Leading RIAs Roll Out Private-Label Apps

Two large RIA firms have launched their own apps in the Apple and Android store, putting them ahead of the field in the race to maintain contact with clients.

Interactive Financial Advisors/IFA and Portformulas are using private-label versions of Trust Company of America’s mobile-device platform, Liberty, for the ventures. Now, financial advisors who are clients of Interactive Financial Advisors and Portformulas will be able to review client information in a range of different ways and do it from anywhere. 

Advisors can review account balances and transactions and see how the accounts have performed month to month. Liberty also shows them how their practices are doing. In a snapshot, advisors can see the number of clients served, the total number of accounts, clients’ average net worth and the three month investment gain or loss across all clients.

IFA serves 50 investment advisor representatives, and the firms can post items like newsletters to the application, to keep clients informed about issues like the latest changes with tax reporting, said Joanne Woiteshek, principal of Oakbrook, Ill.-based IFA. It is a nice way for advisors to brand themselves.

“What is really nice is that it’s a great communication tool,” Woiteshek said. If a client wants to know the status of a requested distribution, he or she can pull the information up on a mobile device, instead of calling the firm.”

“Tablets are now way of life for investors everywhere,” Mike Walters, principal of Ada, Mich.-based Portformulas said in a statement. “By aligning out brand to that, Trust has given us the key to even greater growth ahead.”

Donna Mitchell writes for Financial Planning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Practice management RIAs Technology
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING