Tag Archives: iOS

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 20

Posted on June 20, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Apple previews new features in its mobile and desktop operating systems. Will they be enough to wean advisors away from Microsoft? Betterment launches a new tax loss harvesting algorithm. How much potential additional return can this service add to client portfolios? And, if you just can’t get enough of real-time stock and economic data, then you need to check out the new Dashboard from YCharts.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Wealthbox CRM. Don’t waste another warm summer evening reading your CRM’s user manual.

Wealthbox CRM

Instead, turn on simplicity, tune in to Wealthbox, and drop out of CRM school with Wealthbox’s outrageously simple CRM. Get a free trial today by visiting fppad.com/wealthbox

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

Preview iOS 8 from Apple, and

Preview OS X Yosemite from Apple

[This week’s top story highlights Apple’s announcements at its 2014 World Wide Developers Conference held in San Francisco. The company introduced a ton of new features coming in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite later this fall, but here are ones that are most relevant to financial advisors.

First, iCloud Drive was introduced as Apple’s answer to popular cloud document synchronization services like Dropbox, Box, and ShareFile. You’ll soon be able to synchronize all kinds of files, not just Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents, to the iCloud service, but iCloud Drive’s sharing features are not as robust as other providers. While you can share individual files from iCloud using a unique URL, you can’t sync entire folders of documents with other iCloud users.

Second, an update to the iOS keyboard includes predictive text that will suggest contextually appropriate words and phrases to significantly speed up your replies while responding on your device. Hopefully this will put an end to your pithy text message lingo!

Third, security gets a boost as data stored in the Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Notes, and Messages apps first requires a passcode for access any time the phone is rebooted.

And fourth, iOS 8 will allow you to mirror your device’s screen directly to an Apple TV without joining a WiFi network. This peer-to-peer AirPlay connection is perfect for the times you want to mirror your iPad screen to a TV, but don’t have access to a WiFi network at a client’s home or at a conference hotel. Try doing that with a Chromecast! 

On the OS X Yosemite side, advisors should enjoy the flexibility to make and receive phone calls from your computer using your iPhone, a supercharged Spotlight app that offers search results from Wikipedia, Bing, Maps, and more, and a clever Handoff feature to synchronize your work in progress between your Mac and your iOS devices.]

Betterment Introduces Tax Loss Harvesting+™ from Betterment.com, and

White Paper: Tax Loss Harvesting+™

[Next up is news from Betterment, the online algorithm-powered investment service, which just announced the introduction of Tax Loss Harvesting Plus™.

In a very detailed white paper, Betterment identified how its Tax Loss Harvesting Plus service would have generated an additional 0.77 percent annualized after-tax return over 13 years of backtested data. But as I read through the discussion of navigating wash sale rules and Betterment’s Parallel Position Management strategy, I couldn’t help but think that managing such nuances of tax loss harvesting can potentially turn in to a full-time job for advisors, especially those who employ active strategies with individual equities and ETFs.

I reached out to Jon Stein, Betterment founder and CEO, and he confirmed that the Tax Loss Harvesting Plus™ service will be available in the Betterment Institutional platform that will be introduced to financial advisors in the near future. So now you’re faced with a yet another decision: will you continue to manage time-consuming tax loss harvesting strategies with in-house technology, or outsource this service once Betterment’s Institutional offering becomes available?] Tax Loss Harvesting+ can reduce your tax exposure better than other automated harvesting tools. Every transaction, both customer and system initiated, is executed in a tax-efficient way.

YCharts Dashboard from YCharts.com

[And wrapping up this week’s broadcast is news from YCharts, a research and charting provider to a variety of financial institutions. In response to overwhelming feedback, YCharts introduced a new Dashboard application that allows users to build their own customs screens with all sorts of analytical tools.

If you live and breathe charts, watch lists, and economic indicators but don’t want to pay the high price for a Bloomberg terminal, YCharts lets you view data on US and Canadian equites, ETFs, ADRs and over 400,000 economic indicators. Shawn Carpenter, YCharts co-founder and CEO, also told me that the next wave of data updates to YCharts will include mutual funds.] The Dashboard is all about you: Which companies you want to see. Which indicators you want to follow. Which indices matter to your investing process. Set it up once, and it will be with you for the rest of your investing career.

Here are the links to stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

Cybersecurity firm says large hedge fund attacked from CNBC.com

In an audacious and sophisticated attack, cybercriminals acting in late 2013 installed a malicious computer program on the servers of a large hedge fund, crippling its high-speed trading strategy and sending information about its trades to unknown offsite computers, CNBC has learned.

RegEd Launches Enterprise Risk Control Center

RegEd, a leading provider of technology solutions for compliance and risk management for the financial services industry, announced today the launch of RegEd SCORE™ Risk Control Center, the industry’s first analytics-driven solution that brings together critical compliance and business data to enable Broker-Dealers to identify and manage behavioral and sales practice risk among their registered population.

A Guide to RIA CRM Software for Investment Adviser Firms of all Sizes from RIAinaBox.com

Using data from our recent 2014 RIA Systems and Operations Survey along with other industry observations, we wanted to provide some guidance when it comes to selecting the right CRM software tool for your advisory firm.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 20, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 20, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 7

Posted on March 7, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, hackers launch a massive denial of service attack, so what should you do if one of your providers gets attacked? Apple is releasing yet another update to iOS, find out how this will help you support the bring-your-own-device trend in the workplace, and passwords are growing like weeds. Find out what programs you should use to better manage passwords while also protecting your account security.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by The Mercato, an online marketplace of do-it-yourself practice management tools, templates and training for independent advisors.

The Mercato

Discover the tools that can help take your business to the next level and receive a free practice management resource by visiting fppad.com/mercato.

Get your free resource by adding the guide to your shopping cart, and right before you enter your payment information, use the discount code: FPPad

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

Hit with a DDoS from Aweber

[This week’s top story serves as a warning for anyone who uses cloud-based software services, which pretty much means all of us. Last week, dozens of popular web-based services were the victim of a distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS, including popular email newsletter services like MailChimp, GetResponse, and Aweber, the service I use to send out my weekly Bits and Bytes updates via email.

The DDoS attacks essentially flood websites with malicious traffic, making it impossible for legitimate traffic to make it through, bringing entire websites down. The good news is that no passwords or user data are ever compromised, but the bad news is that the website is totally offline, and in this recent attack, many websites were down for several days. So what lesson did I learn from the DDoS attack on Aweber?

The primary way I communicate with you, the FPPad audience, is through my email newsletter. But without access to Aweber, I had no way to send out updates to anyone. So the lesson for me is to get in the habit of making an offline backup of my newsletter subscribers, so that when Aweber is down, I can still send out an emergency message if I need to.

It takes less than a minute to export my database to a spreadsheet, and I probably only need to backup my data once a week. So if you’re dependent on access to your online services to communicate with clients, be sure you make a periodic backup of client contact information so you can still contact them in the event your website provider goes down.] Starting on Monday, February 24 at about 1PM, AWeber began experiencing large, sustained, and repeated DDoS attacks that completely disabled all aspects of our service for extended periods of time.

iPhone in Business from Apple

[Next up is news of a pending release of Apple’s latest version of their mobile operating system, iOS 7.1, which will feature expanded mobile device management, or MDM, capabilities. This is a big deal for any advisor who wants to use an iPhone or iPad to access a mix of personal and business information on one device, a trend known as bring-your-own-device.

iOS 7.1 will allow IT administrators to deploy MDM profiles wirelessly to devices, which is a big advantage over the existing process of requiring physical access to the device so administrators could plug it in. Users will be able to accept the MDM profiles on their devices and can view what access and controls the IT administrator has over the device. IT can also install apps, settings, and device policies wirelessly over the air without ever needing physical access to the device.

These new MDM controls will be supported by third party solutions, so if you’re seeking a way to support BYOD in your business, look to companies like airwatch, MobileIron, and Zenprise for a solution that meets your needs as well as your budget.] Progressive IT organizations worldwide are prioritizing productivity and innovation by empowering employees with iPhone and iPad.

Easing the burden of password management from InvestmentNews

[And finally, you are no stranger to the growing number of passwords you need to manage in order to log in to your online accounts. With a new password seemingly created each week, how do you possibly manage them all without jeopardizing your account security? In a recent article on InvestmentNews, Joyce Hanson highlighted several password managers advisors are using to organize and secure of all the passwords they need to log in to web-based services.

Top contenders cited by advisors include LastPass, 1Password, or DirectPass, which are all available for less than $50 per year per user, which is inexpensive insurance compared to the cost of a security breach should just one of your passwords become compromised.] Cloud software helps advisers keep track of the minutiae

Plus one story that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

The world’s largest photo service just made its pictures free to use from The Verge

Getty Images is betting its business on embeddable photos

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 7, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 7, 2014

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 28

Posted on February 28, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, iPhone and iPad users on high alert; what you need to do right now to fix a huge security flaw, how Schwab Advisor Services plans to give thousands of advisors a presence in the popular app stores, and what’s the next hot technology you might see coming from the industry’s largest independent broker-dealer?

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Redtail Technology, providers of cloud-based CRM for financial professionals since 2003.

Redtail Technology

Check out their popular CRM, document imaging, and complaint email solutions and sign up for a 30-day free trial by visiting fppad.com/redtail.

Behind iPhone’s Critical Security Bug, a Single Bad ‘Goto’ from Wired, and

Apple Patches Critical OS X ‘Gotofail’ Security Hole from PC Magazine

[This week’s top story is for all of you who use iPhones and iPads in your business. In case you haven’t heard, Apple quietly rolled out a new update to iOS this week to patch a critical flaw in the way secure Internet connections are handled.

It’s been dubbed the “gotofail” flaw, as the operating system’s source code had an inadvertent goto command, essentially bypassing the final steps in the security authentication process.

So what you need to do right now is to turn on your device, open the Settings app, tap General, and then tap Software Update to start the download process. The same bug also affects Mac users, so be sure to perform a Software Update on your Mac to patch this security hole.] Like everything else on the iPhone, the critical crypto flaw announced in iOS 7 yesterday turns out to be a study in simplicity and elegant design: a single spurious “goto” in one part of Apple’s authentication code that accidentally bypasses the rest of it.

Schwab OpenView Mobile launches, allows RIAs to create branded mobile apps for iOS and Android from FPPad

[Next up is another story about mobile devices, only this one comes from Schwab Advisor Services. In a press release this week, Schwab announced that it officially rolled out Schwab OpenView Mobile, a service that allows advisors to publish native mobile apps branded for their business. Schwab OpenView Mobile lets advisors perform limited customization of things like logos, contact details, and color schemes and publish the app in the iTunes App Store as well as Google Play.

But Schwab isn’t the first to offer custom branded apps for advisors, as both Orion Advisor Services and Trust Company of America have both been offering this service to their clients for several years at no additional charge. The Faulkner Media Group also publishes branded mobile apps for advisors at a reasonable price.

But for a cost of of $5,000 up front plus $2,000 in annual maintenance, Schwab OpenView Mobile might prove to be a bit too expensive relative to the other third party app solutions currently on the market. I’ll come back in a few months to report on the overall adoption of OpenView Mobile by Schwab’s advisors, so stay tuned.] Schwab OpenView Mobile officially launches, allowing RIAs to publish branded mobile apps to the iTunes App Store and Google Play

LPL Financial to deploy Microsoft Lync for enterprise messaging from Twitter

[And finally, wrapping up this week’s broadcast is a little inside information on how LPL Financial hopes to make its advisors a bit more efficient when collaborating with the home office. According to my sources, aka a tweet from Jamie Cox, LPL will soon be deploying an instant messaging and video chat service from Microsoft called Lync.

Now I know several RIAs have been experimenting with collaboration platforms like Yammer, Google Chat, and Salesforce Chatter, but this is the first I’ve heard of an independent broker’s plans to roll out an enterprise-wide messaging app. Retail pricing for Lync is $2 per user per month, but I don’t have details on what the final cost will be to LPL representatives, if any.
While the apps might seem a little funky at first, it’s clear that realtime messaging and collaboration is really gaining momentum in the enterprise, so if you aren’t at least experimenting with some of these apps, you might want to put them on your technology roadmap for this year.]

 

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 28, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 28, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 17

Posted on January 17, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, have robo advisers finally cracked the code to asset gathering? A leading document management provider rolls out mobile and social features your business soon can’t live without, and who are the top industry bloggers all financial advisors should be reading? All this and more.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Blu Giant Advisor Studios, a multi-disciplinary creative firm, empowering advisors to engage clients though branding, social media, video and the web; an experience called “hypermedia.”

Blu Giant Advisor Studios

Experience Blu Giant’s new interactive website and see what’s possible for your business by visiting fppad.com/blugiant

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

Wealthfront Reaches Over Half a Billion Dollars in 2013 from Wealthfront

[This week’s top story comes from the world of online advice providers, aka “robo advisors,” as Wealthfront announced this week that the company surpassed $500 million dollars in assets under management. While topping $500 million in AUM might seem like celebrating another 1,000 point threshold in the Dow Jones index, Wealthfront is starting to increase the gap over similar competitors like Betterment, which manages a reported $360 million, and Personal Capital, weighing in at a little over $200 million.

Wealthfront claimed over $67 million dollars in new assets for the month of December, which for many RIAs would make up a great year in new assets under management. Still, Wealthfront may not be a profitable business just yet, as Nerd’s Eye View blogger Michael Kitces estimated an optimistic annualized revenue of $1-and-a-quarter million dollars generated to support a team of expensive, full-time software engineers.

But pay careful attention to the types of clients Wealthfront cites in its announcement. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more make up the top ten list of Silicon Valley companies with the most employees that are Wealthfront clients. This group IS next generation of clients for your business, so if you’re interested in attracting them, your technology needs to be up to par, but you must offer something that robo advisors completely lack; a real relationship with a trusted advisor.] Although we began the year with less than $100 million in assets under management, we closed 2013 with over $538 million, growing over 450% to become the largest and fastest-growing software-based financial advisor.

Laserfiche Unveils Product Roadmap at Empower 2014 from BusinessWire.com

[Next up is news from Laserfiche, one of the leading providers of document and electronic content management to financial advisors. Laserfiche held its annual Empower conference for users and resellers in Southern California this week, selling out for the first time in the event’s history.

Laserfiche announced a number of updates, including a complete redesign of its web-based interface called Laserfiche Web Access 10. Users will find the fresh interface easier to navigate and much more user-friendly on tablets and smart phones. And speaking of smartphones, Laserfiche also introduced a brand new app for Android, adding more support for mobile devices since the introduction of the app for iOS back in 2011.

Finally, an interesting development for financial advisors is the addition of new feature in Laserfiche Forms 9.1. Laserfiche posted a form online that anyone could fill out to post a message on Twitter. But before each tweet went global, the message was automatically routed through an approval process built in to Laserfiche.

Tie that in with Laserfiche’s archiving capabilities, and you have a pretty elegant solution anyone in your business can use to stay compliant on social media and also avoid those embarrassing drunk tweets.] Laserfiche today kicked off its sold-out Empower 2014 Conference with a keynote speech from company CTO Karl Chan outlining new and upcoming software releases. The new lineup includes social BPM, expanded mobile offerings and new web products.

The RIABiz top 10 industry blogs — and what bloggers they recommend from RIABiz

[And finally, many of you ask where I get my news and information to produce each episode of FPPad Bits and Bytes. Well several of my favorite sources were just listed among the top 10 industry blogs for financial advisors.

This week, RIABiz published its list of the best industry blogs, and what’s wrong with a little shameless self-promotion since FPPad.com was listed as number three!

So let me thank you for helping make FPPad a part of the top industry blogs, because without your questions, feedback, and loyal viewership, FPPad would not be the resource that it is today.] The RIA business is a land of micro-niches where owner-operated blogs are often the best reading spot for advisors to find the vibe and the level of granularity they seek on a subject

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 17, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 17, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes June 7

Posted on June 7, 2013 by in Bits & Bytes

No more planes, trains, and automobiles! No I'm back to give you the best in tech from the past three weeks.

No more planes, trains, and automobiles! Now I’m back to give you the best in tech from the past three weeks.

First, don’t forget to register for Tuesday’s free webinar on adviser technology. Head on over to InvestmentNews.com now.

Now this is an extended Bits and Bytes, covering the past three weeks of news and making up for my business/vacation trip out to the West Coast.

For your convenience and efficiency, I split this week’s updates among their respective categories, so you can use the links below to jump to areas of interest.

Here are the best stories of interest from the last three weeks:

Compliance

Smarsh Survey Reveals New Phase in Evolution of Communications Oversight from Smarsh.com

[Smarsh, the provider of email and social media archiving solutions, recently released its annual Electronic Communications Compliance Survey that has all sorts of nuggets around compliance. If you offer your contact information, you can download the report for free. Inside you’ll find insights like the gap between social media use and actually archiving messages and details on mobile device security (or lack thereof).]  Smarsh, the leading provider of hosted archiving and compliance solutions for email and electronic communications, today released its third annual Electronic Communications Compliance Survey Report at FINRA’s 2013 Annual Conference. While challenges surrounding the oversight and retention of electronic communications remain widespread, this year’s study reveals that compliance professionals in financial services are more comfortable with the “new normal” of greater regulatory scrutiny, evolving communications tools and more complexity in the demands around email surveillance.

CRM

Live Junxure Cloud Demos Now Available from Junxure.com

[Curious what Junxure Cloud looks like? Demos are now available through Junxure, with five live demo sessions offered through June. Click over to their announcement and the link to join the demo sessions is at the bottom of the announcement.] Just announced! This June, Junxure will begin offering a series of live demonstrations of Junxure Cloud™, its highly anticipated cloud-based CRM solution for financial advisors.

Redtail and goalgamiPro make a data connection from InvestmentNews.com

[You should know both Redtail and goalgamiPro well from past FPPad coverage (see Yes, you can create financial plans in eight minutes). Now the two companies have integrated their products, saving you time when logging in and passing data from Redtail to goalgamiPro.] The latest example, and one that might end up being a good fit for a large number of advisers, at least those that do financial planning, is the integration of goalgamiPro with the popular customer relationship management application from Redtail Technologies.

Social Media

BloombergBlack Review: This Is Not The Disruptor You’re Looking For from I heart Wall Street

[Here is a VERY comprehensive look at BloombergBlack, the latest attempt at a “robo-adviser” online advice platform. Bottom line: behind the mystery and mystique of a premium brand, BloombergBlack lacks the real power and potential of big data and proactive alerts of online platforms. Read the full review for all of the insight.] When I first shared the news with Josh Brown about BloombergBlack (behind the scenes) it created a much bigger stir than I ever anticipated, especially inside of the wealth management industry.

Twitter Offers Bigger Opportunities with Lists Update from Arkovi.com

[If you are starting to get overwhelmed by the number of people you follow on Twitter, lists are an ideal way to organize people on a variety of filters. Lists allow you to sort the people you follow by whatever label or criteria you wish, saving you from the firehose of tweets found on your main timeline.] For active Twitter users, building lists is an easy way to organize friends, colleagues, brands and influencers online.

Practice Management

Pershing Launches Online Practice Management Center for Advisors from Pershing.com

[This is the next wave in value-add resources that custodians are beginning to deliver to their advisers. I would expect similar offerings from the other major custodians if they don’t already do this today (I just can’t keep all of their value-add resources straight in my head!). But what is really offered at Pershing’s site? This is essentially an aggregated website of about 100 of Pershing’s research and white papers published to date. So if you are looking for tips on using your tablet or getting proactive follow up reminders from your CRM, you will need to look elsewhere (aka FPPad!).] Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, today unveiled its new Practice Management Center, a comprehensive resource that offers Pershing’s clients practice management-related content in one user-friendly, central location. In response to client demand, advisors will now have quick access to all of Pershing’s family of practice management materials, including more than 100 pieces of thought leadership, whitepapers, guidebooks and interactive tools on-demand.

3 Great Apps That Will Change Your Life from Financial-Planning.com

[Shortcut: the apps are Penultimate, Evernote, and Nozbe. What are my three “life-changing” apps? 1. PlainText: I don’t write notes with a stylus. Handwritten notes aren’t searchable. So instead I type, and this freemium app syncs all my entries with my Dropbox account. 2. Dropbox: While it’s not the gold standard in cloud file storage (see: Dropbox for Financial Advisers: Is it Safe? Secure?), it’s one of the best integrated services out there, including support for my PlainText notes. 3. Workflowy: Like PlainText, this is a super simple app I use to organize lists and todos. Expand and contract lists at will to see the entire universe or just one specific topic. It, too, syncs with Dropbox for backup.] To increase this understanding and to communicate your insights effectively, you need get yourself, your information and your insights organized. Here are three great app’s to help you get your tech stuff together like never before.

General Technology

Leaving Behind the Digital Keys to Financial Lives from NYTimes.com

[This article scratches the surface of what is becoming a much more significant issue as so much of our financial lives move to online services. I even struggle with this issue personally, as I maintain all of the online accounts for our household, and my wife isn’t all too familiar with the “system” I use. As a planner, you clearly have an opportunity to help clients not only organize their online finances, but also ensure that access to online information is available for all those who need it.] Bob Gingberg, a retired production manager for an educational publisher, is worried that he does not know any of the logins and passwords for online accounts belonging to his partner or brother and they do not know his.

Bill Winterberg: The 2013 IA 25 Extended Profile from AdvisorOne.com

[Once again, it was quite a surprise to receive a phone call from Joyce Hanson of Investment Advisor magazine calling to inform me that I had been selected into the IA 25 list of influential people in the financial services industry. I am honored and humbled, and will continue to deliver as much premium information about technology in this industry to you, my loyal readers and subscribers!] Bill Winterberg, a certified financial planner with a bullish view on the future of technology in the advisor space, describes himself as squarely positioned in the Gen X/Gen Y demographic.

Personal Capital Closes $25 Million In Series C Funding For Online Wealth Management Platform from TechCrunch

[After raising another $25 million, Personal Capital has attracted $52.3 million in funding to support a team of 70 employees managing a collective asset base just shy of $200 million across 700 clients. That’s roughly $285,000 for the average client. So with $52 million raised, I get a raw cost of client acquisition of $74,174, not including any spending derived from Personal Capital’s revenue earned to date. BUT, as Harris mentions, it may still be very early to evaluate the company’s growth soak critically, as this trend toward online advice platforms may have another 10 or 15 years ahead of it. Still, that is a long time to wait for any return on investment for many of the early investors.] When many people hear “wealth management,” they think of elite advisors meeting old money clients at the country club, or decades-old firms with big names such as Fidelity or Schwab. But in the years ahead, one Silicon Valley startup is aiming to shake up that establishment — and just has raised a nice chunk of new funding to help.

Ex-PayPal CEO to hire 100 in Denver for latest venture from BizJournals.com

[So what’s Personal Capital going to do with its new $25 million? Open up an office in Denver, CO and hire 100 financial advisers.] Bill Harris, the former CEO of PayPal and Intuit, tells the Silicon Valley Business Journal he intends to establish a Denver office for his latest company and hire 100 financial advisers.

Pershing Previews Its Next-Generation Mobile Application at INSITE™ 2013 from Pershing.com

[Pershing gets another update this week due to their conference-related announcements. The company previewed changes coming to its NetX360 mobile apps designed to run on iOS, Windows, and Android platforms. Nope, no Blackberry app for the 30 of you who have visited FPPad since the beginning of 2013!] Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, is previewing its next generation mobile solution for investment professionals today at the INSITE™ 2013 conference in Hollywood, Florida. The new version features a fully redesigned, sleek user interface and a variety of features aimed at making advisors more efficient and productive in their everyday activities.

Pershing unveils next NetX360 from InvestmentNews.com

[Alright, I’ll stop at three updates related to Pershing, but despite its dry title, InvestmentNews tech reporter Davis Janowski does a good job describing some of the adviser-of-the-future technology on display at INSITE 2013. He highlights voice recognition inside NetX360 that can respond to a variety of report commands. Now controlling NetX360 by voice while driving is a bit of a stretch for me, but it at least gets the point home. But here’s my hangup; I have trouble using Siri to send texts to family while driving, what makes me think I’ll be successful at performing data queries in NetX360? So, there’s obviously wow factor here, but true utility? I’m on the fence. So can custodians start with truly paperless account application and approval processes first, for example, which will translate to actual efficiency gains in your office? Thanks.] Ram Nagappan, Pershing LLC’s chief information officer, is something of a visionary. Not only does he love technology for technology’s sake — he gets positively giddy showing off new things — he loves applying it to improve business processes.

How Do I Know If My VPN Is Trustworthy? from Lifehacker.com

[I talk about VPN services to help keep passwords and login credentials safe from prying hackers (see How to secure mobile devices against “WiFi honeypots”). But when your credentials pass through a VPN, how safe are they? This Lifehacker update gives some good rules of thumb when evaluating the security of your VPN provider.] You do have to trust that your VPN service provider has your best interests at heart, because you’re relying on them to secure your connection, keep everything encrypted, and to protect your activity from prying eyes.

Why Schwab’s new iPhone app doesn’t support trading

Posted on July 3, 2012 by in Practice Management, Technology

Schwab Advisor Center iPhone

Schwab Advisor Services’ first iPhone app lacks functionality offered by the competition, but opportunity remains for the leading custodian to catch up

In last week’s Bits & Bytes, you read about Schwab Advisor Services’ new iPhone app release. RIABiz posted this article shortly after the release with comments and perspective. The gist is Schwab’s 30,000 users across 7,000 firms can use Schwab Advisor Center on an iPhone to check client account balances, transactions, and positions in version 1.0.

Yesterday I spoke with Steve Hirsch, vice president of institutional web services for Charles Schwab, about the company’s decision to offer basic functionality in its first mobile app for financial advisers.

“We conducted extensive client research, asking over 400 [adviser] clients to rank the features and functions they would use most in a mobile phone app,” said Hirsch. “Out of a selection of five features, 66% of them chose access to account balances, transactions, and positions.”

Choices for other functionality selections included access to account alerts and notifications, market news and information, move money capabilities, and trading.

Playing it safe

Schwab’s entry into the mobile app scene is long overdue, as competing custodians have offered mobile apps to advisers for well over a year. Two of them have even developed apps exclusively for iPad that offer features such as streaming market news (see Exclusive look at Veo® Mobile app updates for iPad from TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Jon Patullo) and trading in client accounts (see Fidelity WealthCentral Mobile now available for iPad).

So if you’re Schwab, there are two ways to enter this market.

First, you can survey what the competition is doing, match them on a feature-by-feature basis, and then raise the bar on functionality by developing features nobody else has. Remember Steve Jobs and the three new product launches of “a widescreen iPod, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device?”

Or second, you can ask users what they want, pick the top response, and build to that specification (The “we want a faster horse” scenario).

Schwab, with version 1.0, selected the latter.

Dipping a toe in the water

But to Schwab’s credit, they’re far from finished with the rollout of their mobile strategy. It’s just that with version 1.0 of Schwab Advisor Center, Schwab delivered only what advisers said was their number one desired feature.

Where’s the innovation in that strategy?

I challenged Hirsch to get him to divulge a bit more about Schwab’s future in mobile. Clearly, rolling out a basic iPhone app first was an easy win.

“We saw great utility in mobile phone devices as a vehicle for quick access to client accounts,” said Hirsch. “Advisers and consumers carry their phone everywhere 24×7, so we felt it was a great place to start by supporting immediate account access using devices widely held across a large base of users.”

Mobile potential

And on plans for the iPad app, expected by the end of 2012?

“The iPad app will have a different tenet than the iPhone app,” he said. “We’ll optimize what we present, starting with functionality similar to the iPhone app, but expand it well beyond that to take advantage of bigger screen real estate.”

Hirsch acknowledged that the app is anticipated to deliver much more functionality that what is offered today.

“Clearly, client reporting is priority for us, as well adding performance and asset holding features that advisors will use in client meetings and presentations.”

When asked about the ability to use the iPad in the account application process, including e-signature capabilities, Hirsch was guarded.

“These features are in Schwab’s domain, and we see tremendous potential here.” he said.

 

[VIDEO] Redtail CRM launches new mobile apps and makes them free to advisers

Posted on June 26, 2012 by in Video Spotlight

The leading web-based CRM provider overhauls its suite of mobile apps and eliminates its monthly charge for access

UPDATE 07/09/2012: Users can now download Redtail CRM from the Blackberry App World

In an announcement sent to users today, Redtail CRM announced the release of completely new mobile apps for use with iOS, Android, and Blackberry devices. All mobile apps can be downloaded for free and the company has eliminated the monthly access fee it used to charge for use of its mobile apps.

In the spotlight video below, Redtail Technology CEO Brian McLaughlin tells me about how the company developed the new apps in-house, focusing on the security of web streaming but preserving the speed and responsiveness of a native application.

“Redtail first released a mobile application for accessing Redtail CRM in 2009.  Since that initial release and through subsequent versions of Redtail Mobile, we have been fortunate enough to receive invaluable feedback from our subscribers as to what we can do to make the mobile experience of Redtail CRM better,” the company said in its statement.

Redtail’s existing mobile apps generally received lukewarm reviews in the various app stores. Most notably, users expressed dissatisfaction that an additional monthly access fee was charged to enable mobile device access to CRM data.

Today you can download Redtail CRM for iPhone/iPad in the App Store, for Android in the Google Play market, or from the Blackberry App World.

(watch Redtail CRM: Announcing new mobile apps for iOS, Android & Blackberry on YouTube)