Showing My Clients a Better Path: Information Mapping for Financial Managers

Overcoming a Common Business Challenge

 

As a financial manager, I create detailed financial plans to help my clients articulate and meet their investment goals. For years I was communicating investment options to my clients via reports presented in Microsoft® PowerPoint®.  For each new client I’d put together a presentation of about 20-25 slides, sometimes even more. With these slides I was able to give my client a detailed view of individual investment options, but as you can imagine—putting these presentations together was not only time-consuming, the results were static and inflexible.

 

Once a PowerPoint presentation is created, you can’t just change it on the fly. You need to go back to the file and edit, add, or delete a slide. So for example, if I was in the middle of a presentation and was gathering feedback or wanted to add something the client said, it was very cumbersome to make that change or even make that note on the slide without breaking the flow of the presentation. I either had to make a mental note or jot down a reminder somewhere to make the change later.  Read More

Compliance: Why One Advisor Outsources

Following the aphorism that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, does not prepare his own tax returns. And while he’s also a PFS, CFP® and AIF®, the president and founder of Bernhardt Wealth Management in McLean, Va. decided years ago that successful compliance requires outside assistance.

 

A Nebraska native, Bernhardt worked for a U.S. Congressman and the Senate Finance Committee before embarking on a career in corporate accounting. In 1992, he left accounting for financial services—first with Acacia and then American Express (now Ameriprise). Dissatisfied with their business models, by ’94, Bernhardt opened his own investment advisory firm.

 

“As a struggling new business owner, I remember trying to save every little penny. I found a guy who advertised that for $300 to $350 he’d draft your form ADV. The language was accepted, but not long after that, I ran across Nancy Lininger and she really tweaked the language.” Lininger an RIA Central contributor and founder of The Consortium (http://www.liftburden.com), a compliance and regulatory consultancy for RIAs, has been tweaking Bernhardt’s ADVs, written supervisory procedures and marketing materials ever since.  Read More

Roundtable!! Rebuilding Trust – Part 5

Impact Communications The transcript you are reading is the result of a wonderful conversation I had while at the FPA National Conference in October 2010. I invited a select few industry thought leaders to join me for a round table discussion. (If you missed Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, go back and read those now. The links are at the bottom of the transcript.You’ll miss lots of thought-provoking information if you don’t!)

In addition to myself and a select few observers, present were:

  1. George Kinder, Founder, Kinder Institute of Life Planning (www.kinderinstitute.com)
  2. Don Trone, Founder, Strategic Ethos (www.5ethos.com)
  3. George Tamer, Practice Management Expert, TD Ameritrade Institutional (www.tdainstitutional.com)
  4. Julie Littlechild, President, Advisor Impact (www.advisorimpact.com) Read More

Improving Your Role as Fiduciary by Utilizing Subject Matter Experts

Mark’s webinar topic will resonate with you, especially in these uncertain times of new regulation, rules and compliance. Your role as fiduciary is a vital one for your clients, and Mark will share his perspective, ideas and processes to help you maintain this role.Here are some important areas that Mark will be discussing:

- Defining comprehensive financial services for your clients
- Establishing specific ‘client deliverables’
- The perils of being a ‘one-man-band’
- Delegating to Subject Matter Experts within narrow fields of finance
- The value of recording
- Establishing a method for documenting and measuring client recommendations and results.


TD Ameritrade Institutional Launches iPad®Application for Advisors

Veo®Mobile for iPad gives advisors the freedom to run their business anywhere


Jersey City, N.J. – April 11, 2011 – Advisors that custody with TD Ameritrade Institutional can now access critical market and client account information on the go with the new Veo Mobile App for iPad.TD Ameritrade Institutional, a division of TD Ameritrade, Inc., a brokerage subsidiary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) has combined the power of its trading and account management platform, Veo, with the freedom of mobile.

 

With Veo Mobile for iPad, advisors can access client account details including balances, transactions and client profile information as well as real time market data, news and alerts. Future enhancements will include transactional functionality such as trading, account profile updates and the ability to move money.  Advisors who custody assets with TD Ameritrade Institutional can download Veo Mobile for iPad free from the App Store or via iTunes™ at www.itunes.com/appstore.

 

Read More

Are Financial Stocks Value or Growth?

Your classification has mattered a lot in the past 3 yearsFinancial stocks have been hit hard by the current economic crisis, causing most index providers to categorize them as deep value. This is because most providers use Price/Book as the style differentiator. As prices declined book values have not because underwater mortgages remain on the books near their origination value. Book values of distressed banks are grossly overstated. Consequently Price/Book ratios are grossly understated.

 

By contrast, earnings have fallen even faster than the prices of these companies, so a Price/Earnings classification places these financials well into the growth camp. In other words, style classifications have become debatable. Are financials now cheap (value) or speculative (growth)? What do you think? Here’s a clue: The president of Bank of America recently declared that he runs a growth company.  Read More

Develop Your Blueprint For Success

Let’s face it, today prospects are more sophisticated and educated. This requires that part of your small business marketing strategy include you showing up at your best.

 

Advisor Marketing Strategy: Operate at Peak Performance

 

Begin determining when you are at your best by answering a few questions.

 

  • When am I at my best?
  • How much sleep do I need?
  • What foods do I need to eat to feel great?
  • What types of clients and prospects motivate and inspire me?
  • What would I do if money were not an issue?
  • Who do I enjoy socializing with?
  • Who do I enjoy working with?
  • What do I enjoy most about my career?
  • What do I least enjoy about my career?
  • If money were not a factor, what would I do?

 

Once you have answered these questions and tested the results you are ready to decide what you want.  Read More

Roundtable!! Rebuilding Trust – Part 4

Impact Communications This week, we bring you Part 4 of a 6-Part transcript from a roundtable discussion led by Marie Swift, thought leader and president/CEO of Impact Communications. Every year, in conjunction with the FPA National Conference, Marie invites a select few industry thought leaders to join her for a round table discussion. The topic varies from year to year, based on perceptions of what’s important for RIAs and other independent financial advisors to hear and think about. The most recent Thought Leaders’ RoundTable, held last fall in Denver, Colorado, did not disappoint.

 

In addition to myself and a select few observers, present were:


  1. George Kinder, Founder, Kinder Institute of Life Planning (www.kinderinstitute.com)
  2. Don Trone, Founder, Strategic Ethos (www.5ethos.com)
  3. George Tamer, Practice Management Expert, TD Ameritrade Institutional (www.tdainstitutional.com)
  4. Julie Littlechild, President, Advisor Impact (www.advisorimpact.com) Read More

First Quarter Stock Surge Marks Full Recovery from 2008 Plunge, as Pressure Mounts for Real Investment Manager Due Diligence

When you want something you have never had you will have to do something you have never done. – Anonymous

 

Introduction

 

Despite the continuing global financial crisis, the uprisings in the Middle East and the Japanese disaster, global stock markets delivered very good results in the first quarter of 2011. These upheavals test the mettle of investment managers, so you need the proper perspective to evaluate investment performance. The question, “Is performance good?” requires an answer to yet another question: “Relative to what?” As usual, some styles, sectors and countries performed better than others in this first quarter. Have your managers seized upon the better segments and/or selected exceptional securities? Where have they succeeded and failed?  Read More

Roundtable!! Rebuilding Trust – Part 3

This week, we bring you Part 3 of a 6-Part transcript from a roundtable discussion led by Marie Swift, thought leader and president/CEO of Impact Communications. Every year, in conjunction with the FPA National Conference, Marie invites a select few industry thought leaders to join her for a round table discussion. The topic varies from year to year, based on perceptions of what’s important for RIAs and other independent financial advisors to hear and think about. The most recent Thought Leaders’ Round Table, held last fall in Denver, Colorado, did not disappoint. Part 2 can be viewed by clicking here: Part 2: http://resourcecenter.riacentral.com/fiduciary-duty/roundtable-rebuilding-trust-%e2%80%93-part-2

 

In addition to myself and a select few observers, present were:

 

  1. George Kinder, Founder, Kinder Institute of Life Planning (www.kinderinstitute.com)
  2. Don Trone, Founder, Strategic Ethos (www.5ethos.com)
  3. George Tamer, Practice Management Expert, TD Ameritrade Institutional (www.tdainstitutional.com)
  4. Julie Littlechild, President, Advisor Impact (www.advisorimpact.com) Read More