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FPPad Bits and Bytes for December 2

Posted on December 2, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

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.

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Read the Financial Planning 2011 Technology Survey

Posted on December 1, 2011 by in Technology

The Financial Planning 2011 Technology Survey is now available to view online. As in past years, I’ll provide my summary of the survey statistics, so look for that update soon. In the meantime…

Click here to view Financial Planning’s 2011 Technology Survey.

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Boost your online security with two-factor authentication

Posted on November 29, 2011 by in General

After participating virtually (e.g. online) in what was likely the busiest shopping weekend of the year last week, I logged in to reconcile one of my credit card accounts. Lo and behold, they added a new security feature to authenticate my account when I used a second computer to log in.

The timing is perfect as my blog post for Morningstar was just posted yesterday, titled Quickview: Get Enhanced Security With Two-factor Authentication.

So Chase recently added a two-factor authentication process it calls an Identification Code to complete your account logon and verify your identity. This is the first screen I was presented at login:

After clicking Next, I was given the option of receiving my code using several contact methods associated with my account profile. Options included voice or text messages to one of my phone numbers or receiving a code via an email account previously registered to my account.

Just as in my blog post, more and more online providers, including free web-based email programs, social network services, and credit card companies are giving customers the option (and in Chase’s case, requiring) to boost their account security by adding two-factor authentication.

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FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 25

Posted on November 25, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

I hope you and yours had a Happy Thanksgiving!

If you find yourself in a turkey-induced coma or in a daze from midnight doorbuster shopping, you might want to take a moment before you dive into this week’s stories of interest:

Endorsing B.Y.O.D.: Save Money, Gain Productivity from Securities Technology Monitor

[As an adviser, you are probably already using your own personal mobile device in your practice. But this excellent article explores your options for encouraging your employees to bring their own devices into the fray (and what you can do on the technology side to protect and secure device communication).] iPhone 4S sales are off the charts, even with its battery issues. iPad sales are similar. Android now is the most popular operating system for mobile phones. So why aren’t you encouraging your employees to bring their own devices to work?

Impeccable Timing is One Sign of a Mature Firm from Financial-Planning.com

[Here’s a vignette of ARGI Financial Group with some interesting takeaways:

    • According to the article, they clear about $6 million in revenues. On their Form ADV Part 2, they list assets under management of $207 million. Do the math and the average fee collected across all accounts is 2.9%. Wow. They disclose fees of 2.5% for accounts under $1 million and 2.0% for accounts between $1 and $5 million. There must not be much competition in Kentucky if they can easily charge 2+% on assets.
    • Next is their change of custodians. Note that under TD Ameritrade, they’ve been fairly successful in growing to the point where they are. Ok, no surprise.
    • But the third’s the kicker. ARGI uses Interactive Advisory Software, or IAS. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard of firms with revenues of this size who are actively using IAS. Wow.]

Louisville, Ky.-based ARGI Financial Group’s business is running smoothly now. The firm has two other offices in Bowling Green, Ky., and Cincinnati. It serves about 800 families, with an average net worth of about $1 million. But it wasn’t easy to get to this level — the firm had to overcome some operational hurdles before business really took off.

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Interested in the AICPA Advanced PFP Conference? Save $100 when you register

Posted on November 23, 2011 by in Practice Management

Frequent visitors to FPPad know I speak at a number of conferences and events. This year, two of my latest presentations have received excellent reviews and are in high demand: The iPad® for Financial Services and Transformative Technology You Can Implement Today.

If you’ve seen the twitter feeds from attendees of either presentation, you know they’re packed with resources and takeaways you can pursue back in your practice. So how can you get the chance to see these presentations for yourself?

The answer is at the upcoming AICPA Advanced Personal Financial Planning Conference in Las Vegas, January 16-18, 2012.

It’s a privilege to speak at the AICPA PFP event, and in addition to my sessions, you’ll find an agenda packed with a who’s who of thought leaders in financial planning: Michael Kitces, Bob Veres, Roger Gibson, Jon Guyton, Angie Herbers, and Tim Kochis are just a few names among top speakers featured at this event.

Hurry, early bird registration ends December 2, and if you contact me, I can provide a discount code you can use to save $100 off registration. Email me at bill [at] fppad [dot] com or send me a direct message on Twitter.

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Is this the right way for advisers to use social media?

Posted on November 22, 2011 by in General

There isn’t one “right” way to use social media. Opinions cover a wide spectrum on how advisers can best use social media to market their practice, create their brand, and listen to conversations by clients and colleagues.

But there certainly are some uninspiring ways to use these new communication channels. I submit to you Exhibit A:

(And what’s up with the Socialware app? When you look at individual tweets on the web, they’re white text on white background. QA fail!)

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Benefit from the AdvisorOne and ActiFi advisor practice management study

Posted on November 21, 2011 by in Practice Management

Last week, AdvisorOne/Summit Business Media and ActiFi announced that they are launching a research study on advisor practice management.

“This study will look broadly across all areas of practice management from sales to human resources, from marketing to business coaching,” said Jamie Green, Investment Advisory Group Editorial Director at Summit Business Media and editor of AdvisorOne in the press release. He added, “Firms that use the study results will make business decisions based on fact, where today it is often based on a ‘gut feel’ of what people think advisors need.”

Click here to read the press release on PRNewswire.

Results from the study aren’t anticipated to be available until “early 2012,” but you can likely benefit from the study by participating in the data gathering process. Typically in studies such as this one, firms who are interviewed or contribute information receive a complimentary copy of the study results. I do not know if study results will be made available for free or for purchase.

According to the press release, you can submit your firm to be included for consideration in the survey by contacting ActiFi at actifi.com or calling (763) 550-0223.

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FPPad Bits and Bytes for November 18

Posted on November 18, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Not much came across my screens this week. So here is this week’s story of interest:

A small CRM system that offers many extras from InvestmentNews.com

[Here Davis Janowski highlights Grendel Online, a CRM I saw back in early 2009. It’s fast, because most of the code runs on a local machine, and the only pushed through the Internet is raw data. But since then, the CRM has yet to gain significant traction in the independent adviser space despite its recent integrations, about which Davis reviews.] Grendel is an information management system that provides customer relationship management, account aggregation and document management. It also serves as a client portal so that clients can access their account information.

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Live from NAPFA Connections: How to stay optimistic in challenging times

Posted on November 17, 2011 by in General

One of the worthwhile breakout sessions I attended at NAPFA Connections this week was presented by Michael Bryant of Career Transition Services titled Staying Optimistic in Challenging Times.

In this session, Bryant began with the premise that we are all born optimistic. If we weren’t, he said, we would have just stopped evolving long ago and would have stayed happy as cavemen.

According to Bryant, all people have an optimistic part that can be tapped. Consider the following examples he gave to illustrate this point. When asked how many people think they’ll live to be 100, about 10% of an audience will respond affirmatively. In reality, only about 0.2% of the population actually does.

Or what about married couples asked if they might ever become divorced? Almost no one answers in the affirmative.

Bryant’s point is that optimism is something that is a part of all of us, and over time, we can develop skills to learn how to use our optimism to change our behavior and the way we react to external events.

Optimists, according to Bryant, just think differently. They see problems as temporary and externalize negative events (e.g. “It’s not my fault I got stuck in traffic, it just happens.”). For them, difficulties are limited and they think with an abundance mentality.

On the other hand, pessimists internalize many negative events (“I should have known I was going to get stuck in traffic.”) and assume responsibility for events beyond their control (“I’m sorry the markets had a bad week.”). Many times, Bryant says that pessimists play “pain olympics” with others, attempting to appear as the most unlucky, unfortunate individuals in the room.

Bryant provided 15 techniques to session attendees to help identify pessimistic traits, and what to do to refocus negative reactions and turn them into positive ones. If you have the chance to see or hear Bryant at an upcoming conference, circle his session as one to attend so that you, too, can be introduced to his techniques to stay optimistic in challenging times.

 

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