5 Smart tech platforms for advisors

Although I spend about 25% of my practice’s annual revenue on software and web-related technology, the benefits gained, including better time management and ease of connecting to clients, make the expense worth it.

Yet because of this, I am always on the lookout for new technology.

Here are some of the platforms that have caught my eye:

ADVIZR

The same players have dominated the planning software niche for a while.

In the Financial Planning 2014 Technology Survey, the top three platforms — MoneyGuidePro, eMoney Advisor and Money Tree — served 66% of the market. These technologies are very sophisticated and provide a fine level of detail when it comes to planning.

But many just need the basics, and this is where Advizr comes in.

Launched last year, Advizr’s platform doesn’t include complex planning issues, such as Social Security optimization or Black-Scholes stock options testing. The tool is designed for the mass market, including Generation X and Y clients who tend to have simpler situations.

Advizr provides a beautiful user experience, allowing both consumers and financial advisors to use it with ease.

One nice feature is that clients can input data themselves and then aggregate their accounts. This is great news for advisors looking to save time, as it delivers a preliminary plan to which they can make changes before setting up a client meeting.

This feature could also be a big value-add to clients who want additional, more holistic services from advisors who are only offering investment management.

Alternately, if clients are paying for financial planning by the hour, this feature will reduce their cost without watering down the advice they receive. It will also allow the advisor to serve more people.

Personally, though, I am holding off for now and sticking with MoneyGuidePro, while Advizr builds out its integrations with other providers.

SCHWAB INTELLIGENT PORTFOLIOS

Also called Schwab Blue, the first robo platform to be rolled out by one of the major custodians has received both praise and criticism from the advisor community.

Within the first few months of launch, Schwab said that the platform had amassed $2.5 billion in assets, with 20% of that coming from new customers.

There has been a much-heated debate on the non-negotiable cash allocation, which, indeed, may ultimately keep me from using the institutional product with clients. And some advisors don’t like the arguably cheesy, British-accented robot advertisements, but beyond these issues, how can Blue affect a practice?

One advantage is that Schwab is a household name.

In addition, after doing a trial with my own money, I found Blue’s user interface to be excellent. The sign-up process is painless, reviewing the account status was easy and completing my risk profile wasn’t intimidating, as it can be with some other platforms.

When the institutional product is introduced, it will allow some advisors to put their lower-balance accounts into the robo solution. Some advisors who want to leverage their time even further will put all their client accounts onto this platform and let Schwab do the day-to-day maintenance while they focus on the planning relationship.

With the portfolio customization that will be available and the time savings created through using an automatic allocation and rebalancing program, this could be a great addition to an advisor’s arsenal.

MYPLANMAP

Many planning technology offerings are reiterations of previous solutions. However, MyPlanMap is a platform that I haven’t seen anyone else attempt.

MyPlanMap seeks to automate the process following a planning meeting. As one of the beta users, I was able to use this with my clients and had great results.

The tool helps advisors create custom agendas for client meetings, with a list of to-do items that both the advisor and the client will tackle. It puts these tasks on a timeline, identifying both due dates and completed items.

It also automates the follow-up process for these tasks.

When each task gets entered into the program, it gets a completion deadline and an assignment to either the advisor or client (or both). Large tasks can be broken down into component parts.

When the completion deadline is near, an email goes out to the assigned parties asking if they have finished, need assistance or want to push the deadline. Both parties then receive an email with the change or request for help.

Advisors who use this program with clients, will find that they spend less time checking whether they have completed their to-do lists and more time getting to know the clients.

TWENTY OVER TEN

Advisor websites have been faulted for being unimaginative and technologically lacking.

For a potential client, a templated website without imagination doesn’t instill a high level of confidence. And now that Google search is heavily weighted toward mobile-optimized websites, advisors must keep up or be left behind.

Twenty Over Ten aims to help advisors address those problems.

The firm creates search engine optimization-optimized, responsive (meaning that they are optimized for any device) website templates that allow for easy editing and content additions. Advisors may also bring in designers and programmers to customize the sites.

The available themes are clean and modern, and the price seems reasonable. The tool also offers integration with outside programs such as MailChimp and TimeTrade, letting advisors create newsletter opt-ins and appointment-setting capabilities and a built-in compliance platform that frequently archives the website.

CLICKDESK

This chat program can be integrated into an advisor’s website.

When a visitor comes to a site and starts browsing, ClickDesk slides up from the bottom of the screen, without blocking any content and asks if the reader has any questions.

A reader can reply no, or a conversation can be started with the advisor based on what brought them to the site. When these chats are complete, they are emailed to the advisor for compliance purposes.

The chats can help advisors engage visitors and start to qualify them as prospects. And having this program running in the background while an advisor works at his or her computer makes it appear that someone is always attending to web visitors, even though that is only the case when a person starts a chat.

Although these chats could potentially be a distraction if a site gets steady traffic, talking to potential clients through a medium that requires minimal effort is ultimately a great time-saver.

Dave Grant, a Financial Planning columnist, is founder of Finance for Teachers, a planning firm, and Fee Only Consulting, in Cary, Ill. He is also the founder of NAPFA Genesis, a networking group for young, fee-only planners. Follow him on Twitter at @davegrant82.

This story is part of a 30-day series on how to prosper as an advisor. It was originally published on July 1, 2015.

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