FSI OneVoice Will Put Technology in the Spotlight

If you’re heading to the Financial Services Institute’s OneVoice Broker-Dealer Conference starting Monday – and even if you’re not – it’s time to reboot.

“We heard very clearly from many CEOs … that they wanted to see us focus on core technology issues,” Keith Kelly, FSI’s chief operating officer, told me this week. “It’s a huge focus,” he added, given the profit pressures firms are facing.

The seventh annual conference will, for the first time, feature a technology track. Sessions will include Going Truly Paperless with e-Signatures; Outsourcing to the Cloud: CRM, Portfolio Management, Performance and More; Managing Information Security for Cloud Computing and Mobile Devices; and Top 10 Technology Trends for 2012.

Kelly says he plans to attend several of the tech discussions, as well as seminars in the CEO track, at the conference, which will run Monday through Wednesday in Orlando. Other tracks will focus on compliance, operations, investment advisory services, and marketing, growth and development.

Of course, beyond profit pressures, advisors are always eager to best manage that other precious resource: time. When we asked advisors, “What is the single greatest business challenge you would like technology to solve for you?” in the latest annual Financial Planning Tech Survey, issues centered on productivity issues were the top two answers.

A record 625 registrants, including 250 broker-dealer executives, are expected at the conference. The higher numbers reflect a time of aggressive growth for the organization. There were nearly 34,000 members at the end of last year – more than double the total of 15,500 at the end of 2010.

Another first: The opening general session will feature comments from Joe Russo, chairman of Advantage Financial Group of Longwood, Fla., and also chairman of FSI – the first financial advisor to lead the organization.

Also set to speak is Dick Averitt, chairman of Raymond James Financial Services, at a session on Tuesday on Leadership Strategies for a Complex Business Environment.

Check financial-planning.com for reports from FSI next week.

-- Scott Wenger is the Editorial Director for the Investment Advisory Group and Editor-in-Chief of Financial Planning magazine.