The recently launched eCustody 2.0 sports numerous upgrades and additions. One is the new, integrated CRM module. According to Suppe, this is not designed to compete with more robust third-party systems such as Redtail and Junxure. It was initially intended for the many advisors who do not currently own a CRM application. It is also intended to serve as a data hub that can share information with other Trade PMR applications.

Since the CRM application is built on Microsoft's Silverlight technology, it can offer a rich user interface accessible from multiple browsers and multiple operating systems. It is also very responsive, allowing advisors to open multiple tabs within the application so they can rapidly tab back and forth between views when necessary.

To get existing Trade PMR clients started on the CRM system, the company uses a proprietary applet to automatically create a contact for each person with an account linked to an advisor. It does this by matching Social Security numbers to avoid creating duplicate contacts. If an advisor does not want to create a contact for an account holder, she can easily delete individual contacts or multiple contacts.

Using tags, advisors can assign multiple keywords to a contact, tags that can later be searched. For example, by creating a "prospects" tag for all potential clients, advisors can later run a search for them under that tag in the database. If an advisor tags some contacts as, say, both clients and 401(k) account holders, the advisor can later search for all clients with 401(k) accounts using those terms.

The accounts tab allows advisors to link individual accounts to a client. If the client does not exist in the CRM database, the advisor can easily create one. Advisors can manually delink accounts if desired. In the case of joint accounts, the system will right now only automatically link to the primary account holder's contact record. However, the advisor is free to link an account to all account holders. In the future, Trade PMR intends to offer an option allowing advisors to automatically link jointly held accounts to all contact records.

Smart technology also helps advisors create households. When you do, the system will automatically suggest that you add people with the same last name and same address to it (an option you can reject if you like). Advisors can accept or reject these suggestions. Once a household is created, you can track histories for it, just as you would for an individual. You can also create a primary address and phone number for the household, as well as track notes at the household level.

Once the groups, households and client and account links are in place, advisors can search by account, client, household, group of accounts or group of clients. Your ability to group data in all of these formats comes in handy both when you're creating various CRM reports and when you're using the integrated portfolio management and reporting application.

Trade PMR offers its own proprietary portfolio management and reporting package. While it does not offer all the bells and whistles of more expensive packages, it does look to be sufficient for most of those advisors who custody their assets exclusively with Trade PMR. Since the application does not currently accept data from other custodians, those advisors with multiple custodian relationships will have to use a third-party provider's software. Trade PMR currently supports Morningstar Office, Orion and EZ Data.

Trade PMR's platform offers account aggregation with Advisor Exchange LLC, powered by CashEdge. This service gives advisors access to the positions and balances of held away assets, as well as information about client liabilities so that the advisors get a full picture of their clients' financial positions.

Trade PMR also provides online access to all important client paperwork including account applications, transfer forms, trade confirmations, statements and 1099 forms.