Archive | Practice Management RSS feed for this section

Upcoming Webinars on Social Media and Cost-Saving Technology

Posted on June 1, 2009 by in Practice Management, Technology

Over the next week, I’ll be participating in two webinars that I hope you will attend.

First, Andrew Gluck at Advisor Products, Inc. has asked me to participate in Friday’s Financial Crisis Webinar Series. The topic is Advisors Using Social Networking Successfully. I will share some of the experiences I’ve had through the use of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook mediums that have personally resulted in new connections and new business.

Click here to register for the Friday, June 5 webinar Advisors Using Social Networking Successfully.

Second, I’ll be part of a panel hosted by InvestmentNews to offer 50 Cost-Saving and Money-Making Ideas in 50 Minutes. I have a list of my top 10 technologies that I believe financial advisers can use to save money, make money, and sometimes both simultaneously. There should be at least one good tip for every adviser listening to the webinar.

Click here to register for the Tuesday, June 9 webinar 50 Cost-Saving and Money-Making Ideas in 50 Minutes.

Hope to “see” you on the web.

SEC Surprise Audit Proposal Likely to be Dropped According to FPA

Posted on May 27, 2009 by in Practice Management

Last week I wrote about the proposed changes published by the SEC to require surprise audits of investment advisers who debit fees directly from clients’ accounts, falling under the requirements of custody. The proposed changes were estimated to cost each adviser office on average of $8,100 a year in compliance costs.

This proposal, just barely three weeks old, seems likely to be rescinded according to this Financial Planning article published by Donna Mitchell.  In it she writes:

Unofficial reports from the SEC, however, now suggest that the regulator is dropping the third-party compliance audit requirement for advisors, according to the Financial Planning Association’s Web site.

To read the full article, click here.

Proposed SEC Custody Rules Could Cost Advisers Extra $8,100

Posted on May 21, 2009 by in Practice Management

secUpdate: See the article FPA, NAPFA and IAA to fight SEC’s pop-quiz proposal from InvestmentNews.com where group officials say “that the proposal is misguided and would saddle advisers with unnecessary costs.”

It should be no surprise to financial advisers following the Madoff Ponzi scandal that the SEC recently issued proposed rule changes to custody requirements. The release, IA-2876 (click to view PDF from SEC.gov), addresses custody requirements of client funds and securities and is open for a 60-day comment period through July 28, 2009. Should the proposed rules be adopted, advisers may face additional compliance fees of $8,100 on average.

Surprise Examination Proposal

The SEC proposes that advisers with custody of client assets must undergo an annual surprise examination by an independent public accountant, regardless of whether or not assets are held by a qualified custodian. The premise behind the surprise examination requirement is to provide “another set of eyes” on client assets to prevent fraud and misappropriation of client funds by registered advisers.  Reports of theft and fraud by advisers have plagued the SEC since the Madoff scandal erupted in late 2008. So what does this mean for advisers meeting the custody definition?

Read More…

Is Scanning to PDF Files Less Secure than TIFFs?

Posted on May 15, 2009 by in Practice Management

pdfI recently received my May issue of Financial Advisor magazine and read David Lawrence’s article on document management titled Worth the Investment (click here to view online). This article describes the benefits of implementing an effective and easy-to-use document management system, a.k.a. electronic content management (ECM) system.

In the article, though, Mr. Lawrence said one thing that grabbed my attention. He wrote (my emphasis added):

A common mistake made by some firms is to use a system that saves documents in a PDF instead of a more secure format such as a TIFF. This means documents can be altered after the fact, and the firm risks potentially violating federal regulations. While some scanner manufacturers have addressed this issue with post-imprint symbols and other coding mechanisms to ensure authenticity, there are still lingering doubts about the security of the original documents.

Now hold on for one minute. TIFF files are “more secure” than PDF files?!?

Read More…

Anti-Fraud Measures Your Practice Needs

Posted on April 20, 2009 by in Practice Management

A story from New York Times personal finance columnist Ron Lieber quickly traveled through the Twitter universe and landed in my inbox.  Lieber is a client of NAPFA-member AFW Wealth Advisors and was informed by the firm that one of their advisers, Matthew Weitzman, is under investigation for “certain irregularities in a limited number of client accounts.”

See the NYTimes article here.

Also, see coverage from Roger at The Passionate Planner and Andrew Gluck at Advisor Blog Central.

Let’s face it. Your clients may very likely see this article. Once they do, they’re going to ask you what you are doing to protect their accounts from this kind of fraud.

How Advisers Can Steal Funds

Read More…

Webinar to Discuss Risks of Custody and Client Credentials

Posted on April 7, 2009 by in Practice Management

An increasing number of advisers have asked me about using client login credentials to obtain price, transaction, and balance information for assets held in captive accounts (e.g. a client’s active 401(k) plan that cannot be rolled over until termination from service).

As a benefit to clients, advisers are using client credentials to log in to captive accounts to copy the asset information into portfolio management software (such as PortfolioCenter, Advent, or dbCAMS).

This allows the adviser to generate a consolidated report for the client featuring all of his/her assets.  In addition, advisers can include the captive account assets in fee calculations if management of those assets is included in the asset advisory agreement with the client.

Read More…

NBA Fines Mark Cuban $25,000 for Twitter Comments; Will the SEC be Next?

Posted on March 30, 2009 by in Practice Management, Technology

So I woke up early in the hospital room Monday morning and turned on the TV.  What do I see rolling by in the bottom scroll bar?

Apparently over the weekend, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 by the NBA for comments he posted on Twitter (from USNews.com).

Can the SEC be far behind by issuing fines to registered advisers using Twitter for failing to comply with regulatory law on the publishing of advertisements?  I posted a few weeks ago about my concern of advisers using LinkedIn’s Recommendations feature when it may violate rules against testimonials.

Now that some precedent has been set, albeit by a completely different body (i.e. the NBA), I suspect that the SEC might not be too far behind in stepping up its enforcement efforts by following the tweets of registered advisers.

My advice to registered advisers: Tweet with extreme caution.

Want to Know More?

Andy Gluck at Advisor Products, Inc. is hosting a webinar this Friday, April 3 featuring Brian Hamburger of Market Counsel to address the compliance issues of using social networking technology, including LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook and others.

If you’re interested in learning more about this subject, I highly recommend you register now!  This session has the potential to reach the maximum number of participants allowed.

Register for Friday’s Compliance Issues Posed By Linkedin, Twitter, Blogging, & Social Networking at Advisor Products, Inc.

Adviser Use of LinkedIn May Violate SEC Rules

Posted on March 15, 2009 by in Practice Management

Thank you to Financial Advisor Magazine for featuring this post on LinkedIn and SEC compliance.  If you’re new to FPPad, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or subscribing by Email.

I’m going to open up a topic that has the potential to create a bit of controversy.  Here’s my bold statement:

Investment advisers registered under the SEC who use the “Recommendations” feature of LinkedIn.com may be in violation of Rule 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

I’ve discussed this topic with several members of my local financial planning community, including investment adviser litigation defense attorneys.  More recently the topic has come up in discussions with other professionals I have connected with through Twitter, including Susan Weiner, CFA and Kristen Luke.

Investment Adviser Rules

Read More…

See my CRM and Productivity Presentation on March 17

Posted on March 11, 2009 by in Practice Management, Software

I’m busy working on the final slides for a presentation I’m delivering to the Mid-Oregon chapter of the FPA on Tuesday, March 17.  Lunch is served at 12:30PM, the first speaker begins at 1:00PM, and my session begins after 2:00PM. I’ve been asked to provide an overview of the CRM software market (not a small task!) and also provide easy productivity tips that can help financial advisers get the most out of each workday.

If you’re in the local vicinity, I encourage you to sign up for what I hope will be a very informative presentation.

Click here to visit the FPA of Mid-Oregon meeting page.  Cost is just $55 for FPA members, $65 for all others.

Pre-registration (at least 24 hours in advance) is strongly advised for all chapter meetings. To pre-register contact the Chapter Executive Director, Linda Barba at (541) 284-9855. Please leave your name, membership status, sessions attending, and number of guests.