Tag Archives: T3 Enterprise

Between Sessions with FolioDynamix at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

I met with Joseph Mrak, Chairman & CEO of FolioDynamix, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

Over 80,000 advisors use the FolioDynamix platform which includes functionality for prospecting, account opening and ongoing account maintenance.

FolioDynamix also offers Fix SingleSight, an all in one platform for advisor and home office investment management.

Mrak used his presentation time to address the threats and opportunities posed by robo advisors in the wealth management industry.

“I’ve got nothing against robos,” Mrak said, “I just don’t find them all that novel,” and added that he was closely following the growth of such servives, citing this Economist article on disappointing growth at the largest automated investment services today.

 

Between Sessions with Vanare at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

I met with Lex Sokolin, COO of Vanare, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

Sokolin asked the audience at T3 Enterprise to suspend disbelief and consider the emerging trends that have the potential to reinvent the wealth management industry.

Sokolin mentioned wearable computing, image recognition, natural language processing, digitization of money and securities (and the emergence of the blockchain), crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, and open-source software.

“But at the end of the day,” Sokolin advised, “you still need a real connection between an advisor and a client to yield meaningful change.”

Between Sessions with Oranj at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

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

Known for their vibrant orange shoes, Oranj is designed by advisors, for advisors (and they’re not afraid to say it!), to be the advisor’s digital practice manager that offers a client portal with secure messaging and a collaborative document vault built in.

Lyon said that Oranj was built to be an “Advisor+” solution, and while Oranj has robo-advisor-like features, the platform is not intended to completely replace the advisor. Rather, Lyon added, Oranj takes the existing activities of an advisor and adds systematization and scalability to those activities.

Between Sessions with Junxure at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

I met with Robert DeFrancis, Director of Sales at Junxure, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what was discussed during Junxure’s general session presentation at the conference, delivered by Greg Friedman.

During his presentation, Friedman updated the audience that Junxure has surpassed 12,000 users and maintains a 98% client satisfaction rating and a client retention rate of 95%. One out of three of the InvestmentNews best practices award winners use Junxure CRM in their business.

Friedman took the opportunity to highlight several new features in Junxure, including a new opportunity dashboard to track client trends and deliver business analytics to the advisor. Junxure also released a client service monitor called Client First, which tracks changes in client activities and can trigger actions or alerts in the CRM as well as in integrated third-party solutions.

To tackle training opportunities, Junxure recently added built-in “eXpert” training resources directly into the CRM, allowing users to review contextually relevant guidance and training resources without leaving the CRM.

Between Sessions with Salesforce at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

I met with Rohit Mahna, VP Financial Services Go To Market at Salesforce.com, 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 keynote at the conference, Mahna offered a preview of Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, scheduled to be released for advisors in Q1 2016.

Mahna said that this completely rebuilt solution is intended to be a unified platform for all of an advisor’s data, though details of the various sources of data was not revealed.

Mahna also introduced AIG CIO Jim Clabby who provided examples of real-world applications of Salesforce.com in their producer environment of more than 6,000 representatives.

Between Sessions with Advicent at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

I met with Pietro La Greca, Jr., Vice President of Corporate Development at Advicent Solutions, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

According to La Greca, Advicent Solutions is the largest provider of financial planning software in the world.

La Greca used his time in front of the podium to address the crisis of differentiation in the financial services industry, saying that roughly 60% of investors have difficulty distinguishing one advisor from the next.

Leading up to 2015, La Greca said that Advicent used to offer differentiation through customization, which lead to over 100 different versions of the Advicent Solutions platform. With so many different versions to manage, La Greca said that model is broken.

Instead, Advicent Solutions is embracing personalization through the release of its Narrator Suite, which has many capabilities including an advisor dashboard, mobile compatibility, lead generation and more.

Between Sessions with eMoney Advisor at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

I met with Drew DiMarino, SVP of eMoney Advisor, between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

After speculation about management changes and potential conflicts following Fidelity’s acquisition of eMoney, DiMarino used the opportunity to address the attendees and set the record straight.

“eMoney Advisor will remain an independent company. Period,” said DiMarino.

He added that the eMoney Advisor platform will continue to be accessible to non-Fidelity clients.

As of November 2015, roughly 75% of eMoney users have custodial relationships outside of Fidelity.

Another rumor DiMarino addressed is the sharing of investor information between eMoney and Fidelity.

DiMarino added, “eMoney has privacy laws against Fidelity accessing and using independent advisor data.”

After the sudden departure of eMoney founder Edmund Walters, DiMarino said that the company is currently searching for a successor CEO, and in the meantime is hiring more developers to deliver “a five-year roadmap in two years.”

On the product roadmap, DiMarino previewed a new client experience that he said will be launching in Q1 2016 that offers easy client onboarding and self registration options for investors.

Between Sessions with MoneyGuidePro at T3 Enterprise 2015

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

I met with Bob Curtis, CEO of PIETech (providers of MoneyGuidePro software), between sessions at T3 Enterprise 2015 to dive into the details of what he discussed during his general session presentation at the conference.

MoneyGuidePro conducted one of the most unconventional presentations at the T3 Enterprise Conference, inspired by sketches from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Curtis, dressed head to toe in medieval regalia, told the audience that the holy grail in financial services is that everyone needs and deserves a quality financial plan. But most people don’t have plans because they aren’t comfortable approaching financial advisors to create one.

“71% of people are scared of talking to a financial advisor,” said Curtis. “How did we do that?”

Instead, Curtis offered, consumers are turning to online resources to create their own plan without the assistance of a professional.

“Do you think anyone is afraid to go online at home & engage with a computer?” asked Curtis.

“It’s easy and fast. It’s not intimidating.”

To rethink the way advice and planning is delivered, Curtis told the audience that employees of financial enterprises should go through their own planning experience to get a better feel for it and rethink parts of the process that are confusing, problematic, or too intrusive.

That is one reason why Curtis announced that a new MoneyGuideClient experience is coming soon, where clients are in the driver’s seat when creating their plan, and not the financial professional.

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.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 8

Posted on November 8, 2013 by in Bits & Bytes

On this week’s broadcast, get up to speed on all the developments from the T3 Enterprise Conference, find out which portfolio rebalancing company just acquired a portfolio management software provider, and another CRM with a long history with advisors gets a fresh start in the cloud.

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 Mimic Technologies, providers of complete outsourced technology support, security, infrastructure and IT solutions exclusively for RIAs.

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To learn how you can keep your data safe from attackers, download a free copy of their white paper on social engineering attacks by visiting fppad.com/mimic.

Here are this week’s top stories:

Joel Bruckenstein convenes a wholesale version of T3 for IBD execs who choose software for thousands of reps from RIABiz.com, Trying to harness the power of big data for advisers from InvestmentNews.com, Live from T3: Deploying Tech at the B/D Level and Day Two at T3: A Lack of Data Standards from WealthManagement.com.

[First up this week is a recap of the first-ever T3 Enterprise Conference for broker-dealers and financial enterprises. T3 Enterprise is modeled after the T3 Conference for financial advisors, now in its 9th year, and in full disclosure, I co-produced T3 Enterprise along with Joel Bruckenstein and David Drucker.

If you weren’t able to attend or follow the conference hashtag on Twitter, here’s what you need to know:

Redtail, the leading provider of cloud-based CRM to advisors, unveiled a new platform called Redtail Data Cloud. Redtail Data Cloud aims to tackle the challenge of making sense of “big data” present in disparate or poorly integrated technology solutions, and generate valuable, meaningful insight that was generally only possible after pouring over custom spreadsheets for hours upon hours.

Redtail Data Cloud collects over 500 unique data points across its CRM, email, and document imaging products, and also collects data via integrations with Riskalyze, Advisor Websites, Advisor Deck, ActiFi, and MoneyGuidePro. Look for the platform to debut for both advisors and broker-dealers this January.

Also, two companies exited stealth mode at the conference by introducing new promising products.

The first is CleverDome, is a Scottsdale, Arizona-based startup born from the back-office of United Planners Financial Services. Their two new solutions, SOAR, or Source of Accurate Record, and miVu, or Media Integrated View Unification, are best described as document management tools that are invisible to the user, so if that doesn’t make you at least a little curious about what they do, I don’t know what will.

And second to emerge is Gotham Tech Labs, led by John Rourke, who introduced two new stand-alone products, WealthBox CRM and WealthBase. WealthBox CRM is intended to be a simple CRM with a streamlined interface, but with powerful social and collaborative workflows. WealthBase is an inbound marketing network intended to connect financial advisors with consumers seeking feedback and engagement on their financial needs.] Joel Bruckenstein and his co-producers, David Drucker and Bill Winterberg, made it a two-day event geared toward broker-dealers and large RIAs looking to enhance their advisors’ productivity and simplify the many day-to-day processes of providing advice.

Total Rebalance Expert Acquires PowerAdvisor from Cornerstone Revolutions from PRNewswire.com

[The next story is news hot off the presses from Total Rebalance Expert, the San Diego-based portfolio rebalancing software provider. In a press release issued just today, TRX announced that it acquired the PowerAdvisor portfolio management software solution from Portland, Oregon-based Cornerstone Revolutions. PowerAdvisor will be rebranded as TPX, or Total Portfolio Expert, and TRX will continue to support over 100 firms that use portfolio management software every day in their business.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but this deal will likely offer advisors with a tightly integrated portfolio management and rebalancing software package, a single resource for customer service and back office support, and a very capable solution offered at a very compelling price point.] Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) today announced the acquisition of PowerAdvisor’s portfolio management software suite from Cornerstone Revolutions. The combination of TRX’s industry leading portfolio rebalancing platform with PowerAdvisor’s portfolio management system will create a complete and integrated portfolio management solution.

Tech Review: ProTracker Cloud CRM Software from Financial-Planning.com

 [And finally, this week’s broadcast wraps up with an update on ProTracker software, providers of desktop-based CRM to advisors for over 16 years. In his technology column for Financial Planning magazine, Joel Bruckenstein reviewed ProTracker Cloud, the latest CRM to introduce a cloud-based solution, which is built on top of the SugarCRM platform. This is similar to the concept of overlays from XLR8 and AppCrown, which both customize the out-of-the-box Salesforce platform and tailor it for the wealth management environment.

Warren Mackensen, president of ProTracker Software and also an active fee-only financial planner, certainly has the experience of knowing what it takes to run a successful advisory business, so I’m optimistic that he’ll be able to introduce SugarCRM, which hasn’t yet gained much traction among advisors, as a viable contender among cloud-based CRMs.] A well-established product for independent advisors is moving to a platform that will provide increased flexibility and may attract new categories of users.

 News that didn’t make the broadcast:

Dell sells its majority stake in Smarsh to investment fund Toba Capital from Businessweek

[This in an informative review of Smarsh’s odd ownership by Dell, as a result of its purchase of Quest several years ago. Dell was a silent owner for roughly a year, making strategy moves challenging, according to the article. Now that the uncertainty seems all but gone for now, Smarsh is making strides to expand its growth among several industries, including archiving for financial services. They even opened a new office in the Atlanta metro area, about a half hour drive from FPPad world headquarters!] Dell has quietly unloaded its majority stake in digital archivist Smarsh, ending a prolonged period of uncertainty for one of Portland’s fast-growing tech companies.

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 8, 2103