Nerd's Eye View blog

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (September 19-20)

September 18, 2020 02:58 pm 1 Comment CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that despite concerns from fiduciary advocates that the Department of Labor's new "fiduciary" rule will undermine consumer protections by allowing "fiduciary commissions", the annuity industry is mounting a challenge to the rule out of a concern that it is still too stringent in attaching a higher standard of care to sales of annuities into IRA rollovers, raising the question of whether a final rule will be issued in the coming months or not (and if it is, whether it will again be challenged and struck down as the last DoL fiduciary rule was).

Also in the news this week are some interesting new industry studies, including a look at the growing interest from industry providers to gain adoption of Health Savings Accounts amongst financial advisors to use as a supplemental retirement savings account for more affluent clientele, and another study finding that 44% of investors (and 68% of Millennials) would consider switching away from an advisor who did not align with their political views (stoking fears amongst some advisors that political discussions will cause lost clients, but signaling an opportunity for others that being more upfront about the advisor's politics can actually better bind clients who share similar political views).

From there, we have a few articles on industry trends around advisor platforms, including a veritable explosion of new recruiting efforts from broker-dealers that have transitioned to virtual recruiting (as it's now easier to vet a new platform from the comfort of your home office!?), the ongoing tension that RIAs face in choosing which RIA custodian on whom they both depend and may compete with (as the Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger creates a veritable oligopoly of mega providers), and the options for advisors to consider if they don't have enough in assets under management to affiliate with one of the mega RIA custodians.

We've also included a number of marketing articles this week, from a look at how anticipated SEC revisions to the advertising and (anti-)testimonial rules could create an upheaval in advisor marketing in 2021, how "expertise marketing" is different than traditional advisor marketing and is all about finding synergies that build compounding marketing momentum over time, and why it's so important to consider the Client's "Lifetime Value" and not just the top-line revenue growth of the firm to understand the health of an advisory firm and its marketing efforts.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of what clients really want from the advisor-client relationship: the first explores a recent Spectrem Group study that finds, despite the rise of robo-advisors and more and more online technology, that more consumers are relying on financial advisors now than in the aftermath of the financial crisis a decade ago (though at the same time, there has also been an uptick in self-directed investors relying on increasingly sophisticated technology solutions); the second provides an interesting perspective from the client's point of view (literally, written by a client who has had many financial advisors over the years) on what really matters when it comes to client retention; and the last recaps a keynote session from this week's Morningstar conference about how the future of the financial advice industry is changing, where the AUM model and in-person meetings won't vanish, but a growing range of virtual meetings and non-AUM fee-for-service business models are opening new doors of opportunity to grow advisory businesses!

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

RightCapital Financial Planning Software Review – Tax-Sensitive Decumulation Planning And A Collaborative Planning Interface

September 17, 2020 07:49 am 32 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Amid a landscape that has been dominated for nearly a decade by a select group of financial planning software heavyweights – MoneyGuidePro, Naviplan, and eMoney – newcomer RightCapital first launched in 2015 at the XY Planning Network conference. With an eye towards providing a simpler and easier-to-use interface and presenting solutions to clients in easy-to-understand reports, RightCapital (perhaps undeservedly) was labeled as a “light” financial planning software solution by industry publications. But in reality, RightCapital not only fills gaps left by other planning software providers around the intersection of retirement decumulation, tax planning, and Roth conversion strategies – that show, in dollars, the tangible value that financial advisors bring to the table – but also allows advisors to work with largely unserved next-generation client segments with its student loan planning capabilities, and to produce financial plans faster with its more collaborative planning capabilities. All of which has helped RightCapital in just 5 years since launch to jump to 4th in market share amongst financial planning software and, according to the latest Kitces Research study, see the biggest gains in market share for both broker-dealers and RIAs in the past two years.

In the guest post, Craig Iskowitz – CEO and founder of Ezra Group, a financial technology consulting firm – provides an in-depth software review of RightCapital, covering its features and benefits, interface, modules, client deliverables, and pricing.

In a crowded financial planning software marketplace, RightCapital differentiates itself by allowing advisors to help their clients with:

Real-time collaborative planning around retirement planning and goal setting/scenarios by using “levers” to immediately show the dollar impact of different strategies (thus showing the tangible value of the advisor and fostering greater engagement),
The tax impact of various decumulation strategies (whether proportional or sequential across different types of accounts) and the value of proactive tax planning through Roth conversions (for which RightCapital has been the only full-scale financial planning program in recent years to offer such in-depth capability),
Detailed cashflow reporting and asset allocation modeling (thanks to their state-of-the-art calculation engine, which allows advisors to quickly flip through analytics tabs), and
Using either a goals-based or cashflow-based planning approach depending on the client’s personal circumstances and advisor preferences.

RightCapital also offers a Social Security optimization and Student Loan planning modules, as well as accumulation planning and estate planning capabilities, though none of those features necessarily help the software stand out from other full-stack financial planning software providers or standalone vendors providing similar tools. And notably, while RightCapital has expanded its suite of available integrations with popular CRMs, reporting tools, and custodians, it still doesn’t have the breadth of integrations when compared to other providers (which means it’s important to check upfront if it integrates for any particular advisor’s tech stack).

Ultimately, most comprehensive financial planning software is ‘comprehensive’, which means ironically all the available solutions do so much it’s often difficult to differentiate at the margins which is really best at what. In the context of RightCapital, there are several areas that do stand out against its competitors, particularly when it comes to an attractive and intuitive user interface, real-time collaborative planning (and its speed to do calculations, which matters when clients are watching in real-time!), and the ability to choose either a goal-based or cashflow-based planning approach. However, RightCapital’s key differentiator is its detailed and tax-sensitive retirement distribution planning, which helps foster engagement between client and advisor, and importantly, demonstrates the actual dollar value that an advisor can offer... particularly in an environment where advisors are pressured to justify their fees. RightCapital may not offer all the robustness (or complexity) of eMoney, Naviplan, or MoneyTree, in certain areas, but it does provide powerful capabilities (especially for tax-savvy advisors) at an attractive price in a competitive marketplace.

Helping Business Owner Clients Cope With Feelings Of Shame And Guilt Arising From Making Difficult (Or Unpopular) Financial Decisions

September 16, 2020 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

Business owners are faced with tough decisions every day that challenge them to run their businesses efficiently and to keep their employees happy. Yet, when it comes to decisions about asking for help, many often experience feelings of guilt and shame. And in the current pandemic environment, with recent government programs like PPP loans available to business owners who are facing financial strain, individuals who feel compelled to apply for these loans may be asking themselves, “Why couldn’t I have managed things more carefully?” or “Have I failed my family/employees because I did not manage the business better?” Accordingly, it is not surprising that financial advisors may find an increasing number of business owner clients suffering from these difficult emotions.

To understand the reason for the shame and guilt that business owner clients (and even financial advisors themselves, who have, in many cases, needed to utilize PPP loans) experience, it is first important to understand that there is a clear distinction between greed (that is often ascribed to PPP recipients) and subjective financial strain. As while the news media has been quick to name greed as a motivator for many business owners who applied for PPP loans, the reality is that greed (which is actually a pathology where an individual has a selfish desire to obtain more than what may actually be needed) is rarely the reason people apply for such support. Instead, subjective financial strain is more often the driving factor that determines when someone may reach out for financial help (including via government assistance programs). By contrast to greed, subjective financial strain is about how a business owner perceives the intensity of the threat facing their business; its subjective nature is influenced by the owner’s own confidence level in managing their business operations during stressful times (which can feel serious, even if ‘objectively’ the business is not necessarily in dire straits, or at least not yet). Nevertheless, a common reason for both shame and guilt associated with asking for financial support is because of the erroneous association with greed.

For financial advisors with business owner clients dealing with these difficult emotions, knowing that shame and guilt have distinct characteristics, and realizing the difference between them, can be key in helping clients cope through difficult times. Shame is an emotion borne out of the belief that one’s own character is somehow deeply flawed, where the individual feels that they are unworthy of acceptance, belonging, or love. When someone feels ashamed, they tend to use language that suggests they somehow feel they are failures or that their character is somehow insufficient. They may say that they aren’t deserving or worthy of merit. Guilt, on the other hand, is an emotion based on remorse; it usually results from an action or decision that is in conflict with one’s personal values. The language used by someone feeling guilt will focus more on an action (or inaction) and could hint that a particular decision was a bad choice. A person experiencing guilt generally doesn’t view themselves as being flawed; instead, they are more likely to express remorse or doubt over some action that was carried out in recognizing that it may not have been consistent with their values (or at least with the values they aspire to represent).

For advisors who want to help clients deal with these difficult emotions arising from such difficult financial decisions, it’s first important to identify the specific emotion being experienced. For clients who are suffering from feelings of shame, the advisor can help the client view the bigger picture and to find ways to reassure the individual that they are indeed worthy, looking to past business decisions or other aspects of their life to support this. For clients with feelings of guilt, advisors can support their client by finding ways to help them ‘right’ the wrong – whether that means reversing the action (e.g., returning loan proceeds taken if they turned out not to be needed, or helping a client apply for a loan if the guilt was because of not applying for a loan), or mitigating the effects of the decision (e.g., making a donation to a worthy cause to absolve their guilt for having otherwise taken the PPP dollars).

Ultimately, the key point is that feelings of guilt and shame are very common when difficult financial decisions are involved. In the case of taking PPP loans, the problem has been particularly acute, because the requirements to qualify for PPP loans were based on subjective financial strain (stipulating that ‘current economic uncertainty made the loan necessary’) and not necessarily objective financial strain (e.g., the business must have experienced a 50% decline in revenue to qualify). Given the subjective financial strain requirement – and the fact that subjectivity is, by definition, in the eye of the beholder – the media has associated greed with PPP loans and their forgiveness provision… resulting in many individuals who have taken PPP loans now experiencing guilt and shame. (And notably, recent proposals for a new round of PPP dollars would specifically shift from a subjective to more objective financial strain requirement going forward.) Accordingly, advisors can support their business owner clients who did pursue PPP dollars by helping them understand that the PPP funds were there specifically to be used to respond to subjective financial strain – they were established to help individuals maintain their business operations during these times of economic uncertainty. Moreover, advisors who express empathy and compassion, instead of sympathy and pity, can most effectively help their clients cope with their feelings, so that they may get back to business as usual as quickly as possible!

#FASuccess Ep 194: Aligning Values To Clients With Sustainable Investing And Becoming B Corp Certified, With Lisa Cooper

September 15, 2020 07:08 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 194th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Lisa Cooper. Lisa is the founder of Figure 8 Investment Strategies, an independent RIA based in Boise, Idaho that oversees nearly 90 million of assets under management for 85 affluent clients.

What's unique about Lisa, though, is that her firm operates as a B Corporation and it's focused on what Lisa calls, 'sustainability-focused equity management', a form of sustainable and responsible investing by building a thematic portfolio of 50 to 60 individual stocks that has helped Lisa to effectively differentiate herself and grow to 90 million of assets under management in just 4 years since launching.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Lisa crafted her unique investment approach for clients, the way the firm crafts sustainable investing themes to identify segments of the market to invest in, the screening tools they use to determine what stocks to avoid in their investment approach, how shareholder engagement through proxy voting is a key part of Lisa's investment process, and why and how Lisa's firm uses direct impact investing not to expand its equity reach, but to garner its fixed-income bond exposure instead. We also talk about Lisa's decision to become a certified B Corporation with her RIA, the five key areas of governance, customers and products, environment, team, and community that firms must improve to meet the B Corp requirements, the new processes and procedures that Lisa implemented in her firm to meet the standards, and why she thought it was worth the B Corporation cost and trouble to demonstrate how her business is acting to be a force for good and positive change.

And be certain to listen to the end where Lisa shares the unique types of clients that her firm has been able to attract with this differentiated focus, the challenges that she faced in trying to grow her team and expand her reach as her business grew rapidly, and how the mindset of doing more for more people all the time can be a great way to launch an advisory firm, but ultimately may end up limiting to its growth.

So whether you’re interested in learning about the process of B Corp certification, how Lisa created her business as a force for good, or how to integrate ESG and impact across portfolios, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

Creating A Six-Week Onboarding Program To Train New Advisory Firm Employees

September 14, 2020 07:04 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

Financial advisory firms can find themselves struggling to grow their businesses for a wide range of reasons. While some firms have difficulty developing a seamless client service experience, others may find business development strategies difficult to implement (or scale across additional new advisors) to increase their client base, and others yet may feel their executive leadership team is unable to connect with the firm as a whole. Regardless of where the difficulty lies, though, the root problem for most firms struggling with growth often lies in the lack of a well-developed training program.

For many busy firms seeking growth, investing time in establishing an effective training program is not often a top priority, and it can be difficult to even find the time to develop training protocols. However, a well-defined training program is critical not only for providing employees with a solid foundation of specific procedural requirements on how to run a firm that can grow, but also in establishing a unified firm culture that provides the vision required by employees to attract the right clients to the firm and to develop an implicit understanding of the expectations for servicing those clients. And the good news is that a good training program doesn’t have to be built all at once; instead, it can be developed iteratively, often in conjunction with fleshing out an advisory firm’s Operations Manual of processes and procedures.

Through an extensive study of employee training programs across many fast-growing financial advisory firms that were expanding their reach across the country, Herbers & Co. identified certain key characteristics that were consistent across successful training programs. From the research, they optimized an effective six-week program that can be adapted by firms to create a defined and repeatable training program for their new employees.

The weekly focus of the six-week onboarding training program for new employees is as follows:

Week 1. Understanding the company profile and its technology systems;

Week 2. Roles and responsibilities of employees across the firm and administrative procedures;

Week 3. Total client experience;

Week 4. Marketing and the prospective client process;

Week 5. Understanding the Client meeting process and client communications; and

Week 6. Compliance.

The easiest way for a firm to build a training program based on the six-week program is to develop an Operations Manual that encompasses all of the firm’s protocols and values on which training will be based. For firms that don’t already have an Operations Manual in place, it can in turn also be created one topic at a time, and over the span of several months. In fact, firms that aim to address each of the areas outlined in the weekly training topics may need up to 9 – 12 months to establish their training programs (though of course, it will still be updated over time to reflect how the firm’s processes evolve).

In today’s work environment, given our current pandemic state, it is important for remote training to be an available option for new employees. Strategies for an effective remote training program include timing the training sessions in short bursts, mixing in self-paced instructional videos, and assigning ‘homework’ exercises to be completed in between training sessions. Once the instruction and assignments have been completed, the trainer should review the assignment and offer feedback to the new employee.

Ultimately, the key point is that firms who want long-term, sustainable growth of their business need to have a well-developed training program in place. A consistent and thorough training program will ensure that all employees have a clear understanding of the firm culture and its goals, as well as being able to execute within the systems the firm uses. And while establishing a good training program can be a long-term process that may require a significant investment in time and resources, the end result will be a well-trained firm that not only knows how to operate consistently and in accordance with the firm’s culture and values to promote growth, but also is able to delegate training to more employees across the firm, which in turn frees up firm leadership from much of the training responsibilities so that their focus can be on developing and implementing growth strategies!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (September 12-13)

September 11, 2020 02:57 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the buzzing industry news that Merrill Lynch is barring its brokers from receiving gifts, meals, or entertainment from its wholesalers, in what some see as a shift of even large brokerage firms to begin stamping out more conflicts of interest in the new era of Regulation Best Interest, and critics suggest is simply the new path of brokerage firms to require asset managers and product companies to go through (and revenue share to) the home office instead of its brokers directly (payments which must be disclosed, but are not against the rules for broker-dealers under Regulation Best Interest).

Also in the news this week are some notable new industry studies, including one that looks at what clients actually want to talk about in advisory meetings beyond their portfolios (from protecting against identity theft to new housing decisions), the latest data on which types of consumers are actually using robo-advisors (only 10% of Millennials with <$50,000 of assets but almost 50% of those with >$500,000!), and the latest trends in how advisory firms are investing (showing the continued dominance of ETFs, an ongoing decline in the use of individual stocks, bonds, and REITs, but what is still, at best, just a small minority of advisors who are actually 'passive' as most advisors appear to be using ETFs as their own active management portfolio building blocks).

From there, we have several more interesting investment-related articles, including the launch of the new Long Term Stock Exchange by Lean Startup founder Eric Ries, the growing turmoil in prime money markets as interest rates appear to be pegged near the zero-bound for a long time to come and 'gates' implemented to prevent a 2008-style run on money markets may actually be exacerbating one this time around, growing questions about the long-term viability of the 60/40 portfolio in a persistent low-yield environment and what the future alternatives may be, and a look at how no-commission annuities may be emerging as a bond alternative for advisory accounts.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of being (and feeling) wealthy and what helps us get there: the first is a review of the recent Morgan Housel book "The Psychology Of Money" which explores the differences between being rich and being wealthy; the second examines what it takes to not feel 'rushed' (hint: it's all about delegation to focus on the biggest and most important tasks); and the last explores recent research finding that those who work with financial advisors don't just do better with their money... they're also happier with it, too!

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 42: Overcoming Objections By Asking More Questions To Truly Understand A Client’s Needs

September 10, 2020 07:07 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

The roots of the financial planning industry are an eat-what-you-kill sales environment, when financial advice existed to facilitate the sale of a product, and initial survival (and eventual success) was predicated on the ability of an advisor to convince clients to buy whatever financial instrument they were selling. Which necessitated not only knowing the features and benefits of any given product, but also learning how to overcome every single objection that prospects could possibly throw at the advisor. In today’s world, though, advisors increasingly are focused on financial advice itself as the value proposition, are paid for the advice directly, and ‘just’ have the obligation to determine the best possible advice to give that helps the client achieve their goals (and keeps the advisor working with the client). Yet in practice, many advisors still think in terms of “overcoming objections” when a client doesn’t want to implement the advice they’re being given.

In our 42nd episode of Kitces and Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss the key shift in mindset that advisors must go through when it comes to addressing client objections in an advice-based world, and the necessary strategies to reframe conversations by asking more questions in order to better understand a client’s needs and situation, instead of trying to overcome any resistance to taking an advisor’s advice or engaging their services.

The key to making that shift in mindset starts with understanding that a client’s (or prospect’s) objection doesn’t stem from not understanding how great the advice is that they’re getting, but rather is an indication that the advisor must be missing something important or miscommunicating somewhere along the way. After all, if the whole point of advice is to help someone achieve their goals, then a client who objects to that advice is effectively saying “that’s not going to get me to the goals that I really want to achieve… and so I’m objecting to the advice!”

Yet by taking responsibility for misunderstanding some key bit of information, the advisor can take a step backwards to start asking more questions instead, which starts back at exploring the assumptions that defined the client’s original “statement of financial purpose” (upon which all of the subsequent recommendations were based). From there, questions around what brought a client in on a particular day, or if there’s a specific thing that has changed in their lives to make them reassess their goals, can help move the conversation forward and further uncover any mid-course corrections that might need to be made. Which can even end out shifting the entire context of the conversation to figuring out if the advisor really is still the best fit for the client and their needs.

Ultimately, the key point is that the more “traditional” approach for overcoming objections was built for people that had a thing to sell (and objections to overcome to get it sold), whereas the ongoing shift towards a more collaborative advice-based client/advisor relationship means clients should naturally want to take the advice if it really gets them to their goals. Which means the starting point to overcoming an objection is digging deeper by asking more questions in order to better understand what the client’s goals – even and especially the unstated ones that may be blocking the advice process – really are in the first place.

Improving Advisor Team Efficacy By Overcoming The Many Minds Problem Of Group Conversation

September 9, 2020 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

Many advisory firms are building advisory teams with the hopes of sharing the workload and increasing client satisfaction. However, there are inherent challenges faced by teams, which consist of a group of "Many Minds" whose conversational mechanics are increasingly complicated by the growing number of participants, specifically when it comes to effective team communication. In fact, Harvard researchers studying how communication changed between two-person ‘dyad’ conversations and multi-person group conversations found that group communication is inherently more complex (and more problematic, as expected) because of two primary issues: 1) the ambiguity that arises regarding how and when to talk or listen, and 2) what to say (or not to say) when it is a person’s turn to speak.

When it comes to assessing how and when to talk and listen in a group conversation, there are three important considerations that will help an advisory team successfully communicate with clients: airtime (i.e., the time a person is given to speak during the meeting) is shared, typically unequally, among the meeting participants; taking turns to speak can be much more confusing in groups than between two people, as whose turn it is to speak when someone else is finished talking can often be very ambiguous; and back-channel feedback provides cues – both non-verbal (e.g., head nods, hand gestures, etc.) and verbal (e.g., saying 'yes', 'mmm-hmm', 'oh', etc.) – from listeners that let the speaker (and other participants) know they are being heard, but it is typically more limited in group conversations (as we may engage less like a participant and more like a staid audience).

Deciding what to say and how much information to offer to an advisory team can be an especially difficult process for a client, who must evaluate whether and how much to disclose personal and sensitive information… the specific type of information required during a financial planning meeting. The situation can be worse, too, if the client prefers working with a single advisor and is not yet comfortable sharing sensitive personal details with their entire advisory team.

Some tools that advisory teams can consider to optimize client communication and to develop trust include preparing agendas for all meetings that are sent to participants in advance with the aim to encourage thoughtful discussion by all who attend; setting clear expectations to facilitate a better balance between the client and advisory team members with respect to distributing conversation airtime; using active listening techniques that involve fully concentrating, understanding, and responding to what the person they’re talking to says; and organizing role-playing exercises for team members to practice communicating and focusing on the dynamics between participants.

Ultimately, while advisory teams are commonly faced with "Many Minds" issues that can make it difficult to communicate effectively with clients (and to keep them happy!), there are several tools (using meeting agendas proactively to spark engagement and develop rapport, setting clear expectations, active listening, and role-playing activities for advisory team members) that can help to overcome these challenges. Because despite the challenges that all teams face in working to communicate better, the benefits of working in a well-developed and well-trained team can far outweigh the drawbacks as, in the end, team members can work to keep clients happy while supporting each other in the process!

#FA Success Ep 193: Turning Operations Experience Into A Virtual Assistant Outsourcing Solution, with Michelle Wong

September 8, 2020 07:04 am 8 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 193rd episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Michelle Wong. Michelle is the founder of Nifty Advisor Support, a virtual assistant outsourcing solution serving more than two dozen independent advisory firms across the country. What's unique about Michelle, though, is the way that she's been able to capitalize on the dual trends of outsourcing and virtual teams by pivoting her own career in operations and as a client service administrator into an entrepreneurial venture.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about the rise of virtual assistant solutions for financial advisors. The kinds of advisory firms that choose to hire virtual assistants to help with everything from marketing to client servicing to paraplanning, the typical tasks that especially solo advisory firm owners can outsource to make themselves more efficient, and how Michelle's firm structures its solution to provide support across all three areas.

We also talk about the practical mechanics of how it works when taking on a virtual assistant as a financial advisor. How the typical cost of a virtual assistant is a higher hourly rate than hiring a full-time staff member but may be a fraction of the total cost when firms only have to pay for the productive hours they actually need. The benefits of using an external firm to avoid the responsibility of training staff members on key systems as a busy advisor, how virtual assistants typically work with firms through a combination of task and workflow systems within an advisor CRM and separate communication tools like Slack, and the way that cybersecurity with a virtual assistant can now be managed using third-party solutions like LastPass.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Michelle shares her frustration that so few advisory firms have a clear career track for operations team members the way they often do for their advisors. Why the flexibility and work-life balance of virtual work is just as relevant to operations team members as the rest of the advisory firm team, and the way Michelle has been able to scale her business by finding others in the industry with similar operations and client service experience who want career opportunities with greater work-life flexibility.

So whether you’re interested in learning about hiring a virtual assistant, how Michelle created a career path for operations team members, or how outsourcing can make your firm more efficient, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (September 2020)

September 7, 2020 07:06 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the September 2020 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!

This month's edition continues with new co-author (and AdvisorTech guru) Craig Iskowitz, along with guest contributor Kyle Van Pelt, and kicks off with a look at Schwab’s announcement that all existing Schwab clients will receive free access to a MoneyGuide financial plan that they can create for themselves using the MoneyGuide One guided experience (or work with a Schwab Intelligent Advisory CFP professional for an advisory fee as little as $30/month), and highlighting how financial advisors can no longer justify their financial planning value by just inputting client data into and presenting the output from comprehensive financial planning software, and instead will increasingly be required to specialize into niches, and/or demonstrate their value in the conversations they have around the planning software.

From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

Apex partners with Marstone for a tech-plus-custody all-in-one in an anticipated effort to charge fees for RIA custody (and has hired Morningstar’s Chief Product Officer Tricia Rothschild to help execute!)
Riskalyze partners with Rowboat Advisors to support ‘tax alpha’ and tax-intelligent optimization as the new portfolio value-add
LPL launches a Meeting Planner solution to optimize the surprisingly-time-intensive meeting prep process for advisors
The SEC changes the Accredited Investor definition to include financial advisors themselves, in what may be a boon to AdvisorTech crowdfunding efforts to raise capital directly from their future users?

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including Envestnet preparing its own direct indexing overlay tools as technology increasingly becomes the new value-add layer, Vanguard begins to develop its own 'robo' platform for advisors to compete for custody, XTiva raises $10M to compete for the complex process of integrating advisor compensation systems in large-scale financial services enterprises, and Timeline raises $2.3M in capital to compete in the increasingly popular realm of specialized planning tools that goes beyond what ‘generalist’ planning software can provide (in the case of Timeline, to facilitate retirement distribution planning in the decumulation phase!).

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!