Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Insert clever intro here!
On this week’s broadcast, learn the hits and misses from the year’s most anticipated
advisor technology survey, the pending termination of several financial planning software products
catches advisors off guard, how the leading independent custodians are stepping up their
technology, and more.
So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!
Hey everyone, I’m Bill Winterberg and thank you for joining me for this week’s best
technology news broadcast.
This week’s episode is brought to you by Angie Herbers Incorporated, a consulting and
research company to financial advisory firms, who just released a new white paper called
“Take Two: The New Direction of Succession” that addresses the key elements to create
a successful transition to your junior advisors. Download the Take Two white paper for free,
along with other practice management resources, by visiting fppad.com/ahi
Leading off as the top story is one of the most anticipated technology articles that
comes out every year. The first of December marks the release of the annual Financial
Planning Magazine Technology Survey, where Joel Bruckenstein digests over 1,100 responses
about the various software programs and practice management tools used by financial advisors
today.
So who are the winners and losers from this year’s survey?
Redtail Technology, Salesforce, and Tamarac Advisor CRM are the winners among CRM software,
as advisors continue to embrace cloud-based technology, with slippage coming from Junxure,
ProTracker, ACT, and Goldmine.
In financial planning software, this year’s results are essentially a carbon copy of last
year’s survey, with MoneyGuidePro, eMoney, and MoneyTree claiming the top three spots.
And the same is true with portfolio management software, as the top 6 vendors are also a
total repeat of last year’s results.
So who missed out on opportunities this year? The survey randomly selected new products
from Blueleaf, inStream, and Market76, but found that few advisors had even heard of
these relatively new players, which tells me that financial advisors, well, those who
don’t watch Bits and Bytes, continue to be a challenging market for new providers
to gain exposure.
Read the complete survey and commentary from Bruckenstein by visiting fppad.com/113 for
links to this week’s top stories.
The next story features news from Advicent Solutions, the company formerly known as Zywave,
who provides a suite of financial planning software to advisors under the NaviPro brand.
In an unexpected announcement to some users, the company announced it will sunset six of
its NaviPlan products on March 31, 2014, citing an “ever-changing marketplace.”
Going away will be all of the NaviPlan Extended and NaviPlan Standard desktop-based variants,
making the cloud-based NaviPlan Premium and NaviPlan Profiles the sole applications that
will receive ongoing support and enhancements in 2014 and beyond.
This news reinforces the trend of advisors adopting cloud-based solutions as seen in
the Financial Planning Software Survey, so don’t be surprised when other providers
announce the discontinuation of their own desktop-based software in favor of cloud-based
alternatives.
Software providers aren’t the only ones making big changes in advisor technology,
as four of the major custodians are also investing heavily in advisor-facing technology in a
very competitive arms race. Once again, Joel Bruckenstein interviewed executives from Fidelity,
Pershing, Schwab Advisor Services, and TD Ameritrade Institutional to reveal their strategies
to help make advisors more efficient and more profitable through enhanced technology.
There’s a ton of great information in this article, so visit fppad.com/113 for the link
to see what your custodian is doing to help you grow your business.
And finally, one company benefiting from custodian technology enhancements is Envestnet|Tamarac.
This week, the company announced that its Advisor Xi suite will soon integrate directly
with Pershing’s NetX360 custodial platform, giving advisors straight-through processing
capabilities for trades in accounts held at Pershing, as well as access to real-time custodial
account data.
The real-time data feeds will compliment existing integrations with Schwab and TD Ameritrade
supported today, and expand straight-through processing trading capabilities announced
at Schwab IMPACT several weeks ago.
Tamarac anticipates that the new integrations will roll out to its 660 firms during the
first quarter of 2014.
For all the integration details, as well as all of the links to this week’s top stories,
visit fppad.com/113.
Remember, Bits and Bytes wouldn't exist without the support of our sponsors, so visit Angie
Herbers Incorporated to learn how you can implement a successful business transition
to your junior advisors. Visit fppad.com/ahi to download their brand new “Take Two”
white paper for free.
Next week’s episode of FPPad Bits and Bits is sure to be a good one, as I reveal my top
technology picks for the year. Sign up at fppad.com/subscribe right now to make sure
it gets delivered right to your email inbox.
As always, I love hearing what’s on your mind, so continue the discussion with me on
Twitter using @billwinterberg or search for me on Google+
For FPPad.com, I'm Bill Winterberg, see you next time.