Volume X, Issue 5, May 2012

Inside this Issue Letter from the Editor..1 Personal Capital..2 By Joel Bruckenstein Mac Users, Beware the Flashback Virus..11 By David Drucker Conference Sightings..12 The ABCs of Straight-Through Processing..13 By Richard D. Walker, CEO, Efficient Technology Inc. Core CRM Solutions for Advisors' Day-toDay Challenges 16 By Brian McLaughlin, CEO, Redtail Technology

Letter from the Editor

This month we have a good variety of articles for you on a mix of topics. Joel writes about Personal Capital, an RIA run by a who's who of finance and technology experts, who've created a direct to consumer solution for account aggregation and invesmtment management. Decide for yourself if this solution is something that could work for your clients. I contribute a short piece on the Flashback virus which hit a limited number of Mac computers this past month. The article explains the origin of the virus and what you can do to rid yourself of it. Richard D. Walker, CEO of Efficient Technology Inc, the makers of Quik! forms management, delivery and automation solutions, contributes an article this month on straight-through-processing, now available to all RIAs through a combination of software systems. Straight-through-processing is designed to simplify and eliminate the various errors commonly associated with paper-based account opening processes. Brian McLaughlin, CEO of Redtail Technology, contributes an article describing what's new with Redtail, including its many recent improvements and integrations with third-party software systems. While this article is perhaps a bit self-promotional, we've run it as it was contributed to inform our many readers who already use Redtail as well as those considering Redtail. And, finally, keep in mind our new Business & Wealth Management Forum. A big success in its first year, we are now planning the 2012 conference for September 13-15, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Denver in Denver, CO. You can sign up for the conference at www.signupforconference.com and, as subscribers to T3, you get $100 off the prevailing registration fee by using discount code "T3VIP". Hope you enjoy this month's issue...

Volume X, Issue 5, May 2012 (C) Copyright 2003-2012 Virtual Ofce News LLC All Rights Reserved

David J. Drucker

Personal Capital
By Joel Bruckenstein Friend or Foe? Personal Capital is a registered investment advisory firm that claims to offer objective, holistic, transparent, personalized wealth management services. Does that sound a lot like what you do? It probably does, but Personal Capitals business model is a bit different from yours. They offer financial technology, advice, and an investment check-up for free. They offer personalized portfolio management, if desired, for an all in fee of less than 1% of AUM per year. The firms mission is: To deliver truly personal and objective wealth management for the internet age. Essentially, they are attempting to take the traditional RIA/fiduciary model and leverage it using financial technology in order to keep costs low, thereby making wealth management available to a demographic traditional wealth management firms struggle to serve cost effectively. The Personal Capital management team is well versed in financial technology. Bill Harris, the CEO, was formerly CEO of PayPal. And CEO of Intuit, the makers of Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax. He has also served on the boards of firms such as RSA Security, Macromedia, SuccessFactors, GoDaddy and EarthLink. Rob Foregger, Chief Strategy Officer co-founded EverBank. He has also served as President of Fidelity Investments Personal Trust Company, responsible for all banking services at Fidelity. Jay Shah, the CIO, was formerly CIO of E-LOAN. Hes also served as Director of Technology, Risk Management Services at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Clearly this team understands financial technologies, and they know something about marketing financial services directly to the consumer. When I first heard about Persona Capital, my impression was that the only strategy that they were pursuing was a direct to consumer one. That would suggest that they might be a potential threat to advisors, not a potential partner. Since a number of other publications covered that story angle, and since were thought it might be a bit premature to worry about Personal Capital as a threat, we chose not to cover them at that time. Now, however, the site has matured and weve been told by Rob Foregger that Personal Capital is exploring potential opportunities to work with advisors, so we thought it might be time to take a closer look at the application. How it Works To create an account, you supply an email address, a password, and a phone number for verification. You then go through a brief setup process. You are

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3 asked your age, when you plan to retire and your risk tolerance. Next, you add your financial accounts to the free aggregation service by selecting an institution, adding your user name and password. Figure 1 illustrates the screen which allows you to locate your financial institutions for inclusion by Personal Capital. As you can see, the interface is simple enough for most consumers to master.

ArchiveSocial.co m
I've had a recent look at an exciting new SaaS service for social media archiving. ArchiveSocial.com is presently in beta but expected to launch in three to four months. In the meantime, its creator, Anil Chawla, is seeking input on social media usage from his prospective clients -financial advisors. If you would like to complete Chawla's survey to help ArchiveSocial.com produce a better product (it will only take you a few minutes), visit http:// socialmediausagepatterns.co m. After ArchiveSocial.com launches, we will do a complete review of this product. Stay tuned...

DD

Figure 1 The account aggregation service is powered by Yodlee, so they have connections into most major, and many smaller financial institutions; but Personal Capital doesnt end there. They manage and append the data, as well discuss later. In addition to your aggregated accounts (bank, credit cards, investment or loan accounts) you can also add offline accounts (home, or other assets and liabilities that cant be tracked through account aggregation). Theres a separate category to track employee stock option grants for those who receive them. Once you enter accounts and the application connects with the institutions to gather your data, which can be almost immediately or take a while depending on the institution and the amount of data to be aggregated, the application creates a Dashboard for you, as illustrated in Figure 2.

TD Ameritrade Expands Mobile Tools for Advisors

JERSEY CITY, N.J., April 4, 2012 TD Ameritrade Institutional expands mobile tools to give independent registered investment advisors on the go access to its Veo advisor platform. Advisors logging on to the Veo platform through their smartphone devices now have an optimized view of account balances, transactions and client profile information through the new Veo mobile site. Advisors leveraging the portability of an iPad now have access to new features on the Veo Mobile app for iPad including trading capabilities, consolidated and single client account views, as well as live streaming CNBC. In todays volatile economic environment, advisors need to be able to stay connected while on the go and have the ability to monitor markets and manage their business anytime, anywhere, said Jon Patullo, managing director, technology product management, TD Ameritrade Institutional. Enhanced mobile features such as trading and real-time accounts balances give advisors the ability to stay connected, be more efficient and quickly respond to the markets and their clients needs regardless of where they are or what mobile device theyre using. The Veo mobile site can be viewed on smartphone devices, giving advisors tools to access real-time client account balances, transactions and client profile information as well as quotes,

Figure 2 As you can see, all of your accounts are listed in the left column. They are organized by category (cash, investments, credit cards, etc.) and each category header contains a total dollar figure for the category. If you scroll to the bottom of the category list, youll see that the application has added up all the assets and subtracted out the liabilities to arrive at your net worth. If you click on an individual account additional information about that account is displayed in the center of the screen. This information will vary based upon the type of account. For an investment account, typical information includes the type of account (brokerage, custodial, inherited IRA, etc.) the last four digits of the account number for identification purposes, the prior balance (the last information received from your financial institutions website), and the current balance (the balance based on the most recent delayed quote). The latter is an example of the managed and appended account aggregation data mentioned earlier. So, if the last data from the website was gathered in the morning, based upon the previous days close, and you log on in the afternoon, Personal Capital will most likely have updated the value of your account based upon what has happened in the market today. Next to this information there is a graph that toggles between an account balance graph and an income graph. Below this is a list that can toggle between transactions and holdings. For credit cards, the information displayed will include the current balance, the credit limit and the credit available on the top. The graph can display spending by month, costs youve incurred using the card, and any due bills. Below, there is a list of all charges. These can be sorted by any column including

5 date, description, category, and amount of charge. Coming back to the Dashboard, in the center there is a spending graph. If summarizes cash inflows and outflows, and it breaks spending down by category. According to Personal Capital, over 70% of transactions are automatically categorized correctly. If you dont like the way a transaction was categorized, you can change it once, and the application will remember it going forward. For example, if the application categorizes Walgreen purchases as drugs, and you prefer to categorize them as health and beauty you can do so once and have future purchases categorized the same way. If you click the more link in the lower right of that section, you can drill down and receive much more detailed spending information that can be sorted by date, account, description, category or amount. If you hit the View Income link in the lower left, the view rotates to show a similar view containing income categories and an income graph. The investment allocation section of the Dashboard works in a similar fashion to the income/spending one. By clicking the View Investment Balance link in the bottom left, this section, or card, flips over, revealing investment balance data. The investment allocation graphs are not portrayed in the typical fashion, but there is a reason for this. When you hit the More button, you see the same chart, but mousing over it reveals details. It will show you the source of all the funds in a category. This is another example of how Personal Capital manages and appends data. It looks through your pooled accounts to see what they actually hold. So, if you mouse over the cash portion, youll not only see back accounts, CDs and money market accounts, you will also see the cash positions that equity or bond mutual funds you hold own. For those who are primarily concerned with getting the most accurate asset allocation picture, this view will be appealing, however, one wonders if retail clients will get confused about how much liquid cash is at their disposal. Below the Investment Allocation section is the days top gainers and losers in your portfolio. You can see the value of the holdings, the dollar value of portfolio percentage, and your overall portfolios one day change. Click More and you can see all of your holdings, or you can filter for all gainers or all losers. At the top of this list is a box with your portfolios dollar change and percentage change, contrasted with the major market indices. To the right of the Dashboard there is a message box. If can contain promotions that Personal Capital is offering (refer a friend and you each get $10), benchmarking messages (compared to our baseline portfolio, you are overweight in cash by 32%), and buttons to send feedback, tell a friend, or ask for a financial planner. It should be noted that currently, the only financial planners that can be contacted are employees for Personal Capital, which is a registered investment advisor (RIA).
news and alerts on the road. Advisors are now automatically re-directed to the Veo mobile site from any smartphone web browser. The site can also be access at m.advisorservices.com. In addition to expanded accessibility, advisors can expect the ability to place orders, submit cash management requests and account updates in the coming months on the Veo mobile site. We are dedicated to expanding our mobile tools that will provide advisors with better choices, efficiency and flexibility in the solutions they use to run their business, said Chris Martin, senior manager, technology product management at TD Ameritrade Institutional. The updated app is a sophisticated and convenient solution for advisors looking for straight-forward trading capabilities on the go. Advisors can now trade mutual funds, ETFs and equities on the go with the Veo Mobile app for iPad. Streaming CNBC news, realtime quotes, stock-watch lists and research are also available. The Veo Mobile app, specifically designed for the iPad, takes advantage of the iPads sleek design, touch screen display and intuitive interface, delivering a highperformance user-friendly experience advisors have come to expect from TD Ameritrade Institutional. Existing Veo Mobile app for iPad users were notified that an update is available for download today. Advisors not yet using the application can download the Veo Mobile app for free from the App Store or iTunes at www.itunes.com/ appstore. DD

6 Other boxes include next steps; they want to encourage users to consolidate all of there information on the site so that their advisors can have access to it for planning purposes, if the user requests an advisor. Of course, this information can also be used by Personal Capital to capture assets for their investment management service when a user requests an advisor. If the account aggregated on the site is over $100,000, a user is assigned an advisor. A business card of the advisor, including name, phone number, plus email chat and appointment links are listed as well. There are also a net worth summary and a bill reminder section on the Dashboard. The links to most other sections of the application (Accounts, Banking, and Investing) allow you to view and sort your financial information in various ways. For example, Accounts lets your view and sort transactions, manage accounts and add accounts. Banking allows you to view your cash, including cash inflows and outflows. Figure 3 illustrates the cash graph (1) and the transactions (2) as well as summarizing inflows, outflows and net savings.

Grendel Integrates with ASI

WALNUT CREEK, CALIF. April 9, 2012 Advisor Software, Inc. (ASI), a leading provider of wealth management solutions for the advisor market, has announced an agreement with Grendel Online (Grendel), a provider of software solutions for the financial services industry, which allows Grendels advisor clients to add the ASI Portfolio Rebalancing Solution to their Grendel CRM suite. ASIs Portfolio Rebalancing Solution was previously only available to enterprise-level clients, and the partnership with Grendel Online now allows individual advisors that use Grendels CRM platform to easily integrate portfolio rebalancing into their practices. The future of advisor technology will be CRMcentric, said Neal Ringquist, President of ASI. Grendel is a CRM tool built by advisors, for advisors. It has an intuitive workflow that makes sense for advisors. The addition of ASIs Portfolio Rebalancing Solution will allow advisors to offer their clients an even higher level of service. For more information, visit www.grendelonline.com.

Figure 3 You can also view your bills. In addition, the site gives you access both US and foreign currency savings accounts and CDs, all of which are FDIC insured.

DD

7 Investment Checkup The investment checkup, available under the Investments section, is a quick computerized evaluation of a clients portfolio which examines three key areas: Allocation, Risks, and Costs. When you first enter the Investment check-up area, you land on the summary page. An example of a check-up summary page is illustrated in Figure 4.

Figlo Expands to Asia Pacific

24 April 2012, Figlo engages in the next wave of expansion in Asia Pacific through creating a valued partnership with Tech Inject. The partnership with Tech Inject enables a stronger focus on Asia Pacific. A better local sales and support network will be established to engage and service Figlos customers, securing the expanding success of the offered financial insight solutions in the region. Financial globalization is a key element of Figlos growth strategy. Part of this globalization is achieved through partnerships with strong locally established resellers in the market. Figlo is investing heavily in the Asia Pacific region. The signing of the partnership with Tech Inject brings this to the next wave of activities.

Figure 4 At the top of the page, there is a meter which indicates at a glance the overall portfolio health. Green is good, red is bad, and yellow is the caution zone. In this example, the meter is just outside the green are in the yellow zone. In the three boxes below, we can see why. The target allocation your portfolio is measured against is determined by the time horizon and risk tolerance questions answered at the outset. Since this example has a fairly high risk tolerance and a reasonably long time horizon, the allocation box indicates that the portfolio is heavily overinvested in case, and heavily underinvested in US stocks. It is moderately underinvested in international stocks and moderately overinvested in bonds. If you drill down, by hitting the more button, you can see many details, including that your suggested target allocation should be according to Personal Capital. Risks covers things like stock concentration, sub-asset class allocation, inflation protection or lack thereof, and other things that Personal Capital believes may be harmful to your financial well being. For example, if you have a high allocation to mutual funds, a message might appear warning you that some funds have high fees and are largely tax inefficient. Depending on the

Albert van den Broek, CEO Worldwide of Figlo commented, In Tech Inject we found a partner with a perfect personal and cultural fit to our corporate mission and vision. We are confident that with this partnership we will carry forward the Figlo Platform offering and our personal approach to the market in Asia Pacific. From the start of our discussions with Tech Inject, it felt like they are part of our own team. Through a professional network of sales and support staff throughout the region, Tech Inject will act as the prime Figlo distributor in Asia Pacific. Under the agreement, as the local contact for Figlos customers, Tech Inject will localize the sales and support offering to each country in the

8 funds one owns, this might or might not in fact be a problem, but Im not sure if the application can differentiate between the two. Costs in my example zeroed in on mutual fund and ETF fees. When I drilled down, the application displayed an estimated tax cost ratio, fund turnover, and expense ratio, and an estimated fee, based solely upon the stated expense ratio. Once you have reviewed your checkup, you can visit the How to Invest page. Here, there is an introduction to the Personal Capital investment philosophy, which essentially consists of a UMA comprised of individual securities for the domestic equities exposure, and ETFs for most other asset classes. Cash can be diversified with FDIC insured savings accounts and CDs in a variety of currencies. Personal Capital makes it clear that they offer strategic asset allocation, personalized portfolios, global diversification, tactical weighting, disciplined rebalancing, tax optimization, and unbiased advice from your own personal financial advisor, all for a fee of less that 1%, with no charge for trades. Again, that sounds similar to the services that many advisors provide, only many advisors charge more for a similar set of services. Fried or Foe We are not going to spend a lot of time today evaluating the Personal Capital service. Suffice it to say that if this was an offering designed for advisors as opposed to the general public, wed like it a lot, provided that it offered a consolidated portal where advisors could view all their clients accounts with a single log-on. There are some features that we think could work better, and there are some things that we would do differently, but overall, we think the Personal Capital service is a well designed one. I think the much more interesting question is: Should advisors view Personal Capital as a potential ally or a potential competitor? The jury is still out, but here are a few things to consider. Make no mistake; Personal Capital is aggressively looking to build their money management business. After I entered some of my information on the site as a test, it wasnt long before an advisor working for Personal Capital called me. He attempted to engage me in a conversation about my goals, and he reminded me that they offered investment management services. The management of Personal Capital is well aware that the banking model and the brokerage modal have moved away from a face to face one to a digital one for millions of Americans. They believe a similar shift will take place in the financial planning arena. If they are right, and if they chose to pursue that path exclusively through a direct to consumer model, Personal Capital will become a threat to the traditional financial advisory model if they are successful. I have some doubts about the initial Personal Capital model, however.
region. Tech Injects experience and expertise in Asia Pacific is built on years of practice with an impressive track record. Not only do Figlo offer a very compelling and cutting-edge software solution to the financial markets, their personal and dedicated approach to financial insight makes them a true leader in this field, says Stu Garrow, CEO of Tech Inject. We are proud to be part of the Figlo global organization and are looking forward to expand the platform offering into the Asia Pacific region. With this partnership, the Figlo Platform is now fully available to the region, bringing a technologically advanced solution for financial insight. The platform offers solutions for Personal Finance Management, Financial Product Advice and Personal Financial Planning. All are delivered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, enabling a highly scalable deployment with a faster time-to-market. Visit figlo.com for more information or contact us at: info@figlo.com.

DD

9 To my mind, retail banking is a commodity business. Most consumers dont need help selecting the right type of checking account or CD, and even if they do, they rarely need advice on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, if the retail experience at my bank is any indication, the quality of advice is not all that great, so digital banking makes sense. In the case of investment advice from wirehouses in the recent past, one could argue that there was a negative value in taking their investment advice, so again, doing it yourself online makes sense. The fiduciary financial advisory business is a bit different. I think many people, particularly those with substantial assets, are going to be much less likely to begin an advisory relationship with a stranger, particularly a new firm that offers advice over the phone or over the Internet. Yes, there will be a minority who does, but Im not convinced that a large enough portion of the population is ready for that sort of advice model today, although I do think more will be over time. I suspect that some at Personal Capital have similar concerns about their ability to attract sufficient AUM under the direct to consumer model, hence their willingness to explore working with independent financial advisors. Foregger suggested two possible ways that Personal Capital and advisors might work with advisors, although there is no guarantee that either of these will come to fruition. The first would be some sort of referral arrangement whereby advisors would refer prospects that dont fit their profile to Personal Capital, perhaps in return for a referral fee or a percentage of the management fee. I dont anticipate such an offering would appeal to many advisors, but perhaps Im wrong. Another possibility would be to have the advisor become the prospects advisor but manage the assets and the relationship through the Personal Advisor platform. Again, this would entail some sort of fee split, but it would allow the advisor to maintain control of the client relationship and allow Personal Capital to perform the investment management. This second option would be much closer to the type of arrangement that many advisors now have with third part asset managers and the platforms they provide. This second option, of working together through the Personal Capital platform might be a winning formula for both sides. It would allow advisors to outsource the technology and the investment management, thereby allowing them to spend more time managing the relationship. For Personal Capital, the draw would be the ability to have a large network of proven advisors funneling prequalified prospects onto their platform. Personal Capital is not the first firm looking to offer a technology driven advice platform to the general public, and it wont be the last. Just because most of the previous ones have not succeeded does not mean that Personal Capital, or another similar firm will not succeed in the future. Advisors need to investigate platforms like the one that Personal Capital offers and evaluate

Scottrade to Offer MoneyGuidePro at Deep Discount

Scottrade Advisor Service, a custodian to over 1,000 independent RIAs, recently announced an agreement to resell MoneyGuidePro financial planning software to their advisors at a 50% discount. According to Brian Davis, Director of Scottrade Advisor Service, his firm will provide their advisors with a full retail version of MoneyGuidePro, not a custom version. Advisors who purchase through Scottrade will not only receive the deep discount, they will also receive a version that is deeply integrated with the Scottrade Advisor platform. If an advisor initiates a plan within MoneyGuidePro, they will be able to automatically pull in relevant client data from the Scottrade platform to populate the MoneyGuidePro application. When the advisor wishes to update the plan at a later date, the Scottrade supplied data will refresh automatically. This deal marks the first direct purchase agreement for MoneyGuidePro with a custodian. Previous deals have been marketing agreements whereby advisors purchase their software from PIEtech, not from the custodian. Scottrade decided to purchase bulk licenses from us so that they could offer their advisors the best possible deal, said Robert Curtis, President and CEO of PIEtech. "We applaud Scottrade for their commitment to their advisors and to the financial planning process.

10 under what terms, if any, this type of service might be useful in servicing prospects that are not a good fit for their own service model. If Personal Capital offers a way to profitably serve less affluent clients, it could be a real boon to your business. It seems to me that the folks at Personal Capital are culturally more like the advisors I know than not. They are an RIA firm that believes in the fiduciary standard. They appear passionate about providing a needed service to a larger portion of the US population. They are attempting to harness technology in thoughtful ways in order to keep costs low and reach a wider audience. Hopefully, this firm will find a way to embrace the advisor community and work with them in the future. Well just have to wait and see if they can.
For further information, visit https://advisor.scottrade.com/ Financial-Advisors/ or call (866) 306-7135.

JB

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Mac Users Beware the Flashback Virus

By David Drucker They said it would never happen, but it has: a computer virus has hit an estimated 600,000 Macs, reminding Mac owners theyre not completely immune to malware. Dubbed the Flashback virus because its transferred to computers by disguising itself as a safe browser Flash plug-in, the virus began spreading in early April 2012. Apple responded by saying its developing software to detect and remove the virus, which allows hackers to gain remote access to victims computers and, thus, seek out their critical usernames and passwords. Earlier versions of the malware stemmed from a pop-up window that tricked users into installing a fake version of Adobe Flash. Newer versions exploited a security flaw in Java software that infected Macs by redirecting users to a bogus site. Prominent security firms have released tools enabling Mac users to check for infection. To check your own Mac, start with Kaspersky Labs http:// flashbackcheck.com/. This website shows you how to find your Hardware UUID and then checks it to see if youre among the 600,000 infected users. If you have the virus, it then instructs to you to download a trial version of its Anti-Virus for Mac 2011 software, which will fix the problem. You may not have the virus, but you may have a vulnerable version of Java on your computer. Kaspersky instructs you to use the Mac OS X automatic software update feature to replace the vulnerable version with a safe version on your Mac.

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Conference Sightings
During the next 12 months, Dave and Joel will be speaking at these conferences: Trade PMR Synergy 2012 Conference, May 9-11, 2012, Orlando, FL (Joel) National Advisors Trust Annual Shareholders Conference, May 23-25, 2012, Orlando, FL (Joel) The Business & Wealth Management Forum, September 13-15, 2012, Denver, CO (Dave & Joel) Technology Tools for Today, February 2013, location TBD, (Dave & Joel)

A Little Friendly Advertising

by Joel P. Bruckenstein
Seldom do I tout my outside ventures, but I've been able to help many advisors with my consulting services, so want you to know about them in the event I can help you, too.

IT Consulting
You and your firm can hire me to improve your office efficiency and leverage your investment in technology. I will evaluate your current systems and processes, and then recommend appropriate alternatives. I work with firms of all sizes, including major broker dealers, insurance companies and software developers. I also work with boutique RIA firms and solo practitioners. I often helps firms evaluate and implement technology tools. In addition, I consult on workflow management and outsourcing. I am available to consult on financial planning software, portfolio management software,solutions, document management, software integration, custodial platformsother advisor related products as well. Consulting fees range from $250-$400 per hour, depending on the nature and complexity of the project, with a deposit of $500, representing my minimum fee per engagement. For further information about this, or any of our other services, please email joel.bruckenstein@gmail.com.

Is This Your Copy of T3??

If not, wed like to welcome you to the T3 Community. In order to be a member, just use the order form on the back of this newsletter to get your own subscription. Please be aware that it is a violation of Federal copyright law to reproduce all or part of this publication or its contents by xerography, facsimile, scanning or any other means. The Copyright Act imposes liability of up to $100,000 per issue for infringement. Information concerning illicit duplication of this issue will be gratefully accepted. Legal reprints of this and other T3 features are available upon request.

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The ABCs of Straight-Through Processing

By Richard D. Walker, CEO, Efficienct Technology Inc. Theyve always said the fastest way to get somewhere is to go in a straight line. Yet most financial service transactions take anything but a straight line. The time between when youve earned your clients trust to manage their accounts, to the point when the accounts are opened should be the easiest part of your relationship. Yet often times, the mere act of opening an account puts all your hard work and earned trust at risk. Its time the road were made easier, and thats the promise of straightthrough-processing (STP). Straight-through-processing is a comprehensive approach for how new accounts are opened, account updates are processed, and how any financial transaction takes place without paper, re-keying of information, or human intervention. Imagine being able to transact any line of business, from securities to mutual funds to insurance to annuities, in real-time, entirely online. While some companies make this possible by trading all investments on a single platform, many of the transactions advisors complete are still handled the old-fashioned way: paper, ink and mail. The holy grail of efficiency, STP has always been an over-stated promise that was rarely, if ever, delivered. Everyone has asked for it, but few can deliver. Why? Its not for a lack of technology. Its because the overall process is riddled with many moving parts that are difficult to link together. While many financial industry software providers claim they provide straight-throughprocessing, the reality is they typically can only offer a portion of the puzzle in the hopes that the customer can fill in the gaps. True straight-through-processing means a financial professional can: Fill out all required paperwork online, with no printing Approve and process transactions in real-time Electronically sign all documents Route paperwork electronically to all parties Transfer money and process checks electronically Execute the transaction perfectly The results of such a system would be amazing. No more paper forms to fill out. No more delays in processing because of errors and rejections. No operations people reviewing every detail manually. This is the world financial advisors should be living in!

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What would your world look like if you had straight-through-processing? You wouldnt be at such a high risk of losing client trust because their transaction was rejected or took days to complete: your orders would be processed in mere moments. The risk of doing business is greatly reduced as well. Ultimately, making the process faster improves everyones bottom line, especially your clients. Clients benefit from STP because you can spend more time doing what you love: helping clients achieve their goals. Is STP only for the big companies? Absolutely not. There are ways in which Registered Investment Advisors and advisors can accelerate their transactions with or without the support of their custodians, clearing firms and/ or broker/dealer back-office support. First, lets look at the pieces of the STP puzzle. Straight-through-processing requires: A library of industry forms, Document management and storage, A workflow process to move data, Rules to eliminate or reduce errors, Check cashing and money transfer capability, Electronic signature, Communication with carriers and custodians, and A comprehensive, yet simple, user experience. Who can do all this? Ill be the first to tell you, its not your forms automation software alone. Nor is it your CRM. Not even your custodian alone, unless you confine your 100% of your business to their model (which ok for some). The truth is no single vendor can do it alone, as true STP requires the coordination of several partners. Sifting through the variety of companies that claim to offer STP, there is one company who has built out a comprehensive suite of tools, partnerships and best practices to make straight-through-processing a reality as a turnkey service. Docupace Technologies started with a world-class, and industry leading technology platform, to handle document-based workflow. On top of that platform, they built an electronic paperless application and check service, called ePACS. Docupaces ePACS is the most comprehensive straight-through-processing solution that brings together the best of breed industry services that includes: an industry library of prefillable forms (Quik! Forms), e-signature (Docusign, Topaz, etc.), clearing and transaction processing integration (Pershing, NFS, etc.), paperless check processing (RemitPro), CRM integration (SalesForce, Redtail, etc.), FINRA/SEC compliant document management

Scottrade Hits 1,000 RIA Milestone

ST. LOUIS, April 10, 2012 Scottrade Advisor Services, a provider of custodial and institutional trading services for independent registered investment advisors (RIAs), recently surpassed 1,000 advisory rms in its client base. The division of online investing rm Scottrade, Inc. has seen progressive growth year over year, with 2010 assets growing by 50 percent and 2011 assets growing by 45 percent. When we started Scottrade Advisor Services in 2005, we knew registered investment advisors were looking for a business and custodial partner to help them grow, said Rodger Riney, founder and CEO of Scottrade, Inc. For RIAs who use our custodial services platform, low-cost institutional trading is just the beginning. We provide outstanding customer service along with client management tools that give RIAs the freedom to independently serve their clients. For more information, please visit https:// advisor.scottrade.com and follow us on Twitter. Member FINRA/SIPC.

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15 business rule processing engines.

All these pieces have existed for some time now, but Docupace is the only company to bring them all together under a single, turnkey application and user experience. Now does this mean that STP is perfect? Of course not. But it does mean that what you, and this entire industry, have been promised for over 15 years is finally real and available as a turnkey solution. RIAs, independent financial advisors, broker/dealers and custodians alike, now have the ability to turn on STP rapidly and begin processing business the way it should have always been done. While STP may sound great, there is one primary concern you should take from this article: be wary of what technology companies promise their products can do. Start with Docupace and do your diligence. Ask the hard questions about how the solution really works. Every technology company can claim to play a role in STP, but the question is what role are they asking YOU to play? It may sound great that your forms vendor can help you prefill the forms so you can now eliminate NIGOs (not in good order transactions), but that doesnt mean its seamless or easy! You may still be required to print that form, sign it by hand, scan it into some other system, send it via mail to your custodian, or worse, re-key some of the data into an online order entry system. Be careful that you dont select a technology that locks you into a set of tasks that are actually harder or more time-consuming than the old way of opening accounts. The reason most technology initiatives fail is because the new process is more difficult than the old. Ask your chosen service provider to show you how you and your team fit into the process, how you will process the work, how your team will benefit, and what new work youll be asked to do. With a proven solution, like Docupace, you should see that the new process is indeed faster, easier and far more cost-effective than ever. Straight-through-processing is not required to do business, but it is a great opportunity to improve the way business is done. What youll see over the coming months and years is a shift towards greater operational efficiencies in financial services. Now is your chance to set up your operational platform to stay ahead of the curve. If you want to enjoy lower costs, faster transactions, happier staff and clients, take a strong look at how Docupace has made STP real for everyone. Then ask yourself how you can live without it! Richard D. Walker is an efficiency expert and the Efficient CEO for Efficient Technology Inc, the makers of Quik! forms management, delivery and automation solutions.

Laser App Announces Strategic Partnership with Concorde

Ontario, CA April 19, 2012 Laser App Software, the leading provider of automated nancial forms-lling and management software for the securities and insurance industries, today announced its strategic partnership with Concorde Investment Services, which has added its broker-dealer forms to the Laser App library. By joining the Laser App library of over 29,000 forms, Concorde Investments stands to deepen relationships with top performing reps and agents as well as strengthen its overall technology offering. Laser Apps open architecture allows its forms-lling solution to integrate easily with other tools currently available to the companys registered reps including CRM, business submission systems, online commission systems and consolidated statement tools. New reps stand to benet, in particular, from Laser Apps Transition Tool, which allows them to prell account forms, transfer forms and brokerdealer exchange forms when transitioning their book of business to Concorde Investment Services. For more information on Laser App, visit http:// www.laserapp.com.

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Core CRM Solutions for Advisors' Day-to-Day Challenges

By Brian McLaughlin, CEO, Redtail Technology In Financial Plannings 2011 Tech Survey, Redtail CRM had its strongest showing ever as the CRM of choice for 32% of respondents. Not only did this place Redtail at the top of the list for CRM vendors it also marked the first time in the annual surveys history that Microsoft Outlook hadnt notched first place in this category. While we at Redtail were certainly thrilled at the surveys results, we marked the milestone internally by posing two questions. First, what solutions has Redtail provided for the everyday challenges faced by advisors that have proved successful for our subscribers? Next, what can we do better in order that we earn the continued trust that is placed in us as a provider of such a crucial component to the advisors day-to-day operations? If youre reading this, youre most likely already aware of the necessity for a strong CRM component to your business and also aware of CRMs potential as the core piece of software around which other software revolves. What this years Tech Survey makes clear is that advisors who have been relying on Outlook to serve as the core software for their day-to-day operations are learning via experience that Outlook is not up to the task, particularly as their practice grows and evolves. As Bill Winterberg, one of the financial industrys thought leaders, recently said, Advisors should consider the ways they feel CRM can help improve their business and client service. Essentially, when they find themselves saying, There has to be a better way to do this, they should turn to their CRM and see if the program can help solve their bottlenecks in workflow processes or simplify access to information spread across all of their clients. Once youve reached the conclusion that there has to be a better way to do this, the next question likely will be how to decide between the CRM vendors available. So, what does Redtail CRM offer that makes it uniquely qualified to fill this role, to help you meet your everyday challenges? From its inception in 2003, Redtail was designed for, and relied extensively upon input from, financial advisors. Based upon this invaluable feedback, the below is a partial list of some of those day-to-day challenges we strive to address and how we do so: How can you systematize your ongoing processes?

17 As your practice grows, there is little escaping the fact that you must find methods for automating or streamlining tasks that, while they may differ in the details, are essentially repetitive in nature. Redtail has a number of tools in place for this, including Workflows and Checklists, both of which automatically generate tasks for designated database users. Redtails Opportunity Tracker allows you to track potential business opportunities from discovery through completion, while our Seminar Management tool can assist in the planning and managing of seminars and client events. How can you control your costs? Because of the systematization possible with Redtail, you are not only able to accomplish more with your existing resources, but you are also likely to find that implementing Redtail is a winning proposition in terms of opportunity costs. As a very reasonably priced month-to-month subscription service (allowing you up to 15 database users), you can weigh the cost of Redtail vs. the cost of your and your employees time were you to continue on with no systematization, or with ineffective systematization, in place. How can you segment your clients based upon both their value to your firm and upon demographic and personal information that may be relevant to your marketing efforts? As the channels for client communication expand from face-to-face and telephone and snail mail to e-mail, blogs, and social media such as Twitter and Facebook the opportunity for you to carefully craft your message for specific audiences has grown as well. You may not be able to be all things to all people but you can certainly represent annuity expertise for some clients while serving as an estate or tax-planning guru for others. To know what each of your clients might need or be interested in, though, you must have a system in place that allows you to both track everything you know about them and to easily segment and report on this data. Via Tag Groups, Quicklists, Keywords, Know Your Client data and a host of other fields, Redtail both encourages and provides the means for you to segment your clients in very specific ways, dependent upon your needs at any given time. A side benefit of the detailed level of segmentation available is that it can also provide you with an accurate picture of which clients are taking up a disproportionate amount of your firms time relative to the amount of revenues they generate. Segmentation then allows you to both tailor your marketing efforts for specific pockets of clients and to determine, if you feel the need, what clients it might best serve you to let go. How can you build trust, increase referrals and increase profitability? A large part of establishing trusting relationships involves repetition. Understand that Im not using repetition in the sense associated with negative connotations (i.e. mindless repetition), but rather in the musical sense, where repetition refers to the repeating of a passage or a note. In that sense, you build trust through your clients knowing what they can expect from you and being satisfied (or more than satisfied) when you (repetitively) meet or exceed those expectations.

Advisors Assistant Integrates with Orion

Pismo Beach, CA [April 12, 2012] 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. This new integration provides downloading of Registrations, Securities, Accounts and Account Positions directly from Orion for users of Advisors Assistant. With this new interface between Advisors Assistant and Orion, users can combine the client demographics stored in Advisors Assistant with account and asset information downloaded from Orion to mine their data for new opportunities. This is an important integration, says Pat Dempsey, CEO of Client Marketing Systems, Inc. The Advisors Assistant partnership with Orion is a win / win situation for our users. When an ofce grows to the point that they want to turn over the day to day downloading of investments, they can go to Orion without losing any of the powerful CRM capabilities of Advisors Assistant. The portfolios and values are still available in Advisors Assistant, with Orion handling the day to day downloads and client reporting. It also gives Orion users the option of using

18 Redtail facilitates your ability to meet and exceed client expectations via: Reminders Birthday, Client Review, Account Renewals, Wedding Anniversary, etc. You dont have to dig for this information its always on your Dashboard. Workflows and Checklists each of these allow you handle day-to-day procedures in a uniform manner, allowing your client interactions to achieve a level of consistency that might otherwise be impossible. Important Information every contact record in Redtail has an Important Information section on their Overview page. If there is information about a client that you want everyone in your office to be aware of each time they speak to that client, use this section to record it. Family and Memberships again, each of these sections is on your clients Overview page. Its a quick reference point if you want to work those personal touches into your daily interactions with clients. Recent Notes all recent notes for a client are also accessible from their Overview. Your staff can see at a glance what other interactions the client has had with your office. Note: if you also subscribe to Redtails Email Archiving solution, the clients email history with your firm is accessible here (though the database owner can determine which staff members have access to the entire email history). Mail Merge and Broadcast Emails from within Redtail, you can run mail merges, labels or envelopes as well as send broadcast emails. Couple these capabilities with Redtails opportunities for segmentation, and youll find that you can tailor your marketing so that your client touches are relevant to each recipient. To do otherwise, to send all of your communications to all of your clients, will risk sacrificing some of the trust that you work so hard to establish. No one wants to feel like a number. If you take advantage of all of these opportunities to build client trust and to meet or exceed client expectations, client referrals and increased profitability will almost surely follow. What tools can you use to make your business more compliant? If your office is diligent about taking Notes within Redtail for each client interaction, you have a permanent record of each of these interactions, should you need to produce it. Additionally, Redtail offers Imaging (electronic document storage) and Email Archiving/Retention subscriptions, which, in addition to strengthening your position from a compliance standpoint, also tie in directly to your database, meaning historical emails and documents for each client can be accessed from within your CRM. How can you reduce manual data entry across the various platforms your office utilizes daily? Integration is key, creating efficiencies that are otherwise impossible, which is why we offer integration with as many popular industry applications as is possible. And, our list of integration partners is growing all the time! While our list of partners is too lengthy to list here, we do hope youll take a look at the
Advisors Assistant for their network or web based CRM. Were pleased to interface with the Advisors Assistant CRM, says Jon Reiners, Orions Director of Institutional Business Development. "This integration allows advisors to make client and account level updates in one system creating efciencies with our common users. In addition Orion's portfolio accounting data is made viewable via Advisors Assistant reporting screens allowing quick access to key portfolio information." To learn more about this latest integration between Advisors Assistant and Orion, contact Shannon Dempsey, Client Marketing Systems Vice President of Sales, at 800-799-4267 or by email at Shannon@Climark.com.

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19 Partners page on Redtails website for a list. You can be confident that Redtail offers integration with many of the most widely used planning, formfilling, account aggregation, wealth planning, dictation and marketing applications available. There are no fees on Redtails end for setting up or maintaining any of these integrations. How can you access your data when traveling or away from the office? Redtail offers a mobile application for iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices. And, because Redtail is a web-based solution, there is no software to download, meaning you can access your full database from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. This applies to our Imaging and Email Archiving solutions as well. The above are examples of solutions that Redtail has made available that we believe have contributed to our subscribers successes with Redtail CRM. The second question we posed ourselves after the results of the 2011 Tech Survey were posted was what we could do better. In actuality, while that question organically follows the first, its a question we always ask and are always trying to address. In the past year, weve rolled out a new version of Redtail CRM, a version that is faster, cleaner and cross-browser compatible. The new Redtail CRM was designed from the ground up in a manner that will allow us to enact changes when necessary in a much quicker manner than was possible with the previous version. In the past year, we moved all of our email-hosting subscribers to a new platform, dramatically improving user experience while also providing users with a wealth of options that were unavailable in the previous platform. In the past year, weve rolled out a Feedback Forum designed to let users add, comment upon and/or vote for feature requests for our suite of products. While weve always listened to and tracked our subscribers requests, this provides a forum for subscribers to gather a clearer picture of, and to influence through their votes, the features actively being addressed at any given time. In the past year, weve rolled out integrations with popular transcription services (Copytalk, Mobile Assistant), email marketing providers (MailChimp) and an Investment Policy Statement service (IPS Advisor Pro), just to name a few. And, finally, within the last few months, weve moved to an all-new Helpdesk system, which not only allows subscribers to track the progress of their support requests much easier, but also gives them complete access to all available Redtail documentation in the same place.

TD Ameritrade Luanches First Of Its Kind Trading Platform for Advisors

JERSEY CITY, N.J., April 19, 2012 Independent registered investment advisors looking to enrich their trading experience now have access to the thinkpipes platform, an advanced, highlycustomizable trading-platform for advisors. thinkpipes is designed to meet the needs of many advisors from traders of equities or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), to those advisors who are looking to start or expand their use of options strategies. thinkpipes is based on the award-winning thinkorswim technology, from TD Ameritrade. thinkpipes is much more than a trading platform and has truly become one of the most powerful tools that we leverage day-to-day said Donald Capone, CFA, portfolio manager at JK Financial, Inc. If its being traded on the market, I no longer have to use multiple sources for historical data or quotes. Its all right there at your ngertips in thinkpipes. Advisors that custody with TD Ameritrade Institutional can view thinkpipes education modules by logging on to Veo. The online modules provide advisors with an introduction to the thinkpipes platform, and explore features such as order placement and the option montage dashboard.

20 As always, we offer free support and, to meet the needs of a growing subscriber base, we dramatically increased the size of our support, transitions and development teams over the course of the past year. 2012 will bring further improvements to our CRM and Imaging solutions as well as additional integrations. If youre not currently a Redtail subscriber, we invite you to sign up for a trial account now or to attend one of our live webinars to see a demo. If you are a Redtail subscriber, we hope youll participate in our Feedback Forum and let us know what youd like to see in Redtail. While we cant control what CRM advisors choose to utilize, we will certainly do our utmost to ensure that those who do choose Redtail remain enthusiastic about their choice.
If an advisor is interested in learning more about thinkpipes advanced trading capabilities and streaming market data, call (800) 934-6124. Advisors that custody assets with TD Ameritrade Institutional can email support@thinkpipes.com, or call Technology Services at (800) 431-3500, option 3.

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Technology Tools for Today is produced by David J. Drucker, MBA, CFP, Editor President, Drucker Knowledge Systems. Albuquerque, NM email: dd@daviddrucker.com | www.daviddrucker.com Joel P. Bruckenstein, CFP, Publisher President, Global Financial Advisors, Inc. Miramar, FL email: joel.bruckenstein@gmail.com | www.joelbruckenstein.com