Bill speaks to Investius in a Financial Thought Leaders report on current technology trends and how they affect financial advisors. Be sure to visit Investius.com for other excellent reports in the Financial Thought Leaders series.
[Note: video below is Flash. Click here to view the Quicktime version for iOS devices at Investius.com]
Advisers are cautiously adopting the Apple iPad in their practices. Several enhancements in the device’s latest operating system due out soon should diminish their concerns over security and usability.
This month, Apple will release version 4.2 of its iOS mobile operating system for the iPad. To date, advisers have been excited about the iPad’s potential to enhance their practice, but concerns regarding security and business functionality have tempered rapid adoption of the tablet device.
For financial advisers still on the fence about adding an iPad to their business, iOS 4.2 should alleviate many concerns they had when the product was first announced. Here’s how the update can enhance the device’s adoption in the industry.
Security and protection of client data are of the utmost importance to financial advisers. iOS 4.2 increases the iPad’s security protections in numerous ways. The easiest way to digest the security improvements is by seeing them in a list:
The takeaway for advisers is that iOS 4.2 brings stronger security and encryption to the iPad, allowing for greater confidence in the protection of sensitive data that could be stored (permanently or temporarily) on the device. Chief Compliance Officers should be much more willing to allow the use of iPads in their environment as a result of these improvements.
Two iOS 4.2 features most likely to improve productivity on the iPad are multitasking and folders for apps.
Multitasking is the feature most laggards cite as the primary reason to avoid buying an iPad. “What good is it if you can only run one app at a time?” they cried.
Ironically, in today’s seemingly multi-tasking dominated environment, single-tasking, that is, focusing specifically on one task and ignoring all other activities, is gaining momentum. Personally, I often use the Get Focused feature of RescueTime to disable applications I’ve labeled as the most distracting (e.g. e-mail, social media, etc.) for a short period of time.
Nevertheless, iOS 4.2 now permits multitasking of apps, realistically only limited to the memory available to run multiple apps. What multitasking will do is increase the ease of switching between apps to copy and paste pieces of text and information. Users will no longer be forced to completely exit one app, copy information in another app, and restart the original app from the beginning to paste the information.
Second, iOS 4.2 now supports folders that can be used to organize apps. Folders allow users to free up valuable screen space by consolidating apps into logical folder groups. No longer will one need to swipe left and right across several screens to select apps. Folders make it possible to select apps with far fewer gestures, ultimately saving time and preventing frustration.
iOS 4.2 is capable of consolidating multiple e-mail accounts into one unified view in the native e-mail app. E-mails for personal, business, social, and miscellaneous accounts can all be viewed in one application without needing to maually switch back and forth between accounts.
Personally, the unified e-mail feature isn’t too appealing as I use Google’s mobile-optimized web-based e-mail client, particularly because I’m a heavy user of labels and global search, both of which are not available in the iPad e-mail app. Still, for advisers with multiple Exchange e-mail accounts, this unification is an attractive feature.
Finally, several miscellaneous additions are coming to the iPad, such as wireless print support (ironic and not necessary), Apple TV connectivity (cool), and text search while in Safari (about time!).
For advisers still debating whether or not to become an iPad adopter, iOS 4.2 offers several compelling features that should make the device a valuable addition to any adviser’s portfolio of technology tools.
Bill speaks to FPATelevision about the top three technology tips for financial advisers.
Thanks to our sources on the ground (John Stone of Revenue Architects and Tim Welsh of Nexus Strategy) at Schwab IMPACT 2010, we now know the first Intelligent Integration partners announced by the company this morning.
Executive Vice President and Charles Schwab Advisor Services leader Bernie Clark announced the first CRM partners selected. They are:
UPDATE, 10:19AM EDT: Read Schwab’s press release from Marketwatch.com. And an odd observation; if Schwab is integrating with three CRMs, do they really need to partner with LaserApp to facilitate account form-filling? Why not integrate form-filling directly with the new Intelligent Integration partners? I suppose, though, that by supporting LaserApp, more CRM systems (e.g. Redtail, Goldmine, etc.) can be used to complete Schwab account applications, which helps everybody, but still supports a fractured, non-integrated ecosystem.
Last week we predicted Junxure, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Tamarac Advisor CRM would be among the selections. It seems redundant at first to have included Tamarac Advisor CRM, as it is built on top of Microsoft Dynamics, but in my opinion, Tamarac Advisor CRM is substantially different from MS Dynamics as Tamarac has customized Dynamics’ out-of-the-box functionality to include data and fields relevant to wealth managers and financial advisers.
Now for the next important question: Who won our free coffee giveaway for guessing the correct partners? There are several people who responded correctly with two of the three partners, so tonight we’ll have an official hat-drawing from those names and reveal the winner tomorrow (the impartial name-remover from the hat is at day care right now).
After a slow start, financial advisers and wealth managers are quickly warming up to Apple’s iPad (see our coverage on the iPad for financial advisors and wealth managers). Now that the product has been available for sale for six months, advisers have seen and experienced the unique interface the tablet device offers.
Because of its tablet form factor, the iPad is proving to be a powerful mobile device. It can be used while standing up, walking, or seated in a comfortable chair (and in an airplane seat, too, but those are far from comfortable), things that users of laptops and netbook computers find more difficult to do.
Since June, Apple has been selling a 3G wireless version of the iPad, but AT&T has been the exclusive service carrier for the device. That doesn’t excite many advisers due to AT&T’s reputation for spotty network reliability along with a monthly data plan requirement. In addition, iPad’s 3G wireless connection cannot be shared with any other mobile devices or netbook computers (without violating Apple’s terms of use, a.k.a. jailbreaking).
New 3G Wireless Options
Coming later this month, iPad owners will have a new option to use their device with the 3G wireless network. Verizon Wireless will start selling iPads on October 28 bundled with a MiFi 2200 mobile Wi-Fi hotspot device. Pricing for Verizon’s iPad/MiFi bundle is the iPad retail price (starting at $499) with an additional cost of $130 for the MiFi device.
A big advantage to Verizon’s offering is that there is no monthly commitment required for 3G wireless access. Data plans are offered in the pay-as-you-go format, priced according to the amount of data transfer desired.
Verizon’s data plans are $20 for 1GB, $35 for 3GB, or $50 for 5GB. All plans expire 30 days after activation.
Verizon is not the only provider to offer pay-as-you-go 3G data plans. Virgin Mobile also sells its own MiFi device for $149 and offers two data plans: $10 for 1GB (expires after 10 days), or $40 for unlimited data (expires after 30 days). I bought the Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200 device and will write about my experience with it in a future post.
So for advisers looking to adopt the iPad while avoiding getting locked in to a monthly wireless contract with AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Virgin Mobile both offer attractive alternatives to staying connected on the go and in control of data plan costs.
Astute followers of my Twitter feed know that a few weeks ago I purchased the MiFi® 2200 mobile hotspot card from Virgin Mobile. (Alas, it’s still in the box waiting to be activated.)
When I bought the MiFi card, Virgin Mobile had four different price points for its data plans. Plans were along the lines of:
But as of August 26, Virgin Mobile cut two of its plans and now offers two simple options:
The unlimited data plan is a huge deal. But don’t take my word for it. David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times provided his review of the MiFi device and its unlimited data plan.
Also, if you’d like feedback on the MiFi device from a practicing financial advisor, read this blog post from Curtis A. Smith, CFP® on Morningstar Advisor.
And yes, soon I will break the package open and activate my MiFi…
Black Diamond Performance Reporting of Jacksonville, Fla. just announced that it is releasing an enhanced portfolio management and reporting platform called BlueSky.
To read the press release from Black Diamond, click the following link: http://www.blackdiamondreporting.com/whoweare/press
BlueSky is a web-based platform that enhances standard portfolio management and performance reporting features by adding an array of customizable options. BlueSky users can now configure the appearance and settings of their home page under the SkyViews feature.
Back in the day, I convinced ByAllAccounts to allow me to configure its account aggregation service for dbCAMS+ portfolio management software from FCSI, Inc.
At the time, the ByAllAccounts-to-dbCAMS connection wasn’t 100% official as there were some behind-the-scenes issues with data relationships and configuration concerns. Also, dbCAMS users had to pay an annual fee to FCSI in order to use ByAllAccounts’ aggregation, and that fee was on top of the normal fees charged by ByAllAccounts.
Nevertheless, I demonstrated my engineering aptitude and ability to troubleshoot good enough to convince ByAllAccounts to allow me to use their service with CAMS. It was a good decision on their part as it led to a few new contracts for ByAllAccounts as I demonstrated my success to other CAMS users.
Update: It’s Wednesday June 16 and still no NetX360 app for iPad in the App Store. According to this Investment Advisor article, advisors were shown a beta app of NetX360 on the iPad at last week’s Pershing Insite event.
According to a PRNewswire article, Pershing announced that it has introduced a version of NetX360™ that is compatible with the Apple® iPad™.
Click here to view BNY Mellon’s Pershing Unit Introduces NetX360™ for iPad™ from PRNewswire.
While Pershing may have introduced the iPad-compatible app, I cannot find the app in the App Store as of this writing. The iPhone-compatible app is available, but not the version enhanced for the iPad.
