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FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 25

Posted on September 25, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, the SEC fines an RIA for cybersecurity oversights, learn the steps you should implement to fight ransomware, and RightCapital is the newest startup in the financial planning software marketplace.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by True North Networks, a leading provider of managed IT, hosting, and security services to financial professionals. With the introduction of SecureWorkplace, True North Networks helps advisors combat cybercrime with industry leading technology, monitoring, and employee awareness training.

True North Networks

And if you sign up for SecureWorkplace in October, you’ll receive a free firewall valued up to $2,000. Learn more about True North Networks and SecureWorkplace today by visiting fppad.com/truenorth

SEC Charges Investment Adviser With Failing to Adopt Proper Cybersecurity Policies and Procedures Prior To Breach from SEC.gov, and

OCIE’s 2015 Cybersecurity Examination Initiative, and

SEC Cybersecurity Guidance 2015-02

[I’ve been under the weather for a few days, but I’m back with this week’s top story that comes from the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the industry watchdog recently settled charges with a St. Louis-based RIA for failing to establish cybersecurity policies and procedures. In its settlement, the SEC said the firm “failed entirely to adopt written policies and procedures reasonably designed to safeguard customer information” and the regulator assessed a $75,000 penalty. As the result of a breach in July 2013, hackers gained access to personally identifiable information for roughly 100,00 individuals.

But the silver lining, if there is one, is that the SEC said that no clients have suffered financial harm as a result of the breach. Well, not yet, at least.

So this is your wake up call if you’re behind on establishing your own cybersecurity policies. You need them, and you need to periodically test them, or you may subject your firm to similar consequences.

Once again, I’ve linked the SEC’s most recent cybersecurity guidance in the show notes or consider hiring a security expert for RIAs like Itegria, Envision RIA, External IT, True North Networks, Right Size Solutions, and others.]

Don’t Pay the Hacker’s Ransom from ThinkAdvisor.com

[Next up is more news about cybersecurity, as Shareholders Service Group president Dan Skiles recently addressed the rise in ransomware attacks on RIAs. Skiles notes that RIAs typically come across ransomware in a phishing email or a rogue file attachment, and once it’s mistakenly activated, the ransomware holds your computer and your files hostage unless you pay a ransom amount in bitcoin to unlock everything.

Obviously it’s best to never launch programs from unknown sources, but if ransomware does get activated inside your firm, Skiles recommends you isolate the computer that was attacked and work with an experienced IT professional to limit the damage. Arguably the best protection against ransomware is to have a fully-functional backup of all of your files, so you can literally throw your infected computer in the trash and start from scratch by restoring your files from a good backup.

It’s best if the ransomware never gets launched in the first place, so keeping your cybersecurity policies up to date AND offering periodic training to your firm’s employees will go a long way in protecting the information your clients trust you to keep safe.] When your firm is hit with a ransomware virus, try these steps first

New financial planning software tries to win market share in a crowded field from InvestmentNews

[And finally, I’m wrapping up with a new startup called RightCapital, which announced the introduction of its eponymous financial planning software at the XY Planning Network conference in Charlotte last week. RightCapital joins Advizr, another planning software startup I’ve covered before, to offer an intuitive and attractively-designed platform as an alternative to veteran providers like MoneyGuide Pro, eMoney, and Advicent.

You’ll have to test drive RightCaptial to see if its planning capabilities are up to your standards, but with built-in account aggregation, integrations with Morningstar, Yodlee, and Redtail, and a price tag under $1,000 a year, RightCapital deserves a spot on your radar screen, especially if financial planning is going to play a more prominent role in your business.] Newly launched service provider RightCapital thinks it has created a better mousetrap and is undaunted by the hypercompetitive market

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 25, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 25, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 28

Posted on August 28, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, BlackRock plans to acquire FutureAdvisor, Salesforce previews it’s Financial Services Cloud platform, and a new white paper from Kaleido will tell you how you’re going to overhaul your business model.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Laser App Software, host of the brand-new Laser App Advisor Con event coming this October in Las Vegas.

Laser App

This event will be led by top advisors, offering their own case studies and best practices on adopting industry-leading technology. Space is limited, so secure your registration today by visiting fppad.com/laserapp2015.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

BlackRock Press Releases from BlackRock, and

Blackrock Acquires FutureAdvisor For $150M As Yet Another Robo-Advisor Pivots To Become An Advisor #FinTech Solution from Kitces.com

[Well, if you haven’t heard by now, the big news this week comes from BlackRock, as the world’s largest asset manager with around $4.7 trillion under management, agreed to acquire FutureAdvisor, the online automated investment service based in San Francisco. Let’s run the numbers: FutureAdvisor reportedly manages $600 million dollars, at 50 basis points, they earn, at best, $3 million in gross revenue, BlackRock reportedly paid something like $150 million for FutureAdvisor, so they paid 50, that’s right, 50 times gross revenue for the company. Wow. If it’s true, that’s like, way beyond Facebook and Twitter valuation territory! For an automated investment service!

So let me cut to the chase for your business. In a Wall Street Journal interview, BlackRock COO Robert Goldstein said that as BlackRock looks to “grow the company, our focus is going to be on working with our partners.”

In other words, financial institutions. Does that include you, the RIA? I don’t know. But it could be just institutions that compete with you day after day for client assets. Great.

So if this doesn’t light a fire under you to enhance your technology, improve your client experience, and clearly identify that your services go WAY beyond automated investing, I don’t know what will.

Look. I believe in you, I believe in the value you add for your clients, and I trust that what you is so much better than a five-question risk survey followed by an asset allocation recommendation.

But if you just sit there on your hands and do nothing, I just don’t see how your business stands a chance over the next five years.] BlackRock, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire FutureAdvisor, a leader in digital wealth management.

Salesforce Introduces Salesforce Financial Services Cloud: Transforming the Client-Advisor Relationship from Salesforce

[Next up is news from Salesforce, another industry behemoth, that this week announced it will release the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud in February 2016.

Claiming it’s the company’s “first industry-specific product,” (I guess they want to forget about Salesforce for Wealth Management?), the platform will offer a much more modern interface, secure private messaging with clients, and even integrations like Advisor Software for portfolio rebalancing and Yodlee for account aggregation.

But after closer inspection, Salesforce Financial Services Cloud seems positioned mainly for broker-dealers and large enterprise RIAs like United Capital, one of the firms who offered design feedback. Just look at some of the terminology they use: Book of business? Tear sheet? That should give you a clue.

So as an independent advisor, I don’t quite yet see you using something like this directly from Salesforce, but rather it will likely be an option offered by an institutional custodian or one of the many Salesforce overlay providers like Concenter Services, Navatar, Salentica, and more.] Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM company, today introduced Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, transforming the client-advisor relationship for the digital age.

Kaleido Identifies Rapidly Declining Profitability, Failure to Prepare for Downturn as #1 Independent Financial Advisory Firm Threat in New Whitepaper from MarketWatch, and

Download the X-Cell white paper

[And finally, if you’re not already depressed by today’s broadcast, the researchers over at Kaleido, led by co-founders Angie Herbers and Kristen Luke, have noticed a disturbing trend among advisory firms. That trend is the rapid decline of profit margins.

Great. Just what you wanted to hear. But, I produce this broadcast to give you solutions to grow your business, so along with Kaleido’s research, the company issued a white paper describing what it calls the X-Cell Process™.

In a nutshell, the four-step X-Cell Process outlined should help you overhaul your service models so you can successfully incorporate automated investment technology into your business.]

This is not a paid endorsement, I just think it’s a useful resource for you to have, and all it will cost you is your email address.] Kaleido Inc., a practice growth agency serving independent financial advisory firms, has released a white paper entitled “X-Cell: The New Frontier of Advisory Client Service,” identifying growth inhibitors and other trends affecting the independent advisory community, as well as focused, tangible solutions.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 28, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 28, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 14

Posted on August 14, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Envestnet acquires account aggregation provider Yodlee, Advizr makes two announcements to close the gap among financial planning software, and find out why automated investing services might be losing their competitive advantage.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by eMoney Advisor, host of the eMoney Advisor Summit coming October 19th through 21st in Orlando.

emoney summit

Take a deep dive into the emX strategies that help you Connect, Engage and Win with your clients. Plus, everyone watching this show can take advantage of a one hundred dollar discount off your registration, so visit fppad.com/emoneysummit15 today and use promo code FPPAD100. That’s FPPAD100.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Envestnet to Acquire Yodlee from Envestnet

[This week’s top story comes from Envestnet, as the wealth management technology and service provider announced it is acquiring Yodlee in a deal valued somewhere around $660 million. Now most of you know Yodlee for account aggregation, but Yodlee really doesn’t sell services directly to advisors.

Instead, some advisors benefit from Yodlee aggregation through third-party integrations, with MoneyGuidePro being the most well know,after announcing a Yodlee integration to much fanfare last year, priced at a dollar per day. You can get more details on that in episode 120 that I linked over here.

So let’s cut to the chase: is this good or bad? If you’re an Envestnet technology user, this is really good. Aggregating clients’ held away accounts gives you better visibility on what clients actually own, how they’re allocated, and in some cases, how they manage their cash flow. This information can only make the advice you give better, and that’s a fantastic thing for everyone!

BUT, if you compete with Envestnet and/or take advantage of Yodlee aggregation today, the future isn’t so clear. It’s way too early to speculate what’s going to happen to Yodlee’s pricing and availability, but if efficient account aggregation is a cornerstone of your business, it might be time to keep alternatives like Aqumulate, ByAllAccounts, or Quovo in mind.] Envestnet, Inc. (NYSE:ENV), a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to financial advisors, and Yodlee, Inc. (Nasdaq: YDLE), the leading cloud-based platform driving digital financial innovation, today announced that the Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Envestnet will acquire all of the shares of Yodlee in a cash and stock transaction valued at $18.88 per share, or approximately $660 million on a fully-diluted equity value basis.

 

Introducing: Advizr Express from Advizr

[Next up is news from Advizr, an up-and-coming financial planning software provider, who this week made two announcements. First is the introduction of a prospecting tool called Advizr Express, allowing you to attract prospects by offering a super-simple retirement readiness illustration either on your website or for use with prospects during an initial meeting. Advizr Express is in beta testing today with an official release anticipated later this month.

Advizr’s second announcement is a new integration with Orion Advisor Services to import client portfolio holdings to avoid manually entering that information by hand. This adds to an existing integration with Blueleaf, and should be a preview of what to come with connections with many of the leading custodians. Wink wink.

So while Advizr is still a ways away from offering the number of integrations found in category leaders like Advicent, eMoney, and MoneyGuidePro, updates like these should help Advizr close the gap and offer you more choice in the tools you use to deliver financial planning.]

Automation Won’t Replace People as Your Competitive Advantage from Harvard Business Review

[And finally, I want to wrap up this week’s broadcast with an article from Harvard Business Review titled Automation Won’t Replace People as Your Competitive Advantage. For two years and seventy episodes of Bits and Bytes, the chatter about automated investment services and algorithmic rebalancing has reached a fever pitch, but scroll down to the end of that article and you’ll read a striking statement:

“Once smart machines are built to solve problems in asset efficiency (or indeed any area of operations) they very rapidly spread and become pervasive across an industry. Therefore, they cease to provide a competitive advantage.”

I think this perfectly describes what’s happening today in automated investing. Sure, six years ago, Wealthfront and Betterment attracted attention because there was nothing out there like their automated services. Their exclusivity was their competitive advantage.
But fast forward to today where automated services are available from Schwab, Vanguard, Future Advisor, Blooom, and even LPL Financial having announced their own plans for an automated service. Automated investing is becoming pervasive.

But what that also says to me is that if you don’t have some kind of low-cost automated service to offer, it may actually be viewed as a disadvantage because they’re so common in the industry. It’s like telling clients you won’t communicate with them via email. It’s so pervasive, who DOESN’T use email?] Geoff Colvin’s primary argument is that there are some unique human capabilities, like empathy and storytelling, that will keep people employable even as automation chips away at the content of most jobs.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 14, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 14, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 7

Posted on August 7, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, LPL financial reveals its robo intentions, Wealthbox raises the CRM stakes with an integration with Slack, and Smarsh steps up its archiving of your Microsoft Office 365 content.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by ExternalIT, a leading provider of cloud solutions to the wealth management industry, With the recent integration of Microsoft Office 365, you can enhance the familiar tools of Word, Outlook and Excel with an extensive range of apps including VoIP communication, on-line meetings, collaboration, business intelligence, and more.

External IT

See how External IT brings all this together in a free webinar on August 18, so be sure to register today at fppad.com/externalit

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

LPL Financial Launches Vendor Affinity Program from LPL, and

Google News results for LPL Vendor Affinity Program

[Today’s top story comes from LPL Financial, as the nation’s largest broker-dealer, oh, thank you disclosure, held its annual LPL Focus conference in Boston last week.
On the technology side, LPL announced it will soon introduce its own an automated investment service, cough robo-advisor, consisting of low-cost ETF portfolios powered by LPL’s research. No details on pricing or even a name for the solution were provided, but LPL president Dan Arnold did say that a pilot program with about 20 advisors will be begin in the next few months.

LPL also announced the launch of its Vendor Affinity Program, calling it “a centralized repository” of vendors that offer discounted pricing to LPL advisors for their products and services. LPL is launching the Vendor Affinity Program with over 50 vendors from the get-go, with discounts ranging anywhere from 10 percent to 80 percent off retail pricing.

Now if you’re not affiliated with LPL Financial, don’t get too discouraged. Vendors don’t get to be included in the affinity program simply by offering a discount; vendors must also meet certain security and compliance requirements imposed by LPL, so this is the takeaway for you. If you’re not really sure a technology vendor will meet the standards for your own business, you can be more confident in those vendors who have passed muster with LPL by meeting some pretty high standards.

As far as who is in the affinity program? I couldn’t reach anyone at LPL in time before filming this episode to get that list, but some detective work on Google should yield a list of usual suspects who’ve issued press releases regarding their inclusion into the program.] LPL Financial LLC, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, a custodian for registered investment advisors (RIAs), and a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc., today announced the launch of its Vendor Affinity Program, a new initiative designed to help advisors reduce the complexity and costs of running their businesses.

Wealthbox CRM Integrates with Slack! from Wealthbox, and

View Slack Pricing at Slack.com

[Next up is news from CRM provider Wealthbox, as the company announced a new integration with Slack, a wildly-popular online collaboration tool. “What is Slack?” you ask.

I’d rather not make a comparison to email, but, Slack is like email on steroids. But instead of collaborating via back-and-forth email threads, Slack lets you use real-time chat, aka messaging, to work with your team using Channels centered around certain topics, connect privately with colleagues using direct messages , or set up private groups with just a few team members to work on top secret tasks.

With the new Slack integration, Wealthbox users can select from 22 different notification types to automatically push into Slack, helping everyone in the firm stay informed on day-to-day activities. And with the Slack feed on your favorite mobile device, you should be able to stay in the loop on all sorts of tasks in your office no matter where you are.

And one last thing: since Slack can be used to chat about clients, and potentially WITH clients, you’ll need the Slack Plus plan that’s around $15 per month per user that includes compliance exports of all your message so you keep your compliance officer happy.] Wealthbox CRM, an activity stream-based client relationship management app for wealth management firms, has announced an integration with Slack, the messaging app for business teams.

Smarsh Offers Enhanced Archiving Support for Microsoft Office 365 Environments from BusinessWire

[And finally, this week’s episode wraps up with news from Smarsh, the archiving solution provider, as the company introduced enhanced archiving support for Microsoft Office 365 environments. As more of you move away from local servers to the cloud, you still need to fulfill your compliance and record-keeping obligations required by FINRA and the SEC.

By all accounts, Microsoft is moving full-steam ahead on cloud services, so it’s pretty much inevitable that as long as you want to keep using Word, Excel, Outlook and more, you’ll need to incorporate a compliance solution for the resources you manage in the cloud. In addition to archiving Office 365 email, the Smarsh solution can also capture content on Yammer as well as Skype for Business Online, formerly called Lync, which is Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Slack that I mention, oh, about a minute ago.] Smarsh®, the leading provider of cloud-based comprehensive archiving solutions for compliance and e-discovery, today announced enhanced archiving support for electronic communications within Microsoft Office 365 environments.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 7, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 7, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 10

Posted on July 10, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Michael Kitces highlights a roadmap for location independent advisors, several new tech tools emerge that are worthy of your attention, and what are all these videos about something called FPPad Tech Tour?

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Laser App Software, host of the Laser App Financial Services Conference coming this August in San Diego.

Laser App

This year’s conference is all about adoption, delivering strategies for broker-dealers, enterprises, and more to increase stakeholder adoption and get the most out of their technology platform. Space is limited, so secure your free registration today by visiting fppad.com/laserapp2015.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

The Emergence Of The “Location-Independent” Virtual Financial Advisor from Kitces.com, and

Download the The Virtual Advisor eBook from XY Planning Network

[Now on to this week’s top story which comes from Michael Kitces over at Nerd’s Eye View, as Kitces writes about the growing trend of location-independent financial advisors. This business model of the virtual financial advisor is still relatively new, enabled by the nearly ubiquitous access we all have to the Internet coupled with technology solutions based exclusively in the cloud. It wasn’t that long ago that most of us couldn’t even read business email while out of the office!

So in his post, Kitces highlights an eBook called “The Virtual Advisor” written by XY Planning Network co-founder Alan Moore. By the way, Kitces is the other co-founder of XYPN. Anyway, the 41-page eBook is loaded with dozens of technologies, apps, and solutions that can help you work from anywhere along with several profiles of XY Planning Network members and the systems they use to run a location-independent business.

Now you don’t have to be an advisor to Gen X and Gen Y clients or even meet the age criteria of Gen X or Gen Y to benefit from these tools and techniques. I think you should take a look at the resources in this book and see if anything can complement or outright replace some of your existing legacy systems to improve the way you work.

The best news is that The Virtual Advisor eBook is free provided you’re willing to give up your email address, so you can head over to fppad.com/168 to get the link to download the ebook today.] Yet the rise of technology is creating a new service model for financial planning – the “virtual” advisor, who uses web-based tools and technology to serve clients, regardless of where the client (or advisor) happens to be.

5 Smart Tech Tools for Advisors from Financial-Planning.com, and

Live Chat for New Clients from Morningstar Advisor (free login required)

[Next up is news from Dave Grant of Finance for Teachers, as Grant recently highlighted five smart tech tools for advisors in his column for Financial Planning magazine this month. Some of these tools I’ve mentioned on the show before, including Advizr from episode 146, which Grant complimented for it’s attractive, easy to use basic financial planning capabilities, and Schwab Intelligent Portfolios from episode 153, as Grant mentioned the potential time savings from the low-cost automatic allocation and rebalancing solution.

But Grant covered three other solutions that I haven’t covered before, leading off with MyPlanMap. This tool takes your action items and todos from your planning meetings and places them on a timeline so clients can see what’s ahead, and they can also see what you’ve done for them in the past. I think that’s pretty cool.

Second is Twenty Over Ten, a website provider that offers a variety of attractive themes that are responsive for all kinds of devices, simple editing tools, and a built-in archiving for compliance. At $49 a month after a one-time setup fee, it’s definitely an attractive option.

And finally, Grant highlights ClickDesk which is a plugin for your existing website that reveals a chat box for your website visitors. If your website visitor wants to ask you a question, they can start a live chat right from your website, and completed chats are emailed to you so you can save the record for compliance. I covered a similar service called Olark two years ago in one of my columns for Morningstar, which I’ve linked to over at the FPPad website.] I am always on the lookout for new technology to use in my practice. Here are some of the platforms that have recently caught my eye.

Follow FPPad Tech Tour at http://www.fppadtechtour.com/

[And finally, you might have seen a few videos from me this week about something called FPPad Tech Tour. That’s right, starting Monday, I’m going on tour!

FPPad Tech Tour kicks off next week with an epic three week road trip from Atlanta to New York City and back, stopping in seven cities along the way. My executive producer Steve Biermann and I are going on tour to capture the stories of people who are working so hard to build technology solutions for you, the financial advisor, so you can run a better, more effective business.

There’s already a lively discussion happening on Twitter using the #fppadtechtour hashtag, so I invite you to join us and follow along as we work to capture the passion each individual has to make you a better advisor.

Make sure you’re subscribed to FPPad newsletter for updates from the tour.]

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 10, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 10, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 26

Posted on June 26, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Schwab releases Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ into the advisor marketplace, Advent rolls out a new advisor experience for Black Diamond, and TD Ameritrade Institutional assembles dozens of vendors in Chicago to help you move your business forward.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Autopilot, the only automated asset management platform built on the power of the Risk Number™.

Autopilot powered by CLS Investments and Riskalyze

Powered by CLS Investments and Riskalyze, Autopilot empowers advisors to revolutionize their business model, profitably service clients of all sizes, and democratize access to investment advice with a client service platform embedded directly in your firm’s existing website. Sign up for a demo today by visiting fppad.com/autopilot.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ from Schwab.com,

Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ ETF List: Evaluation and Selection from Schwab.com, and

Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ Disclosure Brochure from Schwab.com

[This week’s top story comes from Schwab Advisor Services, as the company officially rolled out its Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ solution to advisors that was first mentioned back in episode 158, which I will try to link right over here. One change of note is that Schwab increased the number of available ETFs to more than 450 from the original 200 announced back in March, but the platform fees remain unchanged.

So I looked into the disclosure materials and uncovered a few items that I think you should know. First, anytime a new client signs up, you, the advisor, are required to make a final decision to select a portfolio strategy for that client. Until you make that decision, your clients’ cash will be held in the sweep program.

Second, accounts over $50,000 are eligible for tax-loss harvesting, but hold on, you, the advisor, must use the software built in to Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ to activate and implement the tax-loss harvesting strategy.

And third, at any time, clients can authorize you, the advisor, to suspend trading due to “market conditions” and then reactivate trading “when the Advisor decides it is appropriate to do so.”

So I don’t know about you, but this sounds like Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ doesn’t really streamline any of your portfolio management activities, it may actually increase your workload a bit, which is ironic given the automated focus of the program. It’s definitely not a set-and-forget automated solution, and for this added workload in your business you’ll earn how much in new revenue? That’s what I thought.

And before I forget, Schwab says that the system “will not monitor the type and amount of capital gains” so you’ll have to manage that information in a separate solution, say Schwab Advisor Portfolio Connect or perhaps PortfolioCenter, if you want to report on the gains and losses in each client account. Oh, one more thing, as of today, the mobile app isn’t yet ready.

But to be fair, this is version 1.0 of the solution for advisor, so if anyone is listening out there, maybe you can get Schwab to acknowledge these opportunities to make Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ an attractive technology solution for your business.]

Advent Debuts the All-New Black Diamond Wealth Platform for Advisors and Wealth Managers at AdventConnect 2015 from Advent.com

[Next up is news from Advent, as the company held AdventConnect, it’s annual advisor conference in Las Vegas last week. The company used the event to showcase the next generation Black Diamond® wealth platform, which was being called “BD3” during internal development.

Gone from the Black Diamond name are the Performance Reporting label and the old widgets and BlueSky titles, which is now being replaced by the wealth platform description that represents the radical refresh of the advisor experience.

The main advisor dashboard now uses tiles that you can customize based on the information you want at a glance, portfolio performance graphs are much more streamlined, report pages contain relevant portfolio data without being overly crowded and busy, and a presentation mode is now built in to give you a way to walk through reports while redacting confidential client data.

Advent also announced a new initiative called Black Diamond Link, which adds “bi-directional, workflow-oriented integrations” with a variety of third party technology providers, including MoneyGuidePro, AdvisoryWord, XLR8, Junxure Cloud, Advisors Assistant, and Redtail Technology.] On the heels of last year’s unveiling and this year’s rollout of the new Black Diamond® investor experience, Advent today showcased its next generation Black Diamond® wealth platform. The next generation platform which has been dubbed “BD3” by clients and the development team, as it represents the third generation of the Black Diamond® platform, has been a multi-month effort to redesign and reinvent Black Diamond® to go beyond its roots in performance reporting.

Technology Innovators Get High Marks for Maximizing Integrations for Independent Registered Investment Advisors from MarketWatch

[If integrations with best-in-breed solutions sounds familiar, that’s because TD Ameritrade Institutional offers a similar platform under Veo Open Access, Schwab Advisor Services offers OpenView Gateway, and Pershing announced its own API store just a few weeks ago.

And for custodian-agnostic integration providers, Orion Advisor Services has been offering integrations to their advisors for several years. Full disclosure, you should watch my first vlog about Orion. So Advent, welcome to the club!

Now speaking of integrations, I’m going to wrap up with news from TD Ameritrade Institutional, as the company held its 6th annual technology summit in Chicago this week for Veo Open Access integrated solution providers. The number of solution providers now stands at 91 representing over $300 billion in assets advised across all of the technology solutions.

I’m running out of time for this broadcast, and I made a vlog about my trip to the Tech Summit in Chicago, so just watch the vlog and you’ll be up to speed on how this custodian is helping advisors like you take their business to the next level.] To help independent registered investment advisors (“RIAs”) keep pace in an era of accelerating technology change, TD Ameritrade Institutional1 has pursued a unique strategy of collaboration, harnessing the innovative and cutting-edge work of an entire community of technology leaders through its Veo Open Access vendor network.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 26, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 26, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 12

Posted on June 12, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Pershing partners with a new company for your digital advice delivery needs, Wealth Access continues its growth in the PFM space, and find out how open source code called Wealthbot could pose a serious challenge to automated investment services.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Pershing Implements Multi-faceted Digital Enablement Strategy to Help Advisors Embrace the Digital Revolution from Pershing, and

Pershing Introduces Managed360™ to Help Advisors Efficiently Grow Their Managed Accounts Business from Pershing

Marstone Digital Wealth on the web

[Let’s jump right in to this week’s top story with a recap of the Pershing INSITE conference held in Orlando last week, as one of the top institutional custodians for advisors made several technology-related announcements. First up is news of a partnership to allow advisors to offer their own white-labeled online investment service which will be powered by a company called Marstone.

Now if the name Marstone doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry, because it’s only the second time I’ve even heard of them after a chance encounter I had with company executives at the IBM World of Watson event last month. In fact, the company is so new that their latest Form ADV disclosure shows assets of just $15,500 held in two clients accounts. That’s right, two accounts.

Now the few screenshots available from the Marstone website show a reasonably attractive interface, but with a retail investor offering that’s still in beta and an advisor solution that has yet to roll out, it’s just too early for me to say whether or not Marstone is going to gain wide adoption among advisors, especially when there are more seasoned competitors out there like Jemstep, Betterment Institutional, Oranj and more.

But, Marstone will be the first of several anticipated solutions that will integrate with Pershing’s NetX360 platform for advisors as well as the NetXInvestor solution for end clients.

Pershing also announced a new managed account solution called Managed360 that will leverage investment strategies and managed portfolio offerings from Lockwood Advisors, which also happens to be an affiliate of Pershing. Also coming in the future is a Pershing API store which is a catalog of APIs along the lines of the TD Ameritrade Institutional Veo Open Access platform, allowing third-party providers to more easily integrate with the Pershing ecosystem.] At its INSITE™ 2015 conference, Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, today announced a multi-faceted digital enablement strategy designed to revolutionize how advisors and investors work together in 2015 and beyond.

Wealth Access Hires 7 Veterans to Continue Growth from PRWeb

[Next up is news from Wealth Access, the Nashville-based provider of a personal financial dashboard for high net worth clients, as this week the company announced the growth of its business with seven new hires in the last few months, as well as a 350% year-over-year increase in total assets aggregated in the platform, a figure that now exceeds $20 billion.

You know that merger and acquisition activity in the personal financial management space this year has been on a tear, with Fidelity acquiring eMoney, Northwestern Mutual scooping up LearnVest, and John Hancock picking up Guide Financial, so Wealth Access is pretty much one of the last independent PFM platforms out there serving advisors that has no direct custodial or insurance company connection.
So like I’ve said in previous broadcasts, you would be wise to keep an eye on this company.] Wealth Access, an innovative high net worth personal financial management platform for advisors, announced growing momentum in the adoption of the Wealth Access technology solution by advisors, with record year over year growth and the hiring of seven senior technology and financial services veterans.

Wealthbot.io from GitHub

[And finally, wrapping up the week is an interesting discovery I made on the Internet called Wealthbot. Now stick with me on this one. Wealthbot is open source code published on the GitHub repository that can be used to create your own wealth management platform.

Not satisfied with the commercial wealth management solutions available today? That’s right, you can now build your own robo advisor, I mean, automated investment service. Now developers should get excited about the possibilities here, but advisors using Wealthbot directly? Well, that’s probably not going to happen without significant help from programmers.

But here’s the thing: online services like Wealthfront, Betterment, Future Advisor, even Schwab Intelligent Portfolios have attracted huge amounts of attention and venture capital for their software-based investment algorithms. So what happens to the value of those companies when code that mirrors their functionality is published on the Internet, for free?

Could Wealthbot be the next WordPress, OpenOffice, or Firefox of robo advisors? That, ladies and gentlemen, is why you’re watching FPPad Bits and Bytes.] Wealthbot.io makes it easy to launch a Wealth Management Platform. Build and customize your very own version of a robo-advisor.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 12, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 12, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 5

Posted on June 5, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Guide Financial gets scooped up by an insurance company, Fox Financial Planning Network wants to help you with your online investment service adoption, and WealthMinder raises fresh capital to give you an edge over robo advisors.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

This week’s episode of Bits and Bytes is brought to you by Total Rebalance Expert, the industry’s largest, privately owned portfolio rebalancing software provider.

trx 600

TRX now offers TRX Edge, a completely rewritten rebalancing platform optimized for the web as well as mobile devices. Sign up for a demo of TRX Edge by visiting http://fppad.com/trx

 

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

John Hancock Acquires Software Provider Guide Financial, Inc. As Part of Companywide Long-Term Innovation Plan from John Hancock

[This week’s top story comes from Guide Financial, because while I was enjoying clam chowder in a Boudin sourdough bowl in San Francisco, the company announced it was acquired by John Hancock, the life insurance, mutual fund, and retirement solution provider. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Now if you’re a regular viewer of FPPad Bits and Bytes, you should remember I highlighted Guide Financial in episode 124 when the company announced an agreement to white-label its solution for members of the Garrett Planning Network.

That was more than a year ago, and I’m told that the adoption of the white-labeled solution was below expectations. So fast forward to today on the heels of fintech acquisitions of eMoney Advisor, Upside, NestEgg Wealth, and LearnVest and you’ll quickly realize that industry behemoths like John Hancock are eager to cater to tech-savvy customers with slick, user friendly online experiences. Guide Financial is just one of the many online startups in this space building such a platform.

In the press release, John Hancock said that Guide Financial will operate as an independent group, so I can only speculate whether or not Guide Financial will remain independent or if some financial product upselling and/or cross marketing will weave its way into the solution. So stay tuned.] John Hancock announced today that it has acquired Guide Financial, Inc., a San Francisco-based software provider for financial advisors. Guide Financial builds software that enables investors to make better financial decisions and build wealth, utilizing artificial intelligence, behavioral finance, and seamless advisor integration. Terms were not disclosed.

Fox Financial Planning Network Launches AdvisorTouch Symphony from PRNewswire

[Next up is more news regarding online investment services, as the Fox Financial Planning Network recently announced a new program called AdvisorTouch Symphony. If you missed the news because you were out riding a cable car, AdvisorTouch Symphony is essentially a turnkey roadmap you can implement to add an online investment service to your business.

Under the program, you’ll receive step-by-step guidance on how to adopt these new tools, with Jemstep Advisor Pro being the first automated investment service of choice, and you can expect several other online services to be featured in the near future.

Pricing for firms with one to three advisors is a one-time fee of $5,500, and larger firms will be charged based on their size and need for customization.

This gets you the practice management resources, but this fee doesn’t include additional compliance guidance and resources available from National Regulatory Services, or the optional cybersecurity consulting from True North Networks which were both named in an alliance with AdvisorTouch Symphony. Whew! Got that?

So if you want someone else to show you how to add an online investment service to your business, this is one resource to be sure is on your radar.] Fox Financial Planning Network (FFPN) announced today the launch of AdvisorTouch Symphony, the only program of its kind to help financial advisory firms harness the power of combining robo-technology with practice management. FFPN created this program to demystify robo-technology for advisory firms and provide a detailed road map through every aspect of the implementation process to help firms maximize the benefits of its use.

This Reston startup raised $1.45M to bring financial advisers to the masses from BizJournals.com, and

Beyond the Robo-Advisor from Financial Advisor Magazine

[And finally, this week’s broadcast wraps up with news on WealthMinder, because while I was pillaging and plundering with pirates of the “you can’t say that on YouTube,” the company announced a new round of fundraising to the swashbuckling tune of $1.45 million.

WealthMinder is, surprise surprise, yet another while-labeled advisor solution for online service, only this one goes beyond basic asset allocation recommendations by incorporating goal planning. To get a deeper look at WealthMinder, coincidentally, Joel Bruckenstein reviewed WealthMinder in his column for Financial Advisor Magazine this month.

To cut to the chase, clients and prospects log in to WealthMinder and choose goals they’re planning for, they aggregate their investment accounts using an integration from Yodlee, and WealthMinder ultimately generates an initial financial plan based on some basic assumptions, and yes, the plan can include investment recommendations, too.

For you, the advisor, you can log in to your dashboard and view all the plans that clients have created, which includes their recommended actions, and then you can proactively offer your services to help clients implement the next steps. There are a reported 26 firms using the platform today, and the pricing to advisors comes in at $10 per month per client, but you can offset the cost by collecting a monthly subscription fee from clients who want to use the WealthMinder platform.] WealthMinder, a Reston-based financial marketplace that looks to connect financial advisers with people who aren’t considered wealthy, has secured $1.45 million in seed funding led by two West Coast venture capital firms — Green Visor Capital and Signatures Capital.

Here are the stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

Morningstar to Add Portfolio Rebalancing Capability for Independent Financial Advisors, Powered by Total Rebalance Expert from Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research, is working with Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) to add rebalancing functionality to Morningstar Office, the company’s practice and portfolio management system for independent financial advisors.

Vestorly Announces the Integration of Its Smart Digital Content Technology on to Pershings NetX360® Platform from Marketwired

Vestorly today announced the integration of its smart digital content technology into Pershing’s NetX360® platform.

Tech Review: New Bet on Financial Health from Financial Planning

Consumers seem to be buying into the idea that these devices can help improve their physical health, so why not create similar mobile capabilities to track financial health?

 

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 5, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 5, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 22

Posted on May 22, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Advicent rolls out Figlo to advisors in the United States, YCharts raises another $6 million to dethrone the industry’s dominant research terminal, and SEI rolls out a new program designed to streamline your internal workflow.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Croesus, the affordable all-in-one portfolio management & CRM software for RIAs. Over 9,500 investment professionals use the Croesus application to manage more than $700 billion in assets, and Croesus is offering a 50% discount on set-up fees for Advent Axys users until June 30th.

Croesus

To learn more about Croesus or to sign up for a free trial, visit fppad.com/croesus.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Advicent Unveils the Figlo™ Client Centric Planning Tool from Advicent, and

Advicent and Redtail Partner through Figlo™ Integration from Advicent

[This week’s top story comes from Advicent, as the company announced the official release of the Figlo™ interactive planning tool in the United States. You should recall that Advicent announced the acquisition of Netherlands-based Figlo back in September 2014 which I covered in episode 141, so they’ve wasted very little time to introduce the planning tool to advisors here in the U.S.

Figlo has nearly 20 years of history in the European marketplace and will bring a suite of features stateside that you should find compelling, especially if you strengthen your client relationships through comprehensive financial planning. So here’s what you can expect:

Figlo offers a prospecting and lead generation tool called Figlo Leads, the Figlo planning tool presents an interactive lifeline and goal gauge for plan illustrations, you can collaborate with clients using the client portal and secure document vault, and you can streamline client data entry through a new integration announced this week with Redtail CRM. The integration is a one-way connection with Redtail to start, but you can expect the data synchronization between the two programs to deepen over time.] Advicent Solutions, the leading provider of SaaS technology solutions for the financial services industry, announced the U.S. release of Figlo™, an interactive financial planning tool within its complete product offering for financial professionals. Advisors leveraging Figlo™ technology will have more opportunities for interactive, meaningful and impactful conversations with both prospects and clients.

YCharts Closes $6 Million Investment Round, Hires Morningstar’s Jeremy Diamond as Growth Accelerates from BusinessWire

[Next up is news from YCharts, as this week the provider of research and interactive charts announced series C funding to the tune of about $6 million, bringing its total funding to approximately $14.5 million. YCharts was founded in 2010 and positioned itself as an alternative to higher-priced research terminals, and in less than five years, the company is proving to be a very powerful and popular research tool for portfolio managers, wealth managers, and independent RIAs.

Back in episode 133, I told you about the new dashboard rolled out by YCharts, but at the time, research was limited to equities and ETFs. Fast forward to today, and YCharts now also offers extensive data on over 40,000 mutual funds. So once again, if detailed research and data plays a significant role in your investment process, you might find YCharts to be an attractive alternative to the high-end terminals so prevalent in the industry, but one that’s available at a fraction of the price.] Shawn Carpenter, co-founder and CEO of YCharts, the Financial Terminal of the Web, announced the closing of a C round of venture funding of about $6 million and the appointment of Jeremy Diamond as chief revenue officer of YCharts. These moves coincide with an acceleration of the company’s growth.

SEI’s ProcessWise Program Introduces New Workflows Designed to Maximize Advisor Efficiency and Productivity from MarketWatch

[And finally, rounding out this week’s broadcast is news from SEI, the turnkey asset management provider, that just released a new workflow program called SEI ProcessWise.

Once again, back in 2014 at the T3 conference, I covered SEI’s announcement of their partnership with Redtail CRM, MoneyGuidePro and ActiFi to develop an automated workflow solution for advisors. SEI ProcessWise is the first product of this partnership that is being rolled out to the roughly 6,100 advisors that work with SEI.

SEI ProcessWise provides 48 step-by-step workflow processes that address a variety of client service, account maintenance, and portfolio management activities, and for advisors who already use Redtail CRM in their business, SEI will preconfigure those workflows directly within Redtail to facilitate adoption. In addition to the workflow configurations, SEI is also including three months of training to help advisors implement the automated workflows into their business for a nominal cost.] As financial advisors look for new sources of productivity and efficiency, SEI announced today the launch of SEI ProcessWise, a comprehensive workflow program which streamlines client interactions, sales, marketing, and practice management tasks.

Here are the stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

NFP Advisor Services Adopts Vestorly to Strengthen Advisors’ Digital Presence and Help Drive Business from PRNewswire

NFP Advisor Services, a leading independent broker-dealer, announced it will provide integrated access to the Vestorly solution to all affiliated financial advisors which includes over 1,400 registered representatives.

Finovate Spring 2015 Demo Archives from Finovate

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 22, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 22, 2015