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Schwab IMPACT 2104: Conference preview

Posted on November 5, 2014 by in Conferences

Schwab IMPACT 2014 kicked off today at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO, drawing nearly 5,000 attendees to this long-running industry event.

Of the 5,000 attendees, roughly 1,900 are registered investment advisers who custody or otherwise have a business connection with Schwab Advisor Services.

Top keynote sessions in the Schwab IMPACT 2014 agenda include former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former President George W. Bush. Over 65 educational sessions are part of the three-day event situated in the foothills of snow-dusted peaks of the Rocky Mountains.

Watch the conference preview video above to get a sense of what’s coming from Schwab IMPACT 2014 this week. (click here to watch on YouTube)

Announcing the Fuse 2014 award winners

Posted on September 13, 2014 by in Conferences

Fuse 2014

I’ve had a busy weekend attending the inaugural Fuse 2014 event in Park City, Utah, also known as one of the first organized hackathon events for advisor-facing technology providers.

In the interest of time, here is the complete list of Fuse 2014 award winners. More details are available on Twitter under the #FuseUtah hashtag and the FPPad YouTube channel.

Best use of the Orion API: Advisory World

Best custodian integration: Cleverdome

Best use of portfolio accounting data: FinanceLogix

Best end-client experience: Orion Advisor Services

Best financial planning integration: FinanceLogix

Best research and analytics integration: AdvisoryWorld

Best document storage integration: Cleverdome

Best workflow application: Orion Discover / Riskalyze / Laser App Software

Best efficiency integration: Sagacious / Orchestrate

Best use of CRM data: ActiFi

Best application of business intelligence: Gladstone

 

Laser App 2014 Conference highlights: Day Two and recap

Posted on August 18, 2014 by in Conferences, Software, Technology

Fox Financial Planning Network publishes new “robo shield” white paper, ActiFi’s Spenser Segal on technology adoption, and more

The Laser App 2014 Conference in San Diego wrapped up last week, offering over 200 attendees insights on ways technology can streamline the client service experience. A variety of vendors with CRM, document management, electronic signature, practice management solutions, and more delivered valuable takeaways centered around efficient form creation and processing, which the Laser App platform aims to simplify.

Watch the day two highlight video below, which is followed by a conference recap video with feedback from conference attendees about the benefits of attending the Laser App 2014 conference. (or watch the Laser App 2014 Conference YouTube playlist)

Day two highlights

In the opening session on day two, Deborah Fox, CEO & Founder at Fox Financial Planning Network, unveiled a new white paper fresh off the company’s electronic publishing platform.

The white paper, titled How To Build A Robo-Shield™ For Your Financial Advisory Firm: 20 Effective Tactics To Marginalize The Rise Of Robo-Advisers, can be downloaded for free from the company’s website. In nearly 40 pages, the Robo-Shield white paper details tactics to differentiate an advisory business from the online-based investment advisor services, including specific niche development, Tier 2 service models, automated workflows, and more.

Laser App 2014 conference recap

As you can see from the video coverage, Laser App hosts one of the hidden gems among industry conferences. Quite a number of influential vendors and product providers attended the event, and many company presidents and CEOs took the stage.

Laser App 2014 conference attendees learned how to leverage their existing Laser App relationship and also identified new solution providers and integrations that can extend the benefits of Laser App into different areas of their business. All in all, I enjoyed my time at the conference, which offered a great combination of education, networking, and socializing, all in sunny San Diego.

WaveHouse networking event

In addition to the education and exhibit hall opportunities, attendees had several opportunities to let loose, kick back, and network with like-minded peers.

So for an added bonus, here is a video from the first networking event held at the WaveHouse San Diego.

Laser App 2014 Conference Badge

T3 2014: MoneyGuidePro to integrate Yodlee for account aggregation

Posted on February 11, 2014 by in Conferences, Technology

Bob Curtis, President and CEO of MoneyGuidePro (right) forecasting the future of financial planning with Harold Evensky (left)

Bob Curtis, President and CEO of MoneyGuidePro (right) forecasting the future of financial planning with Harold Evensky (left)

Popular MoneyGuidePro financial planning software to aggregate held away accounts through a new Yodlee integration

Ask most technology consultants and financial advisers about their account aggregation options, and you’ll likely hear just a few common names.

ByAllAccounts, Fiserv’s CashEdge, and perhaps Intuit.

But Yodlee?

That solution almost never gets mentioned.

Until now.

MoneyGuidePro Integrates Yodlee

In a packed general session at the 2014 Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference, Bob Curtis, President and CEO of MoneyGuidePro announced that the popular financial planning software program will soon integrate account aggregation functionality using services from Yodlee.

One of the reasons I believe Yodlee hasn’t gained traction among financial services technology solutions is price. Yodlee is a rather expensive solution relative to its counterparts in the marketplace.

But MoneyGuidePro is breaking down the potential barrier of cost with very aggressive pricing.

Yodlee For $1 a Day

In his general session, Curtis announced that MoneyGuidePro will offer the Yodlee integration at an introductory cost of $365 annually. That’s right, just $1 per day.

And as to when the Yodlee integration will be available, Curtis told advisers that the account aggregation functionality is anticipated to be rolled out in Q2 of 2014.

For more information on the Yodlee integration with MoneyGuidePro, read the full press release at BusinessWire.

T3 2014: SEI enters the integration arms race through strategic partnerships with Redtail Technology, MoneyGuidePro, and ActiFi

Posted on February 11, 2014 by in Conferences, Technology

left to right: Redtail Technology CEO Brian McLaughlin, ActiFi CEO Spenser Segal, PIETech CIO Tony Leal, SEI Advisor Network Director of Research and Validation Raef Lee

left to right: Redtail Technology CEO Brian McLaughlin, ActiFi CEO Spenser Segal, PIETech CIO Tony Leal, SEI Advisor Network Director of Research and Validation Raef Lee

SEI announces strategic partnerships and enters the integration arms race dominated by four leading custodians

When you think of custodians that make headlines for technology integration initiatives, four institutions likely come to mind.

The “Big Four” Integrated Custodians

In no particular order, Schwab Advisor Services, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, TD Ameritrade Institutional, and Pershing LLC are the custodians most advisers observe as each tries to one-up the other in the technology integration arms race.

On a side note, emerging advisers with small but growing businesses are paying attention to developments at TradePMR, Scottrade, and Shareholders Service Group.

SEI Enters The Integration Arms Race

But another custodian looking to enter the arms race of integration is SEI, the Oaks, Penn.-based company providing outsourced services to financial advisers for more than 20 years. SEI serves over 5,700 advisors who collectively manage over $41 billion in assets under management.

Raef Lee, Director of Research and Validation. SEI Advisor Network

Raef Lee, Director of Research and Validation. SEI Advisor Network

In a pre-conference meeting at T3 2014, Raef Lee, Director of Research and Validation for the SEI Advisor Network, revealed that the company is entering into a strategic partnership with leading technology and consulting providers Redtail Technology, MoneyGuidePro, and ActiFi.

In development for the last 18 months, and actively under construction for the last nine, SEI plans to rollout the complete solution to advisers by the end of 2014.

Cross Application Workflow Automation

“The partnership will provide the first true cross application workflow automation platform for end-to-end processing orchestrated across multiple applications,” said Spenser Segal, founder and CEO of ActiFi.

In other words, advisers using SEI’s new integrated solution will be able to initiate workflows in Redtail that then execute actions on the custodial side without ever leaving the Redtail environment. It’s the “without ever leaving Redtail” that makes this solution unique.

From Financial Plans to Proposals

Another key differentiator of SEI’s proposed solution is the ability to generate investor proposals using information previously created in MoneyGuidePro financial plans.

“There’s never been a good integration with a proposal system, so having this new integration to seamlessly pass account and client information is the most exciting thing about this solution,” said Tony Leal, CIO and partner at PieTech, the providers of MoneyGuidePro financial planning software.

No Cost Integration

SEI also announced that the new integrated solution will be offered at no cost to advisers who affiliate with SEI.

Advisers will need to purchase standard subscriptions to Redtail CRM and MoneyGuidePro, which combined cost less than $2,000 per year. However, activating and using the SEI solution is free.

For all the details on the upcoming SEI integrated solution, read the press release at MarketWire.com.

T3 2014: Pershing’s new NetXInvestor™ revamps the investor-facing portal experience

Posted on February 11, 2014 by in Conferences

A frist look at Pershing LLC's NetXInvestor™ dashboard

A frist look at Pershing LLC’s NetXInvestor™ dashboard

Quick to respond to the demands for better client portals, Pershing LLC today announced a new generation of its investor-facing portal under the new name of NetXInvestor™.

Formerly NetExchange Client®, Pershing’s client-facing portal has been redesigned to be much more intuitive to use, highly customizable, and compatible with nearly all mobile devices.

“The redesign of NetXInvestor delivers on one of our top priorities at Pershing – enhancing the investor experience,” said Ram Nagappan, chief information officer of Pershing, in a press release earlier today.

Patrick Yip, Director of Advisory Market Technology Strategy at Pershing, a BNY Mellon company

Patrick Yip, Director of Advisory Market Technology Strategy at Pershing, a BNY Mellon company

While at T3 2014, I will try and swing by Pershing’s booth and grab a few screenshots to share so you can get a sense of what makes NetXInvestor a worthwhile contender for the next generation of client-facing portal solutions.

For all the details, read today’s press release about NetXInvestor™ from Pershing LLC.

T3 2014: Joel Bruckenstein and David Drucker kick off the 9th annual adviser tech conference

Posted on February 11, 2014 by in Conferences

T3 2014 conference

T3 2014 is the place to be and be seen for all things financial adviser technology

T3 2014 Draws Over 600 Attendees

Joel Bruckenstein and David Drucker are no strangers to the technology trends in financial services over the last decade. Their premier conference, Technology Tools for Today, or T3, is in its ninth year, and in that time the duo have been on the front lines of pushing the envelope of technology.

If you’re not attending the event this year, you can still get you day started with the Day 1 conference intro video I created to kick off the event.

And no, you can’t wear a tie to T3! Or at least you shouldn’t. Rumor has it Bruckenstein is walking around with a pair of freshly sharpened scissors!

New Companies Aplenty

Bruckenstein and Drucker announced that this year’s event drew over 600 registered attendees and a record number of new companies launching new products or services built for financial advisers.

Joel Bruckenstein at T3 2014

Joel Bruckenstein welcomes over 600 attendees to T3 2014

A quick tour of the exhibit hall reveals that several of these new companies include Gotham Tech Labs and its Wealthbox CRM platform, Quovo and its portfolio aggregation and analytics platform, and RetireUp and its quick retirement plan illustration tool.

As time allows, check back here at FPPad.com for updates and buzz on some of the best sessions and discussions in and around the show floor.

Schwab IMPACT 2013 Report: All the technology trends advisors can’t miss

Posted on November 12, 2013 by in Conferences, Technology

Bernie Clark, executive vice president of Schwab Advisor Services, kicks off IMPACT 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Bernie Clark, executive vice president of Schwab Advisor Services, kicks off IMPACT 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Schwab IMPACT 2013 kicked off its pinnacle event in Washington, D.C. this year with a big focus on the technology trends sure to change the financial services industry in the foreseeable future.

Here are the most important technology announcements provided by various members of the executive team inside Schwab Advisor Services.

Project PM2 Coming

Likely the most intriguing announcement from Neesha Hathi, SVP of Advisor Technology Solutions is the preview of a new portfolio management software platform called Project PM2 (“PM Squared”).

Neesha Hathi, senior vice president of Advisor Technology Solutions, shares the latest on Schwab’s technology offerings at IMPACT 2013.

Neesha Hathi, senior vice president of Advisor Technology Solutions, shares the latest on Schwab’s technology offerings at IMPACT 2013.

From a video shown at Schwab IMPACT, the preview of PM2 featured a tile-like interface reminiscent of Windows 8. Project PM2 will offer proactive alerts for events like new account funding, trading reports, and revenue metrics.

PM2 will be a cloud-based solution offering direct integration to Schwab data feeds. Reports and presentations offer dynamic capabilities and will support one-step publishing to a variety of client delivery mechanisms.

PM2 to be Multi-Custodial

In a later interview with Brian Shenson, vice president of Advisor Technology solutions, he said the roadmap for PM2 includes multi-custodial data support as well as the potential integration of account aggregation software.

Shenson added that Schwab Advisor Services already has long-standing relationships with providers like ByAllAccounts and CashEdge from FiServ.

Details on pricing and availability for PM2 were not announced at IMPACT.

Schwab OpenView Mobile

Hathi also announced a current pilot program underway to provide affiliated advisors with a branded mobile app that clients can use to interface with their advisor.

Schwab OpenView Mobile is the official program, and Hathi explained that clients can use the branded app to view real-time account data and review their advisor’s contact information.

Schwab OpenView Mobile will be available for a nominal fee which was not disclosed during the Schwab IMPACT breakout session.

Reinvented Wire Requests; DocuSign Integration in Schwab Alliance

Naureen Hassan, senior vice president, Client Experience, shares the latest on Schwab’s technology offerings at IMPACT 2013.

Naureen Hassan, senior vice president, Client Experience, shares the latest on Schwab’s technology offerings at IMPACT 2013.

Naureen Hassan, SVP of Client Experience revealed that in an average quarter, Schwab manually verifies over 240,000 signatures across a variety of forms. Clearly Schwab recognizes the ability to increase operational efficiency here with the adoption of electronic signature support.

Hassan announced two pending initiatives. First, wire requests will be “completely reinvented,” as advisors can initiate wire requests via Schwab Advisor Center. Upon submission, clients will actually receive alerts on their mobile phone, and then they can log in to a Schwab app and approve the wire request on the spot.

This overhauled wire request process is aimed to combat fraud and theft in the industry due to a significant rise in client spoofing (see: Client spoofing strikes again, RIA loses $290,000 of client funds)

Second, Hassan announced that DocuSign is currently in a pilot program and will soon be completely integrated in the Schwab Alliance system. Details on when DocuSign will be formally introduced for all Schwab advisors were not disclosed.

MoneyGuidePro Now Part of Integrated Office

Brian Shenson, vice president, Advisor Technology Solutions, shares the latest on Schwab’s technology offerings at IMPACT 2013.

Brian Shenson, vice president, Advisor Technology Solutions, shares the latest on Schwab’s technology offerings at IMPACT 2013.

Brian Shenson, VP of Advisor Technology Solutions was the next to take the stage and provide updates on the suite of Schwab OpenView solutions: Gateway, Integrated Office, Workflow Library, and MarketSquare.

Of most relevance is the addition of financial planning software integrations to Schwab OpenView Integrated Office™ platform. The first integration is with PIEtech to integrate MoneyGuide Pro financial planning software. NaviPlan from Zywave was also mentioned as an integration coming soon to Integrated Office.

MarketSquare Update

If you recall last year, Schwab announced the introduction of Schwab OpenView MarketSqaure, a review website consisting of advisor-submitted feedback on technology vendors and providers.

At this year’s IMPACT conference, Hathi said that over 70 providers have the potential to be listed in OpenView MarketSquare, but only 34 of them have a sufficient number of reviews to be publicly listed in the resource.

Hathi urged advisors in the audience to continue to submit their reviews of tools and services they use so MarketSquare can increase the number of providers present in the website.
34 have reviews.

All photos by Billy Cole/Orange Photography for Charles Schwab. Used with permission.

FPA of Georgia members, get your summer technology update on July 25

Posted on July 15, 2013 by in Conferences, Technology

If you’re an FPA of Georgia member, or live within a reasonable drive of the Atlanta metro area, consider attending next week’s practice management and technology meeting.

On Thursday, July 25 at 11:30 a.m. ET, I’m presenting along with Ted Jenkin of oXYGen Financial on how to use technology to engage the next generation of clients.

Registration is $30 for members, $60 for non members, and $15 for students.

Click or tap the button below and register today!

register

(click to watch on YouTube)

FPA Retreat 2013: A preview from Dan Moisand, Retreat 2013 task force chair

Posted on March 5, 2013 by in Conferences

I recently connected with Dan Moisand, Principal of Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo, LLC and past president of the Financial Planning Association.

Moisand is chair of task force for FPA Retreat 2013, coming May 4-6 this year.

In our FPPad On Air broadcast, hear about the things you can learn when you attend Retreat under year’s theme of “Change: Surviving it, Managing It, Creating It.”

Register Today!

Also, if you register before March 22, you’ll save $100!

Register today by visiting: http://www.fpanet.org/professionals/EventsConferences/Conferences/Retreat/

FPA Retreat 2013, May 4-6, 2013

FPA Retreat 2013, May 4-6, 2013