My June column for Morningstar Advisor is now available!
This month I tackle the issue of the constant back-and-forth messaging in which advisors often engage to schedule meetings with clients and colleagues. There is a better way!
Click here to read “A Simpler Way to Schedule Meetings” at Morningstar Advisor.
This article was originally posted on April 29, 2010 to advisors4advisors.com, a practice management website for independent financial advisers. For continuously updated news, information, and commentary relevant to financial advisors, sign up today.
Last week, CBS News released an investigative report that revealed how documents with private information were accessed from the hard drives of used photocopiers.
Compromised data included internal documents from the sex crimes division of law enforcement, payroll information, and health and medical records.
Long-time subscribers to FPPad my remember my review of ClientVision CRM from AdviceAmerica of Fremont, Calif. back in February 2009.
Earlier today I received an alert that Fiserv, Inc., a financial services technology solution provider, announced its acquisition of AdviceAmerica and will add the company to its Investment Services unit.
Click here to read the press release from Fiserv.
Overall, I liked ClientVision for its simpler user interface and easy learning curve. After all, ClientVision integrated inside Microsoft Outlook, so if advisors know how to navigate Outlook, they can navigate ClientVision.
The press release didn’t mention ClientVision specifically, but I assume that the CRM will continue to be supported under Fiserv’s management.
Let’s hope that the folks managing ClientVision can throw in that global search feature that I talked about in my review. That combined with the low price point would make a capable entry-level CRM for many advisers.
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Two technology vendors that have been featured on FPPad before, ByAllAccounts and Tamarac, today announced a partnership to add ByAllAccounts’ account aggregation capabilities to the Tamarac Advisor® integrated portfolio platform.
Click here to read the press release ByAllAccounts and Tamarac Deliver All-in-one Platform for Financial Advisors to Streamline Operations and Workflow.
FPPad has followed the story of Matthew Weitzman beginning in April 2009 when charges of “certain irregularities in a limited number of client accounts” were brought against him.
See our previous entries:
According to Ron Leiber at the New York Times (Ron and his family were former clients of Weitzman), Weitzman was sentenced to 97 months in prison yesterday.
Click here to read the entry in the New York Times Bucks blog.
Again, I can only stress how important it is to have clearly defined processes as to how your firm fights fraud. Take the opportunity to tell clients what you do and how you keep staff responsible for the safeguarding of client assets. A dose of proactive communication can go a long way when so many stories are being published about advisers accused of stealing from their clients.
Going paperless doesn’t always guarantee success. I almost learned this the hard way when I nearly missed my return flight from Denver last Sunday.
As I checked in for my flight from Denver to DFW, I thought I would be environmentally conscious and use an electronic boarding pass on my iPad. I checked in online with my carrier and easily saved the boarding pass image to my iPad.
When I arrived at the airport, I waited in the security line for about 20 minutes only to find out that TSA was having no success reading electronic boarding passes from my carrier. TSA said I had to get a paper boarding pass and go back through security. Only at 6:30pm on a Sunday evening, the check in counter was closed and the kiosk wouldn’t reprint paper passes for flights departing in 45 minutes or less!
I ended up running down to baggage claim, found an employee, and received a paper boarding pass. I ran back to security, ran to my gate, all the while hearing my name over the airport paging system with the dreaded words “final boarding call…” I made my flight with just 2 minutes to spare.
I’m flying to Colorado tomorrow morning to connect with the FPA® NexGen community in Estes Park. This will be my third NexGen conference out of the last five (I seem to attend in every even-numbered year).
I look forward to reconnecting with many of my peers and making new friendships with other young advocates of the financial planning profession.
I don’t expect to have widespread Wifi coverage, so there won’t be much live-tweeting from the conference. Still I hope to return and present some of the important discussion topics and takeaways from the meeting of young and motivated advisers in the profession.
[Image credit: elgringospain]
I’m excited to announce to FPPad subscribers that I am now contributing a monthly technology column for MorningstarAdvisor.
Click here to read my debut column, An Alternate Spin on Account Aggregation.
The success of the column depends on you, so if you find the information of value, please share it with your colleagues. Also, leave a comment (if permitted by your compliance department!) to let me know how relevant the information is to your practice or if I’m completely nuts about a particular piece of technology.
Finally, some of my best contributions come from conversations and tips from advisors like you. So if you have a technology you’d like reviewed or best practices that need highlighting, contact me.
Email bill [at] fppad [dot] com or send me a @reply message on Twitter.
Thank you for your support, and thank you to MorningstarAdvisor for the wonderful opportunity!
Update: Brooke Southall and his team at RIABiz posted an article today discussing the partnership in more detail. Read it by clicking here.
Another custodian has formed a partnership to increase its technology offerings to affiliated advisers.
Shareholders Service Group (SSG) of San Diego, Calif. announced today that it is partnering with Black Diamond Performance Reporting of Jacksonville, Fla. to deliver its industry leading, web-based portfolio management and reporting system through the SSG platform.
Click here to view the press release for the Black Diamond and SSG partnership (Yahoo! News).
I joined a fantastic team at Revenue Architects to deliver a series of financial adviser webcasts to help advisers accelerate their online presence.
Revenue Architects is an expert network of independent marketing, sales, and technology professionals aligned to support the diverse needs for adviser revenue performance. All the details of Revenue Architects can be viewed on their website, http://www.revenuearchitects.com/
I’m presenting the Guide to Going Digital webcast with John Stone, CEO of Revenue Architects, on Tuesday, June 08, 2010 from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (ET). The webcast details can be viewed here: http://www.revenuearchitects.com/events-and-webcasts/
FPPad readers are eligible for a 10% discount off the webcast registration. Enter the code FPPadDigital to receive your discount. The code is valid for all four of the events in the Financial Adviser Webcast series.
I hope you consider joining the webcast if you’re serious about growing your presence in the rapidly evolving digital world.
