Tag Archives: Tamarac Advisor

TD Ameritrade Institutional Veo® open access now offers seven integrations with popular CRM software

Pareto Platform, Tamarac Advisor CRM, Junxure CRM and Advisors Assistant are now integrated with the custodian’s Veo® open access platform

In a press release today, TD Ameritrade Institutional announced that it has added four new integrations of CRM software to its Veo® open access platform, bringing the number of CRM integrations supported up to a total of seven.

Click to view the press release (at MarketWatch.com)

Existing CRM software integrations included Salesforce, Ebix and Redtail, where advisers can customize a dashboard to view total client holdings with data provided via TD Ameritrade Institutional Veo® open access connections.

In the press release, Jon Patullo, managing director of technology product management, TD Ameritrade Institutional, said, “Technology that helps an advisor manage a better client experience is becoming increasingly important. By integrating data between Veo and CRM systems, advisors are now armed with a more robust CRM system that can help boost productivity, improve client service, and streamline numerous tasks so advisors can spend their time on what matters most – their clients.” (see: TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Veo® Open Access to enhance trading, fee billing, and client on-boarding processes)

Since its launch in July 2010, Veo® open access now offers integrations with over 60 technology vendors spanning advisers’ critical systems including CRM, portfolio management, financial planning, and document management software. For more information about Veo® open access, visit TD Ameritrade Institutional online at http://www.tdainstitutional.com/

FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 16

Remember, today at 4:15pm Eastern, 1:15pm Pacific I’ll be hosting FPPad On Air with Steven Ryder of True North Networks to discuss disaster recovery and business continuity in the wake of superstorm Sandy. Check Twitter or Google+ for the link this afternoon.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

David Drucker and Joel Bruckenstein Announce Preliminary Agenda for “T3” 2013 Conference in Miami from PRNewswire.com

[One of the industry’s top conferences on technology is approaching quickly. Save the dates of February 11-13 and soak up the Miami sunshine while you absorb technology and practice management ideas. Note that the book Technology Tools for a High-Margin Practice will be published with all new information, including a chapter I wrote on the top collaboration technologies. Do not miss this conference!] David Drucker and Joel Bruckenstein, producers of the 8th Annual “T3” Technology Tools for Today™ Conference to be held at the Hilton Miami Downtown from February 11-13, 2013, today announced the preliminary T3 2013 conference agenda and initial details of their new book, Technology Tools for a High-Margin Practice, due out February 6, 2013.

H.D. Vest Chooses Advent’s Black Diamond Platform from Marketwire.com

[H.D. Vest, once part of Wells Fargo & Company and now owned by Parthenon Capital Partners, is equipping its 4,800 affiliates with access to on-demand custom performance reporting via Black Diamond. Clearly this is how wealth management and financial planning services will be delivered in the future; online, mobile, and customized. AND if you were a private equity company looking to increase the value of the H.D. Vest purchase, don’t you think streamline portfolio reporting and management is a decent way to do it?]  Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, recently announced that H.D. Vest Financial Services® (H.D. Vest) has transitioned its performance reporting to Advent’s Black Diamond platform to enhance their Advisors’ ability to communicate portfolio performance during client meetings.

Envestnet | Tamarac(TM) Brings Tamarac University Online from MarketWatch.com

[Today you can learn how to cut an onion online. So why not learn how to rebalance client portfolios at the same time? If you’re an Envestnet | Tamarac user, you’re in luck, as much of their training content (a.k.a. Tamarac University) is now online and available on demand.] Envestnet | Tamarac(TM), a division of Envestnet, Inc., a leading provider of integrated web-based portfolio and client management software for independent advisors and wealth managers, has announced an expansion of its popular Tamarac University program to include an online option for RIAs covering its entire curriculum.

Envestnet Announces Integration With Junxure CRM Software via PRNewswire.com

[In the second release this week, Envestnet will combine “portfolio management with client recordkeeping and workflow management” inside the soon-to-be-released Junxure Cloud. What’s odd to me is that Junxure Cloud likely will have some type of workflow or task management component, yet the Envestnet integration adds in workflow management of its own. Which one will should advisers use?] Envestnet, Inc., a leading provider of technology-enabled wealth management solutions for investment advisors, has announced that it has agreed to integrate with Junxure Cloud, the upcoming web-based client-relations management (CRM) program for financial advisors. The integration is expected to be included with the initial release of Junxure Cloud, expected in the first quarter of 2013.

Advisor Software, Inc. Signs Agreement With Redtail Technology To Integrate goalgamiPro Quick Planning Solution With Redtail CRM from MarketWatch.com

[If you’re going to create a quick plan for a client, the last thing you want to do is perform double entry of a client’s name, address, etc. In this announcement, Redtail will soon partner with Advisor Software allowing users to pass client information to Advisor Software’s goalgamiPro (see: Yes, you can create financial plans in eight minutes).] Advisor Software, Inc., a provider of wealth management solutions for the financial advisor market, has finalized an agreement with Redtail Technology, Inc., a provider of client management solutions for financial professionals, to provide access to ASI’s unique quick planning tools. The strategic partnership will integrate ASI’s direct-to-advisor product goalgamiPro with Redtail’s Client Relationship Management (“CRM”) suite.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 18

Be sure to see the new video posted to my About page and learn of the ways you can engage content here at FPPad.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Smarsh releases Web Archiving, an automated solution to archive adviser websites from FPPad

[If you have a website, you need some solution to capture and archive all your content for compliance purposes. Printing pages to PDFs doesn’t cut it, especially if your site has embedded video or social media feeds.] New automated tool will help registered professionals eliminate tedious manual processes to meet FINRA and SEC requirements.

Schwab taps Tamarac as its next integration partner from RIABiz.com

[I wrote yesterday of Schwab’s selection of Tamarac to its Intelligent Integration initiative. See Schwab adds Envestnet | Tamarac to its Schwab Intelligent Integration™ initiative. Here’s more detail from Brooke Southall at RIABiz with reaction from Schwab’s Neesha Hathi and Tamarac’s Stuart DePina.] Schwab Advisor Services announced today that it has chosen Tamarac to participate in Schwab Intelligent Integration — sticking with the theme of getting CRM integrations in place first.

Austin Powers Can’t Save Your Startup from Benzinga.com

[Another startup retail financial services provider is MyGDP, founded by Scott Bell. I first connected with Bell via Twitter and have enjoyed getting to know him as the development of MyGDP has matured. Here’s a good feature from Benzinga on the lesson Bell learned pitching MyGDP to investors via a not-so-subtle YouTube video.] The International Man of Mystery might be popular, but he can’t help entrepreneurs promote their startups.

 

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 2

I spent several days in Washington D.C. this week presenting to advisors on new technology that can enhance personal and professional productivity. If you’re interested in booking me for any of my presentations, see my Speaking page for details.

First up this week is my column for the FPA NorCal Planner March newsletter titled When FPA NorCal and Twitter Collide highlighting the “back channel” discussions going on at advisor conferences.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

How AppCrown got a big RIA footprint overnight by handling Salesforce implementations from RIABiz.com

[This is an interesting development. Vendors and custodians are gravitating towards AppCrown, a Salesforce overlay and customization provider. Is it because they excel in supporting advisers, or are they simply the only reasonable option among weak competition? I’m not ready to make a decision one way or the other.] AppCrown LLC has come bursting out of the bulrushes to make itself a go-to technology company for hundreds of RIAs who want to use Salesforce customer relationship management software but who also know that they need help — big-time assistance — in making sure that the conversion and connective tissues are there.

Junxure Announces Agreement With Advisor Group to Provide CRM Integration from PRNewswire

[This is yet another integration Junxure supports with a proprietary system, this time being the Advisor Group’s (formerly AIG Advisor Group) VISION2020 portal. Advisor Group has over 4,600 independent financial advisers.] Junxure, a practice improvement firm that integrates technology, consulting, and training, announced that it has signed an agreement with Advisor Group to provide an integration offering financial advisors the ability to synchronize client data between Junxure and VISION2020 Advisor Portal (Advisor Portal), Advisor Group’s proprietary account tracking system. The integration is included as part of the Royal Alliance, FSC and SagePoint Financial advisor technology offerings.

RMB Capital Management Selects Black Diamond and Advent Portfolio Exchange Platforms to Support $2B Wealth Advisory Practice from Marketwire

[Not to be overshadowed by Orion Advisor Services’ announcement of partnering with a $3 billion RIA, Advent is publicizing its deal to migrate one $2 billion RIA’s portfolio data off of Advent Axys to Black Diamond. It doesn’t seem like a tremendous victory to me. After all, I believe Advent purchased Black Diamond to do exactly this: migrate customers on a legacy system to Black Diamond rather than lose them to the competition like Orion and Tamarac. Update: RIABiz published coverage of this today.] RMB Capital Management and Advent Software, Inc. announced today that they will broaden their strategic relationship by migrating RMB Capital Management’s approximately $2B in assets under management (AUM) from Advent’s Axys® to Black Diamond Performance Reporting, LLC’s platform and the Advent Portfolio Exchange® (APX) platform.

Envestnet to buy Tamarac for $54 million in cash

Hot off the wires this morning (and perhaps coincidentally timed with this week’s T3 conference?), Envestnet announced it will buy Tamarac, Inc., the Seattle-based provider of integrated wealth management software for RIAs, for $54 million in cash.

Click here to view the press release on TheStreet.com

In a statement, Tamarac CEO Stuart DePina said, “We are excited to build on the momentum Tamarac has generated with independent RIA’s seeking to streamline their operations through integrated technology and outsourced services. Now that we can leverage Envestnet’s solutions, Tamarac will accelerate many aspects of our strategic initiatives while allowing us to focus on our client’s needs.”

I’m attending the T3 conference today through Saturday, and have some time blocked off to interview Brandon Rembe, CTO of Tamarac this Friday. I’ll be sure to ask what this means for Tamarac’s clients and post the video shortly thereafter (so you might want to subscribe to the FPPad YouTube channel while you’re there).

FPPad Bits and Bytes for January 27

Today is the final day of Laserfiche Empower 2012, where I’m taking in all I can regarding the company’s latest updates to their document management platform. See my prior posts on the event here:

I also created three mini broadcasts of conference highlights from my phone. Listen to them on my FlipZu page: http://flipzu.com/billwinterberg

 

In the meantime, I’ve been collecting the best stories in financial planning technology from around the web this week. Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Mobile Apps: Clients Want Them, Wealth Managers Are Developing Them from Financial-Planning.com

[You can’t ignore the impact mobile devices are making in the way you run your business. I bet over half of your clients have some kind of mobile device, so are you ready to provide service to them using these new channels?] The wealth management industry is adjusting to clients who increasingly expect that they should have anytime, anywhere access to their account information, according to a new study.

Another tool to help re-balance the books from InvestmentNews.com

[Next to document management software, rebalancing software is likely a guaranteed triple-digit ROI for any financial planning firm performing decent trading volume. Here Davis Janowski scoops a new product called RebalanceMax that’s priced well below the market dominators like Tamarac and iRebal.] Financial adviser Rich Chambers set up a side business, Advisor Innovation Inc. (advisorinnovation.com), to finish development of RebalanceMax and begin selling it to advisers on a commercial basis.

10 Top Tech Trends for BDs: FSI OneVoice 2012 from AdvisorOne.com

[James Green provides a decent, but short, list of ten tech trends discussed in a heavyweight panel discussion at FSI OneVoice 2012. Some trends are succinct and all-too-familiar to RIAs, but it’s a good list to keep in the back of your mind. “Integration” appears twice, and Salesforce Chatter is not a social media tool for use with clients; rather, it’s for internal discussion with firm team members.] At the annual Financial Services Institute’s OneVoice conference in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday, Spenser Segal, CEO of ActiFi, moderated a discussion meant to inform the attending independent broker-dealer executives about the 10 top technology trends that are affecting IBDs already and those that are likely to do so in the near future.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for December 2

It was a slow week in financial planning technology news, but thankfully, December marks the release of the annual Financial Planning Technology Survey. Joel Bruckenstein’s review of what tools and technology advisers are using dominates this weeks update. Otherwise, companies must be entering that post-Thanksgiving quiet period in advance of the December holiday season.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Tech Survey from Financial-Planning.com

[Redtail leaps ahead of CRMs, advisors flock to iPads, and firms still operate without any form of real document management. Read this and other insights in Bruckenstein’s annual review.] From iPads to Androids to cloud providers, technology evolves oh-so-fast, and FP’s annual tech survey reveals that advisor technology usage is changing rapidly too.

Advisor Tech Survey: Tablets Are What’s Hot Now from Financial-Planning.com

[When I spoke to a room full of advisers at NAPFA Connections in Dallas last month, over 80% of them raised their hands when asked if they owned an iPad. How much more proof does one need?] For financial advisors, the introduction of iPad over the past year has changed everything. Notoriously resistant to new technologies, advisers have become envious of the remarkable advancements taking place in the consumer tech market.

UBS Gets Serious About Mobile With iPad App Test Drive from Financial-Planning.com

[Financial advisers affiliated with UBS Wealth Management Americas will soon have access to the UBS FA Mobile app for iPad. Perhaps the intro sentence would be better if the hope was to create more effective engagements with clients. AUM growth is just a side effect of that.] Some 60 UBS Wealth Management Americas financial advisors will kickoff a three-month test drive this week of an iPad application designed to make it easier to interact with clients and access research reports — all in the hope of generating more assets under management.

The Mitigator from Financial-Planning.com

[How do you manage $300+ million AUM with just a staff of three? Get Tamarac Advisor X and leverage ByAllAccounts.] When a Midwestern regional bank bought the independent firm financial planner Marc Henn worked for in 2002, his clients questioned where their interests ranked on the firm’s list of priorities. “My clients encouraged me to start my own firm,” Henn says. In 2008, he did, founding Harvest Financial Advisors of West Chester, Ohio.

Tamarac announces Advisor® Xi, new integration partners, facilitates document management for advisers

Tamarac’s integrated platform expands connections to popular document management software applications. 

In a press release today, Seattle-based Tamarac Inc. announced the first wave of integration partners for the latest iteration of its platform for advisers, Advisor® Xi.

Click here to read the full release on PRNewswire.

Three popular document management software applications headline the integration, with support announced for Laserfiche® from Cities Digital, Worldox® from Trumpet, and NetDocuments®. In addition to the document management integrations, Advisor Xi will also include integrations with Laser App for online form submissions, MoneyGuidePro™ for financial planning, ByAllAccounts® for account aggregation, and Rackspace for hosted Microsoft Exchange®.

Matt Stroh, VP of Marketing at Tamarac said in the press release, “Partnering with these first-class vendors represents Tamarac’s commitment to taking integration to the next level. Together, we will offer a complete best-of-breed platform that will give financial advisors greater opportunities to replace manual processes with fully automated workflows that span across multiple, integrated products.”

FPPad Bits and Bytes for October 14

Today I’m giving my latest presentation on using the iPad in business at CabinetNG Collaborate 2011. Another version of this talk also adds ways financial advisers and wealth managers can use the iPad in their practices. I’ll be unveiling that one at NAPFA’s Practice Management & Investments 2011 conference in two weeks. All the details are on my speaking page.

As I wrote in prior weeks, we’ve had the calm before the storm of technology news for financial advisers. Fidelity broke the ice with announcements I highlighted in Bits and Bytes for September 30. This week, RIABiz unloaded two good articles, making up for the recent absence of news.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

Once good for a few million, TD Ameritrade’s foot-in-the-door strategy is starting to net billions from RIABiz.com

[Dominant custodians Schwab and Fidelity have a sizable lead in assets over TD Ameritrade, but the RIA-friendly custodian is consistently closing the gap.] Ever upwardly mobile, TD Ameritrade Institutional has courted – and won – some high-octane RIAs this year as well as capturing an increased share of the prized breakaway advisor segment.

Long a tech innard for Schwab, LPL and TD, Advisor Software is looking to push its own brand with new product from RIABiz.com

[Tech innard? How about tech core instead. Goalgami actually started as a consumer product marketed as a personal balance sheet solution. Now the Pro edition by Advisor Software leverages the tool’s unique features for advisers.] After years of offering its rebalancing software under the private labels of big-name firms, Advisor Software is launching a new planning product and selling it directly to advisors.

 Tamarac Named to 2011 Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club at Tamaracinc.com

[It’s one thing to customize a generic CRM like Microsoft Dynamics, but it’s far more important to demonstrate one’s support and commitment to customer service to ensure users’ success on the platform. Tamarac appears to be doing both exceptionally well.] Tamarac, Inc., a leading provider of integrated portfolio and customer management software for financial advisors and wealth managers, has been named to the 2011 Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club for its Advisor CRM solution.