Yesterday we mentioned the first of two posts on ByAllAccounts’ blog regarding the growing need for account aggregation (see Why Account Aggregation Is the Way To Go Now)
Today, part two is now available titled Another Reason to Adopt Account Aggregation. This post covers the rise in self-directed employer-sponsored retirement plans and how their growth can put a strain on a back-office’s manual data collection process.
Please click here to read Another Reason to Adopt Account Aggregation.
ByAllAccounts, one of the leading reconciliation-ready account aggregation providers to financial advisers, recently launched a blog on their website. They’ve posted some excellent behind-the-scenes information in addition to insightful guest posts.
We recently provided a guest post of our own that will appear in a two-part series. Part one, Why Account Aggregation Is the Way To Go Now, is now available and addresses the potential rise of held-away accounts due to proposed auto-enrollment legislation for employer-sponsored retirement plans.
Please click here to read Why Account Aggregation Is the Way To Go Now.
We love speaking with advisors about tools and resources they can use to save time and be more productive.
One set of tools that come up frequently are voice-to-text and dictation services. In fact, adopting dictation services is Tip #3 in our eBook on productivity tips for advisors (see below how you can get the eBook for free).
So you want to try and dictate client meeting notes, but don’t yet know what service to use. Or perhaps you identified a service, but the trial period is too short or the recording length is too limited to gain any useful experience.
We’ve teamed up with Mobile Assistant, one of the leading transcription services with a history of serving financial and medical professionals, to give FPPad subscribers free, unlimited use of the service for 30 days. Mobile Assistant’s standard trial is 20 minutes of dictation, so you can get 20,000 times more use out of the service through this offer!
Here’s what you need to do to get the free trial.
1. You must be an FPPad subscriber to receive the free trial. Subscribing to the FPPad newsletter is free.
2. Mobile Assistant will create accounts using your subscription information. An invitation will be sent out to the e-mail address provided with a welcome message and a user guide within about 24 hours.
3. Activate your account and do as much dictation as you like for 30 days.
4. At the end of the 30 day trial, you’ll receive a link to a short survey requesting your feedback on the dictation service.
5. After completing the survey, you’ll receive a coupon code for a discounted subscription to Mobile Assistant should you wish to continue using the service.
[Sign up expired]
In the wake of last week’s Schwab IMPACT conference, we experienced a lull in technology-related news for financial advisors.
So zip through this week’s stories of interest and then get outside and enjoy the fall weather.
Making Technology Work For You from Financial-Planning.com
Smarter use of existing technology, as well as integration of emerging technology, may boost efficiency and profitability for advisors.
And in case you haven’t seen it yet, read my Practices column in the November Journal of Financial Planning titled Efficiently Monitor Client Cash Flow.
The November issue of the Journal of Financial Planning is now available online.
The theme of this month’s issue is tax planning for uncertain times as well as year-end strategies. The issue also features my second column for the Journal discussing strategies advisers are employing to monitor cash flow, not only at year-end, but throughout the year.
Check out my Practices column, Efficiently Monitor Client Cash Flow.
As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. Your thoughts inspire new topics and discussion points that can be covered in more detail in future columns.
Happy Halloween! This week’s edition of Bits and Bytes is full of all treats and no tricks.
Here are this week’s feature stories:
At Schwab IMPACT 2010, Charles Schwab Advisor Services selected the first Intelligent Integration partners. Here’s coverage from the web:
Junxure, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics Are The First Schwab Intelligent Integration Partners from FPPad.com,
Schwab Looks To Integrate Registered Independent Advisers’ Tech Systems from WSJ.com, and
Schwab chooses some giant software partners, apparently with big RIAs in mind from RIABiz.com
Thanks to our sources on the ground (John Stone of Revenue Architects and Tim Welsh of Nexus Strategy) at Schwab IMPACT 2010, we now know the first Intelligent Integration partners announced by the company this morning.
Fidelity arms its RIAs for battle with white-glove brands from RIABiz.com
Fidelity WealthCentral for Family Offices integrates portfolio reporting and trading and allows a view of holdings including alternative assets. Services such as trust, partnership accounting, private foundation services and general ledger export services are included. Most important: it can provide an ultra-affluent client with a dedicated relationship management team and investment analyst/trader.
ByAllAccounts’ Survey Reveals the Top Reasons Financial Advisors Would Consider New Portfolio Management System from Marketwire.com
ByAllAccounts, Inc., the financial advisors’ choice for account aggregation, today announced survey results that show financial advisors are generally loyal to their portfolio management systems of record. Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents are somewhat or extremely unlikely to switch from their current system to a new one in 2011.
And finally, my blog post for October, Convert Business Card Info in a Snap, at MorningstarAdvisor.com
While attending a huge conference such as FPA Denver 2010 has many advantages, one minor drawback of connecting with so many new people is processing the large stack of business cards collected after returning home from the event.
Bill speaks to FPATelevision about the top three technology tips for financial advisers.
True to form, you can’t win if you don’t play.
We received seven entries into our Guess Schwab’s Intelligent Integration Partners, Win Free Coffee! contest. With two correct selections each (Junxure and Salesforce), Tim Welsh and “Joe” received two points and had their names entered into a hat.
I debated about allowing points for selecting Tamarac Advisor CRM; while it’s built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, I’m willing to bet that Tamarac’s customization of Dynamics makes it different enough that Schwab may not embrace it under their Intelligent Integration ecosystem. Our prediction: in the long run, Tamarac will succeed without needing Schwab’s Intelligent Integration partnership, and Schwab will serve advisers well with the three other CRM systems, so nobody really loses. Ultimately, no points were awarded for selecting Tamarac Advisor CRM.
On with the contest winner. Our impartial name-selector (my son Daniel) picked:
“Joe”
So Joe, check your e-mail to confirm your mailing address. You’ll be receiving your Starbucks gift card shortly!
And thank you to all of you who took a few seconds to add in your guesses. Look to FPPad in the future for some more fun, interactive speculation on the future of adviser technology.
Thanks to our sources on the ground (John Stone of Revenue Architects and Tim Welsh of Nexus Strategy) at Schwab IMPACT 2010, we now know the first Intelligent Integration partners announced by the company this morning.
Executive Vice President and Charles Schwab Advisor Services leader Bernie Clark announced the first CRM partners selected. They are:
UPDATE, 10:19AM EDT: Read Schwab’s press release from Marketwatch.com. And an odd observation; if Schwab is integrating with three CRMs, do they really need to partner with LaserApp to facilitate account form-filling? Why not integrate form-filling directly with the new Intelligent Integration partners? I suppose, though, that by supporting LaserApp, more CRM systems (e.g. Redtail, Goldmine, etc.) can be used to complete Schwab account applications, which helps everybody, but still supports a fractured, non-integrated ecosystem.
Last week we predicted Junxure, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Tamarac Advisor CRM would be among the selections. It seems redundant at first to have included Tamarac Advisor CRM, as it is built on top of Microsoft Dynamics, but in my opinion, Tamarac Advisor CRM is substantially different from MS Dynamics as Tamarac has customized Dynamics’ out-of-the-box functionality to include data and fields relevant to wealth managers and financial advisers.
Now for the next important question: Who won our free coffee giveaway for guessing the correct partners? There are several people who responded correctly with two of the three partners, so tonight we’ll have an official hat-drawing from those names and reveal the winner tomorrow (the impartial name-remover from the hat is at day care right now).
