Thank you to Andy Gluck and Advisors4Advisors for recording a four minute preview of TD AMERITRADE Institutional’s new Veo® Mobile app for iPad.
Click here if you can’t view the embedded video (opens on YouTube).
FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 1
We delivered our presentation materials to the FPA Retreat 2011 task force this week and are taking today off to attend the FPA DFW Ballpark event and satisfy the CFP® certification ethics CE requirement.
Without further ado, here are this week’s stories of interest:
T3 Technology Conference Reports Record Attendance at 2011 Event, Announces Dates and Location for T3 2012 from PRNewswire.com
David Drucker and Joel Bruckenstein, producers of the T3 Technology Tools for Today™ newsletter and annual conference, today released additional statistics and comments about the sixth annual T3 conference, held at the Grand Hyatt Weston in Florida February 16–19th, 2011. In addition, the conference organizers have now announced the dates and location for T3 2012.
Technology helps advisers tap insight on global scale from InvestmentNews.com
A new web-based charting platform called HiddenLevers helps investors and advisers understand the potential portfolio impact of macroeconomic changes.
And read a portion of an interview AdvisorWebsites.com conducted with Bill on financial adviser technology: Bill Winterberg Talks Technology: Part 1
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Guest Post: 3 Reasons You Should Document Client Meeting Notes
We’re pleased to feature a guest post from Corey Westphal, President of Mobile Assistant, a division of U.S. Transcription, Inc., that provides high quality mobile dictation solutions to financial advisers around the world.
Ever return to your office at the end of the day, take out your notes from the day’s meetings, and try to document the important details? How much information do you remember from the first meeting of the day?
Did you know that 2/3 of our short term memory is lost one hour after our meeting – 90% of client meeting information is lost after 24 hours! Scientifically Proven by Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve
The ability to document detailed client information is critical to the growth and future success of your business. Information allows you to build deeper more personal relationships with your clients, make more relevant investment recommendations and reduce your compliance risk.
- Build deeper, more personal relationships. Top advisors set themselves apart by remembering details. Do you send that congratulations card for an important event because you recorded it immediately after a meeting? Do you have a good understanding of your client’s family dynamics, biggest concerns both financial and personal, passions and pursuits? The ability to document and act on these personal details can assist you with establishing a deeper connection with a client, building their trust and improving their experience with your firm.
- Make more relevant investment recommendations. Fully understanding and documenting clients’ financial and personal goals is an important aspect of the financial planning process. Over time, it is equally as important to collect information from your clients at all touchpoints to ensure you continue to meet their needs and exceed their expectations. When meeting with prospects, document why they have made past investment decisions, what they are currently hoping to achieve from a financial perspective and future needs.
- Reduce your compliance risk. Documenting client and prospect interactions can serve you well in the future should you find yourself dealing with a formal complaint from a client or responding to inquiries from regulators.
You may be thinking that creating and implementing comprehensive client meeting notes and documentation retention policies can require significant time and resources. There are many solutions in the marketplace today which can assist you with this in an efficient manner and help to boost your productivity.
Solutions such as CRM systems, mobile dictation and more can help you document and keep up to date the relevant information you need to continue to grow your prospect and client relationships in a flexible and cost efficient manner. Besides the basics, many of the available solutions allow you to capture valuable information including client body language during a meeting, important upcoming life events and personal goals or concerns.
About the Author:
Corey Westphal brought Mobile Assistant to the forefront of mobile dictation services in 2009, as a division of US Transcription, Inc., which he founded in 1998. Focusing on cutting edge technology and professional quality notes, Mobile Assistant offers a secure, easy way to accurately document meeting notes. A no obligation Free Trial is available at www.mobileassistant.us or call 888-373-1916.
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FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 25
This is the final week to prepare our Cultivating Clients in a Connected World presentation for FPA Retreat 2011. We’ve been busy refining slides and notes to deliver a message we feel advisers need to hear about how technology is changing the way they work with clients.
In the meantime, we’ve collected the best technology-oriented articles from around the financial planning community. Here are this week’s stories of interest:
Fidelity slips in ahead of Pershing on Google phones with WealthCentral for Android from RIABiz.com
Fidelity announced yesterday that it has released WealthCentral Mobile for the Android platform, making it the first custodian to hit the Android Market with an RIA-centric app
Junxure moving to the cloud amid market pressures from RIABiz.com
Greg Friedman, president of San Rafael, Calif.,-based CRM Software, is announcing that his company’s industry-leading customer relationship management product, Junxure, will have a cloud-based version of its software come January 2012.
Choosing Software That Works for Your Advisory Firm-Part 2: Assess from AdvisorOne.com
The second 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.
And finally, this week’s blog post at MorningstarAdvisor.com, Create an iPad Icon for Your Website.
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BeamYourScreen Releases Mikogo 4.0 Beta, Adds New Features
A new version of a popular desktop screen-sharing software called Mikogo was released today by Germany-based BeamYourScreen.
Click here to learn the details on Mikogo Version 4.0 from the Mikogo blog.
Bill recognized Mikogo as the Best Client-Facing Technology for 2010 in his column for MorningstarAdvisor.com. Mikogo is a free application advisers can use to conduct desktop screen-sharing sessions with clients when face-to-face meetings are inconvenient or impractical.
Version 4.0 is being released as an open beta, meaning the software is robust enough to be used by a large community, but periodically there may be minor issues that affect performance or usability. We invite you to download and try the latest version to see how you can engage more and more of your distant clients using simple screen-sharing meetings.
Do you have other screen-sharing applications you prefer, such as GoToMeeting, WebEx, Adobe Connect, or even Skype? Let us know by dropping a comment below and tell us how well it works (or doesn’t) in your practice.
FPA Retreat 2011 Early Bird Deadline is Friday, March 25
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.
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What Advisers Can Expect on Examination Requests from the SEC
Steelbridge Compliance, a compliance consulting firm to investment advisers based in Dallas, Tex. (located just a mile from FPPad world headquarters), yesterday released a copy of a recent examination request list from the SEC.
The request document is 28 pages and covers much of the standard areas for inspection including trading history, itemized lists of all client accounts, and two years of all email history.
Notably absent from the February 2011 document is a request for the adviser’s use of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Click here to visit the Steelbridge Compliance blog and download the notice.
FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 18
Here are this week’s stories of interest:
Pershing keeps ahead in the mobile space with an Android app and mobile trading from RIABiz.com
Pershing is launching an Android version of NetX360 in late April that includes mobile trading capability, adding to its lead in the mobile space over other custodians.
Choosing Software That Works for Your Advisory Firm-Part 1 from AdvisorOne.com
The first 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.
Latest MarketCounsel Acquisition Overlays Operational Expertise with its Leading Compliance Platform from MarketCounsel.com
[Bill’s note: Last week it was FamilyOfficeNetwork that merged with The Efficient Practice, this week the east coast version happened.] MarketCounsel, the leading business and regulatory compliance consulting firm to the country’s preeminent entrepreneurial investment advisors is pleased to announce the acquisition of Beneficial Concepts Group, LLC.
ByAllAccounts’ Survey Reveals Financial Advisors Are Missing Opportunity to Attract HNW Clients from Marketwire.com
ByAllAccounts, Inc., the financial advisors’ choice for account aggregation, today released results from a nationwide survey of financial advisors on fiduciary responsibility.
And if you missed our update earlier this week, be sure to download the “FPA-ActiFi Adviser Technology Reports: Portfolio Management Edition”, free for FPA members (and at $495 for non-members, it’s well worth the price to join FPA)
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Get the Latest FPA-ActiFi Technology Report on Portfolio Management Software
Next to Client Relationship Management (CRM) software, portfolio management software is one of the tools most used by financial advisers. Such software is the lifeblood of any asset manager, where all the details of asset allocation, tax lot detail, and performance history are contained.
In its latest edition of its reports, FPA and ActiFi today released the “FPA-ActiFi Adviser Technology Reports: Portfolio Management Edition” highlighting 10 different software solutions in use by advisers. Soltuions reviewed include the following:
- Advent Portfolio Exchange (APX)
- Advisors Assistant (Client Marketing Systems Inc.)
- Albridge Portfolio Management (Albridge – Pershing)
- AssetBook (Major Technology)
- BlueSky (Black Diamond)
- FinFolio Workstation 2010 (FinFolio)
- Morningstar Office (Morningstar)
- Orion Advisor Services (Orion Advisor Services)
- PortfolioCenter (Charles Schwab)
- Solution 360° (Interactive Advisory Software)
Like previous FPA-ActiFi reports, FPA members have free access to the comprehensive research. The report is also available for purchase by non-members for $495 through the FPA Research Center.
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