Tag Archives: Actiance

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 19

Posted on July 19, 2013 by in Bits & Bytes

storm

Another day, another rain storm in the Atlanta metro. Need some water? We have plenty!

While most of the country has baked under oppressive heat and humidity, Atlanta’s temperatures didn’t get above 90 degrees in all of 2013 until Wednesday this week! “Hotlanta?”

Summer is half over, so you have roughly six more weeks before the activity in your office picks up again as clients return from vacation. What have you accomplished so far for your technology goals of the year?

Here are this week’s top stories:

Banks that offer money management tools may have advantage over startups and software companies from PRNewswire.com

[I must admit, I am shocked by this research! Banks have an edge over companies like Mint and Personal Capital when it comes to likelihood to take action and trust? Ok, trust I can believe, since a “big” bank with brick and mortar assets has a tangible component to it, while online finance websites have nothing but a virtual storefront. But likelihood to take action? I would have guessed that Mint, Personal Capital, HelloWallet and others would certainly convert many more visitors to use their tools compared with the spartan tools of a big bank. I’m flat out wrong, according to this Change Sciences Group study.] Today leading web researchers Change Sciences Group (www.changesciences.com) released new research showing that banks may have an advantage over startups and software companies like Mint when it comes to providing financial tools which help consumers take control of their finances online.

YCharts: Bloomberg for the rest of us? from InvestmentNews.com

[If you are copying and pasting charts from Yahoo! Finance into your client reports, I think you are making a mistake. Here’s an affordable alternative from YCharts that let’s you scan over 17,000 equities and sort by over 3,000 individual metrics to create the charts of your dreams. At $199/month (plus 20% off if you buy a full year), it’s significantly cheaper than the competition from Bloomberg.] When it comes to getting real-time or near-real-time stock or other equity data there are two ends of the spectrum.

Hear That? It’s Your Financial Adviser Tweeting from the New York Times

[Financial institutions just don’t get it. Canned tweets don’t work. If you’re an adviser, I don’t think your audience really cares that much about random facts on Federal holidays. What I think they (your audience) DO care about is information that helps solve their problems or helps them learn something new they can actually use. And guess what? You can’t provide that level of value with prescreened, canned tweets from Hearsay Social, Socialware, Actiance, or anyone else providing scripted content.] Judging by his Facebook page, it would seem that Jeffrey E. Blum experienced a surge of patriotic inspiration around July 4. Mr. Blum, a financial adviser, posted no fewer than 12 updates with good wishes and trivia about the holiday.

Arbor Point Fills Gap for Independent Advisors from Businesswire.com

[First there was Pinnacle Advisory Solutions, an outsourced investment management program and back office solution provider designed to lighten the management load of the average RIA firm. Now Securities America has partnered with Orion Advisor Services to launch Arbor Point Advisors, an SEC-registered corporate RIA with no allegiance to any one custodian. Much of the software available today allows RIAs to be custodian agnostic, but now advisors can also benefit from regulatory registration and compliance support that I assume will be provided in some fashion by Arbor Point Advisors.] Arbor Point Advisors LLC, a new SEC registered investment advisory firm, intends to fill the gap for advisors seeking the freedom of the independent advisory model and a choice of custodians without the need to form their own registered investment advisory firm.

And if you want to read the best material in financial planning knowledge and information over the weekend, click or tap the button below to head over to Michael Kitces’ Nerd’s Eye View blog and see the latest in Weekend Reading.

Click to view Weekend Reading at Kitces.com

[Video Spotlight] Sarah Carter of Actiance at FinovateSpring 2012

Posted on May 11, 2012 by in Video Spotlight

Another presenter at FinovateSpring 2012 that should be familiar to FPPad readers is Actiance. The Belmont, Calif.-based company provides compliance solutions for regulated financial professionals in the form of its Socialite Engage platform.

Here’s Sarah Carter from Actiance telling what Socialite Engage can do for advisers and gives a bonus tip on what day and time is best to post social media updates.

(click to view on YouTube)

FinovateSpring 2012 highlights for independent financial advisers: Day 1

Posted on May 8, 2012 by in Conferences

I’m attending FinovateSpring 2012 today and tomorrow. When I have a chance, I’ll update FPPad with items independent financial advisers will want to add to their radar.

(updated 3:34PM PDT – final update of the day)

Smart Expense™ from Concur simplifies travel expense reporting with TripIt integration from FPPad.com

[Again, here’s another option to facilitate expense report generation, especially if you are an existing TripIt user, Smart Expense from Concur. The disadvantage is there’s a monthly fee for TripIt Pro, but people on Twitter swear by it, so appears worthwhile. SmartExpense from Concur is free.] While you’re traveling, Concur’s mobile travel & expense app helps you stay on the ball. Need to change a flight, book a hotel or rental car, or even hail and pay for a taxi? Concur’s mobile app puts the ability to do all this in the palm of your hand.

(updated 2:41PM PDT)

SaveUp Helps Banks Gamify Consumer Saving from Finovate.com

[Do you have clients that just aren’t meeting their savings goals? Maybe they need to make savings a game. SaveUp takes the basic human desire for positive reward reinforcement by allocating special credits for doing the right things, then those credits can be redeemed for prizes and contest drawings.] First on stage in today’s final session, SaveUp demonstrated how financial institutions can use its platform to instill positive saving habits in members.

(updated 11:34AM PDT)

iQuantifi helps clients optimize and prioritize financial goals in real time from FPPad.com

[Unbeknownst to me prior to today, iQuantifi is an online goal-planning and illustration tool built by Franklin, Tenn.-based financial planner Tom White. Its goal is to “help people identify, prioritize, and achieve their financial goals.” It has a very appealing goals-based interface with an interactive timeline users can use to click and drag goals and see what happens to goal planning in real time. The product is in a private alpha, but you can sign up for their enewsletter to stay informed of product updates. Here’s the Finovate blog entry.]

(updated 11:05AM PDT)

Actiance Helps Financial Institutions and Advisors Track Social Media Activity from Finovate.com

[FPPad readers should be well aware of Actiance and their social media archiving services (among others) for advisers. They presented at FinovateSpring 2012 to gain more exposure in regulated industries. Socialware, Arkovi, Erado, et. al., are you listening?] Wrapping up the first session, Actiance showed how financial institutions can encourage consumer engagement without compromising their brand.

Personal Capital announces iPhone app, Universal Checkbook from tuaw.com

[Personal Capital is known for its free iPad app offered directly to consumers. At FinovateSpring 2012, the company announced the release of an iPhone app and also Universal Checkbook, a way to link a checking account to Personal Capital and use it to send payments to almost anyone. How’s that for integration?] Personal Capital also announced a new feature in the iPhone app that is not part of their iPad app — the Universal Checkbook.

Expensify Trips Aims to Make Travelling Easier from FinovateSpring.com

[Travel a lot to adviser conferences? Expensify might save you tons of time by linking photos of your receipts while traveling with your trip itinerary, generating an expense report in real time.] Expensify showed how its Trips platform makes travelling easier by helping you get a head start on processing travel receipts:

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 9

Posted on March 9, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I released several new spotlight interview videos this week featuring Laserfiche reseller CitiesDigital, portfolio accounting service bureau AssetBook, and performance report platform AdvisoryWorld. Be sure the check them out and send me any feedback you have.

First, I’ve always been looking for services like Dropbox that are easy to use, but combine ease of use with robust security features. I think I found one of those possible solutions for advisers, so don’t miss this month’s column for Morningstar Advisor, A Document Vault Your Clients Might Actually Use.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Cabinet NG Announces CNG-SAFE 7.5 from Marketwire.com

[Not to be outdone by Laserfiche’s product announcements made at its user conference in January, Cabinet NG, another document management software solution for financial advisers, has updated its program with enhanced forms processing and additional Quickbooks integrations.] Cabinet NG, provider of electronic document management and workflow management software, today announced the release of CNG-SAFE 7.5, the latest version of its complete document management and workflow software product.

EFileCabinet Releases Mobile App from CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

[eFileCabinet is not a well-known name in the financial adviser market. However, this document management software company has fairly good adoption among CPAs, so it’s just a matter of time until they start branching out into the independent adviser industry.] eFileCabinet, Inc., a provider of enterprise content management solutions, recently released the eFileCabinet Online mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The Principal Financial Group® Chooses Actiance to Provide Social Media Monitoring Platform from Marketwire.com

[Erado, Socialware, and Arkovi have made a number of the last Bits and Bytes updates, but one that has been relatively quiet is Actiance. In this press release you’ll get some statistics on the inroads the company is making in the social media compliance market.] Actiance, helping organizations benefit from new forms of communications and collaboration, today announced that The Principal Financial Group® has deployed its Socialite platform to help meet regulatory requirements that allow the firm’s financial professionals to use social media for business purposes.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 4

Posted on November 4, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Wow, what a packed week at Schwab IMPACT! Still, I took time out of my schedule to assemble this week’s top articles in financial adviser technology (and there are plenty!).

First, if you continue to seek guidance regarding online document storage solutions (like Dropbox, SugarSync, et. al.), read my column in November’s Journal of Financial Planning, Evaluating Online Document Storage.

Then, catch my coverage of IMPACT in these two posts:

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Evolution of Orion from FA-mag.com

[Orion made a series of waves in the technology ocean back in August, which I covered in a series of posts. Here Joel Bruckenstien summarizes how Orion has put some serious pressure on technology providers in the independent adviser market.] Orion Advisor Services LLC is a firm that seemingly flies under the radar of many financial advisors. Orion’s journey from a service bureau start-up to technology innovator has been anything but typical.

Integration Key to Tech Advantage from AdvisorOne.

[You hear this over and over: integrated solutions can offer big time and cost savings. But at least Eric Clarke, president of Orion Advisor Solutions, provides good rules of thumb for advisers seeking new solutions.] Technology is a pervasive part of any industry and one that is constantly changing. One of the keys for advisors to maintain a comprehensive, efficient technology solution is integration.

New Raymond James Social Media Platform Lets Advisors Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter from AdvisorOne.com

[Erado and Socialware have been the beneficiaries of several broker-dealer engagements as of late, but here comes Actiance making news with its deal with Raymond James.] Raymond James has just implemented a new social media platform from Actiance that will allow the broker-dealer to use social media sites including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter while complying with Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulations.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 20

Posted on May 20, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Bill is attending NAPFA National 2011’s final day today after appearing as a panelist for Thursday’s session on adviser technology. As always, look for the live tweets from this conference which can be found under the #NAPFA11 hashtag.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Behind the scenes in social media at InvestmentNews.com

As regulators take their own sweet time coming up with guidelines for social media, the marketplace is coming up with its own solutions for financial advisers.

A blessing from Charles Goldman helped seal the Advent-Black Diamond deal from RIABiz.com

It was a big deal for the RIA business. Yet the planned combination of Advent Software and Black Diamond was not so large that investment bankers got called in to finance or advise on the transaction. What sufficed in place of Goldman Sachs, it turns out, was Charles Goldman.

Tweets That Mean Business from Financial Advisor Magazine

Advisors are finding that social media is more helpful than just sharing silly things like what you ate for dinner last night.

 

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 13

Posted on May 13, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

We’re attending the 2011 FPA DFW Financial Planning Symposium today (our second of four conferences this month!) and will be live tweeting updates using the #FPADFW hashtag.

In the meantime, below are this week’s best stories in financial planning technology.

Read this month’s column for Morningstar Advisor, A Popular CRM Gets an Upgrade

Over the last 12 months, Redtail product developers and engineers have been working hard to prepare a new version of its CRM, code-named Project Leapfrog, scheduled for official release in January 2012. In this month’s column, Bill explores the new features and design of Project Leapfrog and how they improve this already-popular CRM.

Cabinet NG First to Offer Scheduling, Workflow and Document Management in One Package from MarketWire.com

Cabinet NG, provider of document management and workflow management software, today announced the latest version of CNG-SAFE 7.0. The new version aligns document and contact management through its breakthrough scheduling capability making it an industry first with scheduling, workflow and document management in one core package.

Cambridge, Commonwealth vault advisors into social media; the boost is mostly free, for now from RIABiz.com

Sensing the urgency for advisors to have access to social media, Cambridge Investment Research and Commonwealth Financial Network have begun offering their advisors coaching and technology services to help them use social web sites.

Choosing Software That Works for Your Advisory Firm-Part 5: How to Implement New Technology from AdvisorOne.com

The fifth update in a six-part series by Spenser Segal of ActiFi designed to present best practices to advisors on how to choose, implement and monitor new technology for an advisory firm.

Actiance Selected by Smarsh as Social Media Compliance Partner from Reuters.com

Actiance, enablers of the safe and compliant use of unified communications, collaboration and Web 2.0, today announced that Smarsh, the managed service leader in secure and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, has expanded its agreement with Actiance to include the Socialite platform.

 

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 8

Posted on April 8, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Last week we were finalizing preparation for FPA Retreat 2011. This week’s focus has been preparations for FPA NorCal 2011. As such, the pace of new posts to FPPad has slowed somewhat, but expect them to pick up in the weeks to come.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Keep Calm and Carry On from Financial-Planning.com

Coral Gables, Fla.-based Evensky & Katz Wealth Management survived a three-week long audit from the SEC. Here’s what the Chief Compliance Officer would tell other advisory firms that are preparing for when the auditors come knocking.

Social-media archiving, compliance solutions in focus from InvestmentNews.com

Financial advisers and broker-dealers apparently aren’t sitting on the sidelines waiting for Finra and the SEC to figure out how the financial advisory industry should use social networking.

Choosing Software That Works for Your Advisory Firm-Part 3: Envision from AdvisorOne.com

The third update in a six-part series by Spenser Segal of ActiFi designed to present best practices to advisors on how to choose, implement and monitor new technology for an advisory firm.

Where’s the Beef? from Financial-Planning.com

Inside Information’s Bob Veres solicits advisers on their most and least valuable activities when it comes to the use of portfolio management software.

And part two of an interview AdvisorWebsites.com conducted with Bill on financial adviser technology: Bill Winterberg Talks Technology: Part 2