The pace of technological change has perhaps never been more intense in the advisor space, and all of the leading independent broker-dealers are committing significant resources to staying competitive and compliant in this rapidly evolving environment. 

This is how the biggest firms are responding to these new technology challenges:

Commonwealth Financial Network

Commonwealth, the nation’s largest privately held independent broker-dealer, has a well-deserved reputation for technological excellence. CEO Wayne Bloom has always taken an interest in leveraging technology, and Darren Tedesco, the company’s managing principal of innovation and technology, has done an admirable job of delivering a quality technology platform to Commonwealth advisors over many years. 

Earlier this year, the company replaced its eight-year-old proposal generation system with a new version. Unlike the old system, the new one is deeply integrated into the modules of the Client 360 platform. For example, it’s tied into the modeling and rebalancing module, the cash-flow based planning module and the reporting system, for a much better, more integrated user experience. 

Commonwealth has also made enhancements to the end-client portal, giving clients the ability to download data from H&R Block software (they were previously able to download from TurboTax and Quicken). The company has also created a new mobile interface that improves usability for clients, and it’s in the process of adding secure messaging to mobile and client websites. Commonwealth will furthermore be adding some yet-to-be-specified integration between the CRM system and the client portal.

By the time you read this, the company should be rolling out basic work-flow capabilities within its proprietary CRM system. In 2017, it will be adding advanced work flows with “triggers”—powerful tools that can do things work flows can’t. A work flow, for instance, can’t create a client record, but a trigger can. Triggers can work on multiple objects simultaneously, while work flows can’t. Essentially, triggers will allow Commonwealth to automate processes and tasks that cannot be automated with basic work flows.

One enhancement that most advisors will never see, but which they will benefit from, is Commonwealth’s move to new Tier 3+ data centers. This move offers advantages such as better scale, better physical security and improved business continuity protection.

Yet another innovation is what Tedesco calls “the little big data project.” This is essentially an advisor benchmarking project that allows advisors to compare themselves with other Commonwealth advisors. They can, for example, find out how their aggressive investment portfolios performed against that peer group, or how their average production per head count compares with peer groups’. 

In 2017, Commonwealth will launch its new seamless, digital on-boarding process. A key component of this rollout will be a single master service agreement that the client can sign once. This agreement will capture all the information necessary to open accounts, journal money, etc. 

Yet another initiative for 2017 is Project Janus, a compliance analytics engine to better identify potential risks. Next year, Commonwealth will roll out its ninth revision of Client 360. The goal is to provide a more integrated, unified platform—the same type of experience that Microsoft provides with Office, according to Tedesco, a platform that includes a comprehensive set of tools with a similar look and feel, similar navigation and deep integration.

Raymond James

Raymond James is another firm that has been aggressively introducing technology enhancements for its advisors. According to Vin Campagnoli, chief information officer, Raymond James has rolled out a native iOS mobile app for its advisors that replicates much of the functionality of the firm’s desktop app. The firm previously offered a web-based app for mobile use, but with a native iOS app, advisors can now tap into client phone numbers, addresses, Google Maps and other iOS phone features. 

“The advisor response to this app is incredibly positive,” says Campagnoli. Why not a native Android app as well? According to Campagnoli, more than 75% of Raymond James advisors use iOS as opposed to an Android, so demand for an Android app has been limited so far. Raymond James will use the same design framework to revamp the end client app.

Last year, the firm introduced an application powered by CashEdge to aggregate clients’ held-away assets. Initially, clients and advisors could see the aggregated assets online, and advisors could see the information in the financial planning tool, but the reporting piece was missing. Now, advisors can produce reports that include all of a client’s assets, including the held-away assets, in a single report. So, for example, if the advisor runs an asset allocation report for a client, it can include all assets, not just those at Raymond James.

The firm has introduced a client vault within the client portal to facilitate communications. Before the vault was available, when advisors built a report, they would send it to the client through secure e-mail. This was not the ideal client experience. Now, advisors can upload reports and communications to the client vault. When something new is uploaded, the client gets a notification so that he or she can log on and access the document. All content resides on a shared folder. This means that anything uploaded to the vault by the client is accessible to the advisor. There is no private “client only” folder.

Late this year, Raymond James will be introducing some CRM capabilities into its advisor platform. The plan is to expand these CRM capabilities into a full-blown proprietary CRM system within Client Center in 2017. Campagnoli makes it clear that any data within the system belonging to advisors can be transitioned to another CRM system should an advisor choose to leave Raymond James. “We will help them move their data,” he says.

Like Commonwealth, Raymond James plans to pilot a new digital client on-boarding system that features a single master agreement covering all accounts powered by DocuSign. Campagnoli believes this will create significant efficiencies for the firm and for advisors. “Legacy systems were designed to handle these things at the account level,” he says, and advisors had to manually link accounts to a client or a household. This new system should do away with many of these inefficiencies.

The firm is building out a new wealth management suite. The idea is to integrate a lot of functionality and information related to the investment process in one place. Advisors will be able to create their own investment models and drift parameters. They will then be able to automate much of the rebalancing, performance reporting and other investment-related tasks. All of this will be integrated with the rest of the advisor workstation.

As for digital advice, the firm is building out digital advice tools, but there are no plans to create a robo-advisor. “Our tools will primarily be advisor-facing—a collaborative tool that allows advisors to work with their clients. We are not going to disintermediate the advisor,” Campagnoli says.

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