Ok, now I’ll really be on a temporary hiatus from blogging. I’ll be updating more frequently once my schedule returns to normal (will that ever happen?!?).
My wife and I welcomed our new baby boy into the world on March 28, 2009 at 11:23 AM. Enjoy the photos below:
Posted with QuickPress:As I mentioned earlier this month, I’m training new staff and giving several presentations to professional organizations. As such, blog updating has taken a back seat. I plan to be back in April with insight on TWR performance reporting flaws, custodian captivity concerns involving custom tools, and a review of Smarsh’s recently unveiled CRM.
Until then, you can follow my micro updates on Twitter.
Thank you to Financial Advisor Magazine for featuring this post on LinkedIn and SEC compliance. If you’re new to FPPad, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or subscribing by Email.
I’m going to open up a topic that has the potential to create a bit of controversy. Here’s my bold statement:
Investment advisers registered under the SEC who use the “Recommendations” feature of LinkedIn.com may be in violation of Rule 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
I’ve discussed this topic with several members of my local financial planning community, including investment adviser litigation defense attorneys. More recently the topic has come up in discussions with other professionals I have connected with through Twitter, including Susan Weiner, CFA and Kristen Luke.
Investment Adviser Rules
I’m busy working on the final slides for a presentation I’m delivering to the Mid-Oregon chapter of the FPA on Tuesday, March 17. Lunch is served at 12:30PM, the first speaker begins at 1:00PM, and my session begins after 2:00PM. I’ve been asked to provide an overview of the CRM software market (not a small task!) and also provide easy productivity tips that can help financial advisers get the most out of each workday.
If you’re in the local vicinity, I encourage you to sign up for what I hope will be a very informative presentation.
Click here to visit the FPA of Mid-Oregon meeting page. Cost is just $55 for FPA members, $65 for all others.
Pre-registration (at least 24 hours in advance) is strongly advised for all chapter meetings. To pre-register contact the Chapter Executive Director, Linda Barba at (541) 284-9855. Please leave your name, membership status, sessions attending, and number of guests.
I highlight two webinars to be held on March 6 to help advisers survive the economic crisis. View this vlog entry on YouTube.
If the title of this post seems familiar, that’s because I took artistic license and modified Tim Ferriss’ original title to the Four Hour Work Week, Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit.
I do blog for fun, but I don’t blog for profit. Note that there are zero ads from Google or any other type of marketing on FPPad.
Since it’s a pastime of mine, sometimes blogging takes a back seat to the other priorities that consume my day. Since I’m deep into staff training, managing trading in volatile markets, and preparing several presentations to advisers on technology and social media, I’m going to highlight some of the more popular FPPad posts that have been drawing a lot of traffic in the event you’ve missed them.
And I’ll return with new content that I have in process soon.
The Technology Tools for Today Conference (T3) kicks off today at the Dallas InterContinental Hotel in Addison, TX. Due to scheduling conflicts, I’m not able to attend, but I will be able to stay on top of the action at the conference through blogs and people I follow on Twitter.
Here are some useful links to keep up to date on T3 events.
Blogs
This is my first in-depth review of an application targeted for financial advisers. Please post your comments on things like image quality, layout, and descriptions to help me improve the review process.
After exchanging several tweets with Bradd Delmuto (@bdelmuto), I attended a demonstration of AdviceAmerica, Inc.’s new ClientVision CRM utility. Bradd was very helpful in coordinating a live demo with Gary Kinghorn, director of product management for AdviceAmerica. Gary walked me through many of the features of this new program that I’ll share with you below.
First, some background. AdviceAmerica has been around since 1999 and financial advisers may recognize the company for its AdvisorVision product, a web-based financial planning software tool now in its 7th major release. For more on the company’s AdvisorVision offering, read Joel Bruckenstein’s review in the November 2006 edition of Financial Advisor Magazine.
Update: AdvisorVision 7.0 was reviewed in July 2009 by Joel Bruckenstein in this Morningstar Advisor article.
Do Advisers Need Another CRM?
The Internet community (including the Twitter population) is buzzing about the latest Terms of Service posted by Facebook this week regarding the company’s unrestricted rights to use any content posted on their site. This resulted in significant backlash from irate users, whereupon Facebook promptly revised the terms. For more details, read:
PC World: Facebook Owns Your Business Data
CNN: Expert: Social networkers risk ‘losing control’ of privacy
AP: Facebook backtracks on terms of use after protests
There’s a lesson in this story for financial advisers. Yes, you can prevent client backlash by polling them ahead of implementing new policies. This principle also applies to vendors to the financial services industry.
Attention! There’s still time to register for the FPA of Oregon & SW Washington’s 2009 Mid Winter Conference in Vancouver, WA. Sessions begin Tuesday morning, February 10, at 8:00AM.
Coming to the conference? You won’t be able to miss me: I’ll be making many of the speaker introductions and other announcements. Catch me during breaks and say hello!
On with today’s post.
I’m a technology guy and not really a marketing guy, so allow me to refer an excellent blogger on marketing strategies for independent financial planners and investment advisers that frequent FPPad.com
Go visit Kristen Luke’s blog and add her RSS feed to your reader. Don’t have a reader? Use Google Reader, or you can always subscribe to email updates for most content, including Kristen’s.
