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FPPad’s best moments (i.e. outtakes) of 2015

Posted on December 30, 2015 by in General

As 2015 comes to a close, I want to take a moment to thank you for spending a few minutes each week watching my videos.

I hope that you feel informed about the constant change in financial advisor technology, you’ve made a few decisions to implement technology in your business, and that you have laughed a time or two.

I take what I do seriously and try to deliver the best technology news and information for you, but I don’t take myself so seriously.

I love what I do, and I know that my passion for what you do (giving sound financial advice to your clients) comes through in each video I make.

Special thanks go to my Executive Producer Steve Biermann, who has been my right-hand man in content production throughout 2015. Something special happens when the two of us put our heads together, and again, I think that shows in the content we create.

So here’s to 2015; we did a ton of work.

2016, you are officially on notice!

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Between Sessions with FolioDynamix at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Joseph Mrak, Chairman & CEO of FolioDynamix, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

Over 80,000 advisors use the FolioDynamix platform which includes functionality for prospecting, account opening and ongoing account maintenance.

FolioDynamix also offers Fix SingleSight, an all in one platform for advisor and home office investment management.

Mrak used his presentation time to address the threats and opportunities posed by robo advisors in the wealth management industry.

“I’ve got nothing against robos,” Mrak said, “I just don’t find them all that novel,” and added that he was closely following the growth of such servives, citing this Economist article on disappointing growth at the largest automated investment services today.

 

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Between Sessions with Vanare at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Lex Sokolin, COO of Vanare, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

Sokolin asked the audience at T3 Enterprise to suspend disbelief and consider the emerging trends that have the potential to reinvent the wealth management industry.

Sokolin mentioned wearable computing, image recognition, natural language processing, digitization of money and securities (and the emergence of the blockchain), crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, and open-source software.

“But at the end of the day,” Sokolin advised, “you still need a real connection between an advisor and a client to yield meaningful change.”

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Between Sessions with Oranj at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with David Lyon, CEO at Oranj, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

Known for their vibrant orange shoes, Oranj is designed by advisors, for advisors (and they’re not afraid to say it!), to be the advisor’s digital practice manager that offers a client portal with secure messaging and a collaborative document vault built in.

Lyon said that Oranj was built to be an “Advisor+” solution, and while Oranj has robo-advisor-like features, the platform is not intended to completely replace the advisor. Rather, Lyon added, Oranj takes the existing activities of an advisor and adds systematization and scalability to those activities.

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Between Sessions with Junxure at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Robert DeFrancis, Director of Sales at Junxure, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what was discussed during Junxure’s general session presentation at the conference, delivered by Greg Friedman.

During his presentation, Friedman updated the audience that Junxure has surpassed 12,000 users and maintains a 98% client satisfaction rating and a client retention rate of 95%. One out of three of the InvestmentNews best practices award winners use Junxure CRM in their business.

Friedman took the opportunity to highlight several new features in Junxure, including a new opportunity dashboard to track client trends and deliver business analytics to the advisor. Junxure also released a client service monitor called Client First, which tracks changes in client activities and can trigger actions or alerts in the CRM as well as in integrated third-party solutions.

To tackle training opportunities, Junxure recently added built-in “eXpert” training resources directly into the CRM, allowing users to review contextually relevant guidance and training resources without leaving the CRM.

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Between Sessions with Salesforce at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Rohit Mahna, VP Financial Services Go To Market at Salesforce.com, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

During his keynote at the conference, Mahna offered a preview of Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, scheduled to be released for advisors in Q1 2016.

Mahna said that this completely rebuilt solution is intended to be a unified platform for all of an advisor’s data, though details of the various sources of data was not revealed.

Mahna also introduced AIG CIO Jim Clabby who provided examples of real-world applications of Salesforce.com in their producer environment of more than 6,000 representatives.

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Between Sessions with Advicent at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Pietro La Greca, Jr., Vice President of Corporate Development at Advicent Solutions, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

According to La Greca, Advicent Solutions is the largest provider of financial planning software in the world.

La Greca used his time in front of the podium to address the crisis of differentiation in the financial services industry, saying that roughly 60% of investors have difficulty distinguishing one advisor from the next.

Leading up to 2015, La Greca said that Advicent used to offer differentiation through customization, which lead to over 100 different versions of the Advicent Solutions platform. With so many different versions to manage, La Greca said that model is broken.

Instead, Advicent Solutions is embracing personalization through the release of its Narrator Suite, which has many capabilities including an advisor dashboard, mobile compatibility, lead generation and more.

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Between Sessions with eMoney Advisor at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Drew DiMarino, SVP of eMoney Advisor, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

After speculation about management changes and potential conflicts following Fidelity’s acquisition of eMoney, DiMarino used the opportunity to address the attendees and set the record straight.

“eMoney Advisor will remain an independent company. Period,” said DiMarino.

He added that the eMoney Advisor platform will continue to be accessible to non-Fidelity clients.

As of November 2015, roughly 75% of eMoney users have custodial relationships outside of Fidelity.

Another rumor DiMarino addressed is the sharing of investor information between eMoney and Fidelity.

DiMarino added, “eMoney has privacy laws against Fidelity accessing and using independent advisor data.”

After the sudden departure of eMoney founder Edmund Walters, DiMarino said that the company is currently searching for a successor CEO, and in the meantime is hiring more developers to deliver “a five-year roadmap in two years.”

On the product roadmap, DiMarino previewed a new client experience that he said will be launching in Q1 2016 that offers easy client onboarding and self registration options for investors.

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Between Sessions with MoneyGuidePro at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Bob Curtis, CEO of PIETech (providers of MoneyGuidePro software), between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

MoneyGuidePro conducted one of the most unconventional presentations at the T3 Enterprise Conference, inspired by sketches from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Curtis, dressed head to toe in medieval regalia, told the audience that the holy grail in financial services is that everyone needs and deserves a quality financial plan. But most people don’t have plans because they aren’t comfortable approaching financial advisors to create one.

“71% of people are scared of talking to a financial advisor,” said Curtis. “How did we do that?”

Instead, Curtis offered, consumers are turning to online resources to create their own plan without the assistance of a professional.

“Do you think anyone is afraid to go online at home & engage with a computer?” asked Curtis.

“It’s easy and fast. It’s not intimidating.”

To rethink the way advice and planning is delivered, Curtis told the audience that employees of financial enterprises should go through their own planning experience to get a better feel for it and rethink parts of the process that are confusing, problematic, or too intrusive.

That is one reason why Curtis announced that a new MoneyGuideClient experience is coming soon, where clients are in the driver’s seat when creating their plan, and not the financial professional.

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Between Sessions with Riskalyze at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Aaron Klein, CEO of Riskalyze, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

During his session, Klein identified that 52% of 20-29 year olds do not identify themselves as aggressive investors, which is in stark contrast to the assumption that the majority of younger investors generally have a higher tolerance for investment risk, as they have many more years to recover from short-term volatility. But it is these clients who sell at exactly the wrong time because they are invested too aggressively relative to their personal risk tolerance.

At T3 Enterprise 2015, Klein introduced the The Real-Time Wealth Management Enterprise platform, which can be deployed by financial enterprises in under 75 days. The Real-Time Wealth Management Enterprise™ is a combination of Riskalyze, Autopilot, and Compliance Cloud for large firms & RIAs.

The Real-Time Wealth Management Enterprise platform, according the Klein, allows enterprises to perform real fiduciary reviews for accounts large and small.

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