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FPPad Bits and Bytes for October 19

Posted on October 19, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I enjoyed attending my first Tiburon CEO Summit earlier this week, and now am trying to catch up and a big backlog of videos and content to process.

In the meantime, here are this week’s best stories in financial planning technology:

HD Video Production Now Available Throughout North America from Wealth Management Marketing

[You’ve no doubt noticed much of the new video content here at FPPad. My YouTube channel is close to 7,000 total views and continues to grow. So it’s about time you consider adding video content for your own firm. My good friend Kristen Luke, owner of Wealth Management Marketing, now offers professional video production services throughout the country. Special discount to FPPad subscribers: if you use discount code VIDFP12, you’ll get $200 off your first 30 second video, $400 off a 60 second video and $600 off a 90 second video. Discount applies to the first video only, expiration 3/31/13.] Wealth Management Marketing introduces professionally produced HD videos optimized for TV, web and mobile viewing.

Addepar’s Software for the Super-Rich from BusinessWeek.com

[The generally secretive Addepar opens up a bit to the reporters at BusinessWeek (it’s ok Addepar, RIABiz and I understand…), but the few details disclosed sound a lot like what Orion Advisor Services and Private Client Resources currently do. Read for yourself.] Joe Lonsdale is also running a new company called Addepar that’s attempting to modernize the software that ultrawealthy families and foundations use to manage their billions. “I work 110-hour weeks,” he says. “I’m always investing and building things at the same time.”

FPPad Bits and Bytes for October 12

Posted on October 12, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Whew, I’ve been on the road almost the entire week. I still have two videos to edit from FPA Experience, plus a number of blog posts that are unfinished, but I’m still making time to cultivate the best news in financial planning technology from around the web.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Be sure to catch this month’s Morningstar Advisor column, Outsourcing Alternative Asset Aggregation and More

Total Rebalance Expert Integrates with Orion Advisor Services from PRNewswire.com

[Orion clients already had a portfolio reblanacer tool built in to the software, but it’s not nearly robust as a product like Total Rebalance Expert (TRX). TRX has a number of features that self-described “compulsive perfectionist CPA” Sheryl Rowling says can help a firm manage complex strategies and situations when it comes to rebalancing portfolios (see: Total Rebalance Expert CEO Sheryl Rowling on how rebalancing software saves advisers $325,000 per year).] Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) and Orion Advisor Services, LLC, announced today the availability of data integration between the two leading technology platforms for financial advisors. The new integration will enable advisors to automatically bring over Orion portfolio data into TRX to streamline and simplify the rebalancing process.

Informa Investment Solutions acquires Zephyr Associates from PRNewswire.com

[Zephyr has an interesting product portfolio including StyleADVISOR, a historical backtesting a risk analytics tool, and AllocationADVISOR, a forward-looking portfolio simulator. Joel Bruckenstien reviewed StyleADVISOR in August for Financial Planning (see: Software Helps Money Managers Detect Patterns)] Informa Investment Solutions (IIS), a division of Informa plc and a leading supplier of software and solutions for the investment industry, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zephyr Associates, Inc. (Zephyr). Zephyr will continue to operate as a business unit within IIS.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for October 5

Posted on October 5, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Yes, it’s October already. How are you faring on your new technology initiatives for 2012?

If you didn’t attend FPA Experience last week, you still can get a great recap of my Transformative Technology You Can Implement Today presentation from this WealthManagement.com update, From FPA 2012: Transformative Technology That Doesn’t Cost a Dime, and Financial Planning magazine’s story, What’s the Most Important Tech Tool for Advisors?

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Schwab and Salentica Announce Launch of Integration for Independent Investment Advisors from Schwab Advisor Services

[Here’s the history on Salentica’s integration with Schwab: in May 2012, they entered a beta testing, transitioned to a pilot phase in August (see FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 3), and is finally in production to advisers using Salentica’s Advisor Desk. How many advisers can that represent? In the 2011 Financial Planning magazine software survey, 4% of 3200 respondents, or roughly 120, said they use Microsoft Dynamics for CRM. So some smaller percentage of that 120 are probably using Salentica. My guess is it’s less than two dozen.] Schwab Intelligent Technologies and Salentica Inc. announced today that Salentica Advisor Desk™ with Schwab OpenView Gateway™ is available to independent investment advisors after a successful pilot. Advisors who use Salentica Advisor Desk as their client relationship management (CRM) solution can now view real-time information on their clients’ financial holdings within their CRM.

Smarsh Launches Archiving & Compliance for Salesforce Chatter on Salesforce.com’s AppExchange from Smarsh.com

[Smarsh is building off its summer success of releasing Web Archiving (see: Smarsh president Stephen Marsh addresses Pinterest and compliance), and now the archiving vendor captures messages sent through the enterprise communication platform Chatter from Salesforce.] Smarsh®, the managed service leader in secure, innovative and reliable email archiving compliance solutions, today announced it has launched Archiving & Compliance for Chatter on Salesforce.com’s AppExchange, the world’s most popular cloud marketplace for social apps for business. Archiving & Compliance for Chatter enables organizations to capture, preserve, search, supervise and produce organizations’ Chatter files and communications in support of compliance, recordkeeping and e-discovery initiatives.

Fox and Redtail partner on work flow from InvestmentNews.com

[Back in 2011 I reviewed the latest refresh of Redtail CRM for Morningstar (see: A Popular CRM Gets an Upgrade), and at that time the CRM supported basic step-by-step workflow definitions. In it’s latest partnership, Redtail users can now open PDF files of workflow designs published by Fox Financial Planning Network directly within the CRM. As to pricing, the top tier purchase is around $6,000 and includes full training sessions, workflow system, resource center and coaching, with a nominal monthly access fee thereafter. I’ve seen discounts available for AICPA PFP section members, so ask if you’re affiliated.] Fox Financial Planning Network and Redtail Technology Inc. this week plan to announce a technology integration that allows for “one-click” deployment of FFPN’s comprehensive “client service delivery work flows” onto Redtail’s popular customer relationship management platform.

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 28

Posted on September 28, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I’ve been on the road the entire week, but still stopped to build a list of best tech-related stories in the financial planning industry for you.

And don’t forget; if you’re attending FPA Experience this weekend, I’m presenting Transformative Technology You Can Implement Today on Sunday 9/30 at 11:15am in room 217 B-C on the Concourse Level of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. See you there!

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Putnam Launches Financial Advisor Blog from FA-Mag.com

[Kudos for the fund company for investing in the creation of technology content for advisers. The blog is largely made up of short 1-minute video walkthroughs, primarily showing off simple things to do on an iPad. One noteworthy video is the one on Dropbox; I’m surprised the video doesn’t include a disclaimer about checking with compliance before using Dropbox (or any similar app) to store files containing client information (see Dropbox for Financial Advisers: Is it Safe? Secure?).] Putnam Investments, which was recently voted to have the best website in the asset management industry for financial advisors by Kasina, is expanding its social media presence with a blog launched today to communicate with advisors.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 21

Posted on September 21, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I’m attending the final day of the Gemini Orion Advisor Forum 2012 today, so be sure to check the #GOAF12 hashtag on Twitter for the latest event updates.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Is Your Website Mobile? Three Do’s and Don’ts from Financial-Planning.com

[You have looked at your website with a tablet or smartphone recently, right? If not, you need to do it now and see if it’s at all user friendly. Just about 15% of all traffic to FPPad comes from mobile devices (80% of that is all from iPhones and iPads), so it’s more important than ever before to be mobile friendly.] It’s no secret that the rise of mobile devices has created one of the largest shifts in consumer behavior in the last 40 years.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 14

Posted on September 14, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

New Apps for the Mobile Financial Adviser from The Wall Street Journal

[Clearly, mobile devices and their software apps are changing the way you do business. Expect even more functionality and enhanced security, such as facial recognition or biometrics, for mobile devices in the coming years.] Smart gadgets packed with apps are changing the way financial advisers do business and relate to their clients. As more advisers snap up mobile devices like iPads, the investment firms they work with are offering up apps that let them do their jobs from a small screen.

Money management, Silicon Valley-style from Forbes

[Forbes managed to extract info from start-up Addepar that both RIABiz and I failed to get. Now we know Addepar charges 5 basis points on AUM, generates about $25 million in revenue, has 75 “lean” employees, and a sales force with connections to the ultra high net worth segment of the wealth management market.] Having made a small fortune in his twenties, Joe Lonsdale has set his sights on a new challenge: designing software for the ultrawealthy.

Personal Capital Unveils its Professionally Managed 401(k) from Finovate.com

[So who out there has 401(k) fee evaluator tools? Brightscope and FutureAdvisor do, and they’ve been mentioned here before. Now start-up RIA Personal Capital has one, too. Add this to their free mobile app, free peer-to-peer payment support, and free stock option analyzer, and you’ve got a robust offering of pipeline-filling marketing tools. Oh, and they now are selling “America’s BEST 401k” plan at http://www.personalcapital401k.com/ with management fees around 50 basis points.] Personal Capital will be demoing its free 401(k) fee calculator, which enables users to determine how much their 401(k) costs and what long-term fees they can expect to pay over time. The calculator has the potential to save investors hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.

Advent Adds Alternative Investments Solution to Black Diamond Platform from MarketWatch.com

[Alternative investments are gaining adoption among financial advisers. The challenge with them, though, is getting updated data populated in a portfolio management system like PortfolioCenter, AssetBook, and in this case, Advent. From the press release, it sounds like advisers have a way to perform bulk updates to alternative assets in Advent’s Black Diamond platform. If there were 30 hours in a day, I’d have specifics for you on how that actually takes place.] Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, today announced the launch of an alternative investments solution within the Black Diamond platform. The new functionality enables advisors and wealth managers to manage and report the details of their alternative investment holdings down to the transaction level allowing them to provide a more complete financial picture to their clients.

MarketCounsel Sells MailBanc Messaging Unit to Global Relay from AdvisorOne

[MarketCounsel’s MailBanc email archiving service was one I covered last year in a review of archiving providers for Morningstar (see Avoid E-mail Audit Headaches). Thursday MarketCounsel said it sold MailBanc to archive provider Global Relay, who by no coincidence, was also featured in the same Morningstar column. When MailBanc was launched, advisers had few choices for email archiving. Today, there are many more options. As founder Brian Hamburger said, “The industry has now matured to a point where we can step aside and continue our focus on RIAs.”] “We have sold our MailBanc messaging compliance service to Global Relay,” Hamburger said, offering no details of the deal.

Junxure Achieves Company Milestone, Surpasses 10,000 Active Users from eReleases.com

[The number-two CRM (according to most financial advisor surveys, and excluding Microsoft Outlook!), now has over 10,000 users on its platform. This is a good milestone for a niche product, but the company faces an uphill battle to close the gap with leading CRM provider Redtail Technologies, which at last report had over 43,000 users.] Junxure, an industry-leading CRM practice improvement firm that integrates technology, consulting, and training, today announced that it surpassed 10,000 active users on its Junxure CRM as of July 2012.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 7

Posted on September 7, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Welcome to September!

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Advisors Fed Up with Mediocre Financial Planning Technology from Financial-Planning.com

[I’m awaiting a copy of Tiburon’s survey to determine their methodology. If they asked a bunch of broker-dealer reps, then yes, survey respondents are going to be largely dissatisfied with technology. But for independent RIAs? Choices today are much more plentiful than ever, with ever-expanding APIs (see: TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo® Open Access to enhance trading, fee billing, and client on-boarding processes) and new integration “middleware” (see: Welcome To The Hub).] According to a survey by Tiburon Strategic Advisors, almost all the planners called the current technology offerings merely acceptable or downright unsatisfactory.

Grendel Online iPhone and iPad App Now Available from Grendel Online

[I covered Grendel Online back in January for Morningstar Advisor (see: One Capable CRM Flying Under Most Advisors’ Radar). Back then, CEO Aaron Guidotti showed me a beta version of the Grendel Online app for Android. Now, the CRM has an app for iPhone and iPad in the App Store.] View Grendel Online Mobile in the Apple App Store.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 31

Posted on August 31, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

After a year under wraps, Laser App unveils a new “anywhere” product at its sixth annual conference in San Diego from RIABiz.com

[So how many electronic forms to you fill out each year? Hundreds? Thousands? And how many of those do you fill in manually by hand? Laser App, known for its form-filling capabilities, now has a SaaS solution advisers can use to process forms using any Internet-connected device, smartphones and iPads included.] Laser App Software Inc. capped off a year of development with the debut of its new web-based technology platform at its sixth annual conference last week.

BlazePortfolio Continues to Build Partnerships from BlazePortfolio.com

[BlazePortfolio is the creator of ATOM ALIGN, a portfolio rebalancing and trade order management solution for financial advisers. President Bryson Pouw gives a summary of new partnerships and integrations the software company has released this summer.] At BlazePortfolio our goal is to streamline the rebalancing and trading process from end-to-end.  We’ve recently added new integration partners on both ends including three portfolio accounting systems (AssetBook, Morningstar Office, and SunGard Charlotte), a back office outsource provider (Empaxis), and Pershing as an electronic trading partner.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 24

Posted on August 24, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Advent and RedBlack Join Forces to Offer Rebalancing Solution to Investment Management Professionals from MarketWire.com

[Not one to avoid integrations, Advent is starting to respond to the competitive landscape by supporting connections to third party providers, too. Here’s the latest partnership with portfolio rebalancer RedBlack, solidifying Advent as an end-to-end portfolio management solution when coupled with previously-acquired Black Diamond (see Advent Purchases Black Diamond Performance Reporting for Approximately $73 Million).] Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, and RedBlack Software, LLC, the largest independent provider of portfolio rebalancing software for the investment management industry, today announce that the two companies have entered into an alliance agreement to improve client use of best of breed solutions and have completed full integration between Advent Portfolio Exchange(R) (APX) and Axys(R) platforms, and RedBlack’s portfolio rebalancing solutions.

Mikogo Releases HTML5 Screen Sharing for Faster Online Meetings from PRWeb.com

[I’m very critical of online meeting software these days, particularly of certain tools that casual Internet users find too cumbersome to use. Mikogo’s been highlighted on FPPad before (see BeamYourScreen Releases Mikogo 4.0 Beta, Adds New Features), and now the company has simplified its application for end users, as they no longer need to download and install a helper application prior to joining a meeting.] A leader in online meeting technology, Mikogo has today announced the release of a major update to its award-winning HTML Viewer with the incorporation of the new HTML5 standard for Internet browsers into the software. The HTML Viewer is a 100% browser-based way for participants to join online meetings and this new release built on HTML5 technology provides users with faster screen sharing,several new features and is multilingual.

With $4 Billion In Assets Under Wraps, FutureAdvisor Raises Another $5 Million From Sequoia Capital from TechCrunch.com

[FPPad readers know of FutureAdvisor and its free 401(k) aggregation tools for consumers (see: FutureAdvisor co-founder Bo Lu at FinovateSpring 2012). Just four months after releasing its tools to the public, the company completed a $5 million Series A round. The stakes continue to raise in this direct-to-investor advice trend.] FutureAdvisor has raised a $5 million Series A round from Sequoia Capital to accelerate its growth, and it’s also rolling out a new tool to help users save on fees in their 401(k) portfolio.

LPL Helps Advisors Use Social Media Compliantly from Financial-Planning.com

[If you’re still on the fence about whether to use social media, broker-dealer LPL has useful guidance in this article from Financial Planning. However, I find the ‘Yes’/’No’ format a little strange. Note that much of the social media compliance for LPL is handled by Erado (see: Six More Designate Erado as Their Social Media Compliance Provider).] Run by a firm called Erado, LPL’s social media compliance service costs $180 a year for its advisors to use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (that’s $60 for each platform). It archives all social media communication for potential review by regulators.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 17

Posted on August 17, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Here’s a thought; move your stuff 800 miles, update the address on all your cars, credit cards, investment accounts, etc., then prep for a two week vacation! That’s been my summer in a nutshell, stepping away only a few times to prepare the best news in financial planning technology just for you.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

LearnVest’s Mission to Wrangle Your Personal Finances from Mashable.com

[“Weight Watchers meets personal finance” is how LearnVest founder Alexa von Tobel describes her company. Having grown to over 65 people, von Tobel describes in the video below how her goal is to help everyone sleep better at night and enrich their lives through sound financial advice.]

TD Ameritrade showcases what API can do with slick Veo-iRebal harmonization from RIABiz

[TD Ameritrade Institutional continues to expand the capabilities of its Veo® Open Access platform (see TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo® Open Access to enhance trading, fee billing, and client on-boarding processes). This time the custodian couples its iRebal rebalancing software with Veo’s API to streamline trade order processing and reduce manual entry errors.] TD Ameritrade Institutional has linked two of the jewels in its software crown and the combination may be a multi-carat combination — at least for the relatively small cadre of RIAs who use iRebal.

SEC Audit: Getting data out of PortfolioCenter from Krisan’s BackOffice, Inc.

[Krisan’s BackOffice, Inc. is an outsource provider for Schwab Performance Technologies® PortfolioCenter®. In this post, limited scope examination criteria from the SEC is broken down into the various fields and reports that can be used to satisfy auditors. It’s a helpful overview of how extensive even a “limited scope” request can be, and an eye-opener for advisers who insist on managing portfolio accounting software on their own.] When the SEC auditors come knocking, they usually require lengthy, detailed information about your business. Fortunately, PortfolioCenter can help — assuming you keep your PortfolioCenter database complete and accurate, and you have the right Smart Sets.