December 12th, 2009 Bill Winterberg
Thanks to Andrew Tobias for pointing me towards a bookmarklet called Readability (had I kept up on my Lifehacker RSS reading, I would have seen Readability back in March).
I could spend a few paragraphs explaining how to install the bookmarklet and how it makes reading stuff on the Internet easier, but allow me to let the pictures tell the story.
So, out of the two identical articles below, which one do you want to read?
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Posted in Efficiency, Software | 1 Comment »
October 26th, 2009 Bill Winterberg
ByAllAccounts, one of the leading asset aggregation providers in the independent investment adviser space, just announced two incentives for advisers using the Schwab Performance Technologies® PortfolioCenter® portfolio management system.
Here are the details:
If you’re a current PortfolioCenter® user, you can earn a $500 credit for each referral that signs up for the aggregation service by December 31, 2009.
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Posted in Efficiency, Portfolio Management Software, Technology | No Comments »
September 29th, 2009 Bill Winterberg
With increased workload and compressed margins of the last 12 months, financial advisers are looking for ways to maintain excellent client service while streamlining internal processes. One popular area for efficiency gains is the management of internal workflow.
I want to share an article published on IATechForum that highlights Laserfiche’s Avante product. Joseph Salpietro, President and CEO of Xpyria Investment Advisors (why the website domain is yannico.com is beyond me), shares his experience integrating the product into existing firm functions.
While the article features only the Avante solution (Laserfiche is one of the primary forum members), pay attention to the concepts of how the software was used to eliminate paper-pushing in the firm’s processes.
Click here to read Making Work Flow on IATechForum.
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August 3rd, 2009 Bill Winterberg
This post was originally published at advisors4advisors.com on July 27, 2009. For continuously updated news, information, and commentary relevant to financial advisors, sign up today.
Nearly all wealth management firms are experiencing declining revenues and increasing operating costs, compressing profit margins in all areas. Here is one simple solution to save time and money on a ubiquitous entry in a firm’s operating expenses: long distance phone calls.
Google has a free 411 service, GOOG-411, that allows users to call nearly any business nationwide and connect for free.
How It Works
GOOG-411 is simple to use. From any phone, dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-4664-411). At the prompt, say the business name followed by the city and state. GOOG-411’s voice recognition will attempt to match the request to businesses listed in its ever-growing directory. If the request is recognized, GOOG-411 offers the top listing and will automatically connect to the business unless given other instructions.
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Posted in Efficiency, Technology | No Comments »
January 20th, 2009 Bill Winterberg
One of my goals to kick off 2009 (which I have yet to write about!) is to work on using Outlook more effectively and efficiently.
I previously wrote about optimizing your Outlook habits by only using the program at three specific times during your workday (say, 10am, noon, and 4pm or whatever you find works in your schedule).
Today, I’m happy to report that since the beginning of 2009, I have worked on eliminating all the pending emails in my Outlook Inbox so I can reach the ultimate goal of Inbox Zero. Here’s what my inbox looks like today:
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Posted in Efficiency | 4 Comments »
January 4th, 2009 Bill Winterberg
Readers of FPPad.com know that we’re in a recession. Not very many needed the National Bureau of Economic Research to tell them that we’ve been in one since December 2007. While little can be done to cure the ills of the global economy, advisers can evaluate how their business is positioned in order to thrive in the face of economic pressures.
I want to comment about positioning a practice in a recession after reading David Drucker’s article on Morningstar Advisor, Practice Management in a Recession.
Drucker interviewed two broker-dealer firms to discover what their reps are doing to respond to the recession. What are they doing? First, reps are committed to continued spending on marketing to new clients, and second, they are looking to reduce operational inefficiencies in their practice.
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Posted in Efficiency, Practice Management | 4 Comments »
December 14th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
In Friday’s Tech Bits column on InvestmentNews, Davis Janowski highlighted a new technology-oriented website targeted “for financial advisors affiliated with a broker dealer and/or wirehouse who are interested in becoming independent.”
Click here to visit Independent Advisor Tech Forum.
Independent Advisor Tech Forum is a collaborative effort spearheaded by several technology vendors in the independent adviser space. The list of participants is a genuine who’s who of big players in the technology space for CRM, paperless office, and performance reporting. Here’s a short list of who’s involved:
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Posted in Efficiency, Practice Management, Technology | 1 Comment »
December 9th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
Monday’s Wall Street Journal has a short column extolling the benefits of using multiple monitors on a computer.
The article, titled When More Is More by Michael Totty can be viewed by clicking here.
From the article:
Paccar has added multimonitor setups for material planners on its manufacturing lines, who have to manage demand for production parts using information on inventories inside and outside the company. Because of limited desk space and falling prices of displays, planners received two larger widescreen monitors instead of the three-screen setup in the call center. The ability to manage more rapidly changing information has produced a 10% to 20% boost in productivity, Mr. Quinn says.
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Posted in Efficiency, Technology | 3 Comments »
November 17th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
On my radar this week is a Schwab Institutional Webcast on the recent enhancements to their Portfolio Rebalancer utility. After viewing an excellent demo of Tamarac on Day 2 of the NAPFA Technology Conferencein Las Vegas, I’m interested in seeing what Schwab is doing to position their own rebalancing and trading tools to streamline trading operations in independent adviser offices.
The webcast will be held this Thursday, November 20 at 4:00PM EST/1:00PST. Unfortunately our company has an all-day offsite staff retreat scheduled for Thursday, so I’m not able to attend the webcast. I’ll look for a link to the webcast archive and post it here if one is available.
It features Heath Batz, senior manager of online trading tools at Schwab Institutional, and Michael Granger, Vice President of Implementation and Client Management at Advisor Software, Inc.
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October 27th, 2008 Bill Winterberg
ByAllAccounts, the account aggregation service provider, is holding another “under the hood” session in November. I blogged about their first session in September, but I missed it due to a scheduling conflict.
I signed up for the next session to be held on:
November 5, 2008
2:00 – 3:00 Eastern Time
Visit my previous post to read more or simply go to the ByAllAccounts website to register.
Posted in Efficiency, Technology | No Comments »
