by Spenser Segal

As we discussed in our introductory post, the Top 10 Technology Trends can be divided into three categories. The first of those, “Computing, Storage and Mobility,” encompasses trends one, Increasing Technology Capability and two, Mobility

The two macro trends within this fundamental category affect everyone and every industry. They are not specific to the advisory space – they cut across both consumer and business IT.

The first trend, Increasing Technological Capability, underpins all the other trends that we’ll discuss in future posts.  The concept of increasing technological capability covers a lot of territory and includes cheaper/faster storage, increasing processing power and increasing bandwidth/wireless speeds.

You may have heard of Moore’s Law, which in essence discussed the doubling of processing power every 18 months. There are corollaries both in terms of storage and networking speeds as well. In terms of storage, processing power and bandwidth, what was in the past potentially unaffordable or impractical is now becoming both practical and affordable. For example, 100 megabytes of storage cost more than $100 just a few years ago. Today, that same amount of storage can be found for free as a trade show give-away in the form of a logoed memory stick.

Wireless bandwidth speed are expanding even faster.   Isers are getting actual 12 Mpbs speeds (+/-) on Verizon and 18 Mbps (+/-) on AT&T using LTE on the newest iPad. Cellular wireless speeds are 200-300x better than they were in 2000.

One of the effects of those expanded capabilities is that financial institutions can store more data than ever before at a cost that simply wasn’t feasible in the past. The practical effect of that is financial institutions can use the extra data to ensure compliance with regulatory and legal requirements and store client and advisory data that was previously not retained.  This will result in financial services companies investing more in “Business Intelligence”  to leverage this data in order to make better business decisions.

In addition, there are new platform-as-service capabilities that have emerged as a result of these developments. We’ll talk more about them in the upcoming post about cloud computing. One of the reasons cloud computing is more viable today, and is the most rapidly growing segment of the software industry, is because of these trends.

If this trend continues at the pace that we’ve seen over the last five years— which we predict it will—then advisors and firms can expect an entirely new range of computer infrastructure management options that will open up capabilities that no one has yet thought about.   Advisors will be able to leverage these capabilities and have access to enterprise class computing capability that was previously unaffordable at the practice level.  This will also result in increasing outsourcing of computing infrastructure to companies that provide this capability.

In the current environment of increased computing power, cheaper storage and faster network speed, firms should be thinking about what they can do to improve the quality of the client experience, make the underlying economics of the business more profitable and ensure compliance with all of the appropriate regulatory and legal requirements. The macro future trend lies in thinking about how you can do those three things at once, now that you have access to a level of computing power that simply wasn’t previously available at affordable prices.

It’s not news to anyone in this business that things change fast in the financial world – and often in profound ways. It’s your job to react and adapt to those changes and make the most out of every situation for every client you serve. However, if you’re not working on developing your own skills and growing professionally, you might find yourself at a disadvantage when it comes to competently reacting to changes in markets, regulations or anything else that the industry throws at you.

In a world as fast-paced and variable as financial services, it’s all too easy to tell yourself that you don’t have time for personal development. You’re focused on your clients, and making sure that you do everything you can to give them positive outcomes – that can easily take up most of your work day.

However, to ensure that you’re performing to your ability, you need to treat your personal development as if it were a client. This is especially true if you fall into the habit of being self-deprecating, telling yourself that time is a luxury you can’t afford to spend on yourself. Don’t think of it as serving yourself, but rather as an extension of what you do for your clients. 

When we say to treat development like a client, it means that you need to devote yourself to it and cultivate a serious dedication. Schedule appointments, spend time studying and reviewing information, and, above all, don’t break appointments or let it fall through the cracks.

What you do to foster your own development might vary by your particular expertise or interest. It might even take you into new territory. If you’re not sure where to begin, start by drawing up a list of educational or certification requirements which you might need or would lend added credibility. Explore your options for taking necessary or relevant courses, whether it’s through a local college or a certification program.

Another resource for developing your skills can be found in professional organizations. They might have professional designations that you could acquire through specialized training, or offer enrichment classes or seminars that can reinvigorate your perspective on the work you do day in and day out.

Just as putting extra effort into working with a client has multifaceted rewards for you, so will taking the time for professional development. You will gain a lot – from an updated perspective on best practices and even theoretical approaches to financial advisory work, to the ability to set yourself apart from competitors.

As with any client, it pays to be bold and take action to get started. Don’t put off this important “client” – the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll see benefits.

by Spenser Segal

There are some important technology trends that are making a major impact on the lives of financial advisors, broker-dealers and custodians. Ignored, and these trends have the potential to put you out of business. Embraced, and these trends can increase your revenue, profits, employee satisfaction and client satisfaction. In this, the first in a 12-part blog series, we will discuss each trend, what its short-term implications are, and what you need to consider over the long term.

These trends vary in how far they’ve developed and in how far-reaching they can be. Some of them are impacting your business today and it’s likely that you are acting on them as I write. Others are issues and opportunities that might not yet be on your radar, but will likely impact your future.

For example, crowd sourcing is an example of a trend you’ll likely need to deal with in the future. Most firms aren’t doing anything with crowd sourcing at the moment, but it is going to be increasingly important way in which firms accomplish tasks. On the other hand, a trend like mobility is, most likely, already impacting the way your firm works today.

Depending upon the type of firm you have, and your role within it, some trends may be more relevant to you than others, and some might not affect you at all. Nevertheless, it’s important to understand the direction in which things are moving. Some of these macro trends might well be affecting your clients and other key stakeholders including advisors, shareholders, vendors, and others. Even though a technology trend might not impact your daily life, it’s important to remember that it may be dramatically changing the lives of others.

Over the course of this series, we’ll discuss each of these 10 technology trends in depth:

1. Increasing technology capability (bandwidth, storage, computing power)
2. Mobility
3. The integrated workstation
4. Integration
5. Workflow
6. Cloud-based computing
7. Outsourcing
8. Social media
9. Crowd sourcing
10. Big data

The above trends list is not in any order of importance, as the importance will vary based on who you are, your business model etc.  However, we’ve grouped the trends into three broad categories. The first, “Computing, Storage and Mobility,” encompasses trends one and two. The second category, “Advisor Workstation and Software Trends,” is represented in trends three through seven. The final category is “The Consumerization of IT” and includes trends eight, nine and ten. These final three represent trends borne out of the consumer world that are impacting the financial services world.

As we highlight these trends in upcoming posts, keep in mind that each represents a change that could be a challenge. However, any growing pains will be worth it in the long term, as each trend represents new opportunities for your firm to increase revenue, become more efficient, and better serve clients.

We welcome your thoughts and suggestions along the way as everyone has a different perspective and set of experiences.  Please e-mail ssegal@actifi.com with thoughts or comments and we will do our best to address them in upcoming blogs. 

View Spenser Segal’s previous practice management primer blog series.

Being introspective is a positive attribute for a firm to have – carefully examining your capabilities, benchmarking against your peers, and evaluating where you can improve are all important to building your reputation and the quality of the services you provide. As we discussed in our series on practice management, taking a careful, step-by-step approach to self-evaluation is the key to ensuring that your efforts produce results.

As you examine your practice, one of the most important things you can do is determine the capabilities you have internally to meet the needs of your target client group. Simply put, your firm can’t flourish and move in the direction you’re aiming if you’re unable to satisfy those essential needs.

If you find your firm missing the mark, it’s time to develop a plan to improve your accuracy. And even if you find that you are capable of meeting those needs, that’s great – but how well are you able to meet them? Chances are, there’s always a way to improve on your existing capabilities.

Finding new solutions often means looking outside your firm for tools that can help you improve performance. Since you’ve already identified the target client group and their needs, use that information to explore the available solutions. There might be a number of vendors who can supply the products, tools and technology you will need to create a new solution for your clients and it’s important to review them all.

Rather than just going on instinct, explore how each option can serve your firm in a more practical way. Create a cost/benefit analysis for the options you’re seriously considering, so that prior to choosing and introducing new products, you have conducted an analysis to ensure they increase your profitability and your client satisfaction.

But investing in a new tool or product is only the beginning – that tool will certainly be effective only if used properly. Even in the hectic world of financial advisory practice, taking the time to foster a thorough understanding of the tools you’re using needs to be a priority. That’s why it’s essential to make a training plan to educate yourself and your staff about the new solutions you will be offering to your clients.

Many times, a firm will spend 90% of its resources (money and time) selecting and purchasing the new solution or product. When in reality, at least 50% of your budget ought to be devoted to training. For example, if you’re introducing a new piece of technology to your practice, you won’t achieve your desired results by just installing it and hoping your staff uses it. You absolutely need to spend resources training and then training again on how best to use the technology. And remember that people learn in different ways, so you may need to have a budget for in-person training, online training, and/or manuals that people can read.

Taking half a day to bring in an expert to train your staff on the new program is a great way to get started. But leaving it at that might not give you the long-term results you’re seeking. Consider holding an open forum with your staff not long after the launch to see how things are going, and another one a few weeks farther down the road to see if any issues are arising.

As time passes and everyone gets comfortable, you should remain vigilant over whether or not the tools are producing the desired effects and results. If you’re not hitting your targets, then it might be time for a refresher course to make sure that everyone is implementing the tools effectively – and find out where the weak points are. That, in itself, can be another learning experience that will provide a guidepost on your roadmap to success.

In the financial industry, one of the biggest keys to adding and retaining clients is assuring them that you possess the expertise to get the most out of your clients’ investments. One of the best ways to demonstrate your prowess is to share your knowledge with your clients and the public by hosting a seminar on one of the more pressing financial topics of the day.

Choosing a topic that’s relevant to your audience is the first key to attracting interest in your event. What are your clients’ most frequently asked questions? What are you doing that’s relevant to financial issues that are currently in the news? Your topics should relate both to your clients’ self-interests and the public’s general interest.

Promoting your event

However, even if you select the most intriguing topic in the world, your presentation will fall on deaf ears if you don’t promote it. You’ll want to attract both your current clientele and future prospects to your event. Happy clients are your best spokespeople, so a good place to start is asking them what topics they’d be interested in learning about.

Once you have your core clients on board, encourage them to bring friends or associates. Aside from just offering encouragement, provide incentives to clients who bring a guest with them – gift cards, tickets to events, etc.

Whether you are offering a bit of expertise that’s pertinent to news events and trends, or just general financial advice tailored toward individual investors, alert the media. Whether or not you are planning on using paid advertising for your event, you’ll want to give reporters a chance to cover the event or at the very least put it on their calendar of events for their readers, viewers and listeners.

Notify media outlets up to four to six weeks in advance, as their schedules fill up fast. Make sure your pitch to the media focuses entirely on the public purpose of the presentation and avoids directly promoting your business or special offers – otherwise media members might ignore your press release because they aren’t in the business of free advertising. Even if reporters don’t come to your event, they may file your information away as a source for future articles.

After the presentation

You don’t want your contact with your audience to end after you give your seminar. If your attendees liked what you had to say, they’ll be more likely to use your services in the future. Getting the contact information for those who attended into your CRM system should be one of your goals.

You can do this a number of ways, and an integrated approach will probably be the most effective. Ask participants to sign up online before the presentation, where you can have them enter their information. Have a sign-in sheet at the event for anyone who didn’t preregister. You could also do a business card drawing for prizes.

Getting feedback from your attendees is important because it will help you evaluate your approach and give you ideas for future seminars. Offer evaluation forms at the event and send out email surveys shortly after the event. You may again find that offering goodies will increase participation.

You’ve spent your career acquiring expertise pertinent to your profession. Willingly and enthusiastically sharing that knowledge can only help in growing your brand and promoting your business.

One of the fundamental concepts in business is that employees with a common goal who work in the same direction achieve much more than if each individual is only out for him or herself. If you have a financial practice, it’s crucial you manage a team that understands its individual roles within the larger objective of the organization.

This may be easier said than done. To position your company for success, it might be time to take a step back and update job descriptions and task manuals to ensure clarity throughout the organization.

Mutual respect throughout a company can provide a healthy and productive work environment for everyone. Too often in the financial sector, job roles can cross over, causing confusion and even resentment between colleagues. That’s why it’s so important to have clear, defined job roles for everyone.

Take the time to go through the job descriptions of each position within your organization and make sure all the information is up to date. Try to clarify each individual’s role  and team responsibilities. This helps create understanding throughout the company, and a cohesive team with streamlined productivity.

As part of new employee training, and as a reference tool for current employees, task manuals play an important part in providing workplace guidance and clarity. When is the last time you reviewed these important internal documents? A good general rule to follow is to review task manuals at least once a year, and more ideally once every six months and definitely before new hires come on board.

Because the financial sector changes so much, so does an employee’s role and responsibilities. That means that the corresponding job descriptions and task manuals will need to be updated as well. Keeping this information current will help create unity within your company and provide the basis for future success and growth.

As much as the markets and financial regulatory environment change, so too do your clients’ needs and goals. However, in financial advisory practices, you can’t rely on clients to always express those desires and needs. In a worst case scenario, your clients’ needs might change and they might not even share those changes with you, and thus your inability to adapt to changes you don’t know you need to make can cause the relationship to deteriorate.

To prevent that from happening, you need to proactively drive communication with your clients. Of course, communication is a natural part of client interaction, but to get more specific, client-directed answers, using a client needs survey, can provide insight that you might not be able to extract from a phone call or normal email exchanges.

We’ve previously discussed one way to distribute surveys [GC1] to clientele – using the Survey Monkey service. However, you need to consider what, exactly, to put in the survey to get the information you’re after without anything else clouding the message. 

Since you won’t be creating unique surveys for each individual client, you need to make sure that you’re creating questions that apply to everyone who will be receiving the survey. If your clients are clearly segmented, it might make sense to create one survey for each segment – but if your clients cross over, you don’t want to bombard them with multiple surveys. That could simply cause them to ignore your query because it looks as though it will demand too much time.

Providing incentives to complete the survey can help with fulfillment – it’s up to you to determine what kind of incentives your firm can afford and what’s appropriate for your clientele. An incentive that often works is making a donation to charity for every completed survey. Beyond taking that encouraging step, you should ensure that your surveys are being opened by using a tracking method. Give clients enough time to fill out the survey, but not so long that they’ll file it away where it will languish in a “to-do” list with no deadline. Tying an incentive to a deadline can also help, as can an email reminder or two – but don’t flood clients’ inboxes.

A client needs survey should be more about the clients themselves, and less about their impression of your firm. Direct the questions toward their goals and aspiration, and whether they’re experiencing changes that might affect how you manage their account. By keeping the focus on them, rather than you, you’ll avoid muddying the waters with superfluous information.

Once you’ve collected the surveys, it’s time to break down the responses. Use the information to compare and contrast with how you’re currently managing the account, and draw up a plan for changes that you can propose. Offering to hold a meeting with clients to discuss changes that can better meet their needs will show that you are concerned about doing right by them, and that you’re making a real effort to maintain the quality of the relationship.

You want be viewed as a leader in your field for several reasons, not the least of which is that it’s good for your reputation and good for business. But it takes more than just being a knowledgeable financial adviser who’s good with clientele to be known as the expert.

Growing your business and enhancing your personal brand in a competitive field means putting yourself “out there.” Sure, that’s a rather nebulous phrase, but it’s an important way to become known. One of the ways to do this is to make presentations at conferences and seminars.

Does this thought terrify you? You aren’t alone – a Gallup survey ranked public speaking No. 2 among Americans’ fears (behind only snakes). That’s why instead of starting with a big national or regional conference, start small. 

A college class is a great place to get started because it’s a low-risk situation. Plus, you aren’t being evaluated by your peers, which can help reduce the pressure. Then, once you feel comfortable, you can move on to conferences or seminars.

Before you start prepping your presentation, you need to feel comfortable presenting. You may not be among the people who fear public speaking, but that doesn’t mean you’re good at standing before a crowd and presenting.

Two ways to get more comfortable behind a microphone is to hire a speech coach or join a local Toastmasters International group. Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills via a worldwide network of meeting locations. There are more than a quarter-million members that participate in more than 13,000 clubs around the world.

Once you feel comfortable, practice your presentation – a lot – with people not in your office and who are not familiar with your business. Videotape yourself, and however painful it might be, watch the video over and over. Where are your hands? Do you say “like” or “um” too many times? Do you pause, change your speed and tone, and tell interesting stories? With practice, you will feel more at ease with presenting and you may find yourself more in demand for future seminars.

In the previous post of our seven-part series on practice management, which we’re calling the ActiFi Practice Management Primer, we covered how to benchmark your firm against your peers. In this, our final blog in the series, we focus on execution.

In the past six Practice Management Primer posts we shared an approach to translating your most important business goals into specific actions.  This series of blogs has been  broken into five segments, which you can focus on one at a time. The aim has been to help you envision how you can apply these principles and practices to your business in a practical manner. Lofty goals and ambitions are good, but without a clear path towards achievement, those goals and ambitions might well be left in the realm of what “could be.”

Now that you’re familiar with the concepts, it’s time to execute. As you do so, it’s important to have a broad view of the financial services industry’s macro-trends, which include:  

• A changing regulatory environment, which can put an increased burden on advisors and the financial institutions that serve them.
• An aging advisor population and increasing need for an effective succession planning.
• Pricing pressures and a need for increased transparency.

All of these trends point to one solution: running a more efficient and effective business. The process of improving your practice should be done with that in mind. This process can be an enlightening one for many advisors.  Having worked with many firms going through this process, we’ve found that the skill set required to be a great advisor is distinctly different from the skill set necessary to run a great business.

At the beginning of this series, we defined practice management as “A set of optimized services and solutions that enable advisors to achieve their most important business objectives.”  That definition informs all of the subsequent steps in the process:

• Assessing your practice and setting goals;
• Translating goals into actionable tasks;
• Ensuring that tasks are assigned to the right people;
• Measuring results
• Evaluating effectiveness and benchmarking against your peers.

As we’ve helped firms complete this process, we’ve repeatedly seen a variety of benefits.  First, there’s an increased clarity of purpose. With more clarity, better communication can develop, and when everyone’s on the same page, it fosters excitement about the firm’s future.

A second benefit is better goal achievement. When your business is seeing better results, it’s simultaneously becoming more profitable and its value grows.  Another benefit: it helps develop your team.  By becoming less dependent on any one employee, the overall skill set of the team becomes better developed.  Everyone steps up their game, and as a result, your business performs better

The most important takeaway from this series is how taking a thoughtful approach to achieving your most important business goals will yield better and more consistent results than simply stating the goals without following a disciplined approach.

Getting started on the road to better practice management is simple. Begin with step one: asking yourself what matters most to you, and what your goals are for your business. Let that idea be your touchstone as you go through the process, following the road map we’ve laid out for you.

Preserving your position as an industry expert is crucial if you want to stand out from the competition. When maintaining a relationship with a current client or when pitching a potential client, you want to demonstrate thoughtful leadership.

Creating an intriguing presentation about a particular wealth management topic is a great way to get your message in front of a prospect’s and/or client’s eyes. Here are some considerations for producing a presentation that gets noticed:

1. Choose a timely and distinctive wealth management topic. Search online blogs and news sites for what is being discussed and prepare to present the most current information with unique insights. Having fresh thoughts on relevant topics will keep clients interested and remember, people are attending your presentation because they want to hear your expertise and opinions.
2. Make it personal. Spend time customizing the presentation for each audience. Incorporate product and/or and industry specifics to create a truly moving presentation that leaves the client wanting to know more.
3. Search your own data for relevant examples. Nothing better demonstrates your ability to succeed than cold hard facts. Presenting real data and case studies can be very convincing. Make sure any data you use is legally OK to share and you aren’t using anything that is proprietary or confidential.
4. Use visuals. Interesting visuals can dramatically enhance a presentation. Charts and graphs can help translate hard data into compelling evidence that your expertise and offerings will affect the bottom line.
5.  Address the changing regulatory environment. Demonstrating you know important new rules and regulations. Show your clients that you not only understand any potential hurdles, but you know how to address and conquer them as necessary.
6. Keep the target audience in mind and customize the material as necessary If you’re planning to pitch your presentation as a story angle to the media. Your best chance at piquing a reporter’s interest is showing how your idea affects their audience in particular, not simply the general masses. Incorporate local considerations if you plan to pitch a story to the local media.
7. Always allow time for questions and conversation. A presentation should be viewed as an open forum. Be sure to take breaks and leave time for questions and comments. And always leave multiple ways to contact you should anything come up that needs to be addressed at a later date.