I’m on an extended holiday break now through the end of the year, but I’ll be sure to keep you up to date with the best stories in financial planning technology.
So here are this week’s stories of interest:
How Orion won the account of a $2-billion RIA from Advent after two very long drives across the prairie from RIABiz.com
[I have to hand it to Brooke, he managed to weave in an appealing story about driving across the Midwestern plains into a feature of Orion Advisor Services.] Orion’s announcement last week that it has supplanted Advent Software for the private client assets of Mariner Wealth Advisors, a firm that manages about $10 billion of assets, was four years, and two multi-state car rides, in the making.
InvestmentNews Technology Directory to make its debut this week from InvestmentNews.com
[This could be a promising new resource for advisers seeking information on the various technology vendors out there.] After a great deal of effort and teamwork, the InvestmentNews Technology Directory was introduced online Wednesday. The directory features detailed profiles of products designed for the advisory community. It already has more than 100 listed.
SROIIA Launches State Web Tool in Anticipation of ‘Switch’ from AdvisorOne.com
[SROIIA’s web tool is a nice way to quickly check the disorganized state registration requirements for investment advisers.] The Self-Regulatory Organization for Independent Investment Advisers, which was founded by two University of Mississippi School of Law students last March, announced Wednesday that it had created a web tool to help advisors wade through the registration requirements for each state.
Fidelity’s New Benchmarking Dashboards Help RIAs See How They Stack Up from Financial-Planning.com
[If you’re familiar with the dashboard reports from Quantuvis Consulting (Stephanie Bogan’s firm), you’ll recognize the data in Fidelity’s new tool.] Here’s one way RIA firms can measure their firms’ success: they can see everything from where their revenue is coming from to total assets under management —benchmarked to other firms — the same way you’d look at dials on a car dashboard.
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