Tag Archives: Bits & Bytes

FPPad Bits and Bytes for May 4

Posted on May 4, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Recent travel and a nasty cold this week prevented me from setting aside time for regular updates to FPPad. I just returned from giving a presentation in Phoenix, got sick, and want to get better before I head to San Francisco on Monday for Finovate Spring 2012.

I still need to unpack my bag from Wednesday and repack it for Monday, but you are free to proceed with this week’s stories of interest:

SigFig offers to tune up your investment portfolio from GigaOM.com

[Over the past few months I’ve highlighted new platforms like Personal Capital aiming to reach investors directly through simple websites and mobile apps. SigFig is another one to watch that officially launched earlier this week.] SigFig, a product born from portfolio tracker Wikinvest, is finally launching formally Tuesday, offering to make understanding investments easy. The free service, which has been in beta, allows users to sync all their investments and monitor them in real-time from one dashboard with extensive analysis conducted in the background to help find where users can save money.

Why Betterment, Wealthfront, and Other Online Investment Firms are Wrong about Financial Advisors from Forbes.com

[For more on the “robo adviser” trend, here’s an op-ed piece from Brightscope’s Mike Alfred in Forbes. My take: clients of the future will still want to engage and interact with human being advisers, only they want their advisers to be proficient in technology and support virtual engagement, both online and on mobile devices.] In a recent blogpost, Betterment made the broad-sweeping claim that Financial Advisors are Bad for Your Health. To make their position clear, they included an unfortunate image of a human face on the body of a pig. It didn’t take long for the Reformed Broker Josh Brown to draw the conclusion that Betterment thinks Financial Advisors are Pigs.

Redtail Technology Launches Integration with NetDocuments from PRWeb.com

[So Redtail CRM already has a document storage system called Imaging, but it lacks a number of components found in a true document management system. Redtail could either update Imaging to include new features, or it can support an integration with a third party document management provider. Alas, it appears Redtail’s strategy is to pursue the latter.] NetDocuments, a leading cloud content management service provider, announced a new integration today with Redtail Technology’s innovative web-based Client Relationship Management (CRM) solution for Financial Advisors.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 27

Posted on April 27, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Sometimes one is better than two from InvestmentNews.com

[I shared Orion Advisor Services’ new Orion Connect app in the Salesforce appexchange last week. Here’s an update from Davis Janowski with an interview of one adviser already taking advantage of the Salesforce-Orion integration.] Essentially, what Orion Advisor Services LLC has done is meld Salesforce’s customer relationship management application and Orion’s popular portfolio management/reporting application, using Salesforce’s programming interface.

The Top 10 Technology Trends for Financial Advisors, Pt. 2: Increasing Technological Capability from AdvisorOne.com

[In his first technology trend report, ActiFi’s Spenser Segal singles out opportunities to harness business intelligence due to the negligible cost of storing terabytes of data, access to processing power measured in petaFLOPS,  and inexpensive broadband Internet service available today. While captivating in theory, I think financial advisers should first focus their efforts on ditching Microsoft Outlook as their default CRM.] The first trend, Increasing Technological Capability, underpins all the other trends that we’ll discuss in future posts.  The concept of increasing technological capability covers a lot of territory and includes cheaper/faster storage, increasing processing power and increasing bandwidth/wireless speeds.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 20

Posted on April 20, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

My first item of note this week is an Operations and Technology Survey currently being hosted by ByAllAccounts. In return for providing your email address and survey responses, you’ll receive an executive summary of the survey results. I think it’s a worthwhile tradeoff.

Click here to take the 5-minute survey.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

10 Apps to Keep Your Business Organized from Mashable.com

[He’s a general interest article from tech website Mashable.com with 10 great app suggestions. Kudos to Mobile Assistant for being recommended in tip #9!] We asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs for the mobile apps that keep them on track in their work and on the go. Here are their favorite suggestions.

Advisors Assistant® Now Offers Integration with Orion Services from i-newswire.com

[Advisors Assistant is a top-five CRM program, according to the 2011 Financial Planning Tech Survey, and is very popular with small firms with revenue under $1 million. With a new integration with Orion, Advisors Assistant users can save clicks when wishing to view portfolio information associated with a client record.] Client Marketing Systems, Inc., parent company of Advisors Assistant®, is pleased to announce a new integration with Orion Advisor Services, LLC, an online service bureau and portfolio management system.

Unlike iCloud, Google’s Rumored Cloud Storage Could Be a Privacy Nightmare from Cult of Mac

[I like this article’s balance between opportunities of Google’s long-awaited file storage service and the potential privacy pitfalls of such a service. Advisers seeking client-friendly file sharing solutions similar to Dropbox and Box will want to take note.] Google could easily amass a good deal of data on users of its expected cloud storage service.

Never mind Tamarac, Envestnet is getting RIAs on board with its own stand-alone software from RIABiz.com

[Envestnet’s purchase of Tamarac, Inc. in February for $54 million certainly boosted the company’s technological capabilities, but they continue to win advisers with its own Vantage offering.] Envestnet took its Silicon Valley- and Trivandrum, India-based technology unit and began to offer it as a standalone service called Envestnet Vantage.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 13

Posted on April 13, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Wednesday’s post on client spoofing received tremendous response from readers and subscribers. Many of you shared your own stories of attempted client spoofing that was eventually detected, and several asked about practices that can be employed to increase the recognition of spoofing without overburdening back office staff and clients. I’m working on several follow up posts to break down examples and provide more information and resources advisers can use to be vigilant against spoofing.

And with that, let’s move on to this week’s stories of interest:

First up is this month’s Morningstar Advisor column, Laserfiche Offers Cloud Connectivity. This leading provider of on-premises document management software is now extending its product line to include a service delivered exclusively over the cloud. This makes the program, one that traditionally required large up-front costs, a more cost-effective option for advisers.

Advisers and iPads: Signs of a tipping point? from InvestmentNews.com

[You know all-too well that iPads are the tablet of choice among advisers. I have the following slide shown below in my iPad presentation showing how much traffic FPPad.com gets from the device. I get 53% from iPads, 27% from iPhone, 16% from Android and 4% for everything else. The FPPad adviser audience should be more tech-savvy than the broad InvestmentNews audience, and it shows! Thank you!] Roughly 36% of our mobile visits [to InvestmentNews.com] came from the iPad in March, compared with roughly 35% from the iPhone, which came in as No. 2 for mobile traffic sources.

 

2012 Is on Us: Egnyte Announces Box Buster Buyout Program from MarketWatch.com

[Advisers visit FPPad for information on cloud file storage services like Dropbox, ShareFile, and Box, but one that I haven’t specifically covered (though it’s on my resource radar) is Egnyte. This press release from the company features useful feedback from one Dallas-based RIA, True North Advisors, on how the solution satisfied the firm’s needs for security and easy deployment.] Egnyte, the leading provider of Cloud and HybridCloud File Sharing solutions for Businesses, today announced the Box Buster Buyout program. Aimed at businesses that are paying for Box accounts and found they’ve outgrown their usefulness, the Box Buster program allows paying Box customers to switch to a matching plan on Egnyte, at no cost for the duration of 2012 and free migration.

LogMeIn Prepares To Take On Dropbox & Box With Launch Of Cloud Storage Service Cubby from TechCrunch.com

[Like I said above, cloud file storage services are getting lots of attention from everywhere. Here’s yet another service from the folks at LogMeIn called Cubby to add to your list of potential resources.] LogMeIn, the company known best for its remote access tools, is today launching its own cloud storage service, as an alternative to those from Dropbox or Box, for example.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for April 6

Posted on April 6, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

At last, good content to share with you on financial planning technology from the last week! Here are this week’s stories of interest:

TD Ameritrade makes trading on iPads for RIAs available before mobile devices from RIABiz.com

[You found out Wednesday afternoon that TD Ameritrade Institutional rolled out an update to its Veo® Mobile app for iPad that includes trading, real-time client account access, and live streaming CNBC. In Brooke Southall’s article for RIABiz, he relates some clarity from Jon Patullo on why the company decided to support trading on the popular tablet.] Following the lead of Pershing LLC and Fidelity Investments but ahead of Schwab Advisor Services, TD Ameritrade Institutional is ma king it possible for advisors to place trades for mutual funds, ETFs and equities from chairlifts and hotel lobbies using iPads.

Mobile-Management from Financial Planning

[This is a decent short overview of a few apps with which advisers are finding success with clients. Included are goalgamiPro from Advisor Software (see my intervew on goalgami with ASI’s Neal Ringquist), AdvisorView from Tamarac, and mobile apps by Orion Advisor Services.] New and powerful planning tools lets advisors such as Betty Hedrick slash the time required for both nuts-and-bolts planning, as well as the once time-consuming transactional work of managing wealth.

Also note that AdvisorOne is starting a 10-part series by Actifi’s Spenser Segal on top technology trends for advisers. The first update is just an overview of what’s to come in the future, but it’s worthwhile taking note so you don’t miss subsequent updates in the future.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 30

Posted on March 30, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Remember, at 3PM Pacific today I’m delivering productivity tips on KLAV 1230 AM radio Financial Fridays. Click here to open the audio feed.

 

One thing’s for sure, if you want to make an announcement and not get drowned out by competing releases, do it at the end of March.

This week’s screens didn’t generate any items of interest in financial planning technology (that haven’t already been covered on FPPad).

So let me shamelessly self-promote the FPPad newsletter (sign up for free in the sidebar to the right), encourage you to subscribe to my podcasts on iTunes, and see the latest spotlight videos on the FPPad YouTube channel.

Enjoy a fast start to the weekend!

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 23

Posted on March 23, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

Sorry for the late delivery, but you’re not missing much this week. Once again, the feeds have been light in terms of financial planning technology news, so you can get an early start to the first weekend of spring!

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Why RIAs are shunning mobile apps and why Black Diamond, Orion, Fidelity and others are still placing their chips on an iPad future from RIABiz.com

[I’m holding my new iPad in my hands as we speak (and no, it’s not that hot), as are many advisers. But in terms of building and supporting custom mobile apps, or using those provided by custodians, advisers are just not on board in large numbers.] Despite the worldwide craze for mobile apps, RIAs are proving resistant to their lure.

2012 TechLeaders Conference: Unusual Format a Hit With Attendees, Vendors from AdvisorOne.com

[I attended this event and hope to have my review up next week. In the meantime, advisers generally don’t have much to fear in terms of technology competition from the majority of broker-dealer firms out there.] A rapid-fire slew of presentations opened the 2012 TechLeaders Broker-Dealer Technology Conference in Dallas on Tuesday. The conference featured 30 technology vendors presenting to broker-dealer executives and IT staffers.

RIA and Broker-Dealer Ameritas to Use Socialware for Compliance from Financial-Planning.com

[Two weeks ago it was Principal Financial Group selecting Actiance social archiving, this week it’s Ameritas and Socialware. Social media archiving companies are really taking advantage of this market and publicizing new relationships rapidly.] The more than 1,300 registered representatives and financial advisors at Ameritas Investment will now be able to breathe easy as they tweet — the RIA and broker-dealer just partnered with Socialware, a provider of social media compliance software.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 16

Posted on March 16, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

You’re lucky today, as you get a pass on this week’s Bits and Bytes. While where were a number of alerts that passed my screens this week, none of them truly warranted an update as most articles just briefly touched on actually using technology in your business.

Nevertheless, you might enjoy the RIABiz series of the top ten individuals to watch in the RIA space for 2012, including Eric Clarke of Orion Advisor Services (#8) and Neesha Hathi of Schwab Advisor Services (#2), though make sure you see my comment about the omission of Jon Patullo of TD Ameritrade Institutional.

Oh, and did you know there is a landing page for the T3 Conference held back in February? AdvisorStudios put this together, and make sure you catch the three spotlight interviews I did on site.

Now you must excuse me, I have a new iPad to unpack from a FedEx box…

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 9

Posted on March 9, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

I released several new spotlight interview videos this week featuring Laserfiche reseller CitiesDigital, portfolio accounting service bureau AssetBook, and performance report platform AdvisoryWorld. Be sure the check them out and send me any feedback you have.

First, I’ve always been looking for services like Dropbox that are easy to use, but combine ease of use with robust security features. I think I found one of those possible solutions for advisers, so don’t miss this month’s column for Morningstar Advisor, A Document Vault Your Clients Might Actually Use.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

Cabinet NG Announces CNG-SAFE 7.5 from Marketwire.com

[Not to be outdone by Laserfiche’s product announcements made at its user conference in January, Cabinet NG, another document management software solution for financial advisers, has updated its program with enhanced forms processing and additional Quickbooks integrations.] Cabinet NG, provider of electronic document management and workflow management software, today announced the release of CNG-SAFE 7.5, the latest version of its complete document management and workflow software product.

EFileCabinet Releases Mobile App from CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

[eFileCabinet is not a well-known name in the financial adviser market. However, this document management software company has fairly good adoption among CPAs, so it’s just a matter of time until they start branching out into the independent adviser industry.] eFileCabinet, Inc., a provider of enterprise content management solutions, recently released the eFileCabinet Online mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The Principal Financial Group® Chooses Actiance to Provide Social Media Monitoring Platform from Marketwire.com

[Erado, Socialware, and Arkovi have made a number of the last Bits and Bytes updates, but one that has been relatively quiet is Actiance. In this press release you’ll get some statistics on the inroads the company is making in the social media compliance market.] Actiance, helping organizations benefit from new forms of communications and collaboration, today announced that The Principal Financial Group® has deployed its Socialite platform to help meet regulatory requirements that allow the firm’s financial professionals to use social media for business purposes.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 2

Posted on March 2, 2012 by in Bits & Bytes

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.