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Junxure Refreshes Website, Updates Timing of Cloud-based Product

Posted on August 24, 2011 by in Software

In a press release today, CRM Software Inc., the makers of Junxure, announced its new website design, highlighting an increased emphasis on practice management consulting in addition to their desktop CRM offering.

Click here to view the press release (PDF).

The company also updated its timeframe regarding the release of the cloud version of its CRM, called Junxure Essentials. The company expects to release Junxure Essentials in Q4 of 2012. Most in the industry, myself included, anticipated a release in Q1 2012.

Click the image below to view the updated Junxure website.

Junxure

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 19

Posted on August 19, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

While August may mean a typical slowdown in client activity for advisors, I’ve had one of my busiest week’s yet. I’m working on my second contribution for the Journal of Financial Planning (to be published in November), conducting research for September’s Morningstar Advisor column, creating content for Blueleaf, and creating two new slide decks for presentations coming up in September and October.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Financial Advisors Putting Client Data in “The Clouds” from RegisteredRep.com

[Jude is a good friend and I’m pleased to see this interview about how he runs his new practice almost entirely in the cloud.] When Jude Boudreaux launched his solo practice, Upperline Financial Planning in September, he headed for the clouds. There’s no server, no software upgrades, no technology manager — just him, his MacBook Air and a home office.

Cabinet NG Introduces Industry First Features With CNG-WEB 8 from Marketwire.com

[The battle in document management for financial advisers continues. Cabinet NG steps it up with increased support for web and mobile access to documents stored in its hefty repositories.] Cabinet NG, provider of document management and workflow management software, today announced a new version of CNG-WEB, its browser-based document management interface. This release marks the latest step in the company’s strategy to make documents available to authorized users securely at any time, from anywhere.

Socialware raises $7 million from Statesman.com

[Social media compliance services are getting serious. Many companies are now entering a period of strong growth, including Socialware, which has nearly tripled its staff in less than a year.] Software developer will use funding for research and development, adding staff.

Schwab Intelligent Integration Begins Pilot Phase from Financial Advisor magazine

[Schwab IMPACT is about 2 months away. Will SII’s platform be ready for primetime with all advisers by then?] Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. has completed beta testing of its custom Salesforce integration, and is entering the pilot testing phase.

FINRA Updates Guidance on Social Networking for Brokers

Posted on August 18, 2011 by in Compliance

Today, FINRA released updated guidance on brokers’ use of social media sites, clarifying items surrounding recordkeeping, suitability, supervision and content requirements for such communications.

The latest guidance is Regulatory Notice 11-39 and can be viewed on FINRA’s website.

Click here to view the notice on FINRA.org.

My summary: This notice deals with “personal devices for business communications,” i.e. tweeting with a personal smart phone. To simplify, yes, brokers can use personal smart phones and tablets to post social media updates provided they are:

  • trained on what’s allowed and prohibited according to the firm’s policies and procedures
  • using devices that do not automatically delete content
  • adequately supervised (perhaps by random spot checks) by registered principals

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 12

Posted on August 12, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Enjoyed the wild ride this week? The market must be captivating everyone’s attention, as there’s been a distinct lull this week of tech-related news worth sharing. And I’m in New Orleans to round out this week strategizing on where FPPad is headed over the next few years. So stay tuned.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

Did you send a blast e-mail (or several?) to clients this week? Then you should read my column this month at Morningstar Advisor, Tools to Manage Your E-Mail Newsletter.

Automate & Integrate Arkovi Reports with Evernote, Box.net & more from Arkovi.com

[Arkovi continues to expands its capabilities, a very good sign that they’re proactive in support of new social media platforms.] We are pleased to announce today that Arkovi customers can easily automate the distribution, via email, of their Arkovi archives to any email destination. Most compelling, this includes integration with Evernote, Box.net and Zoho Docs along with any cloud storage platform or digital storage destination that provides an email address for adding files.

Bulletproof Your Practice Using Mobile Dictation from Mobile Assistant

[Corey Westphal, President of Mobile Assistant and a good friend, talks about two important features advisers should seek in their dictation solution.] Increased client documentation combined with time savings is hard for most advisors to imagine, but mobile dictation accomplishes both.

Legal analysis: The chances that Wealthcare beats UBS or upends the financial planning community at RIABiz.com

[You use financial planning software. Say MoneyGuidePro. Well then you need to read Ron Rhoades’ contribution regarding Wealthcare vs. UBS at RIABiz] Wealthcare Capital Management (i.e. Financeware, Inc.) alleges that UBS, by providing “financial advice and reports” to clients “utilizing computerized financial advising software and systems, including, for example, MoneyGuidePro” has infringed two patents.

 

You Need A Backup Internet Plan

Posted on August 10, 2011 by in General

Sometime between 11:00am and 1:00pm today, my Internet provider’s service went down in the Dallas area (Time Warner Cable if you’re curious, and I confirmed the outage with their service reps on Twitter @TWCableHelp). That means no Internet and no phone service for my office, and Time Warner has no ETA on a fix.

But I’m still up and running with all of my web-hosted tools, including email, contacts, and my blog. I powered up my MiFi 2200 and bought a small data plan ($10 for 100MB) to get me through the service disruption. So everything I need over the web is still accessible. The MiFi supports five active WiFi connections, so I can share the Internet connection among my iMac, iPad, Macbook Air, and Acer laptop.

And what about my office phone line? That, too, is tied to my Internet connection, as it’s a voice-over-IP (VoIP) line. It’s dead.

But, my main number is connected to my Google Voice account, so all I need to do is enable my mobile phone as the primary phone to use (it’s typically active along with my office phone so I can receive calls anywhere). You call, get routed to my mobile phone, it rings, and I answer. You have no idea my office line is dead. And I don’t need to deliver excuses for not picking up your call.

So what’s your backup plan when your connection to the outside world is severed? Good luck dialing up your custodian’s trading line to verbally submit your trades in this market volatility!!!

RescueTime: A Year In Review

Posted on August 8, 2011 by in Efficiency

You no doubt know that I’m a big believer in efficiency and productivity. But how do you really know if you’re efficient, using your time wisely on as many productive activities as possible?

You don’t know unless you measure your productivity.

Last year I subscribed to RescueTime and highlighted the service in one of my columns for Morningstar Advisor (Rescue Your Imperiled Productivity).

Last week, I reviewed the last 12 months of my activity, all captured in RescueTime, to see how I really performed over the period. The results were a little surprising, and I encourage you to view them in my post:

RescueTime: A Year In Review at MorningstarAdvisor.com

And if you’re interested in trying RescueTime, click here (note: affiliate link)

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 5

Posted on August 5, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

I spent much of the week attending a retreat to help plan the future of the financial planning profession. Add to that my commitments for Morningstar, Blueleaf, and the Journal of Financial Planning and I had a nose-to-the-grindstone schedule.

But still, you can count on my Friday updates to deliver the best tech related articles from around the financial planning industry. Here they are:

Ebix may hit a CRM sweet spot for some RIAs from RIABiz.com

[I used SmartOffice CRM from E-ZData back in 2006-2007, now part of the Ebix family. It has the potential to grow in the financial adviser space, but the CRM has a lot of work ahead of it.] For advisors looking for a happy medium, say a company with some heft whose people – and maybe even the inner workings of its computers – know the difference between an advisor and a carpet wholesaler, Ebix might be worth a look.

VirtualPlanning from Financial-Planning.com

[Think you need to meet clients in your office all the time? Think again. Here are some spotlights of advisers using remote tools like Skype and RingCentral to meet with clients on their terms.] In an era when clients can easily reach their accounts online, many planners are cutting overhead and staff and working remotely.

The Mobile Advisor from Financial Advisor

[Another article on advisers working remotely, only this time the focus is on eliminating operating overhead and infrastructure, rather than identifying specific technology to facilitate remote working.] In the wake of economic pressures on financial advisory practices, some have chosen to dramatically downsize their firms, opting to fire staff, work without an office or even give up certain types of clients.

CRM: An Untapped Engine for Growth from AdvisorOne.com

[Schwab Advisor Services VP Neesha Hathi explores survey results on advisers using (and not using) CRM effectively.] By taking advantage of these key untapped growth drivers in CRM, advisors can boost their success in three areas.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 29

Posted on July 29, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

It’s been another busy week this week with phone calls squeezed in on Monday and Tuesday, a presentation to the FPA of San Antonio and South Texas on Wednesday, an all-day client visit on Thursday, followed by a day off with my son on Friday.

In the meantime, I’ve gathered the best stories on adviser technology from around the web:

Getting a handle on adviser technology from InvestmentNews.com

A link to InvestmentNews’ adviser technology survey is in this column, the results of which will be featured in the Aug. 22 issue of InvestmentNews.

Review: EISI is producing a simpler NaviPlan in an effort to keep its towering market share from RIABiz.com

According to a 2010 Aite Group report, EISI’s 250,000 users account for 25% of the financial advisors that are candidates for using financial planning software. This is more than the next three competitors combined.

NPH Contracts with Erado to Monitor Advisor Social Media Use from Financial-Planning.com

National Planning Holdings, Inc., one of the nation’s larger independent broker-dealer networks, announced this week it has contracted with business technology firm Erado to supply its more than 3,500 affiliated representatives with compliance services for social media applications.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 22

Posted on July 22, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

I’ve had a wonderful week here in Portland, OR speaking to the FPA chapter, spending the day yesterday in Seattle, and basking in 70 degree summer days. I’ll be back in Dallas Monday and Tuesday next week, then speaking to the FPA of San Antonio & South Texas on Wednesday and all-day client work Thursday and Friday. Whew!

I also just confirmed a new speaking engagement at the Cabinet NG Collaborate 2011 conference to be held in October in Huntsville, AL. See my speaking page for more information.

So with that, here are this week’s stories of interest:

Update on Black Diamond-Advent merger from RIABiz.com

Brooke Southall covers the four things advisers should know about how the knitting together of the two companies is progressing.

MSSB data breach is a lesson for advisers from InvestmentNews.com

Still putting client data on CD-ROMs and USB drives? Davis Janowski highlights several resources and best practices advisers should consider to keep their clients’ personal information safe and secure.

RIAs fed up with Facebook should hop on the Google+ bandwagon from RIABiz.com

So you’ve heard of this new network from Google called Google+. Nevin Freeman and Brooke Southall share their experience on the network and forecast how advisers might adopt it within their practice.

 

 

Tweets Cost One Broker $10,000, One-Year Suspension

Posted on July 15, 2011 by in Compliance

I caught this article from the New York Times (thank you Pat Allen at AdvisorTweets) detailing one broker who was penalized for sending a series of “misrepresentative and unbalanced” messages on Twitter.

Click here to read Tweets Land Broker in Trouble.

FINRA brought disciplinary action against Jenny Quyen Ta for several violations, including undisclosed outside business activities, undisclosed outside brokerage accounts, and of importance to this post, undisclosed tweets. For violating several rules, Ms. Ta was fined $10,000 and suspended from associating with any FINRA member firm for one year.

Despite just picking this story up today, FINRA actually brought the disciplinary action forward on November 23, 2010. So this information has been around for half a year, but we’re hearing of it only now.

Ms. Ta posted at least 372 tweets from her Twitter account from April to December 2009, 32 of which were about “overwhelmingly positive” mentions of imminent price increases in Advanced Micro Devices stock (NYSE: AMD). One example of Ta’s tweets:

Its going 2 b a good Xmas & 2010! Ck out AMD! Like I have said, it should b @ least a $10B co. which should b @ $ 15/shs. HappyTrading!

Most readers would agree that this type of tweet is a blatant violation of FINRA regulations.

So don’t think FINRA isn’t watching social media activity for questionable content. And if you’re interested in reading the full disciplinary action report, click here.