EchoSign Archives

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 20

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, learn about the technology one planner selected to launch his new RIA, SigFig launches a free portfolio guidance algorithm for investors, and find out what happens when Tony Robbins mentions your firm in his best-selling book.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by ITEGRIA, providers of complete outsourced technology support, security, infrastructure and IT solutions exclusively for RIAs.

In their new book titled Red Flags, you’ll learn how to protect your firm from cyber-attacks, disasters, and IT compliance risks. Learn more about the Red Flags book by visiting fppad.com/itegria.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Meeting The Requirements To Start Your Own RIA Without Breaking The Bank from Kitces.com

[This weeks top story comes from Michael Kitces’ Nerd’s Eye View, as this week Kitces featured a guest post from financial planner Andrew McFadden. McFadden tells how he was inspired to launch his own RIA after reading a post by Gen Y planner Sophia Bera about her own experience. He recently launched Panoramic Financial Advice for roughly $7,000 and provided a helpful overview of the technology he selected to get his business up and running.

First, McFadden chose Less Annoying CRM after evaluating Redtail and Wealthbox, because of the CRM’s customization options and low price of just $10 a month. Less Annoying CRM does integrate with Google Apps and Mailchimp, but it doesn’t offer integrations to industry programs like financial planning or portfolio management software. But that’s ok, because McFadden didn’t need to buy portfolio management software, as he opted to leverage the services of third-party money manager Frontier Asset Management which uses Fidelity as its custodian.

For planning engagements, McFadden gathers client data using PreciseFP, builds financial plans using MoneyGuidePro, communicates with remote clients via Skype, and gathers electronic signatures using Adobe EchoSign.

So think about the advisors in your business: For $7,000 and a lot of hustling, practically anyone can start new RIA from scratch. So if you’re not investing in your people, your technology, and your compensation plan so that there’s upside potential in your business, don’t be surprised if you witness breakaways from your firm as advisors decide to go out on their own.] Launching a business is hard enough in any industry, but getting through the requirements for setting up an RIA and figuring out the necessary technology vendors and software to have in place when starting a firm can be especially daunting.

SigFig Launches ‘SigFig Guidance’ to Help the 90% of Investors Losing Money Due to Common Mistakes from BusinessWire.com

[Next up is news from SigFig, another player in the online automated investment service arena, that launched a new feature this week called SigFig Guidance. SigFig Guidance uses an online questionnaire and account aggregation to identify an investor’s current portfolio and risk tolerance, and then proceeds to diagnose common problems in the portfolio. SigFig Guidance looks for things like high fees, uninvested cash, excessive risk, and poor diversification, and then offers portfolio recommendations generated by SigFig’s algorithms, all for free.

So does this sound like a second opinion service or a portfolio checkup? That’s because it is. So if you’ve been using a second opinion incentive to attract prospects to your business, you might need to modify your process in light of this new competition.] SigFig, the fastest and most convenient automated investment service, today launched ‘SigFig Guidance’, a free investment tool specifically designed to analyze any portfolio in less than five minutes, offering unbiased, actionable suggestions to optimize returns and reduce fees.

Stronghold takes wraps off robo matchmaker by InvestmentNews

[And speaking of portfolio checkups, this week’s broadcast ends with another new portfolio checkup service, only this one is offered by Stronghold Financial out of San Diego. Now where have I heard that name before? Oh, yes, Stronghold Financial is the business that motivational speaker Tony Robbins promoted in his book, “Money: Master the Game” published back in November, and the firm is led by Robbins’ own advisor Ajay Gupta, which created a bit of controversy on its own.

That aside, what happens when your firm gets mentioned in a New York Times best selling book? You get flooded with leads. In response, Stronghold now offers a free Portfolio Checkup service on its website that uses account aggregation powered by Jemstep in the back end, but instead of taking on thousands of new clients itself, Stronghold is referring those clients out to roughly 100 financial advisors who are part of the Stronghold network, and in return, those advisors pay 25% of the fees generated by each referral back to Stronghold.

So if you feel like your lead generation could use a boost from riding the coattails of Tony Robbins, this is an interesting option to consider at the least, or you could implement Jemstep on your own for a lower fee, but be totally responsible for your own lead generation campaign.] Stronghold Financial, the advisory firm that found itself at the center of controversy last fall because of its ties to self-help guru Tony Robbins, believes its robo-matchmaking service is ready for prime time.

There were no other of stories of interest this week, so enjoy an early start to your weekend!

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 20, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Microsoft slashes pricing of another service in an attempt to be your single destination for notes, find out when Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps may finally be available for the iPad, and how two advisors are giving up on the traditional office space so they can work with clients completely virtually.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

This week’s episode of Bits and Bytes is brought to you by Total Rebalance Expert, the industry’s largest, privately owned portfolio rebalancing software provider.

Fresh off its acquisition of PowerAdvisor, TRX offers advisors tax-efficient rebalancing, an easy to use interface, and more, all at an affordable price. Learn how you can gain a half a million dollar return on your technology investment by downloading their latest white paper at fppad.com/trx

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Microsoft launches free OneNote for Mac, freemium OneNote for Windows, and OneNote cloud API for apps from TheNextWeb, and

Introducing the OneNote Channel from IFTTT

OneNote vs. Evernote: A personal take on two great note-taking apps from ComputerWorld

[Leading off this week’s broadcast is news once again from Microsoft, as the company revealed changes to its note taking application called OneNote. For the first time, Microsoft released a version of OneNote for the Mac operating system, and it also introduced a freemium version for Windows, replacing the traditional desktop-based version that was priced at around $100.

This move increases OneNote’s chances of competing against popular note taking apps like Evernote, Google Keep, and to a lesser extent, Apple’s Note application synchronized via iCloud.

Notes saved in OneNote are synchronized via Microsoft’s OneDrive online file storage service, further deepening user’s dependency on Microsoft’s array of services, but with support for OneNote apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, you’ll have the ability to review and add notes anytime, anywhere all from the convenience of your mobile device of choice.

Also new to OneNote is a library of APIs that will allow third-party apps to integrate with the note taking service, including an integration with IFTTT, or If This Then That, a wildly popular online automation service for single-step workflows.

Premium features in OneNote are available if you own Office 2013 or subscribe to Office 365.] Microsoft today revealed three major announcements regarding its OneNote offering: a free version of OneNote for Mac, a freemium version of OneNote for Windows, and a new cloud API for first- and third-party apps to communicate directly with OneNote.

Microsoft CEO Nadella may unveil Office on iPad on March 27 from ZDNet.com

[Now I can’t mention Microsoft in a broadcast this week without addressing the rumors surrounding the imminent release of Microsoft Office for iPad. Several news outlets cited unnamed sources who alluded to the release of Office for iPad around March 27th.

Since the debut of the iPad back in 2010, users have had access to a number of third-party apps that were somewhat compatible with Microsoft Office documents, including apps like Documents To Go, Office 2 HD, Quickoffice Pro HD, and more.

But until now, there’s been no native solution from Microsoft that offers many of the robust features users know and love in Office, and using the Office Online suite, formerly known as Office Web Apps, in the iPad’s web browser has been a kludgy solution at best.

So if you’ve avoided using Apple’s iWork suite or Google Drive to manage word processing and spreadsheets on your iPad, you may now finally have the apps you’ve been waiting for directly from Microsoft. So check the app store after March 27th to see if Office for iPad is available.] It looks like Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella himself may be taking the wraps off Microsoft’s Office for iPad.

Can an adviser thrive in a virtual office? from InvestmentNews

[And finally, all this talk about notes in the cloud and Office on the iPad is a great segue to talk about the virtual office. In a trend worth watching, several advisors are ditching the traditional corporate office environment in favor of more flexible, and low-cost, virtual office.

Advisors Alan Moore and Sophia Bera were recently featured in a column at InvestmentNews for their approach to running an advisory business without the need for the traditional office.

To support his business, Moore highlights a number of apps that help him stay connected with clients.

Long-time FPPad subscribers should recognize the online scheduling app from ScheduleOnce, electronic signature tools by Adobe EchoSign, and my favorite time tracking app called RescueTime.

But Moore also revealed some new apps like Meldium, a password manager for teams, and Talkwalker, a service similar to Google Alerts that scours the web and notifies you when it finds key words and phrases relevant to you.] Not many financial advisers have the courage or desire to shut down a bricks-and-mortar space in order to inhabit an all-virtual world. But many young advisers such as Mr. Moore are convinced that it’s a business model that can work.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 3

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, hackers make headlines targeting high-profile companies, so how can you avoid a security breach in your business? Electronic signature technology gains momentum, find out which providers you should add to your processes. Big data is coming. Who’s harnessing all the data you gather in your business, and how will these tools help you make better decisions in 2014 and beyond? All this and more.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Click to watch on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by New Planner Recruiting, which specializes in the sourcing, screening and integration of entry level financial planners within financial planning firms nationwide.

Whether you’re a firm looking to hire or an aspiring planner establishing your career path, sign up for the free newsletter full of valuable resources and information by visiting fppad.com/npr

Here are this week’s links of interest:

Financial Adviser Technology Trends in 2014

Financial advisor technology news moved at a snail’s pace over the holidays, so today’s episode is going to cover the most important technology trends I see coming in 2014. These trends break down into four main categories:

Security
Electronic signature
Big data, and
Enhancing your online presence

Security

Security news has received a lot of attention recently, headlined by the recent data breach at Target of over 40 million credit and debit card accounts, and quickly followed up by the release of over 4 million usernames and phone numbers from users of Snapchat, the private mobile messaging service.

While these are big companies with a potential bounty of user information, don’t think that your business is immune to attacks from hackers seeking personal and financial information.

This year, you should make it a priority to strengthen the defenses of your computers, mobile devices, and your network. Also, social engineering will likely be the primary method hackers will use to exploit people in your organization, so periodically test how susceptible your organization is to well-designed social engineering attacks.

Vendors that can help with your security include Mimic Technologies, Right Size Solutions, True North Networks, Envision Consulting, and many more, and you can use simulated phishing applications from Wombat Security Technologies, TraceSecurity, ThreatSim and more.

Electronic Signature

Next up is the increased adoption of electronic signature by financial institutions. You heard about e-signature several times in last years’ broadcasts as TD Ameritrade Institutional, Fidelity, Pershing, LPL and others support some form of the technology in their existing account processes.

But you can also deploy e-signature for the contracts and agreements you have for your internal documentation. So it’s worth exploring your options from providers such as RightSignature, Adobe® EchoSign®, DocuSign, and more to streamline your signature-gathering process, all while satisfying compliance, of course!

Big Data

The third trend I see ramping up big time for advisors in 2014 is Big Data. More technology providers are developing big data capabilities to help you analyze your data more effectively so you can make informed decisions about your client needs and business opportunities.

Look to adopt one or more of the business analytics tools available from Redtail Data Cloud, AssetMark, Orion Advisor Services, Envestnet|Tamarac and more.

Enhancing Your Online Presence

Finally, 2014 should be the year you make a serious effort to enhance your online presence. This is about more than just creating a Twitter account, posting a few tweets, and calling it a day.

More and more prospects are looking for financial advice and evaluating financial advisors online, long before they pick up the phone to schedule an initial meeting. And some prospects don’t even care that your office be in the same city where they live; they want an advisor who is an expert regarding their specific needs and circumstances, without imposing some arbitrary geographic requirement.

That said, does your website have what it takes to attract this generation of web-savvy prospects? Does your social media activity reinforce your value proposition to potential clients? And does your technology live up to the expectations of individuals born in the digital age?

Boost your online presence with services from providers like Advisor Websites, Wealth Management Marketing, Vestorly, Advisor Studios, Wired Advisor, and more.

So there you have it!

You’ve heard what I think the most important technology trends of 2014 will be, and I’ve given you a head start with a number of vendors and providers that can help you get the new year off to a fantastic start.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 3, 2014

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