Tag Archives: advent

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 14

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

New Apps for the Mobile Financial Adviser from The Wall Street Journal

[Clearly, mobile devices and their software apps are changing the way you do business. Expect even more functionality and enhanced security, such as facial recognition or biometrics, for mobile devices in the coming years.] Smart gadgets packed with apps are changing the way financial advisers do business and relate to their clients. As more advisers snap up mobile devices like iPads, the investment firms they work with are offering up apps that let them do their jobs from a small screen.

Money management, Silicon Valley-style from Forbes

[Forbes managed to extract info from start-up Addepar that both RIABiz and I failed to get. Now we know Addepar charges 5 basis points on AUM, generates about $25 million in revenue, has 75 “lean” employees, and a sales force with connections to the ultra high net worth segment of the wealth management market.] Having made a small fortune in his twenties, Joe Lonsdale has set his sights on a new challenge: designing software for the ultrawealthy.

Personal Capital Unveils its Professionally Managed 401(k) from Finovate.com

[So who out there has 401(k) fee evaluator tools? Brightscope and FutureAdvisor do, and they’ve been mentioned here before. Now start-up RIA Personal Capital has one, too. Add this to their free mobile app, free peer-to-peer payment support, and free stock option analyzer, and you’ve got a robust offering of pipeline-filling marketing tools. Oh, and they now are selling “America’s BEST 401k” plan at http://www.personalcapital401k.com/ with management fees around 50 basis points.] Personal Capital will be demoing its free 401(k) fee calculator, which enables users to determine how much their 401(k) costs and what long-term fees they can expect to pay over time. The calculator has the potential to save investors hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.

Advent Adds Alternative Investments Solution to Black Diamond Platform from MarketWatch.com

[Alternative investments are gaining adoption among financial advisers. The challenge with them, though, is getting updated data populated in a portfolio management system like PortfolioCenter, AssetBook, and in this case, Advent. From the press release, it sounds like advisers have a way to perform bulk updates to alternative assets in Advent’s Black Diamond platform. If there were 30 hours in a day, I’d have specifics for you on how that actually takes place.] Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, today announced the launch of an alternative investments solution within the Black Diamond platform. The new functionality enables advisors and wealth managers to manage and report the details of their alternative investment holdings down to the transaction level allowing them to provide a more complete financial picture to their clients.

MarketCounsel Sells MailBanc Messaging Unit to Global Relay from AdvisorOne

[MarketCounsel’s MailBanc email archiving service was one I covered last year in a review of archiving providers for Morningstar (see Avoid E-mail Audit Headaches). Thursday MarketCounsel said it sold MailBanc to archive provider Global Relay, who by no coincidence, was also featured in the same Morningstar column. When MailBanc was launched, advisers had few choices for email archiving. Today, there are many more options. As founder Brian Hamburger said, “The industry has now matured to a point where we can step aside and continue our focus on RIAs.”] “We have sold our MailBanc messaging compliance service to Global Relay,” Hamburger said, offering no details of the deal.

Junxure Achieves Company Milestone, Surpasses 10,000 Active Users from eReleases.com

[The number-two CRM (according to most financial advisor surveys, and excluding Microsoft Outlook!), now has over 10,000 users on its platform. This is a good milestone for a niche product, but the company faces an uphill battle to close the gap with leading CRM provider Redtail Technologies, which at last report had over 43,000 users.] Junxure, an industry-leading CRM practice improvement firm that integrates technology, consulting, and training, today announced that it surpassed 10,000 active users on its Junxure CRM as of July 2012.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 24

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Advent and RedBlack Join Forces to Offer Rebalancing Solution to Investment Management Professionals from MarketWire.com

[Not one to avoid integrations, Advent is starting to respond to the competitive landscape by supporting connections to third party providers, too. Here’s the latest partnership with portfolio rebalancer RedBlack, solidifying Advent as an end-to-end portfolio management solution when coupled with previously-acquired Black Diamond (see Advent Purchases Black Diamond Performance Reporting for Approximately $73 Million).] Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, and RedBlack Software, LLC, the largest independent provider of portfolio rebalancing software for the investment management industry, today announce that the two companies have entered into an alliance agreement to improve client use of best of breed solutions and have completed full integration between Advent Portfolio Exchange(R) (APX) and Axys(R) platforms, and RedBlack’s portfolio rebalancing solutions.

Mikogo Releases HTML5 Screen Sharing for Faster Online Meetings from PRWeb.com

[I’m very critical of online meeting software these days, particularly of certain tools that casual Internet users find too cumbersome to use. Mikogo’s been highlighted on FPPad before (see BeamYourScreen Releases Mikogo 4.0 Beta, Adds New Features), and now the company has simplified its application for end users, as they no longer need to download and install a helper application prior to joining a meeting.] A leader in online meeting technology, Mikogo has today announced the release of a major update to its award-winning HTML Viewer with the incorporation of the new HTML5 standard for Internet browsers into the software. The HTML Viewer is a 100% browser-based way for participants to join online meetings and this new release built on HTML5 technology provides users with faster screen sharing,several new features and is multilingual.

With $4 Billion In Assets Under Wraps, FutureAdvisor Raises Another $5 Million From Sequoia Capital from TechCrunch.com

[FPPad readers know of FutureAdvisor and its free 401(k) aggregation tools for consumers (see: FutureAdvisor co-founder Bo Lu at FinovateSpring 2012). Just four months after releasing its tools to the public, the company completed a $5 million Series A round. The stakes continue to raise in this direct-to-investor advice trend.] FutureAdvisor has raised a $5 million Series A round from Sequoia Capital to accelerate its growth, and it’s also rolling out a new tool to help users save on fees in their 401(k) portfolio.

LPL Helps Advisors Use Social Media Compliantly from Financial-Planning.com

[If you’re still on the fence about whether to use social media, broker-dealer LPL has useful guidance in this article from Financial Planning. However, I find the ‘Yes’/’No’ format a little strange. Note that much of the social media compliance for LPL is handled by Erado (see: Six More Designate Erado as Their Social Media Compliance Provider).] Run by a firm called Erado, LPL’s social media compliance service costs $180 a year for its advisors to use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (that’s $60 for each platform). It archives all social media communication for potential review by regulators.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 22

Woah, who turned on the firehose of releases this week? Maybe everyone wants to get all their news out to the world before taking off for summer vacations.

So I don’t interfere with your vacation plans, let’s move right into week’s stories of interest:

Schwab Performance Technologies Announces Development of Hosted Version of PortfolioCenter from MarketWire

[My Twitter followers found out Monday morning of Schwab’s latest plans to offer a hosted version of PortfolioCenter to advisers. Getting portfolio management software off of your local server is one of the last hurdles to cross in transitioning your business into one that can operate completely in the cloud.] Schwab Performance Technologies® (SPT), a subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corporation and a leading provider of technology solutions for independent investment advisors, announced today that the company is building a hosted version of its flagship portfolio management software for independent investment advisors.

Schwab Announces Availability of 28 New Workflows for Independent Investment Advisors from MarketWire

[My vision for workflows is an online exchange advisers can upload and download workflow scripts for specific CRMs. Well, that assumes CRMs can import and export workflow scripts, which most can’t do, not even Salesforce, if I remember correctly. Until then, advisers will have to settle for “pseudo-code,” i.e. a high-level description, of what steps to follow in a workflow, delivered in a PDF or Word document. And that’s exactly what Schwab Intelligent Technologies is delivering.] In order to help advisors gain greater efficiency in their business practices, Charles Schwab announced today that a full library of 28 universal workflows are now available in the Schwab OpenView Workflow Library(TM) (Workflow Library) through Schwab Intelligent Technologies.

Cloud version of Junxure on the way from InvestmentNews

[Junxure Essentials is coming, well, soon, and we don’t yet know how much it will cost. Last year, August 24, 2011 to be exact, I relayed the company’s plans to release a cloud-based version of Junxure in Q4 2012. According to CRM Software’s Greg Friedman, now plans are to launch a beta version in the fall with general availability in 2013. Building this is not easy, and Junxure’s only going to get one chance, in my opinion, to get this right. Oh, and if you made it this far, Junxure posted a sneak peek of Joel Bruckenstein’s review from the Technology Tools for Today newsletter.] Junxure, a CRM application popular among registered investment advisers, is heading to the clouds.

Smarsh Acquires AdvisorSquare from Symantec from MarketWatch

[If you archive websites (see Smarsh releases Web Archiving, an automated solution to archive adviser websites), you might as well support the creation of them in the first place. Here Smarsh announces the acquisition of AdvisorSquare and their website support for “thousands of investment professionals nationwide.” I stopped recommending AdvisorSquare to my clients back in 2009. Will Smarsh’s investment reverse my opinion of their product and service?] Smarsh(R), the managed service leader in secure, innovative and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, today announced the acquisition of AdvisorSquare from Symantec.

Junxure Launches Blog for Financial Industry from PRNewswire

[Junxure, a top-three CRM in use by advisers, now has a public blog. I contacted Junxure president Greg Friedman and asked that he set up an RSS feed with Feedburner to offer a few more flexible options for visitors to subscribe.] Junxure, an industry-leading CRM practice improvement firm that integrates technology, consulting, and training, has launched its Company blog at www.junxure.com/blog. The new Junxure blog will primarily focus on topics related to the financial industry, from technology trends to industry best practices. In addition, the Junxure blog will report important news and updates about its products and services.

 AssetBook and BlazePortfolio Announce Strategic Partnership to Deliver End-to-End Back Office Solution for Investment Advisors from BlazePortfolio

[Managing portfolios for your clients means more than just downloading and reconciling account positions. You also need a tool that scales your ability to place trades. Here’s a good development between trade order management provider BlazePortfolio and  online portfolio service bureau Assetbook (see AssetBook CEO Rob Major discusses advantages of hiring an outsourced portfolio service bureau.] BlazePortfolio Systems  and AssetBook today announced an integration partnership between software platforms which would provide AssetBook users access to BlazePortfolio’s real-time trade order management system, Atom Align.  The combined offering will provide enhanced flexibility for registered investment advisors who are seeking a best of breed approach to manage their portfolio management systems.

YouTube Integration Reflects Growing Use of Video as Social Tool for Business from Arkovi.com

[You no doubt have noticed the addition of video content here at FPPad. You’re likely considering making videos of your own (if not already) to feature your business. But any video you post is marketing material, and is therefore subject to the same capture and archive requirements in FINRA and SEC regulations. So how do you archive videos you post to popular hosting sites like YouTube? One option is Arkovi’s extended solution.]  Arkovi announced today at the Morningstar Investment Conference a new integration with YouTube, continuing a series of major releases on its social media archiving, compliance and monitoring platform. The YouTube integration includes a number of key features including publishing, compliance and supervision, reporting and search features.

Black Diamond’s Clientele Swells After Advent Merger from WealthManagement.com

[A little more than a year after being acquired by Advent for $73 million, Black Diamond continues its healthy growth. What I’d like to know from you is what has (or has not) changed with respect to the customer service you receive.] Not every advisor was pleased in May 2011 when Advent Software announced it was buying its smaller, younger rival, Black Diamond Performance Reporting.

See, I told you there were a ton of new updates this week!

Kitces: Eleven blogs for all financial advisers to follow from InvestmentNews

[It’s a privilege to have FPPad included among excellent blogs you should follow. I hope you continue to enjoy the Video Spotlight and Bits & Bytes content produced for you.] While there are many lists of blogs out there, financial planning’s own social media “power tweeter” Michael Kitces, partner and director of research for Pinnacle Advisory Group and publisher of The Kitces Report and his own blog, Nerd’s Eye View, maintains a list of blogs specifically relevant for financial advisors.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 25

Between a presentation in Charleston, SC on Monday, Redtail U in Dallas on Tuesday, filming more Spotlight Video on Wednesday, and taking my son to the zoo on Thursday, updates to FPPad rank about number nine on my list of important things to do. But I still can set aside time this morning to give you the best financial planning technology news from around the Web.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Advent Software Selects ByAllAccounts to Provide Retail Account Information to Advent OnDemand® Users from PRWeb

[Advent isn’t the largest portforlio management software by number of users among RIAs, but it’s definitely a top ten vendor. In this latest announcement, advisers will benefit from ByAllAccounts’ thousands of connections with held-away accounts they may not ordinarily aggregate, or perhaps aggregate manually.] Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, announced it has selected ByAllAccounts, Inc. to provide retail account information to users of the Advent OnDemand® service.

Retire Logix to link with FPA’s PlannerSearch from Financial Advisor Magazine

[Financial planning software provider Financial Logix and the Financial Planning Association have partnered to make it easier for consumers using the Retire Logix software to find a financial planner through the FPA’s network of thousands of member planners.] Consumers using Retire Logix on their mobile phones now will be able to search for financial planners with a simple click.

Personal Capital is featured in four updates this week. Evidently one can “buy” widely distributed press by building a compelling financial dashboard from scratch.

Personal Capital’s Beautiful App Convinces The Wealthy To Trust Their Money To Strangers from FastCompany

[What buzz does Personal Capital consistently generate? Highlights of their data aggregation and comprehensive dashboard. But what most media outlets overlook is Personal Capital’s 10 employee financial advisors and how successful they are at managing assets to generate revenue for the business.] Personal Capital, a startup cofounded by Bill Harris, the former CEO of Intuit and PayPal, has created a new service that’s part “high tech,” part “high touch” to tackle both parts of the financial management equation.

Wealth management: Private pursuits from The Economist

[The next wave of multi-millionaires (and billionaires) from Facebook’s IPO is about to hit Silicon Valley. When they do, which method of wealth management will they choose? Traditional institutions or the nimble, tech-enabled startups?] Silicon Valley is already awash with traditional wealth managers. UBS, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and others are expanding in San Francisco and around Silicon Valley. They have recently been joined by online rivals such as Wealthfront, MarketRiders and Personal Capital, all of which use technology to help clients build customised asset portfolios at a small fraction of what traditional wealth managers would charge.

Personal Capital app demo from TechCrunch (embedded below for your convenience)

[Here’s a long interview of Personal Capital’s Bill Harris by TechCrunch, including some short segments of an app walkthrough. At least in this video you discover Personal Capital has 10 employee advisers ready to service clients under their RIA.] The CEO and VP of Engineering of Personal Capital demo their financial app.

Online RIAs will mostly fail — and here are 10 reasons why from RIABiz.com

[This article is last, because its author, Jack Waymire, misses the point in my opinion. I feel one must take the perspective of the prospective client, perhaps a 30-something startup employee that is looking to cash out some lucrative stock options. Where is that individual going to go for financial advice? A shop that has paper account forms, paper quarterly reports, and no mobile app? Forget it! It’s 2012 for goodness sake.] I believe these companies and their financial backers have badly underestimated the strength of the relationships that exist between investors and advisors. For this reason, I believe these websites will fail or, at best, be marginally successful. Here’s why.

Personal Capital app demo

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for December 23

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday. Here are this week’s stories of interest:

How Black Diamond is faring as a unit of Advent Software from RIABiz.com

[So if you’re a disgruntled adviser on Advent’s legacy software, which new provider are you going to consider? Now that Advent owns Black Diamond, it seems like a no-brainer that advisers will make the transition to the web-based solution with little or no transition cost.] Since the Jacksonville, Fla.-based up-and-comer in portfolio accounting software was purchased back in early June by the San Francisco-based market leader, it has increased the number of advisory practices it serves to 330 from 270, an increase of about 22%.

TD to work on workflows for third-party technology partners from InvestmentNews.com

[This is a good, mid-week submission from Davis Janowski about TD Ameritrade’s efforts to provide sample workflows to advisors using Veo Open Access.] TD Ameritrade Institutional has completed an agreement with technology consultancy Actifi Inc. to help it build automated workflows for TD’s Veo Open Access platform.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 16

Summer is “officially” over. How do I know (besides the snow blower inventory in Wisconsin, thank you Nathan Gehring)? Temperatures have finally dipped below 100 degrees here in Dallas, and the floodgates have opened on technology news for financial advisers. Most guilty this week is RIABiz with multiple contributions.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

If you work hard but feel like you’re not making any progress, view my latest update for Blueleaf, Was Otis Redding Singing About Your Advisory Practice?

Salesforce.com is more than a CRM app from InvestmentNews.com

[Again, Salesforce continues to dominate technology talk for financial advisers. Here Davis Janowski highlights how the Salesforce platform does much more beyond the basic CRM functions.] When thinking about Salesforce, advisers shouldn’t view it as stand-alone, dedicated CRM software.

AdventConnect Report: Black Diamond will sell rebalancing software and better reporting on alternative investments from RIABiz.com

By the start of 2012, Black Diamond Performance Reporting, now part of Advent, intends to provide rebalancing software as part of its capabilities and to vastly improve its ability to report on alternative assets.

Fidelity jumps into the game of providing technology for picking RIA technology from RIABiz.com

[I noted Fidelity’s new spreadsheet tool in last week’s Bits & Bytes, so thankfully Lisa Shidler dipped in for more research on the tool for RIABiz.] Before RIAs rush out and spend tens of thousands of dollars on new technology, Fidelity Investments executives want them to look at its new tool for determining the economic impact of costly technology purchases.

As advisors flunk social media 101, CRM makers are starting to pick up the slack from RIABiz.com

[In this article, Nevin Freeman points out Pivotal CRM’s social features. I’ve been spoiled by social aggregators that integrate with email programs like Gmail and Outlook and I share those tools in my presentations to advisers.] Customer relationship management suites like Salesforce.com are beginning to put more emphasis on interacting with online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter – and it may answer a prayer or two for RIAs who are tired of asking their 14 year-olds for advice.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 22

I’ve had a wonderful week here in Portland, OR speaking to the FPA chapter, spending the day yesterday in Seattle, and basking in 70 degree summer days. I’ll be back in Dallas Monday and Tuesday next week, then speaking to the FPA of San Antonio & South Texas on Wednesday and all-day client work Thursday and Friday. Whew!

I also just confirmed a new speaking engagement at the Cabinet NG Collaborate 2011 conference to be held in October in Huntsville, AL. See my speaking page for more information.

So with that, here are this week’s stories of interest:

Update on Black Diamond-Advent merger from RIABiz.com

Brooke Southall covers the four things advisers should know about how the knitting together of the two companies is progressing.

MSSB data breach is a lesson for advisers from InvestmentNews.com

Still putting client data on CD-ROMs and USB drives? Davis Janowski highlights several resources and best practices advisers should consider to keep their clients’ personal information safe and secure.

RIAs fed up with Facebook should hop on the Google+ bandwagon from RIABiz.com

So you’ve heard of this new network from Google called Google+. Nevin Freeman and Brooke Southall share their experience on the network and forecast how advisers might adopt it within their practice.

 

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 8

I took advantage of the typical summer slowdown and spent most of the week on vacation. I’m back at FPPad headquarters for the next week and then off to Portland, OR to speak to the FPA of Oregon & SW Washington chapter on July 20. Drop on by if you can!

Now, on to this week’s stories of interest.

Fiserv purchase of CashEdge could affect account aggregation space from RIABiz.com

[CashEdge is one of those names that pops up every so often when discussing account aggregation. However, it’s an incomplete solution for advisers seeking reconciliation-ready data for held-away accounts. So I don’t see Fiserv’s acquisition of CashEdge for $465 million dramatically altering the account aggregation space] $465 million deal is mostly a payment processing technology-grab, according to ByAllAccounts.

Envestnet unbundles portfolio management software for RIAs and it won’t be a sideshow from RIABiz.com

[Envestnet is competing in the portfolio management software market with its Vantage product. Will it be powerful enough to compete with market dominators Advent and Schwab?] Envestnet has long been the undisputed leading platform for separate account managers, used by tens of thousands of advisors. The portfolio management software capability it provided, on the other hand, was always viewed as an add-on service.

The Relationship Manager from AdvisorOne.com

[Actifi’s Spenser Segal identifies the Achilles heel of poor CRM software implementation: people] Even though CRM systems have matured, with many systems built specifically for financial advisors, most firms are only scratching the surface when it comes to taking advantage of key features that are designed to help advisors grow their practices.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 17

Now that summer is here (where it won’t go below 75 degrees here in Dallas for another two months), the typical slowdown is upon us. I’m taking the opportunity to focus on several projects that I put off this spring and build up a library of topics for future blog posts and columns.

So is there something you’re dying to learn about in the financial adviser technology world? Perhaps a vendor tool or web-based productivity plugin? Contact me and let me know. I get my best content from advisers like you.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

An adviser dives into video stream from InvestmentNews.com

Davis Janowski had a hard time tracking down advisers using video and screen sharing software with clients and prospects. But when he identified one, he learned of the many ways this technology is helping one adviser grow his business.

What one big RIA has to say about its switch from Advent Axys to Advent Portfolio Exchange from RIABiz.com

How much better is APX over Axys, and it is good enough for a firm to want to stay on Advent’s platform? Read about one firm’s process of evaluating their options and APX conversion experience.

Think your millionaire clients aren’t e-media savvy? Think again from InvestmentNews.com

[Bill’s note: You shouldn’t be surprised by the results in Fidelity’s survey. The question is, what are you doing to deliver service to clients over their preferred media?] According to a Fidelity Investments survey released today, 85% of millionaires use or are willing to use electronic media, such as e-mail, social-media sites and text messaging, compared with only 43% of financial advisers and brokers.

SEI Quick Poll: 1 in 4 Top Financial Advisors Use Electronic Tablets for Client and Prospect Meetings from Marketwire.com

According to a survey of 150 top financial advisors at SEI’s National Strategic Advisor Conference in May, one in four respondents indicated they currently use electronic tablets for client and prospect meetings. Additionally, nearly half (46 percent) of advisors are thinking about using electronic tablets for work.

Securities America Jumps on the Social Media Bandwagon from RegisteredRep.com

[Socialware will be Securities America’s compliance technology solution] During its National Conference in Orlando, Fla., this week, independent broker/dealer Securities America announced its new social media program, which will allow all of its 1,800 reps to access and post content on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in mid-July, said Leia Farmer, deputy chief compliance officer.

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 10

I’ve spent the week catching up on a backlog of work, vendor demos, phone calls, and reading due to May’s busy travel schedule. Tungle.me deserves recognition for helping me keep my sanity while scheduling all the calls and demos this week. If you haven’t heard of Tungle.me, read my column for Morningstar Advisor A Simpler Way to Schedule Meetings and try it yourself.

Now on with this week’s stories of interest:

Cabinet NG Creates New Class of Web-Based Document Management with CNG-WEB from CabinetNG.com

Cabinet NG, an on-premise document management software application, extends its functionality to the web with its latest release of CNG-WEB, making document capture and access from remote locations easier than ever.

One RIA’s unvarnished views on Advent, Black Diamond, Tamarac, IAS, Orion and Schwab PortfolioCenter after an odyssey of test drives from RIABiz.com

Take six portfolio management applications, drop them in a bucket, shake it around with a dose of trials and due diligence, and out comes one winner (in theory). Here’s one adviser’s perspective on hashing out a portfolio management solution for his practice.

Choosing Software That Works for Your Advisory Firm—Part 7: The Keys to Success from AdvisorOne.com

The seventh update in a 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.

Advent Brings APX to Pershing NetX360 from Marketwire.com

Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, today announced that Pershing’s introducing broker-dealer and independent registered investment advisor (RIA) customers will now have access to Advent Portfolio Exchange® (APX) through NetX360™, its innovative, open-architecture technology solution.