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Whose Behavior Needs to Change: Advisers or Clients?

Posted on November 17, 2009 by in Professional Development

Marion Asnes, editor in Chief of Financial Planning magazine, is tweeting live from this week’s Financial Behavior in Retirement Summit in Philadelphia, PA.

If you’re like me, you had no clue this summit was underway this week. This is a shame, as judging from Marion’s tweets and the agenda for the remainder of the summit, Financial Behavior in Retirement looks to be an outstanding conference. Just take a glance at a short list of who is presenting:

  • David E. Adler
  • Karen Schaeffer, CPA, CFP®
  • Susan Bradley
  • Deena Katz, CFP®
  • Harold Evensky, CFP®

So here’s a quick peek at the tweets sent over the course of Monday’s sessions. Most have been tagged with #FBR2009 (I’ve edited them for legibility):

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Awesome iPhone Apps As Told to David Pogue

Posted on November 15, 2009 by in Technology

Here’s a quick integration of Twitter and Wordle on how the services can be combined to gain insight on a topic very quickly. I’ve written about Wordle before; it’s a web-based tool to create word clouds from text.

Earlier today, technology columnist David Pogue asked the following question on Twitter:

Lots of replies came in, so it’s difficult to determine which apps are the most recommended among those that replied.

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Dropbox Featured in Forbes; Tools Should “Just Work”

Posted on November 1, 2009 by in Software, Technology

Last week I wrote about how the Dropbox service prevented minor embarrassment when my presentation slides weren’t loaded on the presentation laptop.

I finally got around to reading the October edition of Forbes magazine and saw Lee Gomes’ Digital Tools column.

Click here to read Forget Disruption. Dive Deep Instead on Forbes.com.

The point of the column is how Dropbox programmers worked extremely hard to tackle some very difficult code, yet the result is a simple and elegant program that just works. Once you “get” the concept of Dropbox and start using it, you wonder how you ever lived without it.

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A Real Life Example of Productivity Tips in Action

Posted on October 25, 2009 by in Software, Technology

I just returned from presenting at the SRI in the Rockies 2009 pre-conference event hosted for members of the First Affirmative Financial Network. I presented two breakout sessions for the group, one on using CRM systems to enhance relationship continuity with clients and one on increasing adviser productivity.

One of the tools I recommend in my productivity presentation is a service from Dropbox. Dropbox is a utility that synchronizes all files stored in the Dropbox folder on a computer with any of your other computers where the software is installed. It also has a web interface to browse, view, and download the files stored in the folder. The first 2GB of data stored on Dropbox is free; additional storage is available for a nominal fee.

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FINRA Beating SEC on Social Networking Guidelines

Posted on October 21, 2009 by in Compliance

Like them or not, FINRA is getting the jump on the SEC over issuing guidelines to registered representatives regarding the use of social networking.

FINRA is offering a compliance webinar on December 16, 2009 to cover “compliance and regulatory considerations when using social networking sites to communicate firm business.”

Why FINRA decided to charge $50 for members and $100 for non-members is beyond me. I would think they would want to make this information free to increase compliance with the guidelines set by FINRA. I digress.

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What’s the Latest Version of Junxure?

Posted on October 16, 2009 by in Software

So I’m reviewing my messages in GMail this evening and happened to glance over at the Google AdWords. In the top spot is an ad for Junxure CRM and boasts how “Version 7 Rocks!” (the mixed use of upper and lower case is interesting, too)

Isn’t Junxure on version 8 now?

ProTracker Software Announces Updates to Two Utilities

Posted on October 16, 2009 by in Software

ProTracker Software Inc., the makers of ProTracker Advantage, announced an update to its resident CRM system (i.e. not SaaS or cloud service) as well as a new version of its Compliance Manual.

Full coverage of the releases is provided by Davis Janowski at Investment News.

ProTracker Advantage is a CRM system originally developed by Warren J. Mackensen, a fee-only planner in Hampton, N.H., for use in financial planning and wealth management firms.

In my opinion, ProTracker is a suitable CRM solution for advisers who seek a system with a lower learning curve than competitors and one that is not hosted over the Internet (and subject to service interruptions and less-than-realtime performance). Although one drawback of locally-installed programs is that someone must perform the update to the latest version!

Monitoring the FPA Anaheim 2009 Conference Twitter Backchannel

Posted on October 11, 2009 by in General

The FPA Anaheim 2009 conference is underway, and while I am unable to attend this year (something about watching my son while my wife takes the pediatric board exam) I can still glean some good information while monitoring the backchannel on Twitter.

First, most (but not all) tweets from conference attendees contain the hashtag #fpa2009. The hashtag present in the tweet allows Twitter Search to easily find tagged messages and display them all at once.

Since not all attendees are tagging tweets with #fpa2009, I’m providing a list of people that have been posting conference related messages. If I had more time, I’d make an  icon to allow Twitter users to follow these individuals in one click, but I have to change some dirty diapers.

For now, here’s the list (in order of my personal rating of quality/quantity tweets):

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CRM Provider E-Z Data Acquired by Ebix Inc.

Posted on October 1, 2009 by in Software

E-Z Data, the provider of SmartOffice, a web-based CRM solution for financial services, was acquired by Ebix, Inc. today for $50.35 million. The acquisition will enhance the company’s existing EbixExchange platform to include E-Z Data’s robust CRM product.

Read the full press release on the Ebix Inc. website and read E-Z Data’s statement to SmartOffice customers on its website.