2017 Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for content creators

Posted on November 22, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in General, Online Marketing

Just as I did last year, I’ve aggregated Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for 2017 on audio and video gear you can use to create online content for your business.

Check out the list below, and if you find any great deals I haven’t listed, leave a link in the comments below or send me a tweet to @billwinterberg.

NOTE: Links to Amazon where applicable are my affiliate links, so I earn a small commission if you use the links to purchase (and THANK YOU, because that helps support the free content here at FPPad!). Also, links to online sites may not reflect Black Friday pricing until Thursday or Friday, so check back often if the prices don’t yet match the prices I cite in this post.

Last updated November 27, 2017 at 11:38 AM ET

Jump to: Cameras — Lights — Video Accessories — Computers and Storage

Cameras

First up is a video creators kit featuring the Canon EOS Rebel T6i DSLR Camera at $649 from Amazon. B&H Photo also has the same kit for $649. I’ve seen several sales on the same camera and lens combo over at Target and Best Buy for $599, but for just $50 more for this package, you pick up the RODE VideoMic GO and a 32GB SD memory card that would cost about $120 when purchased separately, so you’re saving about $70 on these two accessories.

The T6i is a great DSLR to get started with video, as you can keep your equipment investment well below $1,000. Note, this camera has a “crop sensor” and not a full sensor like the more expensive Canon 5D line (starting around $2,000 just for the camera body!), but for production for a website and YouTube channel, many creators really won’t notice any drawbacks in using a crop sensor camera. But if your full-time business is landscape, architecture, or modeling photography, well, a full frame sensor is almost commonplace.

Also, why not buy the less expensive T6 or T5 cameras? Those cameras don’t have a touchscreen LCD display that swings out a full 180º to the side, which is super important when you’re filming yourself “selfie” style. You need to be able to see what the camera sees when filming yourself so you can set the focus, ISO, and lens aperture accordingly for a high quality image. You just can’t to that on the fly with the Canon Rebel cameras with no “i” after their model number!

Canon 80D

Now if you want pixel resolution similar to a full frame camera without the full frame price, Amazon also has a deal on the Canon EOS 80D DSLR camera with the video creator kit at $1,399. B&H Photo has the same kit as well. Note that the 80D has an APS-C sensor, not a legitimate full frame sensor, but the sensor resolution is actually higher than some older model full frame cameras. Here’s a helpful review if you want to read more about the APS-C sensor.

Vlog Camera

I use the term “vlog camera” for cameras you can keep in your pocket while on a trip, attending an event, or otherwise out of the office, but want to quickly take out a camera and record a quick thought, capture some time lapse, or shoot some b-roll footage for your video. I generally recommend two cameras for this kind of activity: the Canon G7X Mk II and the Sony RX100 V.

First, Amazon has a gift card bundle on the Sony RX100V right now for $949 including a $50 gift card, so your “net” price is $899. This isn’t a huge savings over the camera’s regular price of $949, but $50 will cover an extra battery and maybe an SD flash card to get you up and running with your vlogging.

The vlog camera I use, the G7X, is bundled on Amazon for $699 ($50 savings) which includes a 32GB flash card, Manfrotto PIXI MINI Tripod, and an extra Canon NB-13L battery (key if you want to vlog for a full day).

Note that neither camera has a jack for an external microphone, so these are not ideal for filming video in a studio or office as your main camera unless you have an external audio recorder that you will use for an audio track. Instead, I use my vlogging camera to capture b-roll at events and use as a second camera angle while my primary camera is a DSLR with the RODE microphone (or wireless lavalier) plugged directly into the camera for high quality audio.

Mevo Plus

Here’s a camera for live streaming video. Check out the Mevo Plus at $399 for Black Friday ($100 off MSRP). If you want one camera that is super easy to set up and operate for a Facebook Live, YouTube, Periscope and more, the Mevo Plus can do it.

I highly recommend looking at ways to plug in an external microphone for your broadcasts unless you’re in a quiet office or studio, but that does add some cost an complexity to your setup. You can connect a microphone using a compatible mobile device connected to the Mevo Plus over WiFi, or you can add on the Mevo Boost accessory (another $250) that uses microphones connected via a USB interface (see how to connect microphones via USB in this article).

Drones!

Ok, ok, you don’t *need* a drone to make videos, but man, are they fun to use and they do capture incredible aerial footage. So if you’re inclined to experiment with adding a drone to your production process, here are a few Black Friday deals.

First is the DJI Mavic Pro at $895 ($104 off). This is the drone I own and bring to conferences and events as well as my family trip to Yellowstone this past summer.

Keep in mind that you’ll not only need to learn how to legally operate the drone, you also need to learn how to operate a new camera with its own ISO, focus, and exposure settings. Be sure to allocate lots of time for practice before you fly for your finished videos.

A lower price point for a drone is the DJI Spark WITHOUT A CONTROLLER at $399 for Black Friday. The Spark is a bit more compact than the Mavic Pro, but its arms don’t collapse and fold like the Mavic Pro, so this is a toss-up on how easy it is to stuff into a backpack compared to the Mavic Pro.

Also, to save money, you can choose not to buy the controller and fly this exclusively with your mobile phone, but your controls will be more limited than if you had a full handheld joystick. If you want the power of a joystick, then upgrade to this DJI Spark Fly More Combo at $599 (regularly $699).

Lights

Fotodiox has several Black Friday specials on lighting packages.

First is the Deluxe Video Studio Chromakey Starter Kit at $199 (regular price $344.95) which includes two of the 955 Compact Studio LED lights and a 5×7′ collapsible green screen background. These light boxes have 9 LED lights each(!), giving you TONS of dispersed light for your shoots, which is why this kit is approaching $200 (you can find cheaper kits, but you won’t find them with so many lights). One drawback is the size of the 5×7′ green screen, which might be a bit narrow and short if you hope to film your entire body in your shoot. But still, you can purchase other larger green screens to complement this set from Fotodiox.

Also from Fotodiox is this clever collapsible LED ring light at $49.95 (regular price $129.95). Now before you buy this ring light, go watch my video with Bohuš Blahut of Fotodiox about the pros and cons of shooting with ring lights. Ok, so if you want an inexpensive way to get started with a simple ring light, this kit is a great way to get started. Just remember that shadow helps you when filming, so you’ll likely want to add a few other lights in your setup to help with modeling on your video subject (likely yourself!).

Video Accessories

Soundstripe Black Friday deal One critical component of good videos is having good music. I’ve been a subscriber of Soundstripe for a year now, a service that offers unlimited licensing of tracks in their music library for a fixed annual subscription.

Now through Cyber Monday, get your first year subscription for $87, 35% off the regular annual subscription of $135. After the first year, the subscription renews at the standard $135 per year.

When typical tracks from Premium Beat and Tune Fruit run $40 to $100 EACH, getting an annual subscription to an expanding library of high quality music for $87 is incredible! If you end up using just two songs from Soundstripe in a year, you’ve recouped your subscription.

Computers and Storage

For Black Friday, Amazon is offering 30% to 70%(!) off SanDisk memory cards. Look for minimum speeds of Class 10, the same as UHS Speed 1, for filming 1080 HD video, and consider the faster UHS Speed 3 for filming in 4k. The 64GB micro SD card was as low as $13.99, but even at Friday’s price of $14.99 it’s a really good deal!

The more videos you make, the more memory cards you’re going to need (and remember, flash memory will get slower with age, so if you shoot videos each day, your memory card’s speed will get slower and slower over time. It takes about a year or two to slow down, but you’ll notice it for sure when it takes a long time to move footage to your computer!)

Hard Drives

B&H Photo has $15-$20 off 2TB Seagate portable hard drives, which come in handy for offloading raw footage and editing project files from your laptop onto some kind of backup device.

I always bring two of these drives along with me to video shoots so I have a place I can offload extra footage, but I remember buying my 1TB drives at $59.99, which is now the price of a 2TB drive with this Cyber Monday special!

Desktops and Laptops

I admit, I have a preference for Apple computers, especially because I edit all my videos in Final Cut Pro. That said, know that you can find some great deals on PCs that run Windows elsewhere, but I’m just going to list the deals I find on Apple.

For Cyber Monday, B&H has a killer deal on a 15.4″ MacBook Pro with Touch Bar at $1,899, ($900 off MSRP, but about $425 off the lowest Amazon price). This is the laptop with the 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core processor, 16GB of 2133 MHz RAM, and 512GB PCIe SSD. These are just about the specs that match the MacBook I use (see below), but a little warning, you might find the 15″ form factor to be a bit too bulky to travel with this laptop in most backpacks. It’s also heavier than the 13″ form factor, but I will admit that the extra screen real estate will go a long way when doing multi-cam editing when you’re away from your large screen in your home office!

Best Buy has a number of Apple laptops and desktops on sale for Black Friday, with savings ranging from $150 to $250. What do I use to edit on the road? A mid-2015 13″ MacBook Pro with the 3.1GHz Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB flash drive. It’s a workhorse that hasn’t failed me in two years and has been absolutely trouble free.

What is Fidelity Access℠?

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in Technology

Fidelity Access℠ is an API-based account aggregation offering for Fidelity customers to grant permission to third-party financial websites and aggregation services and obtain account balances, holdings, and transaction information.

What is Fidelity Access℠ it and why it matters:

Fidelity Access℠ is a new API-based connection that enables third-party financial websites and account aggregation services to obtain information from Fidelity customer accounts, with the customer’s approval, without using customer login and password information in an attempt to “screen scrape” account information
Who’s onboard? Fidelity Access℠ is available now (November 2017), but no large account aggregation services (other than the obvious eMoney Advisor, a Fidelity company) as of yet have disclosed or announced their adoption of the Fidelity Access℠ API
Improved account security: Moving to API-based account aggregation reduces the number of times customers share their login credentials with third-party financial websites and aggregation services
Expect short-term frustration: Customers who leverage third-party financial websites will need to be patient as their providers transition away from using Fidelity login credentials to the new API. All providers must first meet Fidelity’s security and access requirements before connecting via the API. It’s quite possible that multiple aggregation providers and personal financial applications will not be approved by Fidelity to leverage Fidelity Access℠
What customers must do: All Fidelity customers will eventually have to manually enable account access to third-party financial websites using the Fidelity Access℠ dashboard when logged in to their Fidelity account
What financial advisers must do: Financial advisers who use data aggregated from clients’ Fidelity accounts will need to instruct clients to manually enable permissions through Fidelity Access℠ to the third-party aggregation services used by the financial adviser

Fidelity Investments announced the introduction of Fidelity Access℠, a new service that allows Fidelity customers to grant account access to third-party websites and aggregation services to obtain account balances, holdings, and transaction information using an API.

With Fidelity Access℠, Fidelity joins other financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo (Gateway Channel) and others that have already introduced an API for third-party account aggregation as an alternative to “screen scraping” by logging in using a customer’s online account credentials.

Ending Online Credential Sharing

Historically, investors provided their financial account login credentials to popular aggregation and personal financial management apps like Intuit’s Mint.com, Personal Capital, Betterment, Wealthfront, Learnvest, Clarity Money, Quicken and more.

These services leveraged account aggregation functionality from providers such as Yodlee, Fiserv AllData, Finicity, Aqumulate, Plaid, Quovo, Wealth Access, and Morningstar ByAllAccounts to log in to financial accounts and obtain account balances and transaction data. (See How Intuit’s account aggregation shutdown may impact the fintech solutions you use)

One problem with sharing login credentials with third-party websites is the protection of the account login information and specifically the account password. Given the rapid increase in attacks on financial institutions, including the large security breach of Equifax affecting over 140 million customers in the U.S., hackers are obtaining passwords in record numbers for a variety of online logins that they then use in brute-force attacks to compromise online financial accounts. Many customers are at risk when they do not follow good online password hygiene by using the same password for multiple online accounts.

Cleaner Data

A few positives emerge from an API-driven connection like Fidelity Access℠. First, account authentication and data exchange is performed using well-defined protocols. Overall, security is enhanced as Fidelity Access℠ authentication is performed using the OAuth open standard.

Second, the quality of data obtained via API is much higher than “screen scraping” since the data is transmitted using conventional API functions. Such functions clearly identify datatypes being relayed over the API, so there’s no ambiguity over what pieces of data represent a security name, security symbol, transaction date, transaction amount, or total value of a holding.

Finally, institutions like Fidelity are able to reduce the bandwidth demands for websites customers use to log in to view account information, which were never intended to be accessed in high volumes by third-party aggregators.

Instead, institutions will now be able to shift the bandwidth required for account aggregation to separate services that support access over the API and reduce the demand on public website login page access.

Expect a Rough Transition

Sometime in 2018, Fidelity will no longer allow third-party account aggregation services to log in to customer accounts using shared online credentials and ultimately “break” the aggregation functionality.

At that time, Fidelity customers will need to manually enable account access via their own Fidelity Access℠ dashboard for each of the aggregation services they wish to continue to use.

The challenge here for customer satisfaction will be the rate of adoption among the dozens, if not hundreds, of third-party personal financial management apps into the Fidelity Access℠ program. It is possible that the transition will actually limit choice among customers as to which personal financial management apps can access Fidelity account information. Today, customers can enter their login credentials into any financial management app they wish to enable aggregation of Fidelity accounts without first obtaining Fidelity’s approval.

Also, many customers maintain relationships with multiple financial institutions for a variety of reasons, so as this trend of migrating to API-based aggregation plays out, customers will be required to manage account aggregation access not only for accounts they hold with Fidelity, but also with accounts at a variety of other financial institutions where the conduct business.

The common denominator for client satisfaction here is the aggregation provider that is able to quickly adopt as many of the institution-specific APIs as possible.

After all, what good is it to permission Fidelity Access℠ to the Personal Capital dashboard when Personal Capital is not approved to connect with other financial institution aggregation APIs? The incomplete aggregation decreases the value of the consolidated dashboard in services such as Personal Capital when it is not able to aggregate all of a user’s accounts.

Tepid Adoption

One other interesting take on the Fidelity Access℠ announcement is that none of the major aggregation providers were identified as adopting the new API (eMoney Advisor is, of course, onboard, which is expected as it is a Fidelity company). Other API introductions launched with at least one major aggregator on board, such as JP Morgan Chase and Intuit’s announcement in January 2017.

Eventually, adoption of Fidelity Access℠ will be very likely among the major aggregators, but I wonder what the thought process was behind the announcement of Fidelity Access℠ without also announcing which of the larger aggregation providers have already begun to leverage the API.

We’ll have to stay tuned for more updates here as the success of Fidelity Access℠ (and satisfaction of Fidelity customers) depends heavily on how widely adopted Fidelity Access℠ is among the major aggregation providers.

PreciseFP review and demo

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in Live with Bill Winterberg, On Air, Video Spotlight

PreciseFP is an automated data-gathering solution that helps financial advisers engage clients and gather data critical to the quality of their financial plan.

I invited Don Whalen, co-founder of PreciseFP to stop by FPPad HQ to talk about how advisers can be more efficient with data gathering and client correspondence.

Watch this discussion above or on YouTube, which includes a demo of the desktop solution as well as the mobile app that helps streamline client follow up.

If you’re interested in trying the solution, sign up for a 30-day free trial (the standard trial period is seven days) by visiting http://fppad.com/precisefp (not an affiliate link, I receive no compensation if you choose to sign up)

Chapter markers

0:36 What is the PreciseFP solution?
1:26 How is PreciseFP different than SurveyMonkey and Typeform?
3:35 How do the PreciseFP integrations save time?
5:14 What kind of analytics does PreciseFP provide regarding form completion?
7:52 How has recent DOL legislation impacted PreciseFP customers?
12:20 See the demo of PreciseFP
18:12 See the company templates preloaded into PreciseFP
19:31 Can PreciseFP be used for prospecting and capturing leads?
23:53 What kind of client segmenting can PreciseFP support?
25:44 See a demo of the PreciseFP mobile app
29:20 How does PreciseFP facilitate entry-level automation for client correspondence?
32:30 What is like the “undergarments” of the financial planning industry?
35:22 One important takeaway regarding off-the-shelf survey tools and client Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
38:07 Where to sign up for an extended free trial of PreciseFP

Ambush Phishing: Don’t let it happen to you

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in Compliance

Inspired by nature, hackers have developed a new stealthy technique to dupe their victims: “Ambush phishing”

Some of the most successful predators in the animal kingdom are not the biggest, strongest, or the fastest. Rather, these predators have evolved techniques to conceal their presence by laying motionless, patiently wait for prey to wander within striking range before launching their attack.

via GIPHY

These predators are known as ambush predators, and online hackers are turning to such techniques to attack their victims.

Phishing Tactics

Phishing techniques are now fairly well-known among the internet community. Attackers attempt to obtain sensitive information such as bank account numbers, credit card information, or online passwords by sending requests disguised as legitimate correspondence from a trusted entity. Attackers then use the information they receive from victims to gain access to email and/or financial accounts to continue their attack, often stealing money from their victims.

To increase the efficacy of phishing techniques, attackers have targeted specific individuals with a practice called spear phishing by leveraging specific details learned about the targeted individual to make the fraudulent request appear to be just as legitimate as standard requests victims typically encounter.

As victims become more aware of phishing and spear phishing techniques, attackers are now implementing techniques I call ambush phishing.

Ambush Phishing

Ambush phishing has rapidly increased in prevalence this year among individuals buying homes in the United States. The majority of home purchases are funded with some kind of cash down payment, and that down payment is frequently sent by a wire transfer between the buyer’s bank and an escrow company.

Attackers exploit this known process of wiring funds to an escrow company by targeting individuals involved in the home buying process, specifically the real estate agent representing the buyer and/or the escrow company involved in supervising the transaction. Ambush phishing is the second step of the attack, as hackers first need to compromise communication channels by gaining access to the buyer’s agent’s email account or that of the escrow company.

Ambush phishers monitor correspondence in the compromised email accounts and wait until the day the down payment is expected to be wired. Typically, the escrow company sends its wire instructions and account information to the buyer, who then instructs his/her bank to wire money to a specific destination, but real estate agents can also provide the information as a courtesy to their clients.

Shortly after seeing the legitimate wire instruction correspondence sent to the buyer, attackers will send a new message to the buyer masquerading as a follow up message. In the forged follow up message, attackers apologize for originally sending incorrect wire instructions for the transfer, and instead offer new wire instructions that are the ones to be used.

To increase the efficacy of the ambush phishing, attackers will often add language about the time sensitive nature of the wire transfer and that the transfer needs to be completed immediately or the entire home transaction may be jeopardized, resulting in the buyer losing the home of his/her dreams.

Due to the time-sensitive nature of the email communication, victims often do not think to verify the wire instructions by first contacting the escrow company or real estate agent by phone or in person. In addition, attackers will likely wait until a few minutes before the cutoff times for wire transfers for the day (information that is generally available on most major bank websites). If wire transfer cutoff times coincide with the closing business hours of the escrow company, buyers may not successfully reach an employee of the escrow company to authenticate the instructions they receive even if they do try and contact someone at the company!

The odds of recovering funds wired to the attacker’s bank significantly decrease as time goes by, and the options to interrupt or reverse wire transfers vary widely across financial institutions. Ideally, the best odds against an ambush phishing attack are to identify and thwart the attack before a wire transfer is submitted.

I found several examples of ambush phishing exploits covered in recent publications:

Defending Against Ambush Phishing

I see two main methods to defend against ambush phishing: Two-factor/multi-factor authentication (2FA or MFA) and outbound verification.

Generally, ambush phishing is carried out by first exploiting the email accounts of real estate agents or escrow companies. One of the better defenses for email accounts is to enable two-factor authentication. Not only do the login credentials need to be correct to access the account, users also need to enter a one-time code obtained through a second method, typically a mobile device. A popular two-factor authentication solution is Google Authenticator app for iOS and Android.

Google Authenticator is arguably a better verification solution than codes delivered via SMS, as attackers have reportedly been successful in gaining control of mobile phone numbers by tricking cellular carriers to port phone service to another SIM card. Google Authenticator is a software-based token app that, while it runs on a mobile device, does not verify a user’s identification using SMS communication. So wherever possible, enable two-factor authentication using a software token app such as Google Authenticator for your accounts that contain sensitive information.

The second method to defend against ambush phishing is developing a habit of making outbound verification. In the home buyer example cited above, customers who make an outbound phone call to the real estate agent or escrow company involved in the transaction should be able to verify wire instructions verbally over the phone.

A problem with inbound phone calls for verification is that attackers, once again, can spoof the caller ID displayed on the incoming call and pretend to be an employee of the real estate agency or the escrow company. Here, too, information about company employees is often accessible through the company’s website or by conducting a quick LinkedIn search. Note that inbound calls are also used by attackers that claim to be representing Microsoft or other computer companies to get victims to install malware on their computer.

Be Prepared

Now that you are familiar with the technique of ambush phishing, you are better prepared to resist becoming a victim of these clever attacks.

Have you encountered an ambush phishing attack in your work? Also, what other ways do you recommend protecting accounts from ambush phishing? Share your insights in the comments below or reach out to me on Twitter, I’m @billwinterberg.

FinaMetrica merges with PlanPlus: Fintech updates for August 8, 2017

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

Here is your FPPad Bits and Bytes update for August 8, 2017.

FinaMetrica merges with PlanPlus

FinaMetrica announced its merger with PlanPlus, a Toronto-based financial planning software provider. Founded in 1998, FinaMetrica is one of the first companies to gain significant traction for its risk tolerance assessment software, though the company has seen its market share decline over the last few years due to increased competition from Riskalyze, Pocket Risk, RiXtrema, and others.

The combined company will be called PlanPlus Global, and will offer solutions for comprehensive financial planning, goals-based automated investing, and psychometric risk profiling to its 12,000 current users in over 30 countries worldwide. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Advicent adds integration with Envestnet

Advicent announced a new integration this week with Envestnet, which allows advisors to extract client demographic, investment account, and investment portfolio data from Envestnet and populate the data into the company’s NaviPlan financial planning software.

Advicent is a leading provider of financial planning software in the enterprise space, with over 100,000 financial professionals across 4,000 clients worldwide using at least one of the company’s solutions. The integration also demonstrates Envestnet’s continued expansion of its Open ENV initiative announced last year.

Here’s Envestnet President Bill Crager with more information:

So as the platform began to take on a bit of a one-size-fits-all, we realized we had to open that up. So the core engine will fire into these user interfaces that will really speak to the adviser, will speak to the home office. And not only that, we’re building APIs to integrate with the full ecosystem of an adviser’s practice, whether that’s CRM or other applications that they’re using. How do you get information into the system to, again, provide really profound and comprehensive advice for that client that is not a moment in time, but is ongoing. And that’s really our goal, and Open ENV, I think, is a strategic breakthrough and I’m very excited about it.

PreciseFP adds iOS and Android Mobile Apps

For your client data gathering needs, PreciseFP announced new mobile apps for iOS and Android, giving advisors more convenient access to client information. The new app lets advisors add new information about prospect to their PreciseFP database, send data gathering forms to clients and prospects on the spot, and review any existing client data or forms right from their phone.

And finally, if you’re looking for ways you can leverage technology to enhance your client engagement, save the date for Wednesday, August 16 at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific, as I’m hosting a webinar with two advisors who’ve doubled down on technology and seen a huge increase in their client satisfaction. Head over to fppad.com/webinar to register today, that’s FPPad.com/webinar to secure your spot

Those are the headlines for today, I’m Bill Winterberg, be sure check back in for more FPPad Bits and Bytes Updates.

July 20, 2017 Update

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in General

July 20: 2 minute read

I haven’t published new content to FPPad since March 2017, so here’s some quick insight on things behind the scenes.

I’ve published several videos to the FPPad YouTube channel, including longer discussions with RIA in a Box and Snappy Kraken that include product walkthroughs. Subscribe to the FPPad YouTube channel AND click the bell icon to receive notifications when new videos are posted. Arguably that’s the easiest way to see what gets published, as I don’t always follow up with an update via email or even a new post to the FPPad blog.

Generally, I’ve been posting regularly to Twitter, including links to insightful interviews, previews of the #FuseUtah hackathon coming in September, and a new savings account startup that might, just might, pay 2-4% interest on your cash (pending a planned release in October, which you should know, is more like a guideline than a definitive date).

But in case you’re wondering, the answer is yes, I’m still focused on covering companies, trends, and issues in financial adviser technology, but the volume and frequency of my content has trailed off over the last six months.

Here are three main reasons why.

First, I took on several retainer engagements in H1 2017 to create marketing materials for social media channels for several companies including Morningstar and Redtail Technologies. Here’s some Morningstar promotional material we produced and here’s what we’re working on with Redtail: http://www.wheredoyouredtail.com/ (and when I write we, I mean Steve Biermann and I). As I created more video content personally and for FPPad (I have something like 400 videos on that channel), I discovered that 1) I liked the creative process, and 2) I’m actually pretty good at creating compelling videos, and 3) more companies want to increase their footprint in the online and social content marketplace to promote their brand and communicate their story.

Second, I took all of June and half of July off to go on a 32-day trip to Yellowstone and back with my family, and I decided to make a daily vlog of the trip. In my 39 years I’ve never been to that part of the country, and I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to take it all in for a month and at the same time capture each day’s moments in a permanent family movie.

And finally, I’ve taken advantage of the slow summer to figure out more scalable ways to continue to add value to the thousands of you who have subscribed to FPPad without overwhelming too many of you with a barrage of disparate pseudo-content updates. I don’t quite have the answer of what format(s) that will take in the near future, but I do know that I’m not giving up on fintech or the importance of the financial advice you deliver to clients.

There are still millions of Americans who aren’t getting the financial advice from which they can benefit tremendously, and I firmly believe that the application of financial technology can increase access to financial advice at a price most Americans can afford.

So if you have comments or suggestions on what would benefit you as a subscriber, or if you just want to offer words of support, hit me up on Twitter or email me at bill@fppad.com

Thank you!

The Financial Advisor Technology Landscape: March 2017

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in Technology

Curious which companies make up the financial advisor technology landscape? Then have I got a chart for you!

Click the image below to view in full high definition!

Want to be among the first to receive information like this?

Then subscribe to my free email list right now.

Betterment introduces Plus and Premium hybrid advice plans featuring in-house CFP® professionals

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in Technology

The lede!

Betterment adjusts its default fee structure to 25 basis points for accounts of all sizes for what is now called Betterment Digital (the 35bps, 25bps, and 15bps tiers are gone)
Betterment customers who formerly qualified for the 15 basis point tier will see their fees increase 67% to 25 basis points. Some customers are not pleased
New Plus and Premium plans are offered that introduce hybrid advice engagements from human advisers for an additional fee
Betterment Plus includes an annual planning call with the in-house adviser team and support via email. Betterment Plus pricing is 40 basis points and requires a $100,000 account minimum
Betterment Premium include unlimited contact with the in-house adviser team via phone and email. Betterment Premium pricing is 50 basis points and requires a $250,000 account minimum
All Betterment plan fees are capped, charged only on the first $2 million of a customer’s balance.
Betterment is introducing the Betterment Advisor Network™, launching with roughly ten advisers who have complete the Betterment vetting process, all of whom must hold the CFP® certification
There is no fee to be included in the adviser referral network
Betterment receives no referral fees for directing customers to any specific adviser in the referral network
Customers who work with an adviser in the Betterment referral network pay a fee of 25 basis points on their assets in their Betterment account. The adviser can set an additional fee on top of Betterment’s fee for services provided

Betterment introduces hybrid advice plans with access to in-house CFP® professionals

Betterment announced today that the company will introduce hybrid advice offering with access to an in-house team of financial advisers.

For the full details from Betterment, see the post below from the Betterment website:

https://www.betterment.com/resources/inside-betterment/product-news/smart-technology-licensed-financial-experts-cfp-professionals/

Fee Fallout

One unfortunate consequence of the new 25 basis point pricing structure is the elimination of the 15 basis point tier that formerly applied to accounts over $100,000.

Reaction on Twitter was swift, as these customers will see their fees increase by roughly 67%.

@Betterment that's an awfully long email i just got just to say you're raising your fees from 0.15% to 0.25% 🙁

— Ian Dees (@iandees) January 31, 2017

This is kick in the face to customers that were saving aggressively to reach the lowest cost .15% management fee.

— Mylo Carditis (@rjpedigo) January 31, 2017

Fee Parity Between Retail and Advisor Platforms

Despite the frustration of customers who formerly qualified for the 15 basis point tier, Betterment Digital’s pricing establishes parity with the pricing offered in the Betterment for Advisors (formerly Betterment Institutional) service.

Since the Betterment for Advisors introduction, I had been critical of the conflict the different pricing tiers presented for advisors who chose to implement Betterment for Advisors for their clients.

I often questioned how an adviser could meet his or her fiduciary obligation to clients with over $100,000 in assets, as that client would pay fees of 15 basis points using a “retail” Betterment account, where a minimum fee of 25 basis points would be charged on a Betterment for Advisors account, for asset management services that I felt were essentially equivalent.

Today, that fee disparity, and the fiduciary quandary, is eliminated, but at the expense of raising fees for customers who qualified for the former 15 basis point tier.

Betterment undercuts Personal Capital

One other observation is Betterment Premium now enters the competitive hybrid advice market, a space dominated by Vanguard Personal Advisor Services, that is also occupied by Personal Capital and the Schwab Intelligent Advisory offering scheduled to debut sometime in the first half of 2017.

Betterment Premium is more expensive than the 30 basis point fee Vanguard Personal Advisor Services and the 28 basis point fee from the upcoming Schwab Intelligent Advisory, but at 50 basis points, the service undercuts Personal Capital’s current 89 basis point pricing.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 27, 2017

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

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CFPB Requests for Information: Consumer Access to Financial Records:
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=CFPB-2016-0048-0001

This week’s update starts with a quiet, yet noteworthy escalation in the battle for access to consumer financial data collected by many of the account aggregation companies, as eight of them announced a new coalition called the Consumer Financial Data Rights industry group.

Who’s part of this group? Names that should be familiar are Envestnet | Yodlee, Betterment, and Personal Capital, with less-familiar B2C startups Affirm, Digit, Kabbage, Ripple, and Varo Money rounding out the list.

See, back in November 2015, large banks like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America “throttled” access to customer account data by account aggregation services that ultimately ended up on sites like Mint.com, Personal Capital and others, causing users of those services to have inaccurate information on their account transactions and investment holdings.

The banks acknowledged the throttling, saying they did it out of concerns for account security and to protecting customer data. Oh really?

Because by my research, account aggregation has been around for the better part of 28 years. How many known security breaches have been reported by the account aggregators? Zero.

So now all of a sudden the banks are concerned about security?

Obviously, there is some tension here, and I’m sympathetic to both sides.

And the tension is significant enough that even the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken interest in the issue.

So here’s what I want you do to. When you’re done listening to, or reading, this week’s update, go to fppad.com/204 where I have links for this week’s stories, and at the top I’m going to link to the CFPB’s request for information about the use of account aggregation services.

If you’re using account aggregation to enhance the advice you give to your clients, or even just to see a comprehensive picture of their net worth, consider adding your comments on the rights you feel consumers should have to give permission to third-party aggregators in order to access their data.

Because if you don’t take the opportunity add your two cents, you can’t complain about what happens with the future of account aggregation.

I’m going to stay on the topic of account aggregation with the next story, because I find it interesting that this week JPMorgan Chase just announced its own agreement with Intuit to offer client account data access through an API.

So what’s different about this API? With most of the existing aggregators, a Chase customer would have to enter their username and password into account aggregation which would then go out and log in to the Chase servers, usually overnight when it’s not very busy, and pull in the account transactions. This new API, however, allows Chase customers to grant access to Intuit right within their Chase account. They don’t need to give their username and password to Intuit.

That’s great if customers who want aggregation operate within the Chase and Intuit ecosystem, but where I live in the real world, accounts are held all over the place.

I’m concerned that Chase will start reducing account access to aggregators like Envestnet|Yodlee, Fiserv’s CashEdge, and maybe even eMoney and force them to program to this new API. Now if the new API doesn’t cost anything, it’s probably a good thing, and certainly helps protect the security of a customer’s username and password, but if Chase starts charging a fee for access to this new API, well, that starts to get a bit political.

And another unknown is how Finicity may or may not be affected by this, because if you recall, Intuit said it was shutting down support for its account aggregation APIs and transitioned sales and support entirely over to Finicity. If a Chase client enables the API for Intuit, does that mean the Chase account data will be available through the Finicity relationship as well?

If *you* happen know the answer, let me know, and I’ll post a follow up and keep you in the loop.

So why spend all this time on account aggregation? I’m glad you asked! It’s because I continue to see strong demand for account aggregation services, with one example just this week where Wealth Access, operating out of Nashville, TN, announced that it now has $41 billion in assets tracked on its platform from 130 wealth management organizations, with both figures up over 50% from this time last year.

And in an email I received from Personal Capital, they’ve now crossed over $300 billion in assets that are tracked with their digital tools, of course, all powered by account aggregation.

And with the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, even with it’s fate in jeopardy, the momentum is already growing where advisors may need to use account aggregation to get the full picture of how a client’s existing portfolio is allocated BEFORE making a recommendation on how to make changes in a new portfolio.

How can you do that?

Unless you want to gather reams of paper statements from clients, the answer is account aggregation.

I’ve linked to all of the stories mentioned in this week’s broadcast over on my website, so be sure to check them out over at fppad.com/204

And next week I’ll be attending the TD Ameritrade Institutional National LINC conference along with my executive producer Steve Biermann, so if you’ll be at that event, be sure to stop me in the hallways and say hello.

And that wraps up this week’s broadcast on the best in advisor technology and more. If you have something to say, or have a story you think should be featured in a future episode, please send me a tweet on Twitter, I’m @billwinterberg, or if you’re not already receiving my email newsletter, you can sign up at fppad.com/subscribe

Thank you so much for listening, I’m Bill Winterberg, see you next time.

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