Tag Archives: Riskalyze

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 15, 2016

Posted on April 15, 2016 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, LPL Financial hooks up with BlackRock’s FutureAdvisor, Riskalyze and Advizr integrate their platforms, and bots might be the future of financial technology.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Twenty Over Ten, providers of beautiful, tailored, mobile responsive websites specifically for Financial Advisors.

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Easily manage your brand while automatically archiving your website changes for compliance. Sign up for a 45 day free trial today by visiting twentyoverten.com/fppad. Oh, and be sure to watch the YouTube channel for videos from next week’s NAB Show, which are also brought to you by Twenty Over Ten.

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

LPL Financial to Leverage BlackRock Solutions’ FutureAdvisor to Offer Robo Solution to Advisors and Their Clients from LPL Financial

[Now on to this week’s top story which comes from LPL Financial, as the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer announced it will use BlackRock’s recently-acquired FutureAdvisor platform to power an online automated investment offering. LPL first hinted at its plans for a “robo advisor” back in the summer of 2015 at its annual Focus conference, which was roughly one month before BlackRock made its FutureAdvisor acquisition.

While the announcement sure generated some buzz, no details on specific pricing or availability were provided. What the press release did say is that the model portfolios will be provided by LPL’s research department, so at least initially, advisors and reps will not be able to create their own custom allocations.

The press release also said the automated solution will be integrated with LPL’s custodial platform, but it didn’t say if that was the existing BranchNet platform or the much-anticipated ClientWorks, which as far as I know, has still not been officially released.

So at least we now know what LPL’s robo strategy will be, but with so many forward-looking statements, we don’t know when that strategy will be ready for use by LPL’s financial advisors.] Leading retail investment advisory firm and independent broker/dealer LPL Financial LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA), today announced it will use BlackRock Solutions’ (BRS) FutureAdvisor platform to support a digital advice platform for use by LPL’s financial advisors and institutions and their clients.

A Match Made in Heaven: Advizr and Riskalyze Integrate from Businesswire

[Next up is news from Riskalyze and Advizr, as the two companies announced a new integration to streamline financial advisor workflows. The new integration will import Riskalyze model portfolio sets into the Advizr financial planning software, allowing advisors to recommend the most appropriate asset allocation according to their client’s personal Risk Number.

Not only that, both companies offer effective lead generation tools for advisors, with Riskalyze offering prospects the opportunity to determine their own Risk Number, and Advizr offering a quick financial plan illustration with Advizr Express.

The combination of the two will help advisors gain more information about prospects’ risk tolerance and the building blocks of a complete financial plan.

The companies called the integration “a match made in heaven” because both of them are winners of the Best Client Facing Technology award announced right here on FPPad.

So as a result, and I am now officially accepting endorsements for matchmaking on my LinkedIn profile.] Advizr, the financial planning software recognized as the Best Client Facing Technology of 2015 by Bill Winterberg’s FPPad, and Riskalyze, the world’s first Risk Alignment Platform recognized for the same award in 2014, are integrating their award-winning products to provide an elegant, intuitive and seamless solution to financial advisers.

Messenger Platform at F8 from Facebook.com

[And finally, this week’s top story comes from the future, oh wait, “THE FUTURE!” as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at this week at F8 conference and detailed the company’s roadmap for the next 10 years.

My best takeaway for you is the launch of the Messenger Platform that includes automated messaging powered by bots, no, not that bot, these are automated messenger bots.

With bots in messenger, you can make online clothing purchases, receive weather forecasts, view top headlines and more.

I can totally see bots making their way into your technology. Imagine if you could ask your Redtail bot when you next client meeting is scheduled, or your Orion bot how your AUM has grown over the past year, or even allow clients to ask the MoneyGuide Pro bot for their updated retirement confidence meter. How cool is that?!?

And if vendors eventually integrate bot into existing services, I bet that they’ll also include message archiving and retention so you can confidently use bots without violating your compliance requirements.

Oh, did I just give those vendors a little more work to do? I’m sorry!

Unfortunately there’s no word yet from FINRA or the SEC whether your bot has to be fingerprinted and subject to a background check. Thank you, I do two shows a night!] We’re excited to introduce bots for the Messenger Platform. Bots can provide anything from automated subscription content like weather and traffic updates, to customized communications like receipts, shipping notifications, and live automated messages all by interacting directly with the people who want to get them.

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

Former Top Schwab Executive Joins Betterment Board from New York Times

Less than one month after an investment round that doubled its private valuation to around $700 million, the robo-adviser Betterment is adding a former top executive from Charles Schwab, John S. Clendening, to its board.

Find time for your goals with Google Calendar from Google

That’s why starting today, we’re introducing Goals in Google Calendar. Just add a personal goal—like “run 3 times a week”—and Calendar will help you find the time and stick to it.

Orion’s Integration of FactSet’s Robust Research and Analytics Allows Advisors to Better Serve Their HNW and Institutional Clients from Marketwired

Orion Advisor Services, LLC (“Orion”), a premier portfolio accounting service provider for financial advisors, has announced it is now integrated with FactSet, a leading provider of financial data, analytics, and service, to offer its advisor clients easy access to portfolio research and analytics.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 15, 2016

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 15, 2016

FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 19

Posted on February 19, 2016 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Riskalyze announces its new Check-Ins feature, eMoney Advisor shows off its new client experience, Fidelity offers a preview of its new Wealthscape™ platform, and TD Ameritrade Institutional tells me when you can expect Veo One.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by eMoney Advisor, providers of a leading ADVISOR-CENTRIC wealth-planning portal.

eMoney Advisor

eMoney just introduced an enhanced client experience, incorporating many of the features investors find most compelling about digital advice platforms – like automation, intuitive design, ease-of-use, and more, helping you deliver an unmatched client experience. For more information on eMoney’s brand new client portal, visit fppad.com/emoneyadvisor

Riskalyze Introduces ‘Check-Ins’, Automated Behavioral Coaching Tools for Advisors from Riskalyze

[Last week I attended the T3 conference in Ft. Lauderdale, and I made three vlogs that you should watch, so let me give you the rundown of what I think were the best stories from the event.

Leading off is Riskalyze, as CEO Aaron Klein introduced a feature called Check-ins, which allows you to gauge your client’s sentiment of the markets with a pretty unobtrusive email. Clients answer two simple questions in a few seconds which helps you quickly identify those who have growing concerns about their financial future. Here’s Aaron Klein on availability and pricing:

Klein: Check-Ins are going to arrive in May, and we haven’t set pricing for them yet, but I can tell you it’s going to be a free upgrade for all of our existing customers.] Riskalyze, the company that has equipped thousands of advisors with the Risk Number™, today announced powerful new tools that revolutionize the ability of advisors to put the markets in context for their clients during client reviews, support client psychology between those reviews, and deliver consistent behavioral coaching that promotes long-term investing.

eMoney Launches Enhanced Client Experience from eMoney Advisor

[Another top update comes from eMoney, as Drew DiMarino took the stage to show off the updated client experience, giving a preview of the new look, showing how goals are tracked in the platform, and highlighted client collaboration features that help clients remember what tasks they should complete to meet their goals. The update is coming in March, and here’s Drew DiMarino on what you can expect:

DiMarino: The new client experience is much more personal in nature, the client can actually add images of their family, set goals with those images tied to those goals, a much more customizable experience for the end client.] At the T3 Advisor conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida today, eMoney Advisor (“eMoney”), a leading provider of wealth-planning technology for financial professionals, will unveil its enhanced client experience.

Fidelity Reveals Plans For Multi-Custodial Advisor Technology Hub from WealthManagement.com

[And finishing my rundown is Fidelity, as the custodian revealed plans to offer Wealthscape™, Fidelity’s Total Advisor Platform that combines portfolio management, rebalancing, proposals, and fee billing with the features and functionality of the eMoney wealth portal. I caught up with Tom McCarthy, senior vice president for product development at Fidelity for a few more details.

McCarthy: So we’ve taken a hard look at the marketplace, talking to our clients, and looking at a lot of research, so Fidelity’s response to help them grow their business is the Fidelity Total Advisor Platform. The primary pieces of that are a deep integration with our new acquisition of eMoney, bringing planning to action, as well as a full suite of integrated portfolio tools wrapped in very advanced workflows.

The platform is expected to roll out at the end of 2016 with Fidelity-only data, and support for multi-custodial data is anticipated sometime in 2017.] In the escalating battle for control of the technology hub used by registered investment advisors, Fidelity Investments has a new weapon that may turn the tides.

TD Ameritrade Tells RIAs to Get Ahead of Emerging Technology, Pricing and Talent Challenges from BusinessWire.com

[Now the week before T3 I went to the TD Ameritrade Institutional National LINC conference, and I made more videos you should watch, but the biggest takeaway for me was clarification on when to expect the rollout of the Veo One dashboard.

I sat down with Chris Valleley to better understand the timeline when Veo One will be released.

[Winterberg]: So I need to be more clear that it’s not one release date, it’s all official, and it’s all done, but it’s rather graduated and it’s going to be progressive.
[Valleley]: That’s right, it won’t be a big bang rollout, it will be an iterative approach, and we’ll find the advisors with the right integrations at the right time and then onboard them into Veo One.

So, fair enough, you’re going to have to be patient for the release of Veo One, just like you’re going to need to wait and see how Fidelity’s Wealthscape evolves, too.

Fortunately, Veo Open Access now supports over 100 integrated solution providers, which means that you have options you can buy and implement today without waiting to see what the custodians promise to offer in the future.] Veo One, TD Ameritrade Institutional’s next-generation advisor technology platform, will give advisors access to all of the CRM, financial planning, portfolio management and other systems they use from one desktop.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have quite a bit of laundry to do from our trips, so for FPPad.com, I’m Bill Winterberg, see you next time!

Here are the video playlists we published from TD Ameritrade Institutional National LINC and T3:

2016 TD Ameritrade Institutional National LINC

2016 T3 Advisor

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

United Capital Acquires FlexScore To Boost Financial Planning from WealthManagement.com

United Capital, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based firm, is acquiring FlexScore, a consumer-facing financial planning tool that aggregates users financial data to generate a credit-score-like number of a person’s financial health.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 19, 2016

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 19, 2016

Between Sessions with Riskalyze at T3 Enterprise 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by in Between Sessions, Conferences

I met with Aaron Klein, CEO of Riskalyze, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

During his session, Klein identified that 52% of 20-29 year olds do not identify themselves as aggressive investors, which is in stark contrast to the assumption that the majority of younger investors generally have a higher tolerance for investment risk, as they have many more years to recover from short-term volatility. But it is these clients who sell at exactly the wrong time because they are invested too aggressively relative to their personal risk tolerance.

At T3 Enterprise 2015, Klein introduced the The Real-Time Wealth Management Enterprise platform, which can be deployed by financial enterprises in under 75 days. The Real-Time Wealth Management Enterprise™ is a combination of Riskalyze, Autopilot, and Compliance Cloud for large firms & RIAs.

The Real-Time Wealth Management Enterprise platform, according the Klein, allows enterprises to perform real fiduciary reviews for accounts large and small.

The best financial adviser technology of 2015!

Posted on December 18, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

2015 was a massive year in advisor technology, with shocking headlines dominating the airwaves! Mergers and acquisitions, robo advisors, cybersecurity, and social media.

So get ready, the Best Technology of 2015 begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Best Technology of 2015

Thank you, thank you everyone, welcome to the show, I’m your host Bill Winterberg, and we’re here tonight to recognize the “best of the best” in financial advisor technology.

This is my sixth year highlighting top technology for financial advisors, and just like in previous years, I break down award winners into three categories: the best back office technology, the best client-facing technology, and the best overall innovation of the year.

Best Back Office Technology

So let’s begin with the Best Back-Office Technology award winner, which is a product or service that boosts the overall efficiency and productivity of your back office and makes a direct impact to your bottom line.

The Best Back-Office Technology of 2015 goes to:

Riskalyze Autopilot!

Clearly, automated asset management has dominated the headlines this year, but many of you just aren’t certain what your strategy will be when it comes to offering low-cost investment management.

Autopilot wins this year’s award because it is purpose-built for advisors, and not cobbled together from a retail offering.

And with tighter relationships with custodians, like the end-to-end process I’ve seen soon to debut with Trust Company of America, Autopilot is well positioned for those of you who want to move forward with offering an automated platform for your emerging clients.

Unfortunately I’m being told that Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein just boarded a flight with United, so he doesn’t have inflight WiFi to accept this award virtually. Am I right, Michael?!?

Oh, well then..

Best Client-Facing Technology

Next up is the award for the Best Client-Facing Technology. The winning solution significantly enhances the client-facing elements of your business and facilitates your interactions with clients.

If you’re looking to differentiate your business and offer deeper financial planning services to clients, you can’t go wrong with this year’s Best Client-Facing Technology award winner,

Advizr

Now Advizr has only been around for a little more than a year, but they’ve gained some very good traction early on by allowing advisors to easily engage clients with a financial plan.

Clients and prospects can create their own high-level plan using Advizr’s user friendly interface, and then engage an advisor to further refine their plan based on their unique goals and circumstances. As this year’s Best Client-Facing Technology, Advizr is worth a look for those of you who want to give each and every client the benefit of having a financial plan.

Innovation of the Year

And finally, our last category for this year’s awards is the Innovation of the Year, which goes to a product or service that introduces a completely new business practice or service experience that has never been possible or practical before.

The award for Innovation of the year goes to:

Periscope

So before Periscope was introduced, there really wasn’t an easy way for you to broadcast content live in real time to your audience. Some of you have used webinars or Google Hangouts before, but for those, you’re typically confined to your desktop or laptop computer in your office.

Periscope opens up an entirely new way to connect with your clients and prospects using nothing more than your mobile phone.

It’s incredible to consider the possibilities and potential of an app like this, so don’t let compliance create any excuses for you NOT to use something so revolutionary and well-deserving of Innovation of the Year.

So as this year’s awards come to an end, I want to take a moment to recognize all those who supported me through my career, because without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today, so honey, this is for you, I love you, and Dan, you’re an awesome son and you make me a proud dad, and, oh, I don’t want to forget my executive producer, Steve Biermann, I forgive you forcing me on the VooDoo ZipLine in Las Vegas, I’m ready to be friends again, and to my cat … ok ok!

Thank you everyone, hope you enjoyed the show, I’ll see you in 2016!!

 

Watch the Best Technology of 2015 for Financial Advisers

Watch the Best Technology of 2015 for Financial Advisers

Laser App doubles down on technology training at its first Advisor Con event in Las Vegas

Posted on October 15, 2015 by in Conferences

In its first Advisor Con event, Laser App gathered advisors in Las Vegas and doubled down on providing technology training resources.

As technology adoption continues to be a challenge for many financial advisors, Laser App met the issue head on with a new event dedicated to technology training.

In this three video series from the first-ever Laser App Advisor Con event, you’ll see how the company kicked off its inaugural conference by putting technology vendors front and center to highlight the value they bring to advisory firms.

Advisor Con Day One Kickoff

What you’ll learn in this video: My top three takeaways from the morning sessions, including MoneyGuidePro, Riskalzye, and Silanis.

Advisor Con Day One Provider Presentations

What you’ll learn in this video: Hear the tips technology providers want Advisor Con attendees to take back to their office.

Advisor Con Day Two Training

What you’ll learn in this video: Find out why Laser App dedicated an entire day of the Advisor Con agenda to technology training sessions.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 26

Posted on June 26, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Schwab releases Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ into the advisor marketplace, Advent rolls out a new advisor experience for Black Diamond, and TD Ameritrade Institutional assembles dozens of vendors in Chicago to help you move your business forward.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(WatchFPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Autopilot, the only automated asset management platform built on the power of the Risk Number™.

Autopilot powered by CLS Investments and Riskalyze

Powered by CLS Investments and Riskalyze, Autopilot empowers advisors to revolutionize their business model, profitably service clients of all sizes, and democratize access to investment advice with a client service platform embedded directly in your firm’s existing website. Sign up for a demo today by visiting fppad.com/autopilot.

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

Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ from Schwab.com,

Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ ETF List: Evaluation and Selection from Schwab.com, and

Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ Disclosure Brochure from Schwab.com

[This week’s top story comes from Schwab Advisor Services, as the company officially rolled out its Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ solution to advisors that was first mentioned back in episode 158, which I will try to link right over here. One change of note is that Schwab increased the number of available ETFs to more than 450 from the original 200 announced back in March, but the platform fees remain unchanged.

So I looked into the disclosure materials and uncovered a few items that I think you should know. First, anytime a new client signs up, you, the advisor, are required to make a final decision to select a portfolio strategy for that client. Until you make that decision, your clients’ cash will be held in the sweep program.

Second, accounts over $50,000 are eligible for tax-loss harvesting, but hold on, you, the advisor, must use the software built in to Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ to activate and implement the tax-loss harvesting strategy.

And third, at any time, clients can authorize you, the advisor, to suspend trading due to “market conditions” and then reactivate trading “when the Advisor decides it is appropriate to do so.”

So I don’t know about you, but this sounds like Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ doesn’t really streamline any of your portfolio management activities, it may actually increase your workload a bit, which is ironic given the automated focus of the program. It’s definitely not a set-and-forget automated solution, and for this added workload in your business you’ll earn how much in new revenue? That’s what I thought.

And before I forget, Schwab says that the system “will not monitor the type and amount of capital gains” so you’ll have to manage that information in a separate solution, say Schwab Advisor Portfolio Connect or perhaps PortfolioCenter, if you want to report on the gains and losses in each client account. Oh, one more thing, as of today, the mobile app isn’t yet ready.

But to be fair, this is version 1.0 of the solution for advisor, so if anyone is listening out there, maybe you can get Schwab to acknowledge these opportunities to make Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™ an attractive technology solution for your business.]

Advent Debuts the All-New Black Diamond Wealth Platform for Advisors and Wealth Managers at AdventConnect 2015 from Advent.com

[Next up is news from Advent, as the company held AdventConnect, it’s annual advisor conference in Las Vegas last week. The company used the event to showcase the next generation Black Diamond® wealth platform, which was being called “BD3” during internal development.

Gone from the Black Diamond name are the Performance Reporting label and the old widgets and BlueSky titles, which is now being replaced by the wealth platform description that represents the radical refresh of the advisor experience.

The main advisor dashboard now uses tiles that you can customize based on the information you want at a glance, portfolio performance graphs are much more streamlined, report pages contain relevant portfolio data without being overly crowded and busy, and a presentation mode is now built in to give you a way to walk through reports while redacting confidential client data.

Advent also announced a new initiative called Black Diamond Link, which adds “bi-directional, workflow-oriented integrations” with a variety of third party technology providers, including MoneyGuidePro, AdvisoryWord, XLR8, Junxure Cloud, Advisors Assistant, and Redtail Technology.] On the heels of last year’s unveiling and this year’s rollout of the new Black Diamond® investor experience, Advent today showcased its next generation Black Diamond® wealth platform. The next generation platform which has been dubbed “BD3” by clients and the development team, as it represents the third generation of the Black Diamond® platform, has been a multi-month effort to redesign and reinvent Black Diamond® to go beyond its roots in performance reporting.

Technology Innovators Get High Marks for Maximizing Integrations for Independent Registered Investment Advisors from MarketWatch

[If integrations with best-in-breed solutions sounds familiar, that’s because TD Ameritrade Institutional offers a similar platform under Veo Open Access, Schwab Advisor Services offers OpenView Gateway, and Pershing announced its own API store just a few weeks ago.

And for custodian-agnostic integration providers, Orion Advisor Services has been offering integrations to their advisors for several years. Full disclosure, you should watch my first vlog about Orion. So Advent, welcome to the club!

Now speaking of integrations, I’m going to wrap up with news from TD Ameritrade Institutional, as the company held its 6th annual technology summit in Chicago this week for Veo Open Access integrated solution providers. The number of solution providers now stands at 91 representing over $300 billion in assets advised across all of the technology solutions.

I’m running out of time for this broadcast, and I made a vlog about my trip to the Tech Summit in Chicago, so just watch the vlog and you’ll be up to speed on how this custodian is helping advisors like you take their business to the next level.] To help independent registered investment advisors (“RIAs”) keep pace in an era of accelerating technology change, TD Ameritrade Institutional1 has pursued a unique strategy of collaboration, harnessing the innovative and cutting-edge work of an entire community of technology leaders through its Veo Open Access vendor network.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 26, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for June 26, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 15

Posted on May 15, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, the SEC issues an alert about automated investment tools, see how Envestnet is ready to leverage its recent acquisition of Upside, and, find out which fintech buzzword has huge implications for your business.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Riskalyze, the company that invented the Risk Number™ and named as one of the world’s 10 most innovative companies in finance by Fast Company Magazine.

Riskalyze

Advisors use Riskalyze to show prospects they’re invested wrong and prove to clients they’re invested right. See how the Risk Number can grow your business today by visiting riskalyze.com/fppad to book a guided tour.

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

Investor Alert: Automated Investment Tools from the Securities and Exchange Commission

[This week’s top story comes from the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the industry regulator recently released an investor alert concerning automated investment tools, more commonly known as, well, you know where I’m going.

In its five-point alert, the SEC urges all investors to understand terms and conditions of any online service, know what the limits of automated tools are and assumptions that don’t apply to their situation (say, perhaps, tax illustrations for a married couple living in California who are in the highest tax bracket), be aware that when filling out questionnaires, garbage in equals garbage out, be careful not to assume goals are the same as a generic investment time horizons based on age, and to practice good security hygiene to protect financial accounts.

So how can you use this alert to make your business more appealing to prospective clients? At the very least, be as transparent as possible about your fees and your process. Next, focus on the ongoing relationships you have with clients, because the advice you provide doesn’t end the moment a client fills out a risk tolerance questionnaire.

And finally, emphasize the breadth of your services. Yes, prudent investing is important, but it’s critical to also factor in insurance needs, tax strategies, estate planning and so much more, all of which are areas largely untouched by automated investment tools. Let’s be absolutely clear, this is your value to your clients, and if you’re not broadcasting it at every opportunity you have, you’re in danger of failing to differentiate your business from the competition.] The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) are issuing this alert to provide investors with a general overview of automated investment tools.

Envestnet Driving Digital Advice Transformation from Envestnet.com

[Next up is more news from Envestnet in a follow up to the company’s summit held earlier this month in Chicago. Last week I covered Envestnet’s acquisition of Finance Logix, but this week the story is all about Envestnet’s new digital advice portal called Advisor Now™. So what is Advisor Now?

You start with the original Envestnet Advisor Suite™ for portfolio management, add in a serving of the Envestnet | Tamarac Advisor Xi platform for its CRM, portfolio rebalancing, and client portal features, mix in the online automated investment solution from Upside, blend them all together and out comes Advisor Now.

So clearly Envestnet is further positioning itself as a dominant custodian-agnostic all-in-one technology provider, and if you’re an existing Envestnet and/or Tamarac user, you’ll soon experience the benefits of Advisor Now as it gets updated according to the company’s 60-day release cycle.

But if your technology consists of integrations between separate best-of-breed solutions, I think you have some work ahead of you if your objective is to match the Advisor Now portal feature-for-feature.] Envestnet, Inc. announced that it will be launching Advisor Now™, a digital advice portal harnessing Envestnet’s core capabilities to help independent advisors demonstrate more value to clients and improve financial outcomes for investors.

Purge the Word ‘Frictionless’ from Banking from Bank Innovation, and

Hedgeable’s Robo Advisor 2.0 Platform Automates Risk Managed Investing,

Vanguard Debuts Diversification Visualizer,

and Trizic’s Accelerator Enables Financial Firms to Scale Investment Advice from Finovate.com

[And finally, I’ve was following the chatter on Twitter this week from the Finovate Spring 2015 conference in San Jose, and one of the buzzwords that lit up the #Finovate hashtag was “frictionless.” The majority of presenters, whether they were mobile payment solutions, peer-to-peer lending networks, or even crowdfunding services to pay off medical bills, focused on eliminating the friction in financial transactions.

In fact, “frictionless” was mentioned so much that one attendee said the word should be purged from the world of banking. But think about your business for a minute. How much friction do you create for your clients? How much paper are you pushing? Are you accessible by text and video chat in addition to phone calls and face-to-face meetings? Can clients access the information they want from a smartphone?

I think it’s time you look at your business from the client’s perspective and identify all the processes that generate friction. For each process, figure out how technology can streamline what you do and reduce the time and effort required to get something done. That sounds like a pretty useful activity for a Friday afternoon if you ask me.

Oh, and if you want to know which three companies from Finovate are worthy of attention on my radar, they are Hedgeable, for their online investment service featuring active management and alternatives, Vanguard, for their clever 3D graphs of diversification illustrations, and Trizic, yet another online investment service that can be white labeled by financial advisors.] It’s time to relegate the phrase ‘frictionless’ to the FinTech trashbin.

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

Beyond E-Signatures from Financial Advisor Magazine

As someone who has been a proponent of the paperless office for many, many years, I often feel a sense of frustration at the number of paper-driven activities still prevalent in our industry.

How Well Does Your Firm Virtually Serve Your Clients? from ThinkAdvisor

Advisors need to make sure their technology offerings are in line with their clients’ expectations

Watch Bits and Bytes for May 15, 2015

Watch Bits and Bytes for May 15, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 20

Posted on February 20, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, I have explosive news from eMoney, Riskalyze, Betterment, Schwab and Orion.

So buckle your seat belt, 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.

itegria - providing a 360-degree, comprehensive approach to financial advisor IT needs

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:

eMoney Reveals New emX Select Dashboard At 2015 T3 Conference from WealthManagement.com

[Now you probably know that the Super Bowl of advisor technology, a.k.a. the T3 conference, was held in Dallas last week. By last count, there were over 40 press releases made at the event, but since this is just a five minute show, here are my picks for the most important stories.

First up is eMoney Advisor, as their CEO Edmund Walters took the stage with no slide deck, no apologies, and proceeded to shock the audience with a preview of emX Select, completed by a video filled with explosions.

Awesome, right?!? On everyone’s mind was the Fidelity acquisition, so Walters told the packed ballroom eMoney “had to sell” because “this tech is expensive” and he wants to “kick the crap out of the B2C” robo advisors (implosion!).

I told you, ! No apologies.

From what I’ve seen so far, emX Select resembles the Veo One™ dashboard recently announced by TD Ameritrade Institutional (you did watch my Veo One coverage, right?) but eMoney aims to have 28 integrations by September, which beats the 11 integrations planned for Veo One, one of which includes eMoney Advisor. Interesting!] On Friday at the 2015 T3 Conference in Dallas, eMoney Advisor, recently acquired by Fidelity for $250 million, gave advisors the first look at its new emX Select platform.

CLS Investments and Riskalyze Join Forces to Launch Autopilot, Arming Advisors With the Digital Tools Needed to Neutralize Robo-Threat from Riskalzye, and

Riskalyze Reinvents the Client Meeting from Riskalyze

[Next up is Riskalyze, as CEO Aaron Klein announced a new partnership with Omaha-based CLS Investments to provide an end-to-end online investment service called Autopilot. At a high level, Autopilot is similar to Betterment Institutional, Upside, JemStep and others where clients answer an online questionnaire and can then invest directly in a recommended portfolio allocation based on their answers.

Klein also demonstrated a new tool called Meetings, a simple way advisors can conduct screen sharing with remote clients without exposing private data, embarrassing cat videos, or the random Godzilla attack (woah!) that might pop up on an advisor’s screen. Meetings comes out February 23rd, so make sure you give it a try.] Autopilot Will Offer Automated Asset Management and Risk Measurement, Embedded Into an Advisory Firm’s Existing Website.

Betterment Valued At Nearly $500 Million In New Round from the Wall St. Journal

[And let’s crush this broadcast (woah!) with a quick roundup of other news: Betterment just raised another $60 million in venture capital for a total of $105 million. What are they going to do with the cash? Betterment CEO Jon Stein says they’re going to refine algorithms to answer questions like “Am I saving enough relative to my goals?” Warning: financial planning algorithms ahead!] New York-based Betterment is closing a new $60 million round, the company is set to announce on Thursday.

Schwab tells the SEC its robo-advisor has a 30 basis-point fee and big-time cash allocations held by Schwab Bank from RIABiz.com, and

Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios™ Disclosure Brochure from SEC.gov

[Schwab’s Form ADV for their Intelligent Portfolios robo-solution revealed the service is “technically” free, but they will use client cash, aka the “sweep allocation” for Schwab Bank activity where Schwab earns income on the spread, so Intelligent Portfolios discloses that most strategies maintain a higher sweep allocation than other providers designed to fully invest client cash. But hey, it’s “free” and consumers LOVE free!] The Charles Schwab Corp. will charge a fee of 30 basis points to clients of its robo-advisor, but those investors will not pay it out of pocket because Schwab affiliates will reimburse the client behind the scenes, according to SEC documents relating to Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.

TA Associates to acquire majority interest in NorthStar from Orion Advisor Services

[And finally, private equity firm TA Associates recently signed an agreement to acquire a majority interest in NorthStar Financial Services Group, the parent company of Orion Advisor Services, CLS Investments, Gemini Fund Services and six other sister companies. So you’ve been asking me, is this good or bad, specifically for Orion. I believe it’s good, and here’s why: Orion has a strong track record of growth, Orion’s leadership will remain in place, the company remains privately held, and now there’s extra cash available for strategic opportunities.] TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in NorthStar Financial Services Group, LLC, and its nine subsidiary wealth management industry service providers.

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

Advicent Unveils Narrator™, a Tool for Advisors to Fight Commoditization, at T3 Conference from Advicent.com

Advicent Solutions announced at the 2015 T3 (Technology Tools for Today) Conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, that it is launching a new product for the North American market—the Narrator™ application builder. The product is available to buy immediately.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 20, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 20, 2015

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 23

Posted on January 23, 2015 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Riskalyze enhances its best client facing technology with a fresh new interface, Advicent adds new integrations for Schwab Intelligent Technologies, and, get my best cybersecurity tips to protect your business from hacking, phishing, and spoofing attacks.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(click to watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

But first, if you are interested in supporting future episodes of FPPad Bits and Bytes, find out how you can become a sponsor to reach a fantastic audience of advisors looking to grow their business with technology. Visit fppad.com/advertise for more information on how you can help support this show.

Oh, and check out the #baconjam at Carson Kitchen in Las Vegas. It is to die for!

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

The Industry’s “Best Client Facing Technology” Just Got Better from Riskalyze

[Now this week’s top story comes from Riskalyze, the provider of risk tolerance assessment tools for advisors, as this week the company announced an all-new dashboard and client profile interface.

The new interface is clean, designed to be easy to navigate, and is overall very user friendly. For example, profiles prominently display the risk number of a client’s existing portfolio, the risk of a portfolio proposed by the advisor, and a probability percentage from the Riskalyze Retirement Map feature I mentioned back in episode 129.

As the winner of my best client-facing technology award in 2013, Riskalyze raises the bar once again with its new look and feel, but the company is also enhancing the nuts and bolts of what goes on behind the scenes. If you’re not yet using a formal risk assessment tool in your business, Riskalyze deserves to have a spot on your list of contenders.] One of the things our customers love the most about Riskalyze is how simple and easy it is to use. Today, we’re doubling down on that with the launch of an all-new Riskalyze dashboard and client profile, the Advisor-Set Risk Number and simpler stress tests.

Advicent Launches Two New Integrations for Schwab Intelligent Technologies™ from PRWeb

[Next up is news on Advicent Solutions, a provider of financial planning and marketing communication tools to advisors. Earlier this week, Advicent announced to new integrations with Schwab Intelligent Technologies™.

First, if you monitor client accounts using the Schwab PortfolioCenter Hosted™ solution, you will be able to import account values into the NaviPlan® financial planning application using the Schwab OpenView Gateway™ integration. If you don’t use Schwab PortfolioCenter Hosted, you can still import values from Schwab Advisor Center using the integration the company announced last year.

Second, a new integration was announced for those of you who use the Profiles™ financial planning software tool from Advicent. Just like NaviPlan, Profiles now supports account information imports from Schwab Advisor Center as well, helping you save time when importing account values into plans built with Profiles.

If you don’t custody assets with Schwab, you’ll be glad to know that Advicent has been busy building integrations with other providers in recent months, including TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo Open Access, Redtail CRM, Morningstar Office, Appcrown, and Orion Advisor Services.] Advicent Solutions, a Milwaukee-based SaaS provider, adds two new integrations for Schwab Intelligent Technologies™ to help financial advisors manage their time more effectively.

How to Keep Client Data Safe From Online Attackers from Financial Planning, and

Download my Defend Against Hacking, Phishing, and Spoofing Attacks guide from FPPad.com

[And finally, I traveled to Las Vegas this week where I presented at the AICPA Advanced Personal Financial Planning conference. I gave a room full of CPAs tips and techniques to protect their business from hacking, phishing, and spoofing attacks.

Financial Planning magazine sent Maddy Perkins to cover my session, and she did a terrific job capturing the risks to your business and the defensive strategies you can implement.

Visit fppad.com/151 to get the link to the story in Financial Planning, and while you’re there, you can also link to my free three-page PDF on all the tips, strategies, and resources I covered during my presentation.] Just hours before he was going to give a presentation on online security for advisors, Bill Winterberg lost his phone at the AICPA Personal Financial Planning Conference. Luckily, thanks to a plan he has for just such an occasion, he found it.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 23, 2015

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 23, 2015

The Best Financial Advisor Technology of 2014

Posted on December 19, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

Welcome to this special edition of FPPad Bits and Bytes, the Best Tech of 2014! On today’s broadcast, this is my last show of the year, meaning it’s time to review the top technology news from the last 12 months that matters to your business. That’s right, it’s time for my Best Tech of 2014 awards.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch the Best Tech of 2014 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.

itegria - providing a 360-degree, comprehensive approach to financial advisor IT needs

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.

This week’s episode is all about my picks for the Best Technology of 2014. This is my fifth year highlighting top technology for financial advisors and wealth managers, and as always, I break down award winners into three categories: the best back office technology, the best client-facing technology, and the best overall innovation of the year.

Best Back-Office Technology

So let’s begin with the Best Back-Office Technology award winner, which is a product or service that boosts the overall efficiency and productivity of your back office and makes a direct impact to your bottom line.

The Best Back-Office Technology of 2014 award goes to (drumroll please) the Motif Advisor Platform.

Unveiled at Finovate Spring 2014 where it won Best of Show, the Motif Advisor Platform is a solution you can use to build, manage and rebalance your own motifs on behalf of clients. You can combine up to 30 stocks and ETFs into your own custom motif and trade the entire strategy for one flat fee.

Pricing for the Motif Advisor Platform starts at $20 per month per customer, so the Motif Advisor Platform takes top honors this year because it helps you be much more efficient when managing custom portfolios AND it saves your clients money in transaction fees that might normally be charged for trading individual securities and ETFs.

Honorable mention in this category goes to Riskalyze, for its enterprise Compliance Cloud risk-monitoring solution, and the TD Ameritrade Institutional Veo Open Access Dashboard, consolidating dozens of technology integrations into one highly-functional web-based screen.

Best Client-Facing Technology

Next up is the award for the Best Client-Facing Technology. Now the winner in this category must significantly enhance the client-facing elements of your business and facilitate your interactions with clients. Clients benefit from improved personalized service as well as an increased level of convenience when using such technology.

I think all of you will agree that the growth of online investment services has really upped the ante when it comes to the client-facing elements of your technology. So it’s no surprise that the winner in this category is part of the online investment providers, but for me, one of them just barely edged out the others in taking top honors.

This year’s Best Client-Facing Technology award goes to (wait for it) Betterment Institutional.

But like I said, Betterment Institutional just barely edged out the other solutions built for advisors like Guide Financial, Jemstep Advisor Pro, Upside Advisor, Oranj, Wealth Access and several more. Why?

Because Betterment has a solid track record on the consumer side with over 50,000 customers, plus it has the advantage of having Steve Lockshin providing direction for the company based on his experience in the independent advisor market with Fortigent and AdvicePeriod.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think the other advisor-focused solutions have an equal shot at significant growth in this space, which didn’t make the award selection process any easier. But the good news for you is that you have a number of choices in this low-cost online investment category when you’re ready to add this offering to your business model.

Honorable mention here goes to Estate Assist for its online safe deposit box that helps clients manage their growing digital assets.

Innovation of the Year

And finally, the third category in my annual Best Technology of 2014 awards is the Innovation of the Year. This award goes to a product or service that introduces a new business practice or service experience to your business. This innovative tool should transform the way you interact with clients, enhance your overall efficiency, or even enable the delivery of new services not possible or practical in the past.

The award for Innovation of the year goes to (thank you) Engage, from Orion Advisor Services.

Out of all the new products we’ve seen in 2014, Engage is one of those solutions that I feel breaks new ground.

It begins with videos you create to communicate with clients, which you really should think about doing in 2015, but what Engage allows you to do it customize the video content you send to clients in an automated fashion.

Engage integrates performance data from Orion, graphic elements from MoneyGuidePro, and calendar scheduling from Redtail CRM, and embeds the information directly in your videos. So you only need to record one video, but Engage makes it seem like you created hundreds of videos, each with graphics and information specific to your clients.

It’s pretty cool stuff, and that’s a technical term, and a little ahead of its time, as a lot of you just aren’t ready to communicate with clients using video, which is why I feel Engage from Orion deserves to be recognized for its innovation this year.

Closing out this year’s award is an honorable mention to Gladstone Associates for their new streamlined business valuation toolkit that uses technology integrations to efficiently gather data about your business.

Your Feedback

So what do you think about my choices for Best Tech of 2014? Did I make the right choices, or did I completely blow it?

You’ve got to let me know! Leave a comment below, send me a message on Twitter using @billwinterberg, or leave a comment on the FPPad YouTube channel.

Thank you so much for being a part of the FPPad community throughout 2014, and I wish you all the best in 2015!

 

Watch my broadcast on the Best Tech of 2014 for financial advisors

Watch my broadcast on the Best Tech of 2014 for financial advisors