My June column for Morningstar Advisor is now available!
This month I tackle the issue of the constant back-and-forth messaging in which advisors often engage to schedule meetings with clients and colleagues. There is a better way!
Click here to read “A Simpler Way to Schedule Meetings” at Morningstar Advisor.
Update: Brooke Southall and his team at RIABiz posted an article today discussing the partnership in more detail. Read it by clicking here.
Another custodian has formed a partnership to increase its technology offerings to affiliated advisers.
Shareholders Service Group (SSG) of San Diego, Calif. announced today that it is partnering with Black Diamond Performance Reporting of Jacksonville, Fla. to deliver its industry leading, web-based portfolio management and reporting system through the SSG platform.
Click here to view the press release for the Black Diamond and SSG partnership (Yahoo! News).
Two weeks ago I posted a review of the ways I see advisers using iPads in their practices. One of the drawbacks I highlighted was the lack of a native file explorer to easily locate, edit, and save files stored on the device.
I mentioned three apps that can be used to circumvent this drawback (GoodReader, Dropbox, and SugarSync), each with its own pros and cons.
Today, the folks at SugarSync released an update to its iPad app to enable users to perform basic file editing and synchronization with its SugarSync cloud document storage service.
Unfortunately, I still find document synchronization on the iPad, even with the SugarSync update, to be a convoluted process.
I’ve had my Apple iPad for about 72 hours and am ready to post my overall reaction to the product and specifically address how I believe financial advisers and wealth managers can use the device in their practice.
What you won’t find in this review are the general statements about the iPad’s cool features (like iBooks, pinch-zooming, etc.) and the drawbacks (no multitasking, no USB ports, etc.) of the device. Instead, you’ll find my take on how I believe advisers and wealth managers can use the new tablet computer to enhance their daily lives.
If you still feel like you need the basic pros and cons overview of the device, here are two links, one in favor of the iPad’s potential to change computing, and one painstakingly detailed on the drawbacks of the device.
With that out of the way, let’s explore the ways I see advisers using the iPad.
I’ve made several mentions on FPPad about Socialware, an emerging provider of social media archive and policy enforcement tools, but I’ve yet to include a full feature of their services.
Today, Socialware announced several new initiatives to better serve the market of individuals and small and medium businesses (SMBs). The full announcement can be viewed on the Socialware blog.
What do these changes mean to advisers?
Thanks go to rileybeebs on Twitter for bringing a simple-yet-effective OCR conversion tool from WiseTREND to my attention.
WiseTREND is an organization that, according to its website:
…provides a set of specific industry-tested Solutions, as well as customizable Software applications for OCR, Document Conversion and Data Capture projects.
I’ve written on FPPad before (Improve Your Paperless Document Searches) about applying OCR to each and every document captured with a scanner. Doing so allows document management and search programs to look inside documents and match keywords entered in a search query.
Adopting intelligent search for documents means no more wasted time digging though seemingly endless trees of subfolders on a company server in an attempt to find one elusive document that ended up being misfiled when it was captured in the first place.
I’m seeing two trends emerge in 2010 through the work I perform with wealth management firms.
First, firms want to implement a document management system to efficiently manage the volumes of paperwork and forms generated throughout the financial planning process. Second, advisers want to increase revenue and client service by capturing data on held-away assets through account aggregation software.
Late last week I posted commentary why document storage isn’t document management at advisors4advisors.com. On the account aggregation side, I recently learned of a webinar offered by ByAllAccounts aimed to address this opportunity.
Here’s a quick update to share an article I recently discovered concerning security of data on iPhones.
While this article is directed to lawyers, it is directly applicable to financial advisers who use iPhones to access information about clients.
But don’t the iPhone 3G’s encryption and unlock code features protect data from nefarious characters? No they don’t, according to Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Click here to read their article, Why Lawyers Shouldn’t Use The iPhone: A Security Nightmare.
Update 12/22/2009: I uploaded a PDF of tweets containing the #FAiC09 hashtag, as they’re no longer available on the Twitter search site. Paragraphs below were updated.
Update 12/21/2009: Here’s an article from Davis Janowski at InvestmentNews discussing online conferences; No fuss, no muss, but forget about freebies. He highlights the Forbes iConference series among other events.
I attended the Forbes Advisor iConference Building a Rebound-Ready Game Plan on Wednesday of this week. I believe this is the second 100% web-based conference put on by Forbes. Note that InvestmentNews also recently held a 100% online event covering ETFs, but I don’t currently manage investments, so I skipped the event.
If you missed the event, replays are available for 90 days after the iConference. This FPPad post has details on how FPA members can attend for free.
Here’s my feedback on the Forbes event.
Format
Attending the iConference was easy; fire up an approved web browser (Internet Explorer 6 or higher or Firefox versions prior to 3.5), log in, and the iConference was underway. There were three main areas of the iConference:
