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FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 23

Posted on March 23, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Sorry for the late delivery, but you’re not missing much this week. Once again, the feeds have been light in terms of financial planning technology news, so you can get an early start to the first weekend of spring!

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Why RIAs are shunning mobile apps and why Black Diamond, Orion, Fidelity and others are still placing their chips on an iPad future from RIABiz.com

[I’m holding my new iPad in my hands as we speak (and no, it’s not that hot), as are many advisers. But in terms of building and supporting custom mobile apps, or using those provided by custodians, advisers are just not on board in large numbers.] Despite the worldwide craze for mobile apps, RIAs are proving resistant to their lure.

2012 TechLeaders Conference: Unusual Format a Hit With Attendees, Vendors from AdvisorOne.com

[I attended this event and hope to have my review up next week. In the meantime, advisers generally don’t have much to fear in terms of technology competition from the majority of broker-dealer firms out there.] A rapid-fire slew of presentations opened the 2012 TechLeaders Broker-Dealer Technology Conference in Dallas on Tuesday. The conference featured 30 technology vendors presenting to broker-dealer executives and IT staffers.

RIA and Broker-Dealer Ameritas to Use Socialware for Compliance from Financial-Planning.com

[Two weeks ago it was Principal Financial Group selecting Actiance social archiving, this week it’s Ameritas and Socialware. Social media archiving companies are really taking advantage of this market and publicizing new relationships rapidly.] The more than 1,300 registered representatives and financial advisors at Ameritas Investment will now be able to breathe easy as they tweet — the RIA and broker-dealer just partnered with Socialware, a provider of social media compliance software.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 16

Posted on March 16, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

You’re lucky today, as you get a pass on this week’s Bits and Bytes. While where were a number of alerts that passed my screens this week, none of them truly warranted an update as most articles just briefly touched on actually using technology in your business.

Nevertheless, you might enjoy the RIABiz series of the top ten individuals to watch in the RIA space for 2012, including Eric Clarke of Orion Advisor Services (#8) and Neesha Hathi of Schwab Advisor Services (#2), though make sure you see my comment about the omission of Jon Patullo of TD Ameritrade Institutional.

Oh, and did you know there is a landing page for the T3 Conference held back in February? AdvisorStudios put this together, and make sure you catch the three spotlight interviews I did on site.

Now you must excuse me, I have a new iPad to unpack from a FedEx box…

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 9

Posted on March 9, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I released several new spotlight interview videos this week featuring Laserfiche reseller CitiesDigital, portfolio accounting service bureau AssetBook, and performance report platform AdvisoryWorld. Be sure the check them out and send me any feedback you have.

First, I’ve always been looking for services like Dropbox that are easy to use, but combine ease of use with robust security features. I think I found one of those possible solutions for advisers, so don’t miss this month’s column for Morningstar Advisor, A Document Vault Your Clients Might Actually Use.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Cabinet NG Announces CNG-SAFE 7.5 from Marketwire.com

[Not to be outdone by Laserfiche’s product announcements made at its user conference in January, Cabinet NG, another document management software solution for financial advisers, has updated its program with enhanced forms processing and additional Quickbooks integrations.] Cabinet NG, provider of electronic document management and workflow management software, today announced the release of CNG-SAFE 7.5, the latest version of its complete document management and workflow software product.

EFileCabinet Releases Mobile App from CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

[eFileCabinet is not a well-known name in the financial adviser market. However, this document management software company has fairly good adoption among CPAs, so it’s just a matter of time until they start branching out into the independent adviser industry.] eFileCabinet, Inc., a provider of enterprise content management solutions, recently released the eFileCabinet Online mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The Principal Financial Group® Chooses Actiance to Provide Social Media Monitoring Platform from Marketwire.com

[Erado, Socialware, and Arkovi have made a number of the last Bits and Bytes updates, but one that has been relatively quiet is Actiance. In this press release you’ll get some statistics on the inroads the company is making in the social media compliance market.] Actiance, helping organizations benefit from new forms of communications and collaboration, today announced that The Principal Financial Group® has deployed its Socialite platform to help meet regulatory requirements that allow the firm’s financial professionals to use social media for business purposes.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 2

Posted on March 2, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I spent several days in Washington D.C. this week presenting to advisors on new technology that can enhance personal and professional productivity. If you’re interested in booking me for any of my presentations, see my Speaking page for details.

First up this week is my column for the FPA NorCal Planner March newsletter titled When FPA NorCal and Twitter Collide highlighting the “back channel” discussions going on at advisor conferences.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

How AppCrown got a big RIA footprint overnight by handling Salesforce implementations from RIABiz.com

[This is an interesting development. Vendors and custodians are gravitating towards AppCrown, a Salesforce overlay and customization provider. Is it because they excel in supporting advisers, or are they simply the only reasonable option among weak competition? I’m not ready to make a decision one way or the other.] AppCrown LLC has come bursting out of the bulrushes to make itself a go-to technology company for hundreds of RIAs who want to use Salesforce customer relationship management software but who also know that they need help — big-time assistance — in making sure that the conversion and connective tissues are there.

Junxure Announces Agreement With Advisor Group to Provide CRM Integration from PRNewswire

[This is yet another integration Junxure supports with a proprietary system, this time being the Advisor Group’s (formerly AIG Advisor Group) VISION2020 portal. Advisor Group has over 4,600 independent financial advisers.] Junxure, a practice improvement firm that integrates technology, consulting, and training, announced that it has signed an agreement with Advisor Group to provide an integration offering financial advisors the ability to synchronize client data between Junxure and VISION2020 Advisor Portal (Advisor Portal), Advisor Group’s proprietary account tracking system. The integration is included as part of the Royal Alliance, FSC and SagePoint Financial advisor technology offerings.

RMB Capital Management Selects Black Diamond and Advent Portfolio Exchange Platforms to Support $2B Wealth Advisory Practice from Marketwire

[Not to be overshadowed by Orion Advisor Services’ announcement of partnering with a $3 billion RIA, Advent is publicizing its deal to migrate one $2 billion RIA’s portfolio data off of Advent Axys to Black Diamond. It doesn’t seem like a tremendous victory to me. After all, I believe Advent purchased Black Diamond to do exactly this: migrate customers on a legacy system to Black Diamond rather than lose them to the competition like Orion and Tamarac. Update: RIABiz published coverage of this today.] RMB Capital Management and Advent Software, Inc. announced today that they will broaden their strategic relationship by migrating RMB Capital Management’s approximately $2B in assets under management (AUM) from Advent’s Axys® to Black Diamond Performance Reporting, LLC’s platform and the Advent Portfolio Exchange® (APX) platform.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 10

Posted on February 10, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Relatively speaking, it’s been a quiet week. It’s my first full week home in Dallas with no traveling or conference appearances, but I’ve had a big backlog of work and writing waiting for me. Much of what I did this week was edit video interviews recorded at last week’s TD Ameritrade Institutional conference. Be sure to check those out using the link below.

First up in this week’s Bits and Bytes is my February column for Morningstar Advisor, Embracing the Cloud. Think you can’t ditch the servers that run all your in-house software? Think again.

Next is coverage from last weeks’ TD Ameritrade Institutional 2012 National Conference:

View my three-part Video Spotlight series, filmed on location at the conference, then review my thoughts on electronic signature options being rolled out to advisers.

TD Ameritrade brings some Florida heat to the RIA winter from RIABiz.com

[Guest columnist Tim Welsh does a good job capturing the major themes at the custodian’s annual conference.] Building on the growing momentum of its RIA custody business, TD impressed the crowd with high-profile keynote speakers, a technology showcase, practice management gurus, elegant parties and a legendary 1970’s-era disco band.

Tech Execs Look to the Future: TD Ameritrade Conference from AdvisorOne.com

[Some of the big players in technology participated in a good panel discussion on how today’s innovations are laying the framework for exciting functionality in the future. A quick read with great quotes from the panelists.] A gathering of executives from up-and-coming, as well as established, technology companies sat with AdvisorOne at the TD Ameritrade conference in Orlando Friday morning for a discussion of the state of advisor technology, integration and where the innovation is likely headed next.

Finally, this week’s stories of interest:

Data Standards Elusive from InvestmentNews.com

[Those seeking background on common data standards and integration need only look to the mobile phone industry to witness a scrambled approach to common standards. There’s iOS, Android, WebOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and on and on. So really, why should the financial services industry be at all interested in developing a common standard? My take: the winner will be the one with the first mover advantage. Today, that nod goes to TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo Open Access initiative.] Getting a fragmented industry to agree on a common framework may be impossible.

New version of Laser App hits industry from InvestmentNews.com

[Generating paperwork is one of those seemingly unavoidable consequences of running a financial advisory business. But with more electronic form automation and e-signature acceptance by custodians, paperwork might soon go the way of the dinosaur.] One of the great quests in the advisory industry is the desire for straight through processing of forms, preferably digital forms that make printed paperwork a thing of the past.

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 3

Posted on February 3, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Today is the final day of the TD Ameritrade Institutional 2012 National Conference. I’m appearing on an all-star technology panel along with Davis Janowski of InvestmentNews, Joel Bruckenstein, Publisher of Technology Tools for Today, and Andy Gluck, President & Editor of Advisors4Advisors.

Follow the #TDAI2012 hashtag on Twitter for real-time conference updates. Will there be some fireworks emanating from this event? We’ll see.

But in the meantime, enjoy this week’s best technology stories from around the financial planning industry:

Laserfiche user conference draws a big crowd that wants to toss filing cabinets from RIABiz.com

[You saw my updates from the conference last week, so add this review from Nexus Strategy’s Tim Welsh to round out the perspective of Laserfiche’s annual user conference.] Showing off the user-base muscle of the firm’s 30,000 customers, the Laserfiche Empower 2012 conference convened at the Anaheim (Calif.) Marriott over three days, Jan. 25 to Jan. 27.

inStream, in the Moment from Financial-Planning.com

[The secret’s out on one new tool that has the potential to change most financial planners’ value proposition. Instead of reacting to the planning needs and questions of clients, startup inStream Solutions offers ways planners can be proactive with clients.] While it’s early in the game, inStream Solutions might be next in this line of financial planning software innovators. It’s a free, goal- and cloud-based planning solution for financial professionals. That’s right, free.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 27

Posted on January 27, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Today is the final day of Laserfiche Empower 2012, where I’m taking in all I can regarding the company’s latest updates to their document management platform. See my prior posts on the event here:

I also created three mini broadcasts of conference highlights from my phone. Listen to them on my FlipZu page: http://flipzu.com/billwinterberg

 

In the meantime, I’ve been collecting the best stories in financial planning technology from around the web this week. Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Mobile Apps: Clients Want Them, Wealth Managers Are Developing Them from Financial-Planning.com

[You can’t ignore the impact mobile devices are making in the way you run your business. I bet over half of your clients have some kind of mobile device, so are you ready to provide service to them using these new channels?] The wealth management industry is adjusting to clients who increasingly expect that they should have anytime, anywhere access to their account information, according to a new study.

Another tool to help re-balance the books from InvestmentNews.com

[Next to document management software, rebalancing software is likely a guaranteed triple-digit ROI for any financial planning firm performing decent trading volume. Here Davis Janowski scoops a new product called RebalanceMax that’s priced well below the market dominators like Tamarac and iRebal.] Financial adviser Rich Chambers set up a side business, Advisor Innovation Inc. (advisorinnovation.com), to finish development of RebalanceMax and begin selling it to advisers on a commercial basis.

10 Top Tech Trends for BDs: FSI OneVoice 2012 from AdvisorOne.com

[James Green provides a decent, but short, list of ten tech trends discussed in a heavyweight panel discussion at FSI OneVoice 2012. Some trends are succinct and all-too-familiar to RIAs, but it’s a good list to keep in the back of your mind. “Integration” appears twice, and Salesforce Chatter is not a social media tool for use with clients; rather, it’s for internal discussion with firm team members.] At the annual Financial Services Institute’s OneVoice conference in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday, Spenser Segal, CEO of ActiFi, moderated a discussion meant to inform the attending independent broker-dealer executives about the 10 top technology trends that are affecting IBDs already and those that are likely to do so in the near future.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 20: Google Plus edition!

Posted on January 20, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

It’s “G-Day” for advisers, so today’s Bits and Bytes update has been posted to Google+.

Go see it: https://plus.google.com/109199896143956110609/posts/gwbgaSU3F8T