Archive by Author

Bulk Trading, Tax Training, and Career Planning

Posted on December 9, 2008 by in General

Updates will be rather sparse for the rest of the week, both to FPPad and to Twitter.

Bulk Trading

So far for the week, I’ve coordinated a bulk trading effort at our firm to capture losses in taxable accounts where we can execute orders across the entire book of business.  We have multiple custodians, so I’ve had to build some flexibility in the trading techniques to ensure compatibility with the custodians’ preferences.  Still, we’ll be executing almost 20% of last year’s annual trading volume in just a day.  Not bad considering we don’t have the luxury of Tamarac or iRebal.

Tax Training

Read More…

Increase Adviser Productivity At Least 10%

Posted on December 9, 2008 by in Efficiency, Technology

Monday’s Wall Street Journal has a short column extolling the benefits of using multiple monitors on a computer.

The article, titled When More Is More by Michael Totty can be viewed by clicking here.

From the article:

Paccar has added multimonitor setups for material planners on its manufacturing lines, who have to manage demand for production parts using information on inventories inside and outside the company. Because of limited desk space and falling prices of displays, planners received two larger widescreen monitors instead of the three-screen setup in the call center. The ability to manage more rapidly changing information has produced a 10% to 20% boost in productivity, Mr. Quinn says.

Read More…

FPPad Turns 100!

Posted on December 8, 2008 by in General

Just a little over 10 months ago, I launched FPPad.com with the help a study group partner, Ben Gilbert.  Now here we are at 100 posts (hey, that’s a lot for one guy with a full time operations job and many outside interests!).

I must be honest: it’s challenging for me to make time to put together content for the blog.  More often than not, I try to provide some insight or thought-provoking questions when covering developments in the financial planning technology space.

I don’t have all the answers, but I try to offer solutions to problems that matter to a financial planner’s bottom line.  Hopefully you find FPPad to be a unique resource of technical and operations information on financial planning in the gigantic blogoshpere.  If so, be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Read More…

Get the Financial Planning 2008 Software Survey

Posted on December 4, 2008 by in Technology

Financial Planning magazine conducts an annual survey of its readers to gauge the different types of technology in use by financial planners and advisers.  2008 marks the second year of the survey, and Joel P. Bruckenstein published an overview of the results and a comparison to last year’s survey information.

Click here to view Bruckenstein’s review of Financial Planning’s 2008 Software Survey.

Here’s my 30-second take if you don’t have time to read the entire review:

Read More…

Financial Thrift from Andy Rooney

Posted on December 3, 2008 by in General

In case you missed it, here are some tips to be thrifty from the master of thrift, Andy Rooney.

I don’t imagine advisers would consider giving these tips to clients that may need to reduce their spending habits.  I guess there’s more than one way to ensure a portfolio isn’t spent down during retirement.

(Hat tip: JD Drake)

Free AdvisorMax Access for Advisers

Posted on December 2, 2008 by in Practice Management

AdvisorMax is now FREE for financial advisers!

Previously available through an annual subscription, AdvisorMax is an emerging online source for quality practice management articles as well as moderated discussion boards featuring a variety of subjects.

I’ve posted content several times to the Discussion Forums, but traffic to the forums fell off considerably since the summer (likely when the initial free 1-year subscriptions expired).  Hopefully traffic will return to the site now that there is no subscription fee for access to content.

Read More…

Can PersonalRIA Service the Middle-Market?

Posted on December 2, 2008 by in Software

Personal RI

I stumbled across a company called PersonalRIA back in September.  I found it through the TechCrunch50 Conference, a venue created where the best start-ups launch their ideas and proposals in front of the industry’s most influential VCs, corporations, fellow entrepreneurs and press.  Coincidentally, TechCrunch50 is where I learned about DropBox, the completely awesome and innovative file backup, sync, and sharing platform that I use all the time.

For more on TechCrunch50, visit their website:  http://www.techcrunch50.com

Below is the presentation of the PersonalRIA platform presented at TechCrunch50.

Read More…

Top Posts at FPPad for November 2008

Posted on December 1, 2008 by in General

With nearly 100 posts online at FPPad.com since its debut on January 28, 2008, I want to begin sharing the top monthly posts according to traffic reported by Google Analytics.

“The Wall Street Journal has a good article titled Feds Rethink Rules on Retirement Savings that discusses proposed changes Congress (or the Treasury, who knows?) may make to minimum required distribution laws for qualified and individual retirement accounts.”

“Finally, after many years of preparation, studying, and experience, I can now call myself a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certificant!”

“Here’s my not-so-bold prediction for challenging times: In less than 5 years, AUM fees will no longer be the main compensation mechanism for independent registered investment advisory firms.”

Once I hit 100 posts on FPPad, I’ll provide a top ten list of the most popular content over the last ten months.

What are Morningstar’s Plans for dbCAMS?

Posted on November 26, 2008 by in Portfolio Management Software

cams.jpgOur firm uses dbCAMS for a variety of portfolio management procedures, including daily account reconciliation, rebalancing, and quarterly reporting.  The creators of dbCAMS, Financial Computer Support, Inc. (FCSI), was recently acquired by Morningstar.  Morningstar purchased FCSI and its dbCAMS product to enhance the company’s visibility in advisers’ day-to-day management of client portfolios.

Not much mention has been made about Morningstar’s plans for dbCAMS, but I recently came across the Fall issue of Morningstar Advisor that sheds some light on their plans.

Read More…

No Time For Lengthy Descriptions? See the Crisis Flowchart

Posted on November 25, 2008 by in Professional Development

crisisFrom the great folks over at FiLife:

The speed and severity at which the current economic crisis spread caught many advisers off-guard.  In addition to managing and advising clients today, advisers want to look back at the significant factors that precipitated the event.

Unfortunately, most of the descriptions of the events leading up to the crisis are complicated and verbose.  Have you seen Michael Kitces’ extensive research he published on credit crisis?  It’s fantastic work, arguably award-winning work!  But what if you want the information in an easy to swallow pill?

Read More…