Archive | Bits & Bytes RSS feed for this section

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 3

Posted on July 3, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, a group of NexGen financial planners reveal their top technology apps. Are you using any of these popular tools in your business? A startup named Quovo aims to streamline account aggregation. Will they be able to solve frustrations with managing held-away accounts? And, this month’s Journal of Financial Planning is packed with great content. Find out which contributions can help you boost your firm’s technology.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by the 2014 T3 Enterprise Conference, exclusively designed for the technology needs of broker-dealers and financial enterprises.

T3EClogo600

If you’re looking for the best place to monitor trends in broker-dealer technology, you need to come to Atlanta November 11th through 13th. Reserve your spot today by visiting t3enterpriseconference.com

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

What an Elite Group of Younger Advisors Has to Say from Advisor Perspectives

[This week’s top story comes from Bob Veres, the savant of the financial planning profession, who provided an introspection of the FPA NexGen gathering he recently attended in Moline, IL. FPA NexGen is a community of over 2,000 FPA members age 36 and under, representing the future of the industry as they succeed today’s advisors who are entering retirement.

While Veres presents several thought-provoking discussions from the event, you’ll find his recap of technology tools and apps mentioned at the NexGen gathering to be of particular interest. Some of the top apps include ScheduleOnce, and online calendar clients can use to automatically book meetings, Evernote, an omnipresent note-taking app, Pay Simple, an online billing and payment service, and many more.] I recently served as a facilitator for the annual NexGen conference, this year held on the campus of Augustana University in Moline, IL., … [where] I was able to gain insight into the very different way that the financial planning landscape looks through the eyes of younger advisors just starting their careers — and in many cases, from the bottom end of a planning firm’s organizational chart.

Advisor Aggravation from Financial Advisor Magazine

[Next up is a column from technology consultant Joel Bruckenstein. In his latest update for Financial Advisor magazine, Bruckenstein highlights a start up in the account aggregation space called Quovo.

For the longest time, reconciliation-ready account aggregation was available from just a handful of providers. First is ByAllAccounts, which was just purchased by Morningstar back in April for $28 million, then CashEdge, which was acquired by Fiserv for $465 million in 2011, and Aqumulate, formerly known as Advisor Exchange.

New to the scene is Quovo, which claims to aggregate data from over 18,000 financial institutions to provide detailed performance reports, asset allocation reviews, and even simulated market stress testing. Bruckenstein wrote that “Quovo has great potential in the advisory space,” so it’s worth adding the company to your technology radar, especially if you’re looking to improve your ability to work with clients’ held-away accounts.] In the wake of Morningstar’s recent purchase of ByAllAccounts, this seems like a particularly good time to take a look at a firm called Quovo.

Journal of Financial Planning July Issue from OneFPA.org

[And finally, the July 2014 edition of the Journal of Financial Planning is now available, and it’s a very good one with respect to technology. You’ll definitely want to check out the cover story that features two case studies on how to effectively market a financial planning business, then read a column from past FPA President Dan Moisand on why robo-advisors are a problem for the profession, and also read my own contribution on the seven most important tips you need to follow to enhance the videos you upload online.

You need to be an FPA member to access the digital edition of the magazine, but I think it’s worth it given the value you’ll receive from the Journal as well as the other member benefits offered by the FPA.] Marketing experts Kristen Luke and Kristin Harad, CFP®, offer specific marketing tactics for two very different advisory firms—one new, eager to start marketing, but not sure how; and one established, wishing to better attract high net worth clients.

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

MoneyGuidePro® Announces Enhanced Integration with Morningstar Office from BusinessWire

MoneyGuidePro®, a leader in goal-focused financial planning, and Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced greatly enhanced integration between MoneyGuidePro and Morningstar OfficeSM, the practice and portfolio management system for independent financial advisors.

Rebalancing Made Easy from Financial Advisor Magazine

Portfolio rebalancing can be a time consuming and largely inefficient task if attempted manually. That is why portfolio management software and rebalancing solutions have become so popular.

Morgan Stanley lets advisers write what they tweet from InvestmentNews

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has given financial advisers the go-ahead to write their own Twitter content.

ProTracker pulls cloud-based CRM back into beta from InvestmentNews

Eight months after announcing the launch of a cloud-based customer relationship management product for advisers, ProTracker Software Inc. has stopped selling its ProTracker Cloud CRM while the company fixes some kinks in the product.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 3, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 3, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 20

Posted on June 20, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Apple previews new features in its mobile and desktop operating systems. Will they be enough to wean advisors away from Microsoft? Betterment launches a new tax loss harvesting algorithm. How much potential additional return can this service add to client portfolios? And, if you just can’t get enough of real-time stock and economic data, then you need to check out the new Dashboard from YCharts.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Wealthbox CRM. Don’t waste another warm summer evening reading your CRM’s user manual.

Wealthbox CRM

Instead, turn on simplicity, tune in to Wealthbox, and drop out of CRM school with Wealthbox’s outrageously simple CRM. Get a free trial today by visiting fppad.com/wealthbox

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

Preview iOS 8 from Apple, and

Preview OS X Yosemite from Apple

[This week’s top story highlights Apple’s announcements at its 2014 World Wide Developers Conference held in San Francisco. The company introduced a ton of new features coming in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite later this fall, but here are ones that are most relevant to financial advisors.

First, iCloud Drive was introduced as Apple’s answer to popular cloud document synchronization services like Dropbox, Box, and ShareFile. You’ll soon be able to synchronize all kinds of files, not just Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents, to the iCloud service, but iCloud Drive’s sharing features are not as robust as other providers. While you can share individual files from iCloud using a unique URL, you can’t sync entire folders of documents with other iCloud users.

Second, an update to the iOS keyboard includes predictive text that will suggest contextually appropriate words and phrases to significantly speed up your replies while responding on your device. Hopefully this will put an end to your pithy text message lingo!

Third, security gets a boost as data stored in the Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Notes, and Messages apps first requires a passcode for access any time the phone is rebooted.

And fourth, iOS 8 will allow you to mirror your device’s screen directly to an Apple TV without joining a WiFi network. This peer-to-peer AirPlay connection is perfect for the times you want to mirror your iPad screen to a TV, but don’t have access to a WiFi network at a client’s home or at a conference hotel. Try doing that with a Chromecast! 

On the OS X Yosemite side, advisors should enjoy the flexibility to make and receive phone calls from your computer using your iPhone, a supercharged Spotlight app that offers search results from Wikipedia, Bing, Maps, and more, and a clever Handoff feature to synchronize your work in progress between your Mac and your iOS devices.]

Betterment Introduces Tax Loss Harvesting+™ from Betterment.com, and

White Paper: Tax Loss Harvesting+™

[Next up is news from Betterment, the online algorithm-powered investment service, which just announced the introduction of Tax Loss Harvesting Plus™.

In a very detailed white paper, Betterment identified how its Tax Loss Harvesting Plus service would have generated an additional 0.77 percent annualized after-tax return over 13 years of backtested data. But as I read through the discussion of navigating wash sale rules and Betterment’s Parallel Position Management strategy, I couldn’t help but think that managing such nuances of tax loss harvesting can potentially turn in to a full-time job for advisors, especially those who employ active strategies with individual equities and ETFs.

I reached out to Jon Stein, Betterment founder and CEO, and he confirmed that the Tax Loss Harvesting Plus™ service will be available in the Betterment Institutional platform that will be introduced to financial advisors in the near future. So now you’re faced with a yet another decision: will you continue to manage time-consuming tax loss harvesting strategies with in-house technology, or outsource this service once Betterment’s Institutional offering becomes available?] Tax Loss Harvesting+ can reduce your tax exposure better than other automated harvesting tools. Every transaction, both customer and system initiated, is executed in a tax-efficient way.

YCharts Dashboard from YCharts.com

[And wrapping up this week’s broadcast is news from YCharts, a research and charting provider to a variety of financial institutions. In response to overwhelming feedback, YCharts introduced a new Dashboard application that allows users to build their own customs screens with all sorts of analytical tools.

If you live and breathe charts, watch lists, and economic indicators but don’t want to pay the high price for a Bloomberg terminal, YCharts lets you view data on US and Canadian equites, ETFs, ADRs and over 400,000 economic indicators. Shawn Carpenter, YCharts co-founder and CEO, also told me that the next wave of data updates to YCharts will include mutual funds.] The Dashboard is all about you: Which companies you want to see. Which indicators you want to follow. Which indices matter to your investing process. Set it up once, and it will be with you for the rest of your investing career.

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

Cybersecurity firm says large hedge fund attacked from CNBC.com

In an audacious and sophisticated attack, cybercriminals acting in late 2013 installed a malicious computer program on the servers of a large hedge fund, crippling its high-speed trading strategy and sending information about its trades to unknown offsite computers, CNBC has learned.

RegEd Launches Enterprise Risk Control Center

RegEd, a leading provider of technology solutions for compliance and risk management for the financial services industry, announced today the launch of RegEd SCORE™ Risk Control Center, the industry’s first analytics-driven solution that brings together critical compliance and business data to enable Broker-Dealers to identify and manage behavioral and sales practice risk among their registered population.

A Guide to RIA CRM Software for Investment Adviser Firms of all Sizes from RIAinaBox.com

Using data from our recent 2014 RIA Systems and Operations Survey along with other industry observations, we wanted to provide some guidance when it comes to selecting the right CRM software tool for your advisory firm.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 20, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 20, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 30

Posted on May 30, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Microsoft introduces the Surface Pro 3 line of tablets. Will the third time be the charm to win adoption from advisors? Cybersecurity remains a hot topic in financial services. Read what one compliance attorney says are the worst security practices he’s ever seen. And, advisor matchmaking websites are popping up everywhere. Will any of them reach critical mass to successfully match prospects with the right advisor?

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by ITEGRIA, providers of complete outsourced technology support, security, infrastructure and IT solutions exclusively for RIAs.

itegria - providing a 360-degree, comprehensive approach to financial advisor IT needs

To learn how you can keep your data safe from attackers, download a free copy of their latest white paper on social engineering attacks by visiting fppad.com/itegria.

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

Fly Or Die: Microsoft Surface Pro 3 from TechCrunch

[This week’s top story comes from Microsoft, as the company recently introduced its third generation of Surface Pro tablets due out by mid to late June. The entry level Surface Pro 3 comes with the Core i3 processor and 64GB of storage, starting at $799, but a fully loaded Core i7 version with 512 GB of storage will set you back almost $2,000 and it doesn’t include the detachable Type Cover, which runs an additional $129.

Microsoft is using its Surface Pro 3 to take aim at the Apple MacBook Air line of popular ultra-thin laptops. While the Surface Pro 3 is lighter than the 13” MacBook air, offers a touch display, and has a removable keyboard, the fully-loaded version runs nearly $300 more than the top of the line MacBook Air.

Still, the latest Surface runs Windows 8 natively, supports Microsoft Office, and poses fewer compatibility issues with proprietary broker-dealer or custodial software that often requires Internet Explorer.

But at 18% taller and 22% wider than the iPad Air, to me the Surface really isn’t a tablet as much as it is a touchscreen laptop with a detachable keyboard. It remains to be seen whether the Surface Pro 3 will gain adoption from advisors, or languish when compared with the more traditional Windows laptops from manufacturers like Dell, Lenovo, and others.] Forget everything you thought you knew about the Microsoft Surface tablet, as the latest generation of the Windows-powered Surface Pro is a clear step up from the Microsoft slates of yore.

surface pro 3 thumbnail

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 review: A legitimate work PC in tablet clothing from PCWorld

Through every iteration, Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet has edged closer to becoming a true laptop replacement. Microsoft’s latest Surface Pro 3 takes several small steps in that direction—along with one giant, game-changing leap.

Experts: Financial Advisers Lax on Cybersecurity from WSJ.com

[Next up is a timely article on poor cybersecurity practices among financial advisors. In a Wall Street Journal column, Brian Hamburger, compliance attorney and chief executive of MarketCounsel, identified several dangerous issues he’s seen when visiting advisory firms.

The innocent, but dangerous, practices include things like writing down passwords on sticky notes, failing to reset passwords when an employee leaves the firm, and not encrypting laptop hard drives.

Couple that with the dramatic increase in client spoofing, where hackers break in to client email accounts to request fraudulent money transfers, and you have a recipe for some substantial financial losses as well as the loss of client trust.

Regarding passwords, my advice is to treat them like a pair of boxer shorts. Yes, boxer shorts: Keep them a mystery, don’t share them, don’t leave them lying around, and please, change them often!] When consultant Brian Hamburger visits financial advisory firms he often sees a practice as innocent as it is dangerous: Passwords posted on computers to help advisers remember them.

‘Match.com’ for advisers and clients expands to San Francisco from InvestmentNews

[And finally, there are a number of new websites that have recently launched to match consumers seeking financial advice with financial advisors. You may already be familiar with services like Paladin Registry or WiserAdvisor.com, and to a lesser extent, the advisor search features from the FPA and NAPFA.

But recently, InvestmentNews highlighted the latest entrant into the field called GuideVine. The service follows a similar theme to existing advisor matchmaking websites, but GuideVine offers embedded video introductions along with standard written biographies to help consumers get a feel of each advisor’s unique characteristics.

Now I support any and all websites that have the objective of connecting clients with advisors that are right for them, but I think advisors would be wise to invest time and energy building their own online resources, which include a blog, active social media profiles, and even a YouTube channel.

I feel it’s key to be visible in the places where your potential clients are active every day, and to me, the advisor matchmaking sites just don’t have the large audiences that are found on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and more.] GuideVine, a technology startup that wants to connect advisers with consumers seeking financial advice, started operations on Thursday in San Francisco after a successful New York launch in March.

And here are stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

Voices: Katie Stokes, on Getting Rid of the Quarterly Report from WSJ.com (free preview)

With real-time market and investment available online to every client, the quarterly report is an obsolete mode of data delivery.

Riskalyze and United Planners Launch Partnership from Yahoo Finance

United Planners Financial Services (UP), a national RIA and independent broker-dealer partnership with more than 350 advisors nationwide, and Riskalyze, the creator of the Risk Number™, today announced a partnership to equip every UP advisor with industry-leading Client Risk Profile technology to pinpoint client risk tolerance.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 30, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 30, 2014

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 16

Posted on May 16, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, two financial technology startups raise new rounds of capital. Find out how their solutions have the potential to enhance your business. A popular online document storage provider adds new features. Will they be enough to wean advisors off of consumer services like Dropbox? And this month I say farewell in my final column for Morningstar Advisor, but not before I leave readers with a glimpse of disruptive advisor technology coming in the near future.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

This week’s episode is brought to you by Wealth Management Marketing, providers of complete outsourced marketing services for Registered Investment Advisers.

Wealth Management Marketing

Learn how outsourcing your marketing can result in successful custom marketing campaigns that grow your business by visiting fppad.com/wmm.

Here are this week’s top stories:

Motif Investing partners with financial advisors to introduce flat-fee trading and rebalancing platform from Motif Investments

[Leading off this week’s broadcast is news on two financial technology startups, Motif Investing and Addepar, which both announced new rounds of financing this week. Motif Investing, fresh off its second Best of Show award from Finovate, raised $35 million in funding from new investors, bringing its total to $86 million in venture capital.

During its Finovate Spring 2014 demo, Motif unveiled the Motif Advisor Platform, a solution that allows financial advisors to build, manage and rebalance their own motifs on behalf of clients. Motifs can include a combination of up to 30 stocks and ETFs, but instead of paying a commission to trade each individual security, motifs can be traded for one flat fee of just $9.95. Combining your model portfolios into motifs has the potential to save you time when trading, and it undoubtedly saves your clients in transaction fees that can add up quickly.] Motif Investing’s Advisor Platform, which was recently awarded “Best of Show” at the FinovateSpring conference, streamlines how advisors can build, monitor, and rebalance model portfolios.

Motif video thumbnail

Addepar Raises $50M in Series C Financing from BusinessWire.com

[And moving on to Addepar, the company announced a round of Series C financing to the tune of $50 million dollars, bringing its investment total to $66 million. Addepar’s technology is designed to bring better transparency to the world of complex investments, which includes private equity, committed capital, non-traded alternatives, and more. If you need a refresher on Addepar’s technology and its potential to serve the RIA market, you can watch my interview with Addepar’s former president and chief strategy officer Mike Paulus.] Addepar, a leading financial technology platform for the $120 trillion investment management industry, announced that it has raised $50 million in its Series C financing.

Citrix ShareFile Secures Files for Today’s Mobile Workspaces from Citrix.com

[Next is an update on ShareFile, the web-based document storage service now owned by Citrix. At its annual conference in southern California last week, Citrix announced several enhancements to the document storage service popular among financial advisors. First is a new Software Development Kit, or SDK, that enables support for more third-party integrations with the ShareFile service.

Second, a ShareFile Personal Cloud Connector was introduced to facilitate the migration of files stored in other online services like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft’s OneDrive and consolidate everything in ShareFile. Third, the company announced the upcoming redesign of the ShareFile app for iPhone that will offer a simplified and easier-to-use interface. And finally, all ShareFile users can now review and edit Microsoft Office documents or annotate PDF files on a mobile device, which are features that were once only available to enterprise subscribers.] Today at Citrix Synergy™, Citrix announced new Citrix ShareFile® features that deliver the broadest storage access for users and the most choice for IT.

The Big Trends in Financial Services Technology from Morningstar Advisor

[And finally, if you’re want to stay up to date on the big trends in financial services technology, you should read my farewell column at Morningstar Advisor this month. Yes, after four years of monthly columns, I have decided to hang up my hat, but not before leaving loyal readers with a glimpse of what I feel will be the most significant technology trends to affect the advisory profession. A preview of those trends includes big data and social collaboration in your CRM, first offered by Redtail and Wealthbox respectively, modern on-demand portfolio reports from companies like Blueleaf, Quovo, and Guide Financial, and the disruptive potential of tech-heavy online investment providers like Wealthfront, Betterment, Personal Capital, and more.] In a farewell report, MorningstarAdvisor.com technology columnist Bill Winterberg reflects on the advancements and evolutions in cloud-based and mobile technology, CRM, portfolio management, rebalancing software, and online advice over the last four years.

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

Advisor Websites & Salesforce – The integration you’ve been waiting for from Advisor Websites

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 16, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 16, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 9

Posted on May 9, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, a new risk tolerance questionnaire gets reviewed. How is it different from the existing solutions already on the market? Gamification is coming to a financial plan near you. Learn how one company is getting consumers to follow through with smart financial moves. And I have a bone to pick with Bob Veres. Find out what he said that I feel mischaracterizes how the future of the financial planning profession will evolve.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad 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.

Total Rebalance Expert

Now available as a part of the Orion Advisor Services platform, TRX features tax-efficient rebalancing, an easy to use interface, and more, all at an affordable price. Learn how you can gain a half a million dollar return on your technology investment by downloading their latest white paper at fppad.com/trx

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

New Test for Risk Tolerance from Financial Planning

Visit the Pocket Risk website

[This week’s top story is a review of a new risk assessment tool called Pocket Risk. Pocket Risk is the latest product that joins Riskalyse, Finametrica, Financial DNA and several others to assess client risk tolerance using an interactive questionnaire.

Clients go through a list of 20 questions regarding their personal definition of risk, preferences around investment volatility, and other introspective qualities to generate their risk tolerance score, measured from 0 to 100. If you’re curious about Pocket Risk’s specific methodology, the company posted technical details on their website. And Bruckenstein compliments Pocket Risk for its analysis report, calling it quote “short and sweet.”

A two-week free trial of Pocket Risk is available, and subscriptions begin at just $55 per month for one user.] Recently, a number of firms have come to market with standalone applications to measure risk tolerance. One is Pocket Risk, which has an intriguing pedigree and approach.

A new planning tool for advisers challenges clients to win a game from Investment News

[Next is a story about a company called FlexScore, which is using gamification to encourage consumers to make positive choices when managing their finances. Created by financial advisors Jeff Burrow and Jason Gordo, Flexscore creates a score for each user, ranging from zero to 1,000, based on how well they manage their personal finances.

It takes about 20 minutes to complete a profile and connect financial accounts using account aggregation, and users can increase their score by completing recommended action steps, which can be as simple as watching a view for a few points, or paying off debt for a lot more points.

While an advisor version of Flexscore isn’t available today, Flexscore just announced an advisor version of the product at Finovate Spring 2014, so I expect the application of gamification surrounding financial decision making to weave its way into the technology solutions you use with clients. So keep Flexscore on your radar and think about how gamaification might make sense in the technology you use with clients.]  Jason Gordo told me he was bringing FlexScore to Finovate because the online tool uses the popular tech trend of gamification to engage consumers in the process of goals-based wealth planning.

Watch Flexscore's Finovate Spring 2014 demo

Watch Flexscore’s Finovate Spring 2014 demo

Ten Ways the Next Generation of Financial Planners Will Change the Profession from Advisor Perspectives

[And finally, this week’s broadcast wraps up with commentary from the venerable Bob Veres, who writes at Advisor Perspectives about ten ways the next generation of financial planners are going to change the profession.

In his article, Veres highlights trends he sees among younger financial planners, which includes the complete outsourcing of investment management activity, charging clients a low-cost monthly subscription automatically paid by credit card, hosting videoconferences with Skype and Google Hangouts, and running through illustrations in financial planning software in real time with clients, either in the room or through a screen sharing programs.

But here’s the beef I have with Veres’ article: none of the ten characteristics are exclusive to younger financial planners. Whether you’re a new advisor or a veteran of the industry, you can use any of the ten techniques to streamline your business, add scalability, and enhance the experience you deliver to clients.

So if there’s one takeaway I have from Veres’ article, it’s the call to action of how quickly your business can implement useful technology and ultimately change the profession for the better.] Having interviewed a number of people who will attend the NexGen gathering, and others who are in their generational cohort, I have distilled the ten key themes that illustrate how the next generation of advisors will change the profession when they take the reins.

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

Ric Edelman: Stay Cutting-Edge on Technology or Fail from Think Advisor

Education is key to winning Next Gen assets from InvestmentNews.com

Five Easy-To-Use Tech Tools For Advisors from Financial Advisor Magazine

Motif Launches Products to Help Advisors Compete With Robo-Advisors from Think Advisor

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 9

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 9

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 2

Posted on May 2, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, the Office of the Future has arrived. Find out what technology you should buy to be an advisor on the leading edge. Cybersecurity enforcement is coming from the SEC. How will you prepare your firm for this new round of exams? And, retirement illustrations get distilled down to two variables. How one company’s simplified tool can help clients make better investment choices, all in real time.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Laserfiche, a leading document management provider to financial advisors.

Laserfiche Logo

Laserfiche helps increase business value by automating client onboarding and document filing processes, all while supporting regulatory compliance. Download a free copy of their ROI for RIAs white paper by visiting fppad.com/laserfiche

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Fidelity® Opens New Office of the Future to Show Financial Advisors First-Hand How to Embrace Technology from BusinessWire

Launch the virtual tour of the Office of the Future at Fidelity.com

[This week’s lead story comes from Fidelity Investments, as the company unveiled a radical approach to the advisor’s workplace called the Office of the Future. Fidelity’s Office of the Future is actually a real place you can visit at the company’s campus in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

If you can’t visit the office in person, Fidelity provides a 360-degree virtual tour online, where you can view technology that emphasizes seven trends relevant to advisors, including pervasive video, big data, gamification, and more.

But a part of me feels that the Office of the Future label is bit of a misnomer, as you can buy just about every piece of equipment installed in the Office of the Future today. Nevertheless, if you updated your technology with the kinds of tools and devices seen in Fidelity’s example, I think you’ll have a good chance of attracting new clients that have increased expectations about their advisor’s technology and overall service experience.] Fidelity Institutional, the division of Fidelity Investments® that provides clearing, custody and investment management products to registered investment advisors (RIAs), banks, broker-dealers and family offices, today announced the opening of the Office of the Future on its Smithfield, Rhode Island campus.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations Cybersecurity Initiative from SEC.gov

[Now as all financial professionals use more technology in their businesses, the SEC is ramping up its oversight of the risks of all this technology through enhanced cybersecurity examinations.

Two weeks ago, the SEC released an extensive document covering dozens of items examiners may request when auditing the cybersecurity policies and procedures of a financial services firm, and that includes SEC-registered investment advisers.

Based on its list of requests, the SEC expects you to have a written security information policy, an inventory of hardware devices and software applications used in your business, details on when and how you conduct risk assessments, and a whole lot more.

It’s clear that enforcement regarding cybersecurity is about to get a lot tougher, which I feel is appropriate given the responsibility you have to keep your clients’ personal and financial account information safe from attacks.

So I recommend that whoever is responsible for addressing security in your firm review the nearly 30 individual items in the SEC’s sample request list and update your policies and procedures accordingly, and do it sooner rather than later.] OCIE is issuing this Risk Alert to provide additional information concerning its initiative to assess cybersecurity preparedness in the securities industry.

Introducing Retirement Maps from Riskalyze.com

[And finally, rounding out this week’s update is a new feature from Riskalyze called Retirement Maps. Now many advisors like to illustrate a client’s probability of success in funding their retirement goals projected many years into the future, but the extensive data entry required and time consuming Monte Carlo calculations performed by most software programs can often be a deterrent of doing so.

So the new Retirement Maps aims to significantly streamline this process. Here’s Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klien with more details:

Best of all, Retirement Maps is being offered as a free upgrade to all existing Riskalyze customers, and for a limited time, new Riskalyze customers will also receive a free lifetime upgrade as well.] After thousands of hours of research and development, our Core Technology team invented a new way to deterministically calculate the 95% probability years into the future. There’s no waiting for a long, slow recalculation: you get an interactive way to build a map for the client’s retirement right in front of their very eyes.

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

The new LinkedIn Compliance Program from LinkedIn

Our Certified Compliance Partners provide expert monitoring, archiving, and management of communications for enterprises in regulated industries. They help your social interactions remain effective while ensuring compliance with corporate governance policies and major regulations. 

Nashville wealth management startup raises $3 million from investors from Bizjournals.com

Wealth Access, a wealth management platform designed for financial advisers and high-net-worth clients, announced Wednesday that it had raised more than $3 million in a financing round that includes investments from a TNInvestco fund and a St. Louis financial technology accelerator.

XY Planning Network Adds Tech Partners from Financial Advisor magazine

XY Planning Network, the platform launched in early April by Michael Kitces and Alan Moore, announced Monday its list of “core” technology partners that will be available to current and new members of the platform, which is dedicated to helping young planners build a fee-only business targeting Gen X and Gen Y clients.

Orion Client Portal Goes Open Source from PRNewswire

Orion Advisor Services, LLC, the premier portfolio accounting service bureau, announces a complete redesign of the functionality and features of the client portal for its financial advisor clients. With this redesign, advisors have new capabilities to communicate more effectively with their clients, and give clients a complete snapshot of all their assets, whether managed by the advisor or not.

How the RIA business made a dent at the 2014 Finovate conference in San Jose from RIABiz.com

On the leading edge of financial services technology innovation, Personal Capital, Motif Investing, and more demo their latest features to change the way consumers engage with financial advisors.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 2

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 2

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 11

Posted on April 11, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, a serious security flaw impacts two-thirds of the Internet. How this may affect the information you store online. Betterment announces the launch of an Institutional platform. Will they start winning turnkey asset management business from advisors? And learn how a new integration between Redtail and Riskalyze will help you monitor client portfolios to keep them in line with your client’s risk tolerance.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Wealthbox CRM. Wealthbox is collaborative, social, and outrageously simple CRM for financial advisors.

Wealthbox CRM

Sign up for a free trial today by visiting fppad.com/wealthbox

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

Here’s everything you need to know about the Heartbleed web security flaw from Gigaom, and

The Heartbleed FAQ for financial advisers from FPPad

[Leading off this week’s broadcast is news of a critical security flaw in a web browser encryption standard called OpenSSL, in use by an estimated two-thirds of all the servers connected to the Internet.

To summarize, the flaw, called “Heartbleed,” allows an attacker to use messages called “heartbeats” to trick a server into passing along sensitive information from its memory, which could include account passwords or the server’s private encryption keys. When hackers get access to that information, really bad things can happen.

So what can you do in response to the Heartbleed vulnerability? In all honesty, not too much. Assume the worst-case scenario, that an attacker has compromised your online passwords, so consider updating your passwords for affected websites to one that’s longer and more difficult to crack. You should also activate multi-factor authentication for any service where it is supported.] Researchers have discovered a serious flaw known as Heartbleed that affects the security software that runs on about two-thirds of the servers on the internet and could expose user data, including passwords. Here’s what you need to know about it

Tiburon CEO Summit extrudes big news: Betterment Institutional is born from RIABiz.com

[Next is an update from the online investment advice category, as this week Betterment revealed plans to introduce an institutional version of its technology to financial advisors.

In a fascinating report, RIABiz detailed how plans for Betterment Institutional were made public this week at the Tiburon CEO Summit in New York, as Betterment CEO Jon Stein and new Betterment partner and investor Steve Lockshin, known for founding Fortigent and Convergent Wealth Advisors, were both in attendance.

The soon-to-be-released offering from Betterment takes direct aim at existing turnkey asset management platforms, or TAMPs, which include well-known names like SEI, Envestnet, Adhesion, and even Fortigent itself, with an ultra-low cost offering of around 35 basis points all in.

Cut-throat pricing isn’t the only attraction of Betterment Institutional, as both advisors and clients will likely benefit from access to Betterment’s slick online dashboards and mobile app support for Android and iPhone.
So if you’ve considered outsourcing your investment management and reporting to a TAMP, Betterment Institutional will be a solution that deserves your close attention over the coming months.] Steve Lockshin lays out his plans for TAMP-like venture and how Michael Kitces, a public critic of the Betterment CEO, very much fits in

Redtail and Riskalyze Launch Next-Generation Integration Partnership from Riskalyze.com

[And finally, rounding out this week’s update is news of a new integration between Redtail Technology and Riskalyze. Redtail, known for its CRM, email, and imaging solutions now synchronizes client assets with Riskalyze, a client risk tolerance assessment tool and my pick for best client-facing technology of 2013, on a nightly basis.

In the other direction, Riskalyze updates client risk scores based on the synchronized account information and pushes them along with the client Risk Numbers over to the client’s profile in Redtail CRM. This is a time-saving upgrade as users of both solutions will no longer have to manually switch back and forth to keep assets or Risk Numbers up to date.] Redtail, the industry leader in advisor CRM, email and imaging, and Riskalyze, the company that invented the Risk Number, today announced a next-generation integration partnership that delivers incredible tools for advisors to grow their practices.

And here are stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

The Advisor’s Technology Swiss Army Knife from Morningstar Advisor

One advisor technology startup combines a suite of disparate business-development tools into one effective solution.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 11, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 11, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 28

Posted on March 28, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, cybersecurity takes center stage at FINRA and the SEC, what you need to do to protect your business from attacks. Amazon launches its cloud desktop service to the public. Does this mark the end of plain old desktop in your business? And two growing providers form a new joint venture to take your portfolio management efficiency to the next level.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Orion Advisor Services, the nation’s largest privately held portfolio accounting service bureau.

Orion Advisor Services

Providing full-service data reconciliation, advisory fee billing, Salesforce integration, mobile apps and more, Orion believes it’s time for you to enjoy your business again. Visit fppad.com/orion for more information.

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

Top Cybersecurity Threats for BDs, Advisors from ThinkAdvisor, and

SEC Cybersecurity Roundtable Webcast from SEC.gov

[Leading off today’s broadcast is an update from FINRA and the SEC highlighting cybersecurity threats faced by advisors and broker-dealers. In a roundtable event held in Washington DC this week, regulators and industry representatives acknowledged that the number one cybersecurity threat to firms of all sizes is the unauthorized account takeover.

This happens when a hacker compromises an investor’s username and password credentials, or manages to take control of an investor’s email account. The hacker then proceeds to liquidate holdings and transfer money to outside accounts, or even poses as a client with a convincing story to get advisors to transfer funds to an outside account, a clever tactic known as spoofing.

Both FINRA and the SEC acknowledge they must play a role in this area, but neither provided details on what exactly that role should be, and if any advisor exams are to include cybersecurity audits, they are likely to start in the fall of 2014 at best.

Until then, here’s what I recommend you do: First, update your compliance manual with policies for what you do when faced with a cybersecurity attack.

Second, train everyone in your organization so they’re familiar with the common tactics from hackers, including phishing, spoofing, and reverse social engineering. And finally, invest in technology to boost your security, like activating multi-factor authentication, deploying firewalls, and even using phishing simulation software that I highlighted in episode number 115.] The top risks broker-dealers face in dealing with cybersecurity threats are operational risk, “insider” risks posed by rogue employees and hackers penetrating BD systems, Daniel Sibears of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Wednesday at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s cybersecurity roundtable.

Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon’s Cloud Desktop Service, Launches To Public Along With New Sync Client from TechCrunch, and

Amazon WorkSpaces from Amazon

[Next up is news from Amazon, as the company announced the general release of its virtual desktop solution to the public called WorkSpaces.

WorkSpaces is squarely aimed to take on other virtual desktop providers like Citrix, VMWare, and Microsoft, and with pricing ranging from $35 to $75 per month for each user, WorkSpaces is roughly half the price of the competition. If you’re looking to get rid of your aging server and move all of your core software to the cloud, Amazon WorkSpaces just became a very compelling option.

Plus, with the introduction of a new WorkSpace Sync application, you can backup and synchronize up to 10GB of documents between your WorkSpaces, the Amazon Simple Storage Service, and even your local desktop computer. This gives you a secure and reliable document storage alternative to consumer services like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive that you might be using today.] Amazon WorkSpaces, the company’s virtual desktop computing environment introduced last fall at the AWS re:Invent conference, is today available to the public.

Orion Advisor Services, LLC and Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) Form Joint Venture; Announce Technology Integration from PRNewswire.com

[And finally, two popular providers in portfolio management and rebalancing software, Orion Advisor Services and Total Rebalance Expert, announced a new joint venture this week called the “Total Technology Platform.”

The two companies first integrated their solutions back in October of 2012, enabling the import of account, transaction, and tax lot data from Orion directly into TRX with a single click.

But this latest venture goes beyond bidirectional integration, as users of Orion will now be able to access TRX directly from within the Orion platform. At the same time, both companies said they are committed to maintaining open-architecture platforms rather than hold advisors captive to one bundled solution.

Orion users can still take advantage of integrations with Blaze Portfolio, iRebal from TD Ameritrade Institutional, and Rebalance Express from RedBlack Software, and TRX users can continue to import data from Morningstar Office, Portfolio Center from Schwab Performance Technologies®, Advent’s Black Diamond Performance Reporting and more.] Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) and Orion Advisor Services, LLC (Orion) announced today a joint venture between the two companies to provide a “Total Technology Platform” designed to simplify and streamline the portfolio management process.

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

Box Unveils First Standalone Product And New API Pricing At Inaugural Dev Conference from TechCrunch

New Kitces Network to Target Planners for Gen X & Y from Financial Planning

Office 2 HD for iPad is now Citrix ShareFile QuickEdit, drops $7.99 price to become free via iTunes

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 28, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 28, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21

Posted on March 21, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Microsoft slashes pricing of another service in an attempt to be your single destination for notes, find out when Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps may finally be available for the iPad, and how two advisors are giving up on the traditional office space so they can work with clients completely virtually.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad 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.

Total Rebalance Expert

Fresh off its acquisition of PowerAdvisor, TRX offers advisors tax-efficient rebalancing, an easy to use interface, and more, all at an affordable price. Learn how you can gain a half a million dollar return on your technology investment by downloading their latest white paper at fppad.com/trx

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

Microsoft launches free OneNote for Mac, freemium OneNote for Windows, and OneNote cloud API for apps from TheNextWeb, and

Introducing the OneNote Channel from IFTTT

OneNote vs. Evernote: A personal take on two great note-taking apps from ComputerWorld

[Leading off this week’s broadcast is news once again from Microsoft, as the company revealed changes to its note taking application called OneNote. For the first time, Microsoft released a version of OneNote for the Mac operating system, and it also introduced a freemium version for Windows, replacing the traditional desktop-based version that was priced at around $100.

This move increases OneNote’s chances of competing against popular note taking apps like Evernote, Google Keep, and to a lesser extent, Apple’s Note application synchronized via iCloud.

Notes saved in OneNote are synchronized via Microsoft’s OneDrive online file storage service, further deepening user’s dependency on Microsoft’s array of services, but with support for OneNote apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, you’ll have the ability to review and add notes anytime, anywhere all from the convenience of your mobile device of choice.

Also new to OneNote is a library of APIs that will allow third-party apps to integrate with the note taking service, including an integration with IFTTT, or If This Then That, a wildly popular online automation service for single-step workflows.

Premium features in OneNote are available if you own Office 2013 or subscribe to Office 365.] Microsoft today revealed three major announcements regarding its OneNote offering: a free version of OneNote for Mac, a freemium version of OneNote for Windows, and a new cloud API for first- and third-party apps to communicate directly with OneNote.

Microsoft CEO Nadella may unveil Office on iPad on March 27 from ZDNet.com

[Now I can’t mention Microsoft in a broadcast this week without addressing the rumors surrounding the imminent release of Microsoft Office for iPad. Several news outlets cited unnamed sources who alluded to the release of Office for iPad around March 27th.

Since the debut of the iPad back in 2010, users have had access to a number of third-party apps that were somewhat compatible with Microsoft Office documents, including apps like Documents To Go, Office 2 HD, Quickoffice Pro HD, and more.

But until now, there’s been no native solution from Microsoft that offers many of the robust features users know and love in Office, and using the Office Online suite, formerly known as Office Web Apps, in the iPad’s web browser has been a kludgy solution at best.

So if you’ve avoided using Apple’s iWork suite or Google Drive to manage word processing and spreadsheets on your iPad, you may now finally have the apps you’ve been waiting for directly from Microsoft. So check the app store after March 27th to see if Office for iPad is available.] It looks like Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella himself may be taking the wraps off Microsoft’s Office for iPad.

Can an adviser thrive in a virtual office? from InvestmentNews

[And finally, all this talk about notes in the cloud and Office on the iPad is a great segue to talk about the virtual office. In a trend worth watching, several advisors are ditching the traditional corporate office environment in favor of more flexible, and low-cost, virtual office.

Advisors Alan Moore and Sophia Bera were recently featured in a column at InvestmentNews for their approach to running an advisory business without the need for the traditional office.

To support his business, Moore highlights a number of apps that help him stay connected with clients.

Long-time FPPad subscribers should recognize the online scheduling app from ScheduleOnce, electronic signature tools by Adobe EchoSign, and my favorite time tracking app called RescueTime.

But Moore also revealed some new apps like Meldium, a password manager for teams, and Talkwalker, a service similar to Google Alerts that scours the web and notifies you when it finds key words and phrases relevant to you.] Not many financial advisers have the courage or desire to shut down a bricks-and-mortar space in order to inhabit an all-virtual world. But many young advisers such as Mr. Moore are convinced that it’s a business model that can work.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21, 2014