August 12th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
I wanted to address a recent article by David Drucker in August’s Financial Advisor Magazine titled Keeping the Lines Open. Here’s the important section (my emphasis added):
Also basic but often overlooked are commonly accepted rules for an effective client e-mail. Says Gregory, you maximize its effectiveness by making sure your e-mail has a compelling subject line, is tightly written and edited, is addressed and targeted to one client at a time and is designed with a lot of white space, which makes the e-mails easier to read by allowing you to compose them in a noncluttered, eye-inviting manner.
“But Bill,” you might say, “I’d love to send out personalized and targeted emails to all of my clients, but with 250 clients, it would take many hours or even a full day.” Instead, I can imagine what “targeted” emails advisers might be sending now:
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August 5th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
The portfolio management software (PMS) currently used in my firm is dbCAMS+. While many advisers and back-office support staff that I talk to feel dbCAMS+ lacks powerful features, I find that there are hidden gems in the software if you know where to find them.
dbCAMS Command Window
For example, I discovered the Command Window buried in dbCAMS’ Tools menu not too long ago. The Command Window allows scripts, both basic and complex, to be executed in order to modify database information. One example where the Command Window has proved to be very powerful is when I need to change non-managed assets of a client to managed assets as they increase their level of service with the firm.
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June 19th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
Previously I wrote about creating a desktop shortcut icon to open an Outlook email window to avoid opening the entire Outlook program. My instructions included a switch option ( /c ipm.note ) to invoke the message window.
The /c switch is just one of many command line options when running Outlook. I found a nice concise list of the various command line switch options to perform specific tasks using Outlook.
While most are not nearly as useful as the new message window switch, I like having a reference to this kind of information just in case I need it in the future.
Click here for the list of Outlook command line switch options (opens in new window)
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June 17th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
In my previous post today I blogged about only accessing Outlook three times during my day to reduce distractions. Then I realized that even though I want to keep the program closed, I want to be able to send messages to clients and coworkers.
On a side note, let me say that I try to keep the messages I send to others concise and relevant for the recipients. Nevertheless, my role and responsibilities require that I send out confirmations and notifications on internal matters such as security transactions, fund receipts and disbursements, and the occasional status update.
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