The Financial Planning 2011 Technology Survey is now available to view online. As in past years, I’ll provide my summary of the survey statistics, so look for that update soon. In the meantime…
Click here to view Financial Planning’s 2011 Technology Survey.
After participating virtually (e.g. online) in what was likely the busiest shopping weekend of the year last week, I logged in to reconcile one of my credit card accounts. Lo and behold, they added a new security feature to authenticate my account when I used a second computer to log in.
The timing is perfect as my blog post for Morningstar was just posted yesterday, titled Quickview: Get Enhanced Security With Two-factor Authentication.
So Chase recently added a two-factor authentication process it calls an Identification Code to complete your account logon and verify your identity. This is the first screen I was presented at login:
After clicking Next, I was given the option of receiving my code using several contact methods associated with my account profile. Options included voice or text messages to one of my phone numbers or receiving a code via an email account previously registered to my account.
Just as in my blog post, more and more online providers, including free web-based email programs, social network services, and credit card companies are giving customers the option (and in Chase’s case, requiring) to boost their account security by adding two-factor authentication.
Compliance11,Inc., a Chicago-based provider of compliance software and automation tools, was recently acquired by the Charles Schwab Corporation. The acquisition was announced in a November 16 press release you can read on Businesswire.com.
I reviewed Compliance11 in a recent column for Morningstar Advisor, Say Goodbye to Paper-Based Compliance Practices.
After speaking with Tad Mitchell, now VP of Compliance11 at Charles Schwab, I was very impressed with the depth of features offered by the platform. Knowing what it takes to monitor employees’ personal securities trading, update repetitive compliance tasks, and run reports of compliance activity, Compliance11 seems like a no-brainer purchase for growing advisory firms.
If you are still manually collecting portfolio holdings and trading records from employees, stop, and investigate how Compliance11 might save you not only money, but a bunch of your CCO’s time. And the icing on the cake is that advisers who custody with Schwab might get a great price on the Compliance11 platform.
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:
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.
Frequent visitors to FPPad know I speak at a number of conferences and events. This year, two of my latest presentations have received excellent reviews and are in high demand: The iPad® for Financial Services and Transformative Technology You Can Implement Today.
If you’ve seen the twitter feeds from attendees of either presentation, you know they’re packed with resources and takeaways you can pursue back in your practice. So how can you get the chance to see these presentations for yourself?
The answer is at the upcoming AICPA Advanced Personal Financial Planning Conference in Las Vegas, January 16-18, 2012.
It’s a privilege to speak at the AICPA PFP event, and in addition to my sessions, you’ll find an agenda packed with a who’s who of thought leaders in financial planning: Michael Kitces, Bob Veres, Roger Gibson, Jon Guyton, Angie Herbers, and Tim Kochis are just a few names among top speakers featured at this event.
Hurry, early bird registration ends December 2, and if you contact me, I can provide a discount code you can use to save $100 off registration. Email me at bill [at] fppad [dot] com or send me a direct message on Twitter.
There isn’t one “right” way to use social media. Opinions cover a wide spectrum on how advisers can best use social media to market their practice, create their brand, and listen to conversations by clients and colleagues.
But there certainly are some uninspiring ways to use these new communication channels. I submit to you Exhibit A:
(And what’s up with the Socialware app? When you look at individual tweets on the web, they’re white text on white background. QA fail!)
Last week, AdvisorOne/Summit Business Media and ActiFi announced that they are launching a research study on advisor practice management.
“This study will look broadly across all areas of practice management from sales to human resources, from marketing to business coaching,” said Jamie Green, Investment Advisory Group Editorial Director at Summit Business Media and editor of AdvisorOne in the press release. He added, “Firms that use the study results will make business decisions based on fact, where today it is often based on a ‘gut feel’ of what people think advisors need.”
Click here to read the press release on PRNewswire.
Results from the study aren’t anticipated to be available until “early 2012,” but you can likely benefit from the study by participating in the data gathering process. Typically in studies such as this one, firms who are interviewed or contribute information receive a complimentary copy of the study results. I do not know if study results will be made available for free or for purchase.
According to the press release, you can submit your firm to be included for consideration in the survey by contacting ActiFi at actifi.com or calling (763) 550-0223.
Not much came across my screens this week. So here is this week’s story of interest:
A small CRM system that offers many extras from InvestmentNews.com
[Here Davis Janowski highlights Grendel Online, a CRM I saw back in early 2009. It’s fast, because most of the code runs on a local machine, and the only pushed through the Internet is raw data. But since then, the CRM has yet to gain significant traction in the independent adviser space despite its recent integrations, about which Davis reviews.] Grendel is an information management system that provides customer relationship management, account aggregation and document management. It also serves as a client portal so that clients can access their account information.
One of the worthwhile breakout sessions I attended at NAPFA Connections this week was presented by Michael Bryant of Career Transition Services titled Staying Optimistic in Challenging Times.
In this session, Bryant began with the premise that we are all born optimistic. If we weren’t, he said, we would have just stopped evolving long ago and would have stayed happy as cavemen.
According to Bryant, all people have an optimistic part that can be tapped. Consider the following examples he gave to illustrate this point. When asked how many people think they’ll live to be 100, about 10% of an audience will respond affirmatively. In reality, only about 0.2% of the population actually does.
Or what about married couples asked if they might ever become divorced? Almost no one answers in the affirmative.
Bryant’s point is that optimism is something that is a part of all of us, and over time, we can develop skills to learn how to use our optimism to change our behavior and the way we react to external events.
Optimists, according to Bryant, just think differently. They see problems as temporary and externalize negative events (e.g. “It’s not my fault I got stuck in traffic, it just happens.”). For them, difficulties are limited and they think with an abundance mentality.
On the other hand, pessimists internalize many negative events (“I should have known I was going to get stuck in traffic.”) and assume responsibility for events beyond their control (“I’m sorry the markets had a bad week.”). Many times, Bryant says that pessimists play “pain olympics” with others, attempting to appear as the most unlucky, unfortunate individuals in the room.
Bryant provided 15 techniques to session attendees to help identify pessimistic traits, and what to do to refocus negative reactions and turn them into positive ones. If you have the chance to see or hear Bryant at an upcoming conference, circle his session as one to attend so that you, too, can be introduced to his techniques to stay optimistic in challenging times.
I’ve been back in Dallas for a week, but I still have yet to review and edit my notes from Schwab IMPACT 2011. Soon I hope to have two or three new updates on my feedback from conference breakout sessions, but consulting, new content development, and family obligations take precedence. Still, I’ve kept my pulse on the wires this week for the best in technology stories for financial advisers.
First, if you have a website, but are wondering what you can do to take it to the next level and convert visitors to clients, read this month’s column on Morningstar Advisor, How Marketing Automation Can Accelerate Client Growth.
All the major media outlets were on site at Schwab IMPACT 2011, so there were a number of stories released this week regarding related announcements. Most of them were good, but in this case, video content did a better job of addressing what the custodian is doing with its technology platform for advisers than print.
Here are two video updates from Schwab IMPACT worth viewing, one from InvestmentNews’s Davis Janowski interviewing Neesha Hathi and a second from James J. Green’s AdvisorOne, also interviewing Neesha Hathi.
Advisor Tested: Arkovi expands and archives a firm’s online footprint from RIABiz.com
[As an adviser in a regulated industry, you can’t tweet, post to Facebook, or interact on LinkedIn if it’s related to your business unless you archive and supervise your records. One tool that facilitates your compliance obligations is Arkovi, and Judy Messina gives a good rundown in this RIABiz Advisor Tested story.] As registered investment advisors flock to Twitter, Facebook and other social-media sites to establish themselves as thought leaders and connect with customers and other investment professionals, storing and keeping track of tweets, posts and other content for compliance purposes can seem like an exercise in herding cats.
And in related news, I think you might care a little bit about what might happen with the future of regulatory examinations for investment advisers.
Let RIAs Foot Their Own Examination Bill, Report Says from FA-Mag.com
[In a report commissioned by TD Ameritrade Institutional, Georgetown University finance professor James J. Angel proposed that RIAs should pay for their own periodic compliance examinations conducted by an outside third party. There’s merit to this idea, as RIAs who take custody of client assets today must subject themselves to (and pay for) a surprise audit by an independent public accountant that is registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).] Instead of the Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) examining RIA firms, the firms themselves should foot the bill for their own periodic compliance examination by using an outside body.
