News

One Simple Step to Prevent Backlash from Clients

Posted on February 18, 2009 by in Software

The Internet community (including the Twitter population) is buzzing about the latest Terms of Service posted by Facebook this week regarding the company’s unrestricted rights to use any content posted on their site.  This resulted in significant backlash from irate users, whereupon Facebook promptly revised the terms.  For more details, read:

PC World: Facebook Owns Your Business Data
CNN: Expert: Social networkers risk ‘losing control’ of privacy
AP: Facebook backtracks on terms of use after protests

There’s a lesson in this story for financial advisers.  Yes, you can prevent client backlash by polling them ahead of implementing new policies.  This principle also applies to vendors to the financial services industry.

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Kristen Luke’s $3,000 Marketing Plan for Advisers

Posted on February 9, 2009 by in Practice Management

Attention! There’s still time to register for the FPA of Oregon & SW Washington’s 2009 Mid Winter Conference in Vancouver, WA.  Sessions begin Tuesday morning, February 10, at 8:00AM.

Coming to the conference? You won’t be able to miss me: I’ll be making many of the speaker introductions and other announcements.  Catch me during breaks and say hello! 

On with today’s post.

I’m a technology guy and not really a marketing guy, so allow me to refer an excellent blogger on marketing strategies for independent financial planners and investment advisers that frequent FPPad.com

Go visit Kristen Luke’s blog and add her RSS feed to your reader.  Don’t have a reader?  Use Google Reader, or you can always subscribe to email updates for most content, including Kristen’s.

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Bernie Madoff Victim Tag Cloud

Posted on February 5, 2009 by in General

Don’t have enough time to sift through the 163-page list of Bernie Madoff victims?

Once again, tag clouds to the rescue.  I took all the text from the PDF and loaded it into Wordle, here are the results:

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Huge Northwestern University CFP® Education Program WSJ Ad

Posted on February 5, 2009 by in Professional Development

Did you happen to notice the huge ad from Northwestern University about their CFP® Education program in today’s Wall Street Journal?

Click on the thumbnail to view the full ad.

This is a pretty prominent ad and must have cost a pretty penny to run in the WSJ.  Perhaps Northwestern believes the newly unemployed will consider making a career change into personal financial planning…

 

Related Posts:

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Free Download of Acronis True Image 10 Personal Edition

Posted on February 2, 2009 by in Software

FPPad readers, go get a free copy of Acronis True Image 10 Personal Edition today!

Update 2/3/09: The website is back online. Try registering again.

I found out about this deal from LifeHacker.com where they have this to say about the disk image backup solution:

True Image does offer backup archive validation, a recovery disk creator, a startup interrupter that can re-apply a backup image, and other tools for those shaking their fists at the Windows gods.

See the full LifeHacker.com write-up by clicking here.  Advisers need to think about full disk imaging solutions in disaster recovery and business continuity plans.  When (not if) your main server’s hard drive fails, what will you do?  Dig up yesterday’s backup tape and run a full restore?  How long will that take?

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Avoid This $600 Mistake on Your Tax Return

Posted on February 1, 2009 by in Taxes

Last year I wrote about several technical issues regarding tax return filing, primarily dealing with the requirement to file a tax return in order to become eligible for the Economic Stimulus Payment (ESP).

Unfortunately, this year is beginning with similar issues concerning tax returns.

Recovery Rebate Credit Confuses Taxpayers

First, the IRS is reporting preliminary information from early returns where 15% of filers are completing the Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC) incorrectly.

Click here to read IRS Offers Tips to Avoid Recovery Rebate Credit Confusion.  Update: The Wall Street Journal picked up on these errors in a February 4 column; click here to read Early Filers Pile On Errors.

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How Long Does it Take to Complete the CFP® Certification Process?

Posted on January 28, 2009 by in Professional Development

Earlier this week, “BigA” asked in part:

For those of you with your CFP, was the turnaround from exam pass notification this slow? 

Here is the complete comment from November CFP® Certification Examination Results Mailed:

I submitted my education and experience requirements in Dec 2007. The letter from the board indicates 20 business days (aka a month) of processing time.  I called the Board to ask if this is 20 days from when they got it or 20 days from 15 January 2008 (the date on the letter they sent us).  I was told, 15 January.  You think the wait ends then.  Nope.  I was told that assuming those documents are in good order, then they will request a background check from FINRA/SEC which could take 4-6 weeks.  So here is the time line.  By 15 February you should know if your education/experience requirements are completed.  Then around mid to late March your background check should be complete.  Wow.. is that crazy or what? For those of you with your CFP, was the turnaround from exam pass notification this slow?  Patience is a virtue that I hate to harvest…

I’m going to list my experience as a guide to others looking for more information on how long the official certification process may take.

Step 1: Getting Results

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My First Vlog: Mid Winter Conference and FPA DFW Career Day

Posted on January 26, 2009 by in Professional Development

Since I bought a new webcam (the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000), I’m going through the learning process of using it.  I’ve used Gmail video chat, downloaded Skype, and now I’m posting my first vlog here at FPPad.com.

Check it out below and let me know what you think (be kind!)

For my email subscribers, click here to view on YouTube.

Links from the vlog:

Disclaimer: No company productivity was harmed during the making of this film. This is totally a personal endeavor; besides, I was the first one in the office this morning!

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Cost-Effective Alternatives to Layoffs

Posted on January 23, 2009 by in Practice Management

For those firms who derive revenue from assets under management (AUM), revenues are down anywhere from 20 to 40 percent year over year.  In response, financial advisers are evaluating all available options to trim operating costs.  Undoubtedly, salary cost is the biggest line item expense for independent advisory firms. 

That said, layoffs are often the method of choice to reduce this significant expense.  However, there are other, more cost-effective ways to reduce labor costs.

I want to highlight an article by Wharton’s Dr. Peter Cappelli on Flexible Downsizing on FastCompany.com.

Here are the major takeaways from the article:

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More Outlook Optimization with “Inbox Zero”

Posted on January 20, 2009 by in Efficiency

One of my goals to kick off 2009 (which I have yet to write about!) is to work on using Outlook more effectively and efficiently.

I previously wrote about optimizing your Outlook habits by only using the program at three specific times during your workday (say, 10am, noon, and 4pm or whatever you find works in your schedule).

Today, I’m happy to report that since the beginning of 2009, I have worked on eliminating all the pending emails in my Outlook Inbox so I can reach the ultimate goal of Inbox Zero.  Here’s what my inbox looks like today:

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