Archive | Technology RSS feed for this section

Free Attendance to Forbes Advisor iConference for FPA Members

Posted on December 3, 2009 by in Professional Development, Technology

I had no idea that Forbes puts on a totally web-based event they call the Advisor iConference. Forbes held an iConference in June titled Building Wealth With Innovative Ideas and Advice and the content is now available on-demand (click the link to register).

On December 9th, another iConference is being offered titled Building A Rebound-Ready Game Plan.

How did I find out about this resource? By chance, I was navigating the FPA national website looking for information related to my position as the incoming Technology Director for the FPA DFW chapter. Set over in the FPA News Brief section is a single-line link titled FPA President Part of Forbes.com Regulatory Webinar. I clicked the link and learned of the iConference.

Registration to the iConference is $75, but FPA members can attend the iConference for FREE. Here’s how.

Read More…

We’re Featured in the Top 10 Twitter Feeds for Career-Minded Advisers

Posted on December 2, 2009 by in Professional Development, Technology

This is my own blog, so every once in a while I get to do some shameless self-promotion.

Today, my Twitter feed @BillWinterberg is featured in FINS from The Wall Street Journal as one of the top 10 Twitter feeds for career-minded advisers to follow.

Here’s a quick snapshot of my listing (click the snapshot for the full article):

Read More…

Get the Financial Planning 2009 Software Survey

Posted on November 24, 2009 by in Technology

It’s that time of year again when Financial Planning magazine publishes its annual survey of technology in use by financial planners and advisers. This is the third year for the survey, and again Joel P. Bruckenstein tallied up the responses (from over 1,500 individuals!) and reviewed the results.

Click here to view Bruckenstein’s review of Financial Planning’s 2009 Software Survey.

Just as I did last year, I’m posting my 30-second summary of the review. I’m listing each comment along side those of 2008 for easy comparison. Read More…

FPPad On Google Wave; Now What?

Posted on November 18, 2009 by in Technology

Over the weekend I received an invitation to Google Wave and have finished setting up access with my account.

What’s Google Wave?

My favorite description so far of Google Wave is that it’s the Play Doh of communication: there are no obvious instructions, but you can pretty much do anything with it.

So if you’re on Google Wave, connect with me and let’s see what we can make. (Sorry, I’m out of invitations!)

My address is billwinterberg@googlewave.com.

I also created a public wave specifically for financial planning. Search for with:public “financial planning” to find it.

Awesome iPhone Apps As Told to David Pogue

Posted on November 15, 2009 by in Technology

Here’s a quick integration of Twitter and Wordle on how the services can be combined to gain insight on a topic very quickly. I’ve written about Wordle before; it’s a web-based tool to create word clouds from text.

Earlier today, technology columnist David Pogue asked the following question on Twitter:

Lots of replies came in, so it’s difficult to determine which apps are the most recommended among those that replied.

Read More…

Dropbox Featured in Forbes; Tools Should “Just Work”

Posted on November 1, 2009 by in Software, Technology

Last week I wrote about how the Dropbox service prevented minor embarrassment when my presentation slides weren’t loaded on the presentation laptop.

I finally got around to reading the October edition of Forbes magazine and saw Lee Gomes’ Digital Tools column.

Click here to read Forget Disruption. Dive Deep Instead on Forbes.com.

The point of the column is how Dropbox programmers worked extremely hard to tackle some very difficult code, yet the result is a simple and elegant program that just works. Once you “get” the concept of Dropbox and start using it, you wonder how you ever lived without it.

Read More…

A Real Life Example of Productivity Tips in Action

Posted on October 25, 2009 by in Software, Technology

I just returned from presenting at the SRI in the Rockies 2009 pre-conference event hosted for members of the First Affirmative Financial Network. I presented two breakout sessions for the group, one on using CRM systems to enhance relationship continuity with clients and one on increasing adviser productivity.

One of the tools I recommend in my productivity presentation is a service from Dropbox. Dropbox is a utility that synchronizes all files stored in the Dropbox folder on a computer with any of your other computers where the software is installed. It also has a web interface to browse, view, and download the files stored in the folder. The first 2GB of data stored on Dropbox is free; additional storage is available for a nominal fee.

Read More…

Google vs. Bing: Reinventing Search

Posted on August 23, 2009 by in Technology

This post was originally published at advisors4advisors.com on August 11, 2009. For continuously updated news, information, and commentary relevant to financial advisors, sign up today.

This is a quick post on developments in the search engine space. This advisors4advisors article link talks about Google’s infusion of “caffeine” updates to speed up indexing and improve results. This is likely a response to the introduction of Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

If you’re like me, you don’t want to spend much time searching. Browsing the Internet is so 1990s.

Read More…

Save Time & Money: Free Long Distance Calls to Businesses

Posted on August 3, 2009 by in Efficiency, Technology

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.

Read More…