Rob Major about the benefits of hiring an outsourced portfolio service bureau. As you’ll hear from Major, options for advisers might not be as expensive as one might think, and the efficiencies and data accuracy to be gained are fairly substantial.

(click here to view on YouTube)

Video Spotlight: Patrick Welsch of CitiesDigital comments on Laserfiche implementations by financial advisers

Posted on March 5, 2012 by in Video Spotlight

Financial advisers purchase Laserfiche document management software through a network of resellers. One of those resellers is CitiesDigital, Inc, led by President Patrick Welsch.

I sat down with Patrick at last month’s T3 Conference in Dallas to ask him about common barriers to Laserfiche implementations among financial advisers and get a better idea of the additional services CitiesDigital created to meet the compliance and record keeping needs of advisers.

(click here to view on YouTube)

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 2

Posted on March 2, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I spent several days in Washington D.C. this week presenting to advisors on new technology that can enhance personal and professional productivity. If you’re interested in booking me for any of my presentations, see my Speaking page for details.

First up this week is my column for the FPA NorCal Planner March newsletter titled When FPA NorCal and Twitter Collide highlighting the “back channel” discussions going on at advisor conferences.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

How AppCrown got a big RIA footprint overnight by handling Salesforce implementations from RIABiz.com

[This is an interesting development. Vendors and custodians are gravitating towards AppCrown, a Salesforce overlay and customization provider. Is it because they excel in supporting advisers, or are they simply the only reasonable option among weak competition? I’m not ready to make a decision one way or the other.] AppCrown LLC has come bursting out of the bulrushes to make itself a go-to technology company for hundreds of RIAs who want to use Salesforce customer relationship management software but who also know that they need help — big-time assistance — in making sure that the conversion and connective tissues are there.

Junxure Announces Agreement With Advisor Group to Provide CRM Integration from PRNewswire

[This is yet another integration Junxure supports with a proprietary system, this time being the Advisor Group’s (formerly AIG Advisor Group) VISION2020 portal. Advisor Group has over 4,600 independent financial advisers.] Junxure, a practice improvement firm that integrates technology, consulting, and training, announced that it has signed an agreement with Advisor Group to provide an integration offering financial advisors the ability to synchronize client data between Junxure and VISION2020 Advisor Portal (Advisor Portal), Advisor Group’s proprietary account tracking system. The integration is included as part of the Royal Alliance, FSC and SagePoint Financial advisor technology offerings.

RMB Capital Management Selects Black Diamond and Advent Portfolio Exchange Platforms to Support $2B Wealth Advisory Practice from Marketwire

[Not to be overshadowed by Orion Advisor Services’ announcement of partnering with a $3 billion RIA, Advent is publicizing its deal to migrate one $2 billion RIA’s portfolio data off of Advent Axys to Black Diamond. It doesn’t seem like a tremendous victory to me. After all, I believe Advent purchased Black Diamond to do exactly this: migrate customers on a legacy system to Black Diamond rather than lose them to the competition like Orion and Tamarac. Update: RIABiz published coverage of this today.] RMB Capital Management and Advent Software, Inc. announced today that they will broaden their strategic relationship by migrating RMB Capital Management’s approximately $2B in assets under management (AUM) from Advent’s Axys® to Black Diamond Performance Reporting, LLC’s platform and the Advent Portfolio Exchange® (APX) platform.

[PODCAST] Competing Against “Robo Advisors:” Delivering Advice in a New World from T3 2012

Posted on February 23, 2012 by in Podcast, Practice Management, Technology

Yesterday I posted two YouTube videos from the session from T3 2012 titled Competing Against Robo Advisors. I know that many of you prefer to download content like this to your media player of choice (i.e. iPhone) and listen to it on your jog or your commute home.

Using the audio from the Robo Advisor session, I created my first podcast. I’m currently going through the approval process with iTunes, but in the meantime you can listen and download the podcast directly from FPPad.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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