Tag Archives: ScheduleOnce

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 3

Posted on July 3, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, a group of NexGen financial planners reveal their top technology apps. Are you using any of these popular tools in your business? A startup named Quovo aims to streamline account aggregation. Will they be able to solve frustrations with managing held-away accounts? And, this month’s Journal of Financial Planning is packed with great content. Find out which contributions can help you boost your firm’s 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 the 2014 T3 Enterprise Conference, exclusively designed for the technology needs of broker-dealers and financial enterprises.

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If you’re looking for the best place to monitor trends in broker-dealer technology, you need to come to Atlanta November 11th through 13th. Reserve your spot today by visiting t3enterpriseconference.com

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

What an Elite Group of Younger Advisors Has to Say from Advisor Perspectives

[This week’s top story comes from Bob Veres, the savant of the financial planning profession, who provided an introspection of the FPA NexGen gathering he recently attended in Moline, IL. FPA NexGen is a community of over 2,000 FPA members age 36 and under, representing the future of the industry as they succeed today’s advisors who are entering retirement.

While Veres presents several thought-provoking discussions from the event, you’ll find his recap of technology tools and apps mentioned at the NexGen gathering to be of particular interest. Some of the top apps include ScheduleOnce, and online calendar clients can use to automatically book meetings, Evernote, an omnipresent note-taking app, Pay Simple, an online billing and payment service, and many more.] I recently served as a facilitator for the annual NexGen conference, this year held on the campus of Augustana University in Moline, IL., … [where] I was able to gain insight into the very different way that the financial planning landscape looks through the eyes of younger advisors just starting their careers — and in many cases, from the bottom end of a planning firm’s organizational chart.

Advisor Aggravation from Financial Advisor Magazine

[Next up is a column from technology consultant Joel Bruckenstein. In his latest update for Financial Advisor magazine, Bruckenstein highlights a start up in the account aggregation space called Quovo.

For the longest time, reconciliation-ready account aggregation was available from just a handful of providers. First is ByAllAccounts, which was just purchased by Morningstar back in April for $28 million, then CashEdge, which was acquired by Fiserv for $465 million in 2011, and Aqumulate, formerly known as Advisor Exchange.

New to the scene is Quovo, which claims to aggregate data from over 18,000 financial institutions to provide detailed performance reports, asset allocation reviews, and even simulated market stress testing. Bruckenstein wrote that “Quovo has great potential in the advisory space,” so it’s worth adding the company to your technology radar, especially if you’re looking to improve your ability to work with clients’ held-away accounts.] In the wake of Morningstar’s recent purchase of ByAllAccounts, this seems like a particularly good time to take a look at a firm called Quovo.

Journal of Financial Planning July Issue from OneFPA.org

[And finally, the July 2014 edition of the Journal of Financial Planning is now available, and it’s a very good one with respect to technology. You’ll definitely want to check out the cover story that features two case studies on how to effectively market a financial planning business, then read a column from past FPA President Dan Moisand on why robo-advisors are a problem for the profession, and also read my own contribution on the seven most important tips you need to follow to enhance the videos you upload online.

You need to be an FPA member to access the digital edition of the magazine, but I think it’s worth it given the value you’ll receive from the Journal as well as the other member benefits offered by the FPA.] Marketing experts Kristen Luke and Kristin Harad, CFP®, offer specific marketing tactics for two very different advisory firms—one new, eager to start marketing, but not sure how; and one established, wishing to better attract high net worth clients.

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

MoneyGuidePro® Announces Enhanced Integration with Morningstar Office from BusinessWire

MoneyGuidePro®, a leader in goal-focused financial planning, and Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced greatly enhanced integration between MoneyGuidePro and Morningstar OfficeSM, the practice and portfolio management system for independent financial advisors.

Rebalancing Made Easy from Financial Advisor Magazine

Portfolio rebalancing can be a time consuming and largely inefficient task if attempted manually. That is why portfolio management software and rebalancing solutions have become so popular.

Morgan Stanley lets advisers write what they tweet from InvestmentNews

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has given financial advisers the go-ahead to write their own Twitter content.

ProTracker pulls cloud-based CRM back into beta from InvestmentNews

Eight months after announcing the launch of a cloud-based customer relationship management product for advisers, ProTracker Software Inc. has stopped selling its ProTracker Cloud CRM while the company fixes some kinks in the product.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 3, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 3, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21

Posted on March 21, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

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

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

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

Total Rebalance Expert

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

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

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

Introducing the OneNote Channel from IFTTT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can an adviser thrive in a virtual office? from InvestmentNews

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

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

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

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

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

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 21, 2014