Advisor Blog

Are You Too Sexy For Social Networking?


In the 1992 pop hit, “I’m Too Sexy,” by Right Said Fred, lead singer Fred Fairbrass insists he’s “too sexy for Milan, New York, and Japan.” It’s a silly statement.



Just as silly was a statement by one of New York’s most prominent estate planning attorney, who told me he’s too sexy for social networking. I won’t name him because he’s a close friend and he’ll never come to our house for dinner again.



But he only had a couple of glasses of wine when he said that all of the requests to connect that he’d received on LinkedIn were from people who wanted to sell him something, socio-economic climbers who’d benefit from knowing him. He wasn’t connecting with people from which he could learn, get referrals, or derive some other benefit from knowing virtually.



This was my first reaction, too, when I first started using LinkedIn and again when I first used twitter. But once you use these tools, you figure out how the privilege of giving away information benefits you as long as you target the right people.



My lawyer friend is actually right about one thing: LinkedIn connections that you want to connect with probably won’t seek you out. You have to seek them out.



If you wait for your target client to seek you out, you won’t see the value in social networking. You have to go to them. On LinkedIn, this means looking at other people’s connections to see who among them you want to know.



For instance, say you’re an estate planning attorney or financial advisor and corporate executives with stock options, deferred compensation plans, and restricted stock are your target clients. You want to connect with senior executives at numerous companies in your area or industry about which you’re an expert.



In LinkedIn, you could click the “Search” the pull-down menu next to the “Search Companies.” If you want information about executives at
Research In Motion, for instance, you click on “see more” in the “Current Employees” section at the top of the page and you’ll get a list of hundreds of executives. If you only want top executives from RIM, use Advanced Search to filter for “Senior Vice President.”



You can request a connection with top executives at just about all of the 1,000 largest companies in the country.



Is that like cold-calling? Not if you have information valued by these executives.



If you request connecting because you have a white paper about the latest tax court ruling on restricted stock sales, or offer a service that tracks insider stock trades by executives at his company every day, he may value that.



Or, better still, network with people you know. If you have a client or college buddy who is a top executive at RIM, for instance, why not connect? You can then ask that friend to introduce you to a colleague at RIM. If you know the SVP for handheld software development, you can look at his connections. You might find that the SVP for channel sales went to the same high school as you or previously worked with someone else that you know and you could ask for an introduction to that person.



The same rules apply to Twitter. A lot of the people who want to “follow” me want to sell me something—search engine optimization, social networking tools, financial planning software. And that’s okay. Sometimes they actually have valuable information for me.



But at the same time I’m actively reaching out to financial advisors on
Twitter and Linkedin and streaming news about personal finance, regulators, and marketing. I’m updating people I connect with about my latest blog posts about advanced marketing techniques and events in the economy.



To make social networking work for you, figure out who your target clients are and what information you could easily send them regularly for free to prove your value to them. Shortly after you do that, you’ll stop complaining that only product salespeople want to connect with you and realize that you’re not too sexy for social networking.



For more information about Twitter and social networking, please read
my latest column in Financial Advisor.



And please register for this week’s session of the Financial Crisis Webinar Series on Friday at 4 p.m., when I will speak about
Twitter for advisors.

























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Ways RIAs Can Reassure Clients



Five more advisory firm frauds made headlines in the past week. Meanwhile I received two hateful emails about my recent blog posts saying old ways of assuring clients of advisor integrity are no longer enough.



I’m sorry if I stepped on some toes or if you feel I was too harsh with my comments about NAPFA. But unless advisors communicate proactively, candidly, and in detail with clients right now about the trust issue, client assets could start moving away from advisors toward discount brokers.



I’m not predicting a huge stampede. But clients who have seen portfolios slashed in value and who see the string of frauds make headlines need reassurance.



During the last market pullback—the tech bubble of 2001-2002—discount brokers did not have the easy-to-use technology they do today, and only a fraction of the investors used the Internet. It’s different this time. Advisor clients are on the Web and the discount brokers have slick, easy-to-use interfaces.



The history of innovation should make advisors cautious. Disruptive technology systems (discount brokers) are always viewed as crude when introduced. This lulls established market leaders relying on existing technology (traditional financial advice outlets) to believe they will not lose business to the new competitor.



However, incremental improvements in once-crude innovative systems gradually overcome the established regime. This pattern of innovation adoption has been
documented extensively.



Advisors would be wise to watch the progress of the major discount brokers in coming months to see how much market share they pick up from the retail flight of assets from Wall Street brokers.



Ironically, advisors are more than ever in need of help from the big discount brokers. After all, these same firms are also the largest providers of custody services to RIA assets. And the custodians can provide advisors with crucial assistance in reassuring their clients of their fidelity and competence.



Perhaps the most important idea an RIA can communicate to assure clients fearful of fraud is that you have an independent custodian. This is a time to emphasize to clients that, unlike Bernard Madoff, you have an independent custodian.



Because of the important role an independent custodian plays in RIA client relationships, I emailed four major custodians a week ago—Fidelity, Pershing, Schwab, and TD Ameritrade. I asked them how RIAs can reassure their clients by emphasizing the role played by a custodian. Only two of the custodians responded.



To me this was surprising. Here’s a chance for the custodians to be on your side and play a valuable role. Your custodial firm can earn its fees by helping you communicate proactively right now. You’d think they would jump at that chance.



Mark Tibergien, who heads
Pershing Advisor Solutions, replied within minutes. Brian Stimpfl, a managing director at TD Ameritrade Institutional, responded a day later by spending an hour on the phone with me.



If Fidelity and Schwab contact me after seeing this post and have good ideas to add, I’ll post another entry. Keep in mind, Advisor Products is incorporating these messages into articles we write for RIA client newsletters and websites.



Tibergien says the simple fact that you have a custodian must be communicated to clients. Madoff’s firm was itself custodian of client assets. Almost all custodians mail statements monthly directly to clients. You want to mention to your clients that these statements provide independent verification of their account holdings, transactions, and values.



Stimpfl points out that only about 1,000 of the approximately 11,000 RIAs providing retail investment advice take custody of client assets. You may want to mention to clients that RIAs not holding their assets at custodians require far more due diligence on an ongoing basis.



Clients should understand that portfolio performance reports they get from an RIA can easily be compared against the independent custodian’s statement. This is also a good time to remind clients that custodians will send them notices of trade confirmations whenever a transaction occurs in their accounts. Mentioning that the custodian has its own website where account values are posted 24/7 would also reassure many clients.



You may also want to remind clients of the URL on the custodian’s website where they can sign up to receive the electronic trade confirmations directly from the custodian. Custodians years ago rolled out a feature allowing them to notify your clients of trade confirmations and they can send an email to your clients with the URL where they can download each trade confirmation. They also archive every confirmation for each client. Many clients will appreciate the reminder and your being proactive in disclosing how transparent your business is. It will instill confidence in your firm.



Incidentally, you may want to ask your custodian about its policy on ex-clients. If you move a client’s assets away or if the client fires you and moves to another clearing firm, how long will the custodian keep those old trade confirmations? Stimpfl says they’re archived for seven years at TD Ameritrade.



Stimpfl says several months ago TD Ameritrade produced and distributed a set of materials for RIAs to help them answer questions from nervous investors after the Madoff scandal and market break. The package of materials included a letter that could be copied, pasted, personalized, and mailed out under the RIA’s letterhead.



The letter, Stimpfl says, reminded clients to check their client services agreement with their RIA firm to see exactly what their advisory firm can do with their money. Reminding clients that you have discretion to trade their accounts and how carefully you manage that responsibility would be reassuring. While the majority of RIAs do have discretion of their client accounts, those that do not may want to remind their clients of this fact.



“We live in a transparent society,” says Stimpfl. “And if you're holding back anything, you could unintentionally and unnecessarily put client relationships at risk.”



RIAs who invest in alternative investments should be proactive in communicating about the value of those assets. Advisors who recommend alternative investments should have Investment Policy Statements for each client who holds them. Reminding these clients of the details about holding alternative investments would be wise. Advisors who do not hold alternatives or who hold less than 5% of total client assets in them should consider reminding clients of these facts.



Tibergien says clients should be told about processes and protocols your firm has in place to review investment decisions. If your firm has conducted a “mock SEC audit,” showing clients a report from your compliance consulting firm would be another way to demonstrate your commitment to run your firm with integrity.



You can also remind clients that your custodian has its own responsibilities under the law to ensure client assets are protected. SIPC insurance covers investors in the event of the insolvency of the custodian for up to $500,000 of losses. In addition, a custodian is likely to have separate insurance coverage purchased privately. One custodian has coverage for losses in securities accounts of up $149.5 million and up to $900,000 in cash accounts.



And speaking of cash accounts, Stimpfl says TD Ameritrade has safeguards in place that prevent an RIA from moving cash from a client’s account into the firm account. RIAs can move cash from a client’s account to another account held by the same client, but TD Ameritrade must receive written approval via mail. Similarly, client address changes must be verified via mail.



Finally, both Pershing and TD Ameritrade said they have automated systems in place to monitor RIA client accounts. Software to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering laws and programmatically search for suspicious trading patterns in customer accounts are yet another protection for RIA clients.



By the way, the two hateful emails I received were more than offset by two uplifting messages. I appreciate the kindness and support.





One More Thing:



If you are interested receiving notification of the continuing drumbeat of advisor frauds being uncovered almost daily, I’ve been “tweeting” the headlines about them. Follow me on Twitter to receive these notifications. Here’s the recent crop of those tweets:

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9418 Hits

Online Portfolio Reporting Upgrade


Advisor Products just launched a streamlined interface for firms using AdvisorVault™ to upload portfolio reports from the two most widely-used portfolio reporting systems, Schwab’s PortfolioCenter® and Advent’s Axys®.



The way an advisory firm maps a report containing a client’s portfolio data to the client’s online vault is simple now. Mapping is a one-time procedure for setting up the Advisor Products Online Reporting Solution. It’s also used whenever a firms adds a new client to the system.



Until now, mapping a single client’s account data to the vault was a five-click process that typically took 30-seconds. Now, it’s a two-click,
two-second procedure.



Most clients have multiple accounts—five to 10 accounts per client is common—and advisory firms using the system typically have 200, 300, 1,000 or more clients. The streamlined workflow is a big time-saver for advisory firms—literally 10 times faster. While it previously took 16 hours to map 400 clients with five accounts each, it now takes about 90 minutes.



The Advisor Products
Online Portfolio Reporting Solution has also been enhanced to allow a client’s account to be mapped to different family members. A father and mother, for instance, can have different log-ins to view their own individual accounts, but they both are also able to see a child’s account.



Advisors can drag and drop files from their computer hard drive to any client’s online vault folder. Having the flexibility to drag a folder from your desktop or network drive to the online vault makes moving files in and out of the AdvisorVault™ fast and simple. Clients also can drag and drop files to the vault.



In addition, a client or an advisory firm can give outside professionals rights to access a specified folder in a client’s vault. For advisors working with estate planners or accountants, collaboration is much easier and totally transparent to clients.



With many clients seeking greater transparency from their advisor, online portfolio reporting is likely to grow in popularity. One of the HTML reports, for example, shows a client all transactions in his account. Since the system is so fast, advisory firms can provide clients a daily list of all transactions in their portfolio.



Advisor Products Online Reporting Solutions are fully-redundant and servers are behind dual redundant firewalls with web, authentication, and database servers in isolated subnets. Applications are monitored 24/7 and data are backed up daily and stored offsite weekly.



Web servers utilized by AdvisorVault™ utilize SSL 256-bit encryption for all activities, including the log-in screen and user interface as well as when uploading or downloading files. Uploaded files are stored encrypted and files are decrypted only when delivered to the end-user. Advisor Products staff can see partial file names residing in AdvisorVault™ but cannot view the contents of any client files.



AdvisorVault™ is hosted at a data center that’s achieved SAS 70 Type II compliance. SAS 70 is an internationally recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which means our hosting facility has had its control objectives and control activities examined by an independent accounting and auditing firm.



The hosting facility requires two-factor authentication, including biometric authentication, for anyone to enter, and all entrances and common areas are monitored 24x7 via closed-circuit cameras. Redundancy is built into the heating and cooling systems to maintain a consistent and optimal environment. The data center has on-site redundant power sources and redundant back-up generators, including a multiple-day fuel supply on-site, and it remained lit throughout the Northeast power outage of August 2003. Connections from Verizon, AT&T, Cablevision Lightpath, and Keyspan enter the building through separate trenches.



The Online Portfolio Reporting Solution represents just one of many applications
integrated by Advisor Products into advisory firm marketing websites and client portals.










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5344 Hits

The Trust Issue


Do advisors understand the extent of the public’s mistrust? Are they doing enough about it?



I don’t think so.



Advisors have failed to embrace transparency as much as they should. Even NAPFA, traditionally the industry’s strongest advocate in the fight against unethical behavior in the financial services business, has missed the opportunity.



Many consumers who trusted advisors during the bull market are now skeptical, and those who were skeptical are now cynical. Worse still, consumers who were cynical of advisors are now in contempt of them.



If you don’t believe it, read the
comments from readers responding to reporter Ron Lieber’s article in this past Saturday’s issue of The New York Times, “How A Personal Finance Columnist Got Caught Up in Fraud.” Lieber bravely reported that he—The New York Times’ personal finance columnist—had hired an advisor who is now being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his connection to irregularities alleged to have been discovered in his clients’ accounts.



From the first reader’s comment (“The lesson I have learned is that you can't trust financial planners.”) to the last (“It is worth the time and effort, obviously, to be in complete control of one's assets.”), the public’s outrage boils over. Yet financial advisor discussion boards, trade magazines, and conferences are not addressing “the trust issue.”



There’s no mad scramble to find solutions, no urgency to address the trust issue. Look at the lack of comments on my blog posts in the past few weeks.






  • On March 11, in Closing A Door On Madoff Opens A New Era, I wrote that a new era for investment advisors had begun. “It’s an era in which trust is founded on undisputable proof presented at repeated regular intervals. Advisory firms must proactively adjust their behavior and business processes to succeed in this fearful new world.”




  • On March 12, a post entitled, “Your House Is On Fire,” chastised advisors for a lack of care in performing due diligence on alternative investments.




  • On March 19, a post entitled, The Elephant Wrecking Your Revenues said it plainly: “If you are not moving toward a more transparent relationship with clients, then you are not changing with the times and will be left behind. You will be crushed by the elephant.”




While this blog now has hundreds of readers every day, not a single advisor commented on any of these posts. It’s as if advisors don’t want to deal with the trust issue.



In my view, transparency through technology is the best hope for assuring clients they can continue trust you with their money and for convincing prospective clients that your firm can be trusted with their money.



I was fortunate enough to begin researching Web 2.0 technology three years ago and saw the beginning of the age of transparency unfold right before my eyes back then. That spurred the reinvention of my company, Advisor Products.



Advisor Products recently implemented a system that automatically records phone calls and automatically deposits audio files in each advisory firm’s folder in our CRM system. Every staff person here knows what he says to our clients is easily retrieved, encouraging outstanding service. I’m hoping to add even more transparency by allowing advisors to rate our performance for every service call we handle.



My research into Web 2.0 also caused Advisor Products to develop a
technology platform enabling advisory firms to practice with greater transparency to their clients. The platform extends CRM systems used by advisory firms beyond managing your staff to manage your clients. It integrates a CRM with personal client portals. It also interfaces with performance management software systems, enabling clients to see every transaction posted to their accounts.



We now live in an era of Google Earth, a twittersphere, a place where sophisticated investors will no longer be satisfied with mere promises about your honesty, integrity, and fidelity. They want proof. Either advisory firms reinvent themselves and figure out how to survive in this untrusting, fearful new world or online discount brokers will gain at your expense.



This information is, of course, self-serving. But that does not diminish its value or validity. I’ve aligned my business with my beliefs and values, and my strong desire to be honest. I encourage you to do the same. It also happens to be good for business.

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NAPFA Stained By Scandal


It was only a matter of time before NAPFA’s reputation would be tainted in the national media.



Ron Lieber, the personal finance columnist at The New York Times, wrote a story in today’s paper entitled, “How a Personal Finance Columnist Got Caught Up in Fraud.”

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A Breakthrough In Advisor-Client Communications

Do your clients know all the work you do for them? Do you sometimes wait weeks or even months for clients to send you documents, fill out forms, or provide you with answers to important questions? When a client asks you to work with his lawyer or accountant, do things fall through the cracks?



These common problems create inefficiency and can make your advisory firm look bad to clients. So Advisor Products attacked the problems and we have solved it!



To-Do Manager, a feature in the Advisor Products Personal Client Portal platform, bridges the gap between advisors and clients. Utilizing the power of the Web, To-Do Manager creates more meaningful communication between your firm and your clients to help you both get things done efficiently.



Now, To-Do Manager has been integrated with XLR8, a leading web-based CRM system, to create straight-through processing of client to-dos from your CRM system to your clients.



Whenever your firm has a task a client must handle, you can assign it to the client in the XLR8 CRM system and it is displayed as a to-do in your client’s personal financial portal. You and your client can track the to-do and comment on it until you mark it “achieved.”



For example, if you need a client to send you his will by the end of the month, you can assign that as a to-do for the client in XLR8. When you check off a box designating the task as a client to-do along with the due date, XLR8 programmatically exports the task description to the client’s personal portal. If a client has a question or comment about the to-do, the client’s response is tracked in the client’s portal and also deposited in XLR8 for your records. The entire conversation about each to-do is recorded in both the client’s portal and XLR8 because of this two-way XML integration, and each of you are notified when there’s a communication about the task.(See a one-minute video.)



Asset management fees have been slashed by the bear market while firms still have the same number of clients, making efficiency improvements mandatory. Meanwhile, the Madoff scandal and a slew of other Ponzi has required firms to be far more transparent in the way they serve clients. The To-Do Manager/XLR8 integration accomplishes both of these key goals.



Fewer items will fall through the cracks. Moreover, you are providing a way for clients to achieve near- term tasks that must be handled if they are going to accomplish long-term financial goals. And, by tracking and displaying all of the achieved To-Dos, you help each client through each task, showing them a running list of valuable service items you’re providing.



The interface of the Advisor Products Client Portal system with this XLR8 represents a breakthrough in client communications because it transforms a CRM system in to a client communication tool. While CRM systems have long been used by advisory firms to manage and track their contacts and, to a lesser extent, to track workflows and tasks assigned to staff, this integration transforms the XLR8 CRM system into a tool for managing and tracking tasks assigned to clients.



XLR8 is a customized version of Salesforce, the world’s largest CRM system, which was created by Moulton Strategic Partners (MSP) specifically for advisory firms. MSP is a consulting firm that implements many of the most popular CRM systems used by advisors. It works with many of the largest, most successful RIA firms in the nation.



Salesforce, a web-based system, is best known for its open architecture and flexible configuration tools. Just today the firm announced it was positioned in the leaders quadrant of Gartner's CRM Customer Service Contact Centers Magic Quadrant.



With XLR8, MSP leverages the power of Salesforce to provide most of the functionality advisory firms commonly need in a CRM. MSP consultants further customize the system by documenting an advisory firm’s processes into the system and then embedding those processes into XLR8.



The Advisor Products Personal Client Portals platform is the first web based, open-architecture system dedicated solely to enhancing client communications. The client portal platform provides interfaces with almost all of the leading portfolio management software systems. Integration with other CRM systems and financial planning applications are in development.



The client portal allows your advisory firm to assign other professionals To-Dos for easy collaboration with estate planning attorneys and tax accountants, and you can also enable clients to assign you to-dos.
More integrations are on the way and Advisors Products will continue to improve communications between advisors and their clients.




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5538 Hits

What Advisors Want


In the 2000 romantic comedy, “What Women Want,” after he accidentally sustains an electric shock, advertising executive Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) finds himself suddenly able to read women's minds. Gibson uses his newfound ESP to create better ad campaigns and make his boss, Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt), fall head over heels for him.



Apart from the hilarity that ensues, the movie shows how important it can be to get into the heads of the people we care about. That’s what Advisor Products is doing right now with its clients and what advisors must do with their clients.



Advisor Products this morning sent an email to people we care about—advisors that are our clients—inviting them to a webinar where I will speak about marketing opportunities created by using our website services.



The webinar invitation included a link to a survey asking advisors they want from us, and we made the survey findings available. Like Mel Gibson, we now can see into the minds of our clients.



Advisors, to succeed in this environment, must work toward the same transparency, openness, and cooperative communication. How?



Whenever you rebalance a client’s accounts, complete a client’s review, or perform key services to clients, ask the client how you did. Creating a survey and emailing a link to your clients to fill out will take just a few minutes. Ask your clients how you’re doing. Ask them what they want.

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5125 Hits

Making Sense (And Dollars) After The Plunge


“If you go to a doctor because your elbow hurts, the doctor isn’t going to treat you heart or hand,” says Craig Israelsen. “He’ll treat your elbow. That’s what advisors need to do with clients now.”



“It’s not like a client’s entire portfolio is hurt,” says Israelsen. “It’s just part of it.”



Israelsen, an associate professor at Brigham Young University and frequent contributor to Financial Planning Magazine, likens the market crash of 2008 to a client’s elbow that's taken a very unfunny blow to the funny-bone.



Israelsen will speak about how the market cataclysm affects rebalancing at this Friday’s 4 p.m. EDT session of the Financial Crisis Webinar Series.



Israelsen says that advisors who did not have retiree or pre-retirees holding age-appropriate cash positions before the global economic crisis decimated stock prices are vulnerable but have no one but themselves to blame. He has always argued that it was misguided to think of cash as being a drag on portfolios. “No one thinks cash is a drag now!”

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Smart Marketing For Tough Times


I received a call from an advisor last Friday that taught me a lesson, one that perhaps many advisors can also learn from.



The call was from a longtime client of Advisor Products. We don’t speak often, but I
always enjoy it when we do.



On Friday, she opened my eyes to the fact that Advisor Products needs to do more to educate advisors about what we offer. So I’m going to host a monthly webinar about how Advisor Products helps advisory firms retain clients and gain prospects.
Please join me for the first session Wednesday, April 15 at 4 p.m.



Back to the lesson I learned and how you might be able to learn from it.



The advisor who called me is responsible for marketing at the firm, but she didn't know about important ways we could help her firm.



She didn’t know we just completed an interface with the CRM software used by her firm (
XLR8) that enables her firm to assign her clients To-Dos in XLR8 and programmatically update them in a client’s personal portal. She didn’t know that Advisor Products 18 months ago more than doubled the number of articles available for newsletters and websites from 20 a quarter to 50. She didn’t know we now provide marketing videos or that we added search engine marketing services.



Advisor Products constantly updates advisors about how to benefit from what we do via:





  • MarketingSmart, an email newsletter with updates on all new services and advisor marketing tips




  • My blog, which I post almost every day




  • The weekly Financial Crisis Webinars Series that helps advisors manage the wrenching downturn




  • A sales team tasked with calling each of our clients every six months




  • A CRM system that records all email correspondence with each client and stores notes by our staff about every phone call




  • A “BackOffice” for each advisory firm to manage their newsletter and website and that prominently displays updates about our products and my blog






The list could go on but there’s no need to beat the point to death.

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Compliance Issues Posed By Linkedin, Twitter & Social Networks


Yes, advisors can use Linkedin, they can blog, and they can even tweet on Twitter. Whether you’re a register rep or an IA rep, you can network online with friends and prospects, but you do have to follow the same compliance rules that govern other advertising materials.



To prepare for a webinar about compliance issues posed by social networking sites, the subject of this Friday’s Financial Crisis Webinar, I interviewed Brian Hamburger and Dan Bernstein of MarketCounsel, a compliance consulting firm serving independent advisors nationwide. (The 4 p.m. webinar on Friday is free but you must register to attend.) Below are some of what these experts said.



With regard to Twitter:

When an IA rep uses Twitter to send a link to an article from an online magazine, newspaper, or other site to clients and prospects "following" him, that communication is subject to SEC advertising rules. However, Bernstein says that merely sending a link is not advertising—as long as you don’t give your opinion.

· If a rep sends links to articles, however, it could be deemed advertising, which means some broker/dealers may require pre-approval of a tweet with a link. It depends on your BD. Many BDs allow reps to re-circulate articles. Most BDs will permit it, so long as the rep does not add content. Your BD may require you to print it out and retain each tweet in hard copy.

· IA reps have it a easier than registered reps. There is no preapproval required of IAs in any of the SEC rules.



On the topic of blogging:

· Yes, advisors can write blogs. Twitter is a microblog. However, a blog is like any other communication, and a rep needs it pre-approved, which makes blogging difficult.

· Some BDs regulations do not allow blogs. But it is a manpower issue and cost issue.

· Blogging is easier for IA reps because they do not need pre-approval of the material.

· A blog from an IA rep can discuss typical clients and situations that are hypothetical. You can “make up” a client and talk about his issues and problems and how you solved them—as long as you disclose that these are hypothetical abstracts and not real situations.

· Blogging about the economy, financial planning, or market commentary is less likely to pose compliance problems, but market commentary must avoid predictions.

· Commenting on your blog is permissible. But any commenting should be screened, so that you can take down a comment or edit it.

· You must be able to remove blog comments that are testimonials from clients.



If an advisor is using Linkedin:

· A "recommendation" on your Linkedin profile by a client does indeed constitute a testimonial and, thus, violates SEC rules prohibiting RIAs from using client testimonials in advertising.

· If a client writes a recommendation praising you as a moral or religious person, it will be construed as a testimonial—even if it does not address your skills as a professional investor.

· The testimonial prohibition is commonly thought to pertain specifically to clients. There is not a lot of guidance about using testimonials from non-clients. But the fact that there has not been many enforcement actions for using testimonials by non-clients indicates that using testimonials from non-clients may be within SEC rules. But the SEC may ask you to remove such recommendations from Linkedin. For instance, if you are on the board of directors at your church or synagogue, another board member could write a recommendation for you in your capacity as a board member and that would probably not be construed as a violation of the rules.



Because social networking is so new, there is no body of enforcement actions and rulings that you can reference. The SEC will be busy in coming months addressing the many issues posed by advisor use of social media .







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5523 Hits

New PMS System For RIAs!

advisorPMS, a portfolio management software system, is being officially launched today, promising to usher in a a new era for advisors.



advisorPMS costs $1,000 a year for unlimited users, just a fraction of the licensing fees charged by industry leaders Advent Software Corp. and Charles Schwab. The program, which received rave reviews from technology writers at all advisor trade publications, is being offered in a desktop application and also runs on a web server hosted by advisorPMS for $10 a month. In addition, advisorPMS offers a CRM add-on and financial planning module for free.



“We know we will take a loss on the early adopters,” says advisorPMS founder and CEO, Brad Slavemen, who also runs a successful financial planning practice in Angola, Texas. “But we will make it up on volume.”



advisorPMS website

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5338 Hits

Custodian Succeeding With Small RIAs


Amid the gloomy landscape stands an oasis: Shareholder Services Group.



About a year after Peter Mangan left TD Waterhouse Institutional in 2002, he along with Barry Boyte and a few other veterans of the RIA custody business started Shareholder Services Group (SSG). (See my April 2003 article.)




Initially, I had my doubts. Could a custodian focusing on small advisors compete? It was the middle of a bear market, and the established custodians were still struggling in the aftermath of 9/11. I feared they'd fall flat on their faces. Boy was I wrong.



SSG is now a custodian to 480 RIA firms and it is experiencing a boom amid the economic bust. While the $1.7 billion amount of assets SSG custodies for RIAs is dwarfed by the big-name custodians—Fidelity, Pershing, Schwab, and TD Ameritrade, SSG has built a profitable business around smaller RIAs that the larger custodians don’t value as much.



According to Boyte, since the market meltdown about 15 to 20 new RIA firms have been signing on with SSG each month.



About 75% of the new RIAs are registered reps coming from BDs, Boyte says, and the vast majority are dropping their securities licenses. With a new regulatory regime likely (see previous post), these registered reps seem anxious to move to a fee-only or fee-based business-model now rather than wait.



These advisors are probably moving now because they have less to lose. The stock market meltdown has eroded the value of their 12b-1 fees, making it easier to walk away from them.



Other custodians are saying they’re seeing an influx of new assets, too, but the details of SSG’s growth tell a compelling story.



“It’s a good business model,” says Boyte. “Peter Mangan laid it out in a business plan in 2002 and we’ve adhered to it very closely because it works. First and foremost, it’s about giving good quality service.”



How is SSG succeeding? Nothing fancy, no unbelievable tech story, no huge discounts. Just good service.



Boyte says SSG pricing is competitive versus other custodians, but what separates the firm is the deep experience of its principals and staff, and SSG’s sole focus the RIA custody business. In contrast, Fidelity, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Pershing are financial services behemoths with an RIA division.



Boyte says the firm is not trying to bring in more advisors because it fears service issues. SSG, he says, is able to maintain a high service level because it only hired personnel experienced in working with RIAs. “Everyone on staff here now worked with us at Jack White and TD Waterhouse,” says Boyte. “When we need a new person, we know where to go and who to speak to.”



Any advisor who is discouraged because of tough business conditions should take comfort from SSG’s story. If you’re smart enough to stay focused on your business model and on doing the right thing for people in this business, you, too, will probably be doing back-flips in a few years.







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5484 Hits

Schapiro: “Harmonize” RIA And B/D Obligations

Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing And Urban Affairs Thursday, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro submitted documents saying the agency anticipates “harmonizing investment adviser/broker dealer obligations.”



“We are studying whether to recommend legislation to break down the statutory barriers that require a different regulatory regime for investment advisers and broker-dealers, even though the services they provide often are virtually identical from the investor's perspective,” Schapiro said in prepared testimony. “Some of our rules regulating financial intermediaries need to be modernized, and the Commission is considering what, if any, legislation to ask for from the Committee.”



Along with her prepared remarks addressing the SEC’s priorities and possible reforms for restoring investor confidence, Schapiro submitted an appendix to her testimony to provide “an overview of the major functions of the SEC, a summary of recent activity, and the resources allocated to each function.” The document says that “anticipated 2009 activities” of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management and Division of Trading And Markets, which regulate RIAs and B/Ds respectively, included “harmonizing investment adviser/broker dealer obligations.”



In 2008, according to the appendix submitted by Shapiro, the SEC, using risk-based targeting, conducted examinations of 1,521 investment advisors (14% of registered universe of 11,300 registered investment advisors). During the same period, the agency conducted examinations of 720 broker/dealer firms (together with FINRA, 55% of universe of 5,500 registered broker/dealers examined).


Schapiro, who served as CEO of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-regulatory organization for broker/dealers, was appointed by President Barack Obama on January 20 and was confirmed unanimously by the Senate and sworn in as SEC chairman on January 27, becoming the first woman to serve in the post.



With her strong ties to FINRA, many RIAs have speculated that Schapiro would act to bring regulation of RIAs into alignment with brokers, a development most RIAs do not welcome and most B/Ds cheer. RIAs managing more than $25 million are regulated by the SEC while those with less than $25 million under management are regulated by state securities bureaus. Brokers are licensed by FINRA and supervised by broker/dealers.



Compliance regimes imposed by most B/Ds on registered reps are generally far more invasive and bureaucratic than the compliance system faced by RIAs. However, B/Ds have a long history of violating rules governing sales to retail investors, while instances of abuses by RIAs been comparatively rare.



The $65 billion Ponzi scheme by Bernard Madoff has created an environment in which investors and legislators are demanding change to the regulatory framework, which is widely considered to have been outmoded in recent years by the growing use of complex derivatives, unregistered hedge funds, and private equity partnerships, and the conflicts of interests at credit rating agencies responsible for passing judgment on debt issues that pay huge fees to the rating giants. In her prepared remarks, Schapiro’s promised to address a number of these issues.



While Schapiro offered no details about how she might bring BD and RIA regulation into closer alignment, her remarks make it clear that a review of the regulatory framework faced by RIAs is high on her list of priorities for 2009. An area affecting RIAs that she offered some details about are instances in which an RIA takes custody of assets. While few RIAs accept custody of client assets, the Madoff fraud would likely have been discovered sooner if stricter rules had been in effect governing instances in which RIAs take custody of client assets.



“I have asked the staff to prepare a proposal for Commission consideration that would require investment advisers with custody of client assets to undergo an annual third-party audit, on an unannounced basis, to confirm the safekeeping of those assets,” Schapiro said. “I also expect the staff to recommend proposing a rule that would require certain advisers to have third-party compliance audits to review their compliance with the law. And to ensure that all broker-dealers and investment advisers with custody of investor funds carefully review controls for the safekeeping of those assets, I expect the staff to recommend that the Commission consider requiring a senior officer from each firm to attest to the sufficiency of the controls they have in place to protect client assets.”



Schapiro said the list of certifying firms would be publicly available on the SEC's website so that investors can check on their own financial intermediary. In addition, the name of any auditor of the firm would be listed, which would provide both investors and regulators with information to then evaluate the auditors.
















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5 Hits

Fraud Outbreak Makes Posting Form ADV A Must


The Securities and Exchange Commission took emergency action Wednesday to charge Nashville, Tenn.-based investment advisor Gordon B. Grigg, 46, and his firm, ProTrust Management, Inc., with securities fraud, and the agency obtained a court order freezing their assets.



“The Complaint alleges that ProTrust, a Tennessee corporation with offices in Nashville, is engaged in ongoing securities fraud,” according to the litigation release posted on the SEC’s website earlier today. “The Complaint further alleges that Grigg is a purported financial planner and an investment adviser who controls ProTrust.”



The SEC alleges that Grigg and ProTrust defrauded at least 27 clients out of at least $6.5 million and misrepresented that their money was invested in the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other securities that, in reality, do not exist. The SEC alleges that Grigg bilked investors by selling them private placements and then fabricated account statements for the non-existent U.S. Government-guaranteed commercial paper and bank debt.



Grigg and ProTrust consented to the emergency relief sought by the SEC. William J. Haynes, Jr., a U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, issued a temporary restraining order to prevent Grigg and his firm from further violations and froze their assets. While the ProTrust website is no longer online, the image to the right obtained by from WayBack Machine was previously on the firm's home page.



Grigg's scheme begain in 2003, according to the SEC complaint. In August 2007, the says charges, Grigg recommended that a client in North Carolina and a client in California, each of whom was a retired U.S. Air Force pilot, invest in “Private Placements.” Grigg “falsely and fraudulently” told the two piltos that the Private Placements were not available to individual investors but were available to his clients through the pooling of their funds. One client wired $237,000 and the sent $100,000 in cash.



Grigg, from approximately January 2008 through December 2008, faked monthly account statements to the North Carolina client, reporting positions in a $100,000 “Jumbo Corporate Debenture” with an 8.15% fixed annual return and a $132,000 “Kohlberg Kravis Roberts” investment product with a 14% fixed annual return. “In fact, no such investment products had been purchased by the Defendant,” says the SEC complaint, and no such KKR investment product exists.



Last month, the scheme took a new turn when, according to the SEC, Grigg mailed correspondence to the two pilots saying his firm “had access to debt guaranteed by the U.S. government through the government’s TARP program.”



ProTrust Management has been a very small participant in a partnership that is headed up by Berkshire Hathaway and Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts, or KKR,” Griggs reportedly wrote in a letter to both of pilots. “Via the partnership, ProTrust has purchased over eight million dollars worth of banking debt and commercial bank paper over the last five years with interest rates from 7.5% to14%. ProTrust was offered to participate in the latest offerings with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sacks [sic] through investments and loans.”



Added Griggs, “I agreed with the partnerships and committed to over $5 million dollars of commercial paper offering 12.5% in government-guaranteed commercial paper and bank debt. Griggs, in the portion of the letter provided by the SEC, declared: “This is an amazing opportunity as we now have a U.S. government guaranteed 12.5% bank debt. If you do not want to participate in the 12.5% government guaranteed fund please send me the enclosed liquidation form.” An additional 25 clients were told a very similar story by Griggs, the SEC alleges.



Perhaps most disturbing is that Grigg was terminated as a registered representative of a broker-dealer on April 25, 2002 for multiple compliance violations. In addition, on June 28, 2006 Grigg and ProTrust were the subjects of an administrative cease-and-desist order issued by the North Dakota Securities Department. North Dakota ordered them to pay restitution and a civil penalty of $570,000 for falsely representing to a client that her funds had been invested in certificates of deposit and other securities. The state authorities found that Griggs and ProTrust had violated registration and anti-fraud provisions of the state’s securities laws.



The 2002 and 2006 charges raise questions about why regulators at FINRA and the SEC did not discover Grigg’s alleged scheme earlier. If the SEC charges are true, Grigg brashly continued his fraudulent ways two and a half years after the North Dakota securities regulators identified him as a repeat securities offender.



Grigg’s case is the latest in a series of frauds that have unraveled after the market fallout, when nervous investors began trying to redeem their money only to learn that it was gone. None of the recent fraud cases compare to the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by broker-dealer Madoff Securities and its disgraced founder Bernard Madoff, but the number fraud cases involving investment advisors in recent weeks has suddenly escalated to what appears to be an unprecedented level.



On Monday, Nicholas Cosmo, a Long Island, N.Y. investment-firm owner, surrendered to federal authorities. Mr. Cosmo allegedly raised more than $370 million between 2006 and 2008 by promising investors 48% annual returns from funding commercial loans, according to a federal affidavit in support of his arrest. On Tuesday, authorities arrested Arthur Nadel, the missing Florida hedge-fund adviser, who was accused by federal authorities of defrauding clients of millions of dollars. Less than two weeks ago, A Hamilton County Indiana Superior Court judge froze financial advisor Marcus Schrenker's assets and those of his wife after Schrenker reportedly parachuted out of his company-owned plane over Alabama Sunday while the plane continued flying on autopilot before crashing into Florida swampland two hours later. After a manhunt, Schrenker was apprehended and is now in custody.



As of today, Advisor Products, a leading developer of websites for for financial advisors, is recommending that all Registered Investment Advisers it serves post a Form ADV on their website, or a link to the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website where consumers can view the Form ADV. In both the Cosmo and Grigg cases, prosecutors allege the advisory firms were unregistered. So a Form ADV provides assurance to clients and prospects that you are properly registered and subject to SEC inspections.



Latest news about the Grigg case.



Latest news about the Cosmo case.



Latest news about the Schrenker case.



Latest about the Nadel case
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5654 Hits

A Must-Read For Advisors



Clients demand and deserve a well-informed advisor. To help you stay on top the news and best thinkers, you may want to consider purchasing an Amazon Kindle.




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5681 Hits

Indiana Financial Advisor Jumps From Airplane To Fake Death, Then Vanishes


A Hamilton County Indiana Superior Court judge froze financial advisor Marcus Schrenker's assets and those of his wife late yesterday, after Schrenker reportedly parachuted out of his company-owned plane over Alabama Sunday while the plane continued flying on autopilot before crashing into Florida swampland two hours later. A manhunt is under way, according to reports.



Click here for the latest news about this strange incident.  

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  5478 Hits
5478 Hits

Video Explosion


Everyone knows that TV and the Web are melding. Videos are increasingly being used on the Web. comScore.com yesterday reported that U.S. Internet users viewed 12.7 billion online videos in November 2008, a 34% increase over the same time a year earlier. On YouTube this past November, 5.1 billion videos were viewed; more than 146 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 87 videos each, and the average online video viewer watched 273 minutes of video.



What’s really scary is that in my lifetime, we’ll probably be able to click on the couch that Oprah sits on and see its manufacturer and lowest price vendor. (My wife will bankrupt me!)

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5163 Hits

Looking Back On 2008


2008 was not a good year for a lot people. For Advisor Products, however, it was a great year.



While the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 32% and the Dow Jones Industrials fell 37%, Advisor Products showed double digit sales growth. Moreover, we streamlined processes and dramatically improved our client service. I hope you can learn about how to improve your business by looking back at our key accomplishments in 2008.

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5373 Hits

Improving Efficiency Of Client Intake


The first time I saw a ticket kiosk at the airport, I was indignant. “How dare they make me ticket myself,” I thought. “Next thing you know, they’ll ask me to fly the damn plane!"



Soon enough, however, I tried the self-service ticketing machine. And guess what? I loved it! Now, when I walk into an airport without a self-service kiosk, I’m indignant. How dare they make me wait on a long line just to be ticketed!

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5481 Hits

Putting The Macarena, Charles Barkley & 10-Year Stock Returns In Perspective


Ten years ago, Will Smith was a rapper, Wikipedia did not exist, Charles Barkley—now running for Governor of Alabama—pleaded no-contest after allegedly throwing a bar patron through a plate-glass door, and many of us were still dancing the Macarena. A lot can happen in 10 years.



That’s why, in financial circles, 10 years means a lot. Ten-year returns have a ring of authority, bestowing an imprimatur of long-term success or failure on an investment manager or strategy. Ten years would seem to be long enough to smooth market bumps. It would seem to be long enough to include all kinds of weird market events. It would seem to be long enough to use as a predictor of future events.

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5226 Hits

Surprise! Account Aggregation Works!


I’m shocked that it works so well, surprised it was not more complicated to set up, and amazed at how useful it is. I’ve got to admit that account aggregation from Advisor Exchange is good! It may even be on the way to becoming great!



The reason why I was so surprised is that account aggregation has taken so long to come of age that I began to think it might never really work. You see, when account aggregation first appeared a little over a decade ago, I was one of the first people to write about how great it was. I never thought it would take 10 years to get it right!

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5606 Hits

AdvisorVault 2.0 Is Hot


While the economy and stock market has been tanking, we have been experiencing one of the strongest growth spurts in our 12-year history. Much of the increased demand for our products can be traced to AdvisorVault 2.0, our new secure online vault platform that allows advisors to share documents with clients.



AdvisorVault is pretty much a no-brainer for advisors. AdvisorVault is less expensive than standalone online vault platforms marketed to advisory firms. Such standalone vaults are not integrated with a marketing website, website content, email newsletters system, and other features that we offer to help advisors market and communicate. Some standalone vault systems do offer many features that are valuable to advisors, but they don't provide the same value as AdvisorVault. They cost about the same or more than what we charge for a website packaged with AdvisorVault, and AdvisorVault offers all the same features or more than the standalone vault systems. Point is, even though other companies may specialize and sell nothing but an online vault, AdvisorVault works as well or better.

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5748 Hits

Thank You For Making My Life More Meaningful


In running Advisor Products Inc. for over 12 years, I’ve seen some wild market cycles. There was the roaring bull market of the mid-1990s, when large-cap growth stocks led the way for so long and by so much that some professional investors declared small-cap value stocks forever dead. Then, there was the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, followed by the dot-com bust of 2000, and the post-9/11 bear market. Then came the Bush bull market, which gave way in recent months to a collapse of confidence in America’s financial institutions and triggered a global economic crisis.



While I much prefer the ups to the downs, I have to admit to gaining some special satisfaction from this most recent flight from equities. It’s perhaps borne of the maturity that comes to us all in our 50s. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve been through so many market crises since I began covering Wall Street in the mid-1980s at The New York Daily News that this meltdown is somehow easier to bear. For whatever the reason, Advisor Products was better prepared than ever to help advisors manage the financial crisis.

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5530 Hits

When A Rose Is Not A Rose


When writer Gertrude Stein said that “a rose is a rose is a rose,” she meant that things are what they are.



But sometimes that’s just plain untrue, as in the case of technology companies marketing client portals to advisors.

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5314 Hits

Reporting Performance Daily


An article in today's issue of Investment News, entitled "Performance Reporting Isn't Cutting It For Clients," contains some good points but also contains some confusing information.



The story is about how important it’s been for advisors to be able to post performance reports online daily. Since the market crisis erupted in early October, the need has become acute.

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5377 Hits

Advisors Eschewing Conventional Wisdom


During last Friday’s webinar with guest speakers Bill Bengen and Greg Brousseau, we conducted a series of polls. The results are surprising.



Based on answers to our polls, advisors are sticking with the traditional buy-and-hold asset allocation doctrine that has dominated the profession for two decades. Advisors say they have not reduced equity allocations. But they are looking for a less dogmatic approach. Here are the results of the poll from the webinar attended by about 120 advisors.

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7348 Hits

Online Reporting For PortfolioCenter Moves Forward


Beta testing of the Advisor Products Inc.'s (API) application for Online Reporting For PortfolioCenter has been a great success and we are now focused on improving web reporting for advisory firms using PortfolioCenter.



Beta testers gave API Online Reporting For PortfolioCenter rave reviews and some great suggestions for improving the application. Seven advisory firms participated in the beta test by uploading their client reports to our server, which successfully parsed client reports and deposited them into secure folders accessible to clients.

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5636 Hits

Free Client Updates On Financial Crisis Daily


When the stock market plunged last week—bottoming with a loss of 40% from the all-time high reached October 9, 2007—we began a free service to help financial advisors manage client communications: a daily market update that you can copy, paste, and email to your clients.



The daily updates contain a summary of thoughtful stories covering the day’s events. These short takes on the financial tumult are intended to be used as a daily reminder to clients that you are in touch with them and on top of the situation.

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5796 Hits

Why Do We Charge Less? Because We Can!




We recently found ourselves in a peculiar position. It happened when we launched dynamic online performance reporting for PortfolioCenter and a new online vault. Ironically, offering more features at lower prices than our competitors inspired skepticism. While advisors were thrilled to hear that we can save them money—especially since financial crisis has pummeled asset prices and, thus, advisory fees—their enthusiasm is tempered by suspicion.



Charging low prices raised a question in the minds of some advisors: If their firm for years had been paying twice as much for online reporting, why is Advisor Products charging so much less?

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5889 Hits

Online Reporting For PortfolioCenter™ In Beta Test


If you’re one of the 3,400 advisory firms using Schwab PortfolioCenter™, we have some good news about sharing performance reports with your clients online. Online Reporting for PortfolioCenter, a new system now being beta tested by Advisor Products Inc. (API), is less costly, better designed, and easier to use than previous solutions for providing PortfolioCenter reports to clients online.



Online Reporting for PortfolioCenter costs about half as much as other such offerings, is built using a .NET framework with 256-bit encryption, and allows you to upload reports daily in just minutes. Online Reporting is simple:

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2 Hits

Tell Vendors What You Think About Integration




Financial advisors for years have clamored for an all-in-one solution combining portfolio management, customer relationship management, and financial planning software into a single platform. Combining these three functions, which are essential to any advisory firm that wants to adhere to best industry practices, has been an elusive goal. Years ago, I branded the long-sought breakthrough application “The Silver Bullet,” evoking the legendary powers of the only weapon capable of killing a werewolf.



But the all-in-one application has proved elusive. So persnickety is the typical independent advisor (IA), he couldn’t work for anyone but himself. That’s why he chose to be an independent advisor. No single application incorporating portfolio management software (PMS), financial planning software (FPS), and customer relationship management (CRM) could ever be widely adopted. Uncompromising entrepreneurs don’t want a Veg-O-Matic—the kitchen appliance that sliced, diced, broiled, and boiled. A Swiss-Army-knife approach would be unacceptable.

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5847 Hits

Albridge-Portals Alliance May Transform Financial Planning


The recent integration of Albridge Solutions’ portfolio performance reporting application and Advisor Products Inc.’s Personal Client Portals™ system makes any advisory firm more scalable, efficient, and client-centric. But what’s more exciting is that it will promote financial planning to millions of American households by making it easier for them to understand, measure, and manage their progress toward achieving long-term financial goals.



Since the early 1980s, thought leaders, professional membership associations, and governing bodies have strived to professionalize personal financial planning so it can be embraced by the mass affluent. The elusive but irresistible goal has been to deliver financial planning advice within a prescribed, systematic, and ethical framework to the masses. The challenge has been that providing financial planning services while adhering to best practices articulated by the FPA, CFP Board, NAPFA, Fiduciary 360, and other such groups is extremely labor intensive.

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6279 Hits

Advisor Products Releases Interface For Black Diamond Reporting


Advisor Products added an interface for Black Diamond Reporting to its Personal Client Portal platform this past week, allowing financial advisors to securely stream holdings, asset allocation, and performance data to individual clients automatically daily. Using the latest technology for integration, an XML Web Service, the interface between Black Diamond and Advisor Products feeds each client of an advisor continuously updated performance reports with no work required by the advisor.



The Black Diamond report displayed on your clients’ Personal Client Portals has three tabs.

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6299 Hits

An Entirely New Software Category For Advisors


If you’ve been yearning for a way to use the Internet more effectively with clients, check out our new Personal Client Portal platform. It fills a gap between your firm’s existing software applications and your clients. This is a new type of application, and there is nothing else like it.



Your financial planning, performance reporting, and customer relationship management applications are disconnected from your clients right now. Our new portal system bridges the gap between your applications and your clients.

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5911 Hits

Why You’ll Want To Read This Blog


Writing The Gluck Report in Financial Advisor Magazine, I get to research topics I’ve been covering in for most of my 25 years as a reporter—wealth management strategies, financial planning software, advisor marketing, and just about anything else involving advisors. But what’s frustrating is that I don’t get to write about my company. And that’s why I’m hoping you’re going to want to read this blog.



Advisor Products, which I founded in 1996, has been pretty damn innovative. In 1996, we offered the first client newsletter that allowed advisors to pick every story. In 2001, we launched the first email-newsletter marketing system targeted to advisors. Last year, we rolled out the first 12-page template brochure ever offered to financial advisors. But not enough advisors ever get to know about most of our innovative work.

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