Tag Archives: Social Media

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 20

Posted on May 20, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Bill is attending NAPFA National 2011’s final day today after appearing as a panelist for Thursday’s session on adviser technology. As always, look for the live tweets from this conference which can be found under the #NAPFA11 hashtag.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Behind the scenes in social media at InvestmentNews.com

As regulators take their own sweet time coming up with guidelines for social media, the marketplace is coming up with its own solutions for financial advisers.

A blessing from Charles Goldman helped seal the Advent-Black Diamond deal from RIABiz.com

It was a big deal for the RIA business. Yet the planned combination of Advent Software and Black Diamond was not so large that investment bankers got called in to finance or advise on the transaction. What sufficed in place of Goldman Sachs, it turns out, was Charles Goldman.

Tweets That Mean Business from Financial Advisor Magazine

Advisors are finding that social media is more helpful than just sharing silly things like what you ate for dinner last night.

 

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 13

Posted on May 13, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

We’re attending the 2011 FPA DFW Financial Planning Symposium today (our second of four conferences this month!) and will be live tweeting updates using the #FPADFW hashtag.

In the meantime, below are this week’s best stories in financial planning technology.

Read this month’s column for Morningstar Advisor, A Popular CRM Gets an Upgrade

Over the last 12 months, Redtail product developers and engineers have been working hard to prepare a new version of its CRM, code-named Project Leapfrog, scheduled for official release in January 2012. In this month’s column, Bill explores the new features and design of Project Leapfrog and how they improve this already-popular CRM.

Cabinet NG First to Offer Scheduling, Workflow and Document Management in One Package from MarketWire.com

Cabinet NG, provider of document management and workflow management software, today announced the latest version of CNG-SAFE 7.0. The new version aligns document and contact management through its breakthrough scheduling capability making it an industry first with scheduling, workflow and document management in one core package.

Cambridge, Commonwealth vault advisors into social media; the boost is mostly free, for now from RIABiz.com

Sensing the urgency for advisors to have access to social media, Cambridge Investment Research and Commonwealth Financial Network have begun offering their advisors coaching and technology services to help them use social web sites.

Choosing Software That Works for Your Advisory Firm-Part 5: How to Implement New Technology from AdvisorOne.com

The fifth update in a six-part series by Spenser Segal of ActiFi designed to present best practices to advisors on how to choose, implement and monitor new technology for an advisory firm.

Actiance Selected by Smarsh as Social Media Compliance Partner from Reuters.com

Actiance, enablers of the safe and compliant use of unified communications, collaboration and Web 2.0, today announced that Smarsh, the managed service leader in secure and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, has expanded its agreement with Actiance to include the Socialite platform.

 

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 6

Posted on May 6, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Today is the final day of FPA Retreat 2011, and Bill will soon be flying to Baltimore for a short weekend visit before returning to Dallas next Monday. As the events at Retreat unfolded, we’ve taken brief breaks to cover the best of technology news for advisers this week.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

TechCheck: Archiving for QuickBooks gets quicker from InvestmentNews.com

This InvestmentNews update covers a new Quickbooks integration in eFileCabinet Inc., a free social media policy resource, and news of the partnership between Trust Company of America and Black Diamond Performance Reporting.

TradeWarrior and TradePMR Announce Integrated Partnership from MarketWire.com

TradeWarrior and TradePMR announced today an integration between the two firms. The partnership provides TradePMR advisors with the ability to seamlessly export their client data files into TradeWarrior’s powerful rebalancing and trading system. The affiliation marks the first time TradePMR has made rebalancing software available to their advisors.

Lean on Me at FA-Mag.com

The major custodians are taking a leaf from the page of the independent broker-dealers who, in the best of cases, look beyond their advisors’ need for trade execution to the entire area of practice management.

Dropping Out of the Tech Arms Race at RegisteredRep.com

But even while confidence has slowly crept back among advisors, as the market has cooperated as well, many are still holding tight to the lessons of the past few years — spending on technology, but with a new kind of financial savvy and discretion.

Read Bill’s column for the May issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, Five Misconceptions About Document Management

Financial planners have benefited tremendously from new technologies introduced in the digital age by being able to conduct much of their business while on the go. However, one area of the digital movement that financial planners have been slow to adopt is document management technology.

The Tech Needs of Advisors on Advisor TV at Financial-Planning.com

At the Tiburon CEO Summit, Stuart DePina, CEO of software provider, Tamarac Corp., discusses what firms need to do with technology to service clients more effectively.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 22

Posted on April 22, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

We spent the week finalizing details on several new speaking engagements and attended Redtail University in Dallas on Tuesday to get a better look at Redtail’s Project Leapfrog CRM (a name we’re fond of as Bill once wrote software for LeapFrog Toys).

See our speaking page to view details on new engagements added for FPA chapters and NAPFA conferences later this year.

Without further ado, here are this week’s stories of interest:

Commonwealth Finds Compliant Solution to Interactive Social Media from FA-Mag.com (additional coverage from AdvisorOne.com)

FPPad readers know about Commonwealth Financial Network’s relationship with Erado from our Bits and Bytes coverage on April 8. In June, Commonwealth will be the first broker-dealer to roll out what it considers to be a FINRA-compliant social media solution to its reps. What remains to be seen, though, is exactly who is responsible for creating and maintaining social media policies and procedures: Commonwealth’s compliance department, individual reps, or both?

Trust Company of America adds inexpensive Black Diamond technology — in its own way from RIABiz.com (and press release coverage from FA-Mag.com)

With an eye toward creating a slick package of integrated, easy-to-use software for breakaway brokers, Trust Company of America reported today that it became the latest asset custodian to make Black Diamond Performance Reporting part of its arsenal.

Make sure all your data are safe from InvestmentNews.com

Keeping client data safe has become even more important in light of all the sensitive information that is now being stored on portable devices.

Read the final part of an interview AdvisorWebsites.com conducted with Bill on financial adviser technology:Bill Winterberg Talks Technology: Part 4 (be sure to read Part 1,Part 2 and Part 3).

Arkovi and MarketeRIA® Partner to Facilitate Adviser Use of Social Media

Posted on April 14, 2011 by in Compliance, Practice Management

Arkovi, a social media archiving provider, today announced a partnership with TripleStop, LLC, a marketing agency that offers a social media and web marketing solution to advisers called MarketeRIA®. The partnership will allow advisers to consolidate their website, content management, and social networking activities into one web-based dashboard that features archiving to satisfy regulatory requirements.

Click here to view the press release. (opens at Arkovi.com)

Regular FPPad readers will recognize Arkovi from our regular mentions of companies that provide social media archiving solutions to financial advisers.

Back in January of this year, we introduced TripleStop and its marketing platform in this post, MarketeRIA® Offers Advisors Social Media and Web Marketing Solution.

Adviser adoption rates of social media continue to rise, but one of the challenges advisers face is maintaining profiles spread across multiple networks and managing a consistent message and presence. Add to that the regulatory burden of capturing and archiving messages sent out through various networks, from short 140 character tweets on Twitter to ten minute videos posted to YouTube.

While we have yet to review the Arkovi-MarketeRIA integration, we are hopeful that it will provide a streamlined, consolidated platform advisers can use to efficiently manage their content and better connect with clients and prospects.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 8

Posted on April 8, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Last week we were finalizing preparation for FPA Retreat 2011. This week’s focus has been preparations for FPA NorCal 2011. As such, the pace of new posts to FPPad has slowed somewhat, but expect them to pick up in the weeks to come.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Keep Calm and Carry On from Financial-Planning.com

Coral Gables, Fla.-based Evensky & Katz Wealth Management survived a three-week long audit from the SEC. Here’s what the Chief Compliance Officer would tell other advisory firms that are preparing for when the auditors come knocking.

Social-media archiving, compliance solutions in focus from InvestmentNews.com

Financial advisers and broker-dealers apparently aren’t sitting on the sidelines waiting for Finra and the SEC to figure out how the financial advisory industry should use social networking.

Choosing Software That Works for Your Advisory Firm-Part 3: Envision from AdvisorOne.com

The third update in a six-part series by Spenser Segal of ActiFi designed to present best practices to advisors on how to choose, implement and monitor new technology for an advisory firm.

Where’s the Beef? from Financial-Planning.com

Inside Information’s Bob Veres solicits advisers on their most and least valuable activities when it comes to the use of portfolio management software.

And part two of an interview AdvisorWebsites.com conducted with Bill on financial adviser technology: Bill Winterberg Talks Technology: Part 2

FPA Retreat 2011 Early Bird Deadline is Friday, March 25

Posted on March 21, 2011 by in Professional Development

As we’ve said before, May is a busy month for conferences and events. Leading off the month is FPA Retreat 2011 held May 3-6 in Bonita Springs, Fla.

If you register for Retreat by Friday, March 25, you’ll save $100 off the regular conference registration.

Bill will be involved in two sessions at the event. First, he will moderate a session on Wednesday titled Social Media – It Isn’t About Where You Ate Last Night featuring panelists Rick Kahler, CFP®, Tim Maurer, CFP®, and Carl Richards, CFP®.

Then on Thursday, he’ll be introducing a new presentation titled Cultivating Clients in a Connected World where he will address the changes advisers must make to their financial planning services in response to today’s connected world. Here’s the description of his new presentation, for which 1.5 CFP® CE credits have been applied:

Your clients and prospects are communicating and connecting in new ways. Are you ready to engage them? The Information Age is evolving into an era where smart phones, cloud computing and social networks are transforming the way we live and work. But these new technologies can also reveal planning opportunities for your clients if you know where to look. Gain insight on cultivating client relationships in ways that never existed before.

Consider adding FPA Retreat 2011 to your schedule and plan to benefit from this one-of-a-kind advanced financial planning conference.

Slide Deck: Best Practices When Using Social Media for FPA Business Solutions 2011

Posted on March 3, 2011 by in Practice Management

Due to illness, Bill was not able to travel to FPA Business Solutions 2011 this week. He prepared a short slide deck for today’s panel session titled Best Practices When Using Social Media.

We’re posting the slide deck below so you can enjoy a few tips Bill recommends for advisors seeking to gauge the efficacy of their social media efforts (iPad users click here to open on SlideShare.com). Please send us your comments and feedback!

Best Practices When Using Social Media for FPA Business Solutions 2011

FPPad Bits and Bytes for February 18

Posted on February 18, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

We’re attending the T3 Conference as you read this (follow the Twitter backchannel under #T32011), but through the magic of the Internet we’re able to post our week in review of all things tech in financial planning.

This week’s stories of interest start out with the recent request by the SEC to review advisers’ use of social media:

SEC Wants To Follow You On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube… at Forbes.com

(Bill’s comment: Reporter Halah Touryalai raises the fair point that the SEC might have better issues to tackle than to babysit advisers’ social media profiles. But such is the consequence of the regulatory enviroment to which advisers are subject. All it takes are a few tweets from fraudulent advisers to ruin it for everyone. Can you imagine “RT @bernardmadoff: Just one week left to enroll in our 8% monthly guarantee fund. Accredited investors only please!“)

File this one under: “There Are Better Things The SEC Can Be Doing.” Financial advisors’ online activity on social media websites is being scrutinized by the SEC, according to a compliance consulting firm and a report in Investment News.

FINRA to Look at Social Media–Again at Financial Advisor Magazine

The issue of how to deal with social media isn’t going away for regulators of the securities industry.

CRM systems for the big guys from InvestmentNews.com

For larger advisory firms, choosing the right CRM system is like selecting the right marriage partner.

TradeWarrior and AssetBook Announce Integration Partnership at Marketwire.com

TradeWarrior and AssetBook are pleased to announce an integration between their software programs. The integration partnership between the two companies will provide AssetBook users access to TradeWarrior’s powerful rebalancing and trading capabilities. This integration marks the first 3rd party rebalancing integration available to AssetBook users.

SunGard Enhances Protegent with Social Media Surveillance

Posted on February 8, 2011 by in Compliance

There’s yet another player in the social media archiving and surveillance space.

Yesterday, SunGard, the mammoth software and technology provider to the financial services industry, announced that it added Social Media Surveillance to its Protegent compliance supervision and surveillance tool.

Click here to read the press release on SunGard’s website.

Here’s a clip from the release:

Protegent Social Media Surveillance is the result of a partnership between SunGard and SiteQuest Technologies Inc., a leading provider of social media Web archiving tools. The new solution leverages SiteQuest Technologies’ Web consumption technology and SunGard’s Protegent comprehensive compliance rules library to automate monitoring of social networking activity.

SiteQuest has not come across our radar for social medial archiving, so this is a new vendor for us in this space.

The closest comparison we can make to SunGard’s offering is the recent partnership between MarketCounsel and Arkovi featured in our Bits & Bytes post for November 19, 2010. Arkovi’s Enterprise package, starting at $99/month, offers message surveillance prior to public posting on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

We don’t yet know where Protegent falls in the pricing spectrum, but when we find out we’ll be sure to update our resource information as appropriate.