Laser App Anywhere Archives

Veo One preview from the National LINC 2015 Conference

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Bill Winterberg in Conferences

I just returned from TD Ameritrade Institutional National LINC 2015 Conference in San Diego where I produced a couple of videos covering the technology updates from the event.

Veo® Vendor Village

First, you can get a glimpse of the “vendor village” TD Ameritrade Institutional configures for the technology providers that are integrated with the open access capabilities of the Veo® platform.

Nearly 40 of the 85+ integrated providers were on site providing demos of their technology to the thousands of advisors in attendance.

With over 85 integrated vendors, you may see several new companies that you haven’t heard of before, including Advizr, Vanare, and Upside.

Veo One™

Next up is a preview of Veo One™, TD Ameritrade Institutional’s updated online dashboard designed to be a single source for an advisor’s daily workflow.

Veo One is currently in a private testing period with select advisers, and the official rollout is anticipated in late summer or early fall of 2015.

The first five Veo One integrations will include DocuSign® and Laser App Anywhere for account opening, financial planning software from MoneyGuidePro™, Orion Advisor Services for portfolio management, and Redtail Technologies for CRM.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 22

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, LPL Financial unveils new back-office technology for its representatives. Will the tools set a new bar for advisor productivity? Laser App continues to expand its library of fillable forms. Can you guess how many paper forms have avoided the shredder? And, did you know you can now build a “robo shield” for your business? Find out what steps you should be taking right now to differentiate yourself from the online advisor competition.

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.

Now available as a part of the Orion Advisor Services platform, TRX features 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:

LPL Financial Unveils Next Generation ClientWorks Platform for Advisors at focus14 Annual Conference from Marketwatch, and

LPL Financial Announces Expansion of CRM Offering for Advisors at focus14 Annual Conference Through New Relationship With Redtail Technology from PRNewswire

[This week’s top story comes from LPL Financial, the nation’s largest broker-dealer with over 13,000 representatives, who held it’s annual Focus conference in San Diego last week. On the technology front, LPL unveiled ClientWorks(SM), a completely new technology solution that should offer expanded functionality and more seamless integrations.

Victor Fetter, chief information officer at LPL Financial, told attendees that ClientWorks is designed to work on any device, including phones and tablets, will feature streamlined workflows for account opening and trading, and will offer business analytics to increase advisor productivity. The first phase of ClientWorks, including a Resource Center library, will release later this fall, with the full ClientWorks suite anticipated sometime in the Spring of 2015.

Also making news at the Focus event was the announcement of new relationship between LPL Financial and Redtail, the leading web-based CRM for financial advisors. Beginning in October, LPL representatives will be able to subscribe to Redtail for $50 per month for each 15-user database, and the CRM will likely feature a tighter integration with LPL data once ClientWorks rolls out next year.] LPL Financial LLC, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer*, an RIA custodian, and a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. LPLA, +0.80% today unveiled ClientWorksSM, a next-generation technology solution for advisors and institutions that will seamlessly integrate and expand its offerings.

Laser App Software Sees Continued Growth With New Custodian and Broker-Dealer Clients from Marketwired

[Another event held in San Diego last week was the Laser App 2014 Conference. If you haven’t seen them already, I filmed five videos on site providing highlights of the educational sessions as well as the networking events, which included some pretty epic surfing attempts by attendees, including yours truly.

While the company did not make any specific new product announcements, Laser App did provide an update on how widely the solution is being used across the financial services industry. There are now over 32,000 forms in the Laser App library accessed by over 115,000 users, and the company estimates that documents in its library have been processed in some way, shape or form over 45 million times. Clearly a lot of business is being streamlined with the Laser App solution.] From its 2014 Financial Services Conference, Laser App Software is pleased to announce it has added 40 new customers so far in 2014. The forms-filling and automation management software provider sites the growing need for advisor efficiency as a key driver of broker-dealer and advisor adoption of its solutions.

Fox Financial Planning Network Announces New Industry Whitepaper: “How to Build a Robo-Shield™ for Your Financial Advisory Firm: 20 Effective Tactics to Marginalize the Rise of Robo-Advisers” from Marketwatch

Use this link to download the white paper.

[And finally, while at the Laser App conference last week, Deborah Fox of the Fox Financial Planning Network took the opportunity to introduce a new white paper to financial advisors. Titled “How to build a robo-shield™ for your financial advisory firm,” the nearly 40-page white paper offers 20 tactics you can implement right now to differentiate your business from the online software-based investment services.

Fox recommends strategies like focusing on a specific client niche or specialty, building service teams of two advisors and one admin, defining and then automating workflows in your business, and much more.] Fox Financial Planning Network (FFPN) announced today the availability of a new industry white paper that identifies ways advisors and institutions will need to enhance their business model and service offering to counteract the threat from online investment advice platforms known as ‘Robo-Advisers.’

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

The Power of Marketing Videos for Financial Advisors from GuideVine

With high consumer demand, it’s clear that creating personable, tailored marketing videos can offer an efficient and powerful way to attract new clients.

External IT puts Junxure on its virtual desktops from InvestmentNews

External IT has added the office-management software offered by Junxure to the applications it can include within the cloud-based virtual desktops it creates for advisers.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 22, 2014

Laser App 2014 Conference highlights: Day Two and recap

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Bill Winterberg in Conferences, Software, Technology

Fox Financial Planning Network publishes new “robo shield” white paper, ActiFi’s Spenser Segal on technology adoption, and more

The Laser App 2014 Conference in San Diego wrapped up last week, offering over 200 attendees insights on ways technology can streamline the client service experience. A variety of vendors with CRM, document management, electronic signature, practice management solutions, and more delivered valuable takeaways centered around efficient form creation and processing, which the Laser App platform aims to simplify.

Watch the day two highlight video below, which is followed by a conference recap video with feedback from conference attendees about the benefits of attending the Laser App 2014 conference. (or watch the Laser App 2014 Conference YouTube playlist)

Day two highlights

In the opening session on day two, Deborah Fox, CEO & Founder at Fox Financial Planning Network, unveiled a new white paper fresh off the company’s electronic publishing platform.

The white paper, titled How To Build A Robo-Shield™ For Your Financial Advisory Firm: 20 Effective Tactics To Marginalize The Rise Of Robo-Advisers, can be downloaded for free from the company’s website. In nearly 40 pages, the Robo-Shield white paper details tactics to differentiate an advisory business from the online-based investment advisor services, including specific niche development, Tier 2 service models, automated workflows, and more.

Laser App 2014 conference recap

As you can see from the video coverage, Laser App hosts one of the hidden gems among industry conferences. Quite a number of influential vendors and product providers attended the event, and many company presidents and CEOs took the stage.

Laser App 2014 conference attendees learned how to leverage their existing Laser App relationship and also identified new solution providers and integrations that can extend the benefits of Laser App into different areas of their business. All in all, I enjoyed my time at the conference, which offered a great combination of education, networking, and socializing, all in sunny San Diego.

WaveHouse networking event

In addition to the education and exhibit hall opportunities, attendees had several opportunities to let loose, kick back, and network with like-minded peers.

So for an added bonus, here is a video from the first networking event held at the WaveHouse San Diego.

Laser App 2014 Conference highlights: Day One

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Bill Winterberg in Software, Technology

Laser App adds 40 new relationships in 2014, offers over 32,000 forms in its library

I’m attending the Laser App 2014 Conference in San Diego this week, and I’m trying some new things with content distribution. Check out the video below that recaps the company’s announcements about its new relationships in 2014, form library growth, and total number of forms processed by all of its users. (click here to watch on YouTube)

32,000 forms and growing

Ed Beggs, Laser App founder and CEO, told an audience of over 200 advisors, vendors, and other technology players that the company brought on 40 new relationships so far in 2014, which includes 38 broker-dealers and two custodians.

The Laser App form library now offers over 32,000 unique documents to facilitate transactions of all kinds, and now has over 115,000 users worldwide.

45 million served

To date, over 15 million forms have been downloaded through the Laser App platform. The average form gets processed three times by users, meaning over 45 million unique forms have been processed through Laser App software.

Conference preview

To set up the Day One footage, I filmed a shot conference preview with my rig to test the real-time editing and publishing through the conference facility’s Internet connection. This has been a fun learning experience, so look for more same-day coverage of events around the financial services technology landscape. (click to watch on YouTube)

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 30

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

On this week’s broadcast, Laser App unveils new integrations to speed up your form processing, LPL Financial rolls out new technology to its representatives, how one-page websites might be your answer to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace, and more. So get ready, Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch on YouTube) This week’s edition of Bits and Bytes is brought to you by Redtail Technology, providers of cloud-based CRM for financial professionals since 2003.

Check out their popular advisor solutions and sign up for a 30-day free trial. Visit fppad.com/redtail for more information.

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

Filling Out Forms No Longer a Pain in the App for Busy Advisors from Laser App and TDAmeritrade

[Leading off is an update on Laser App, the form-filling software provider, who held its annual broker-dealer conference last week in San Diego.At last year’s conference, Laser App unveiled Laser App Anywhere, a cloud-based version of its software that can create account forms in the cloud and on a variety of mobile devices. But Laser App Anywhere was only made available to broker-dealers and their affiliated representatives. That is, until now.

At the conference last week, Laser App announced that TD Ameritrade Institutional will be the first custodian to offer Laser App Anywhere to advisors through the Veo advisor platform. This means that independent advisors who custody with TD Ameritrade Institutional will be able to leverage Laser App Anywhere to simplify their form creation and account opening processes.

In addition, TD Ameritrade Institutional also announced it will integrate Laser App Anywhere with electronic signature capabilities from DocuSign, giving independent advisers one of the first officially-supported straight-through-processing solutions for account-related forms.] TD Ameritrade Institutional Announces Integration of Laser App® Anywhere: a New Cloud-Based Tool to Help Advisors Complete Forms Faster and on Mobile Devices

LPL Financial Unveils Enhancements to Technology Platform at Annual Financial Advisor Conference from MarketWatch.com

[Now Laser App wasn’t the only company holding a conference in San Diego last week. LPL Financial hosted the LPL Financial Focus Conference and announced a number of technology initiatives and updates for its representatives. LPL is the largest independent broker-dealer in the country in terms of both total representatives and assets, so whatever they do, expect the industry to follow suit.

Notable announcements include a new Enhanced Trading and Rebalancing platform being rolled out to representatives over the next 12 months. LPL is offering the rebalancing platform for free through June of 2014, then for $150/month thereafter. Couple that with TD Ameritrade Institutional’s announcement earlier this year that iRebal will be offered for free through the Veo platform, and you can bet this will put considerable pricing pressure on third-party rebalancing software providers.

LPL also released the LPL Financial Mobile app for iOS and Android, giving advisers the ability to monitor client portfolios and send secure messages to clients, all from inside the app.

And finally, LPL continues to expand its support of electronic signatures with none other than DocuSign, as over 80% of LPL’s documents and forms are eligible for electronic signature processing.] LPL Financial LLC, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, a leading RIA custodian and a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc., today announced a set of enhanced technology offerings and new mobile capabilities for financial advisors and their clients, designed to simplify account management; improve practice efficiency and scalability; and enhance the client experience.

Envestnet Completes Integration Of HiddenLevers Application Into Envestnet’s Next Generation Platform from PRNewswire.com

[In other integration news, Envestnet, the unified wealth management technology provider, announced that it completed the integration of Hidden Levers into its platform. The integration was originally announced back in May at the company’s Advisor Summit and was anticipated to be in production by June. Despite the delay, this is another big win for Hidden Levers, the New York-based startup that continues to attract significant attention with its scenario-based portfolio stress testing capabilities.] Envestnet, a leading provider of unified wealth management technology and services to investment advisors, announced today the integration of the HiddenLevers application into its unified wealth management platform.

Quickview: Strikingly Simple Advisor Websites from Morningstar.com

[And finally, if you’re looking for new ways to stand out among a crowded field of financial advisors, consider how your website might be able to differentiate your business from all the rest. Tons of advisor websites use similar templates with navigation menus, photos, and a few columns of text. But a trend in website design gaining momentum is the sinle-page layout.

In my Morningstar Advisor Quickview update this month, I wrote about one service called Strikingly that you can use to quickly set up your own single page website and use it to differentiate yourself from everyone else.] A single-page website might just set your business apart in a sea of advisor website monotony.

TD Ameritrade Institutional integrates Laser App Anywhere with the Veo® advisor platform

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Efficiency, Software

Independent advisers will shuffle less paper with TD Ameritrade Institutional’s latest Laser App integration

In a press release issued today, TD Ameritrade Institutional announced that it integrated Laser App Anywhere, the online document form filling application, to the Veo® advisor platform.

Laser App Anywhere for Independent Advisers

Laser App Anywhere was introduced last year at Laser App’s industry conference, but the solution was targeted to the document processing needs of broker-dealers. Independent advisers who custody with the leading financial institutions still had to use Laser App’s desktop application to streamline form filling.

TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Laser App Anywhere integration changes all that, and now brings Laser App Anywhere to independent advisers.

“Using the valuable integrations TD Ameritrade Institutional has built with Laser App Anywhere and Veo, advisers can spend less time processing paperwork manually and realize cost savings and increased productivity,” said Robert Powell, vice president of sales and marketing at Laser App, in the press release.

End-to-End Paperless Process

TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo platform has also supported DocuSign integration for some time, but that offering didn’t solve advisers’ need for true end-to-end paperless processing. Now with the addition of Laser App Anywhere, forms can first be prepopulated online using client data stored in the Veo platform, then routed to clients for electronic signature directly through DocuSign.

“The integration of Laser App Anywhere’s web-based technology with DocuSign further enhances the account opening process and supports TD Ameritrade Institutional’s larger effort to streamline workflows and provide better integrations between the technologies advisors use every day,” said Jon Patullo, managing director of technology product management, TD Ameritrade Institutional.

For all the details of the integration announcement, read the official press release.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 31

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Bill Winterberg in Bits & Bytes

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

After a year under wraps, Laser App unveils a new “anywhere” product at its sixth annual conference in San Diego from RIABiz.com

[So how many electronic forms to you fill out each year? Hundreds? Thousands? And how many of those do you fill in manually by hand? Laser App, known for its form-filling capabilities, now has a SaaS solution advisers can use to process forms using any Internet-connected device, smartphones and iPads included.] Laser App Software Inc. capped off a year of development with the debut of its new web-based technology platform at its sixth annual conference last week.

BlazePortfolio Continues to Build Partnerships from BlazePortfolio.com

[BlazePortfolio is the creator of ATOM ALIGN, a portfolio rebalancing and trade order management solution for financial advisers. President Bryson Pouw gives a summary of new partnerships and integrations the software company has released this summer.] At BlazePortfolio our goal is to streamline the rebalancing and trading process from end-to-end. We’ve recently added new integration partners on both ends including three portfolio accounting systems (AssetBook, Morningstar Office, and SunGard Charlotte), a back office outsource provider (Empaxis), and Pershing as an electronic trading partner.

FPPad