David B. Yeske, CFP, challenges the old adage, "jack of all trades, master of none." This cerebral gladiator has mastered almost every element of the financial planning arena, and has garnered a doctorate in finance, a master's in economics and a Bachelor of Science in applied economics along the way. But it is his technological prowess-with an emphasis on making processes simple and applicable for the client-that makes him a trendsetter in the financial advisory industry.

A financial planner since 1990, Yeske has applied his breadth of financial knowledge to his thriving bicoastal practice, Yeske Buie, which has offices in San Francisco and Vienna, Va. (outside Washington, D.C.). He spends alternate weeks on each coast, managing this successful practice with his wife and co-founding principal, Elissa Buie. The firm currently has $300 million in assets under management.

Even more impressive is the technological edifice Yeske has constructed, which has allowed him to serve 200 clients with a total staff of six (yes, six!). Staff members include two Virginia Tech graduates-junior financial planners who are working on their CFP licenses and graduate degrees in finance and economics-and two support staff, an operations manager and a client service administrator.

At Yeske Buie, Yeske blends quality service with an ultrahigh-tech practice that includes a phone system that fields calls for and from both offices, and a reliance on virtual meetings (clients to use Internet services such as GoToMeeting). But it is Yeske's own invention-the Client Private Page-that truly keeps his clients happy and his firm ahead of the game.

A SHARED WORKSPACE

The firm does not mail reports to clients or send fund prospectuses. Instead, all communication with clients and the storage of all updated client documents takes place on each client's Private Page. Managing clients' financial plans online provides both the client and the planner with 24/7 access to reports such as updated net worth statements, net worth projections, retirement projections, portfolio reports, cash flow statements, insurance policy information and a variety of tax reports.

The Private Page also includes a list of pending action items. Clients and planners hold one another's feet to the fire by reviewing three columns:

1. Item or action to be accomplished (e.g., execute estate planning documents or liquidate 500 ISO shares);

2. Person responsible (e.g., the client, the planner or an outside advisor); and

3. A check-off column to mark when items are completed. Yeske chuckles, "Our clients want their check marks!"

Recurring events such as required minimum distributions, periodic plan updates and dollar cost averaging schedules are incorporated in the action items. The Private Page also tracks all types of contacts information, plus meetings, phone calls, faxes, letters and emails.

What's the secret to making this electronic financial planning process successful, continuous and collaborative? Both client and planner must, as Yeske puts it, "live in the system."

And yes, Yeske practices what he preaches: "no paper." Even when clients come to his office for face-to-face meetings, the Private Page is at the core of the conversation. Clients are escorted into Yeske's conference room, where their Private Pages are projected onto 52-inch monitors. Any changes to the Private Page documents are made in the conference room.

Sharing this common workspace with clients draws them into the financial planning process, Yeske says. Not only do clients take ownership of the process, they can always find the latest version of their documents on the site.

FIGHTING INFO OVERLOAD

The benefits of going high-tech are equally profound, Yeske says. He believes that his approach mitigates the negative consequences of information overload and multitasking that often afflict financial planners. He spells out how to avoid such overload in a practice management CD he made for members of the Financial Planning Association in 2006, which draws on the research of cultural anthropologist Jennifer James.

James discovered that people in their thirties, forties and fifties have begun to show increasing incidence of memory dysfunctions and Alzheimer's-like symptoms. The problem isn't organic, she says; rather, it is the result of the growing complexity of our technological environment.

More and more, people hit the carrying capacity of their short-term memory and "drop out," she says. They lose the ability to sort important information from trivia. A study on multitasking in the December 2004 issue of Scientific American came to similar conclusions. Switching from task to task, it said, creates frictional overhead that eats up brain capacity.

It's because of this research that Yeske encourages planners to work in a more serial fashion. For instance, he believes planners should avoid keeping too much information in their heads, particularly their schedules. The most important piece to the puzzle? A good client relationship management (CRM) system. "If I were allowed to only have one piece of software, it wouldn't be Excel, Money Tree or NaviPlan; it would be my CRM software," says Yeske, who uses XLR8.