The free service will cut out the middleman, improving efficiency and saving advisors money. In addition, many advisors will have access to a more modern, more feature-rich e-mail system with plenty of storage (users get 25 gigabytes of space) that they can access through mobile devices. Furthermore, although LPL did not mention it, we strongly suspect that an integrated e-mail system would lay the foundation for future deep third-party integrations with applications such as client relationship management software.

ClientWorks, the successor to BranchNet, made its debut at the LPL Focus 2014 conference. The new platform, currently in beta testing by a select group of advisors, will launch in the fourth quarter with a subset of BranchNet features. Additional features will most likely become available by the first quarter of 2015.

One of the many complaints about the current BranchNet system is that it is only compatible with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. This limitation is due to the way LPL currently authenticates users. ClientWorks will support all major browsers. In the initial release, not all of the functionality of BranchNet will be available in ClientWorks, so the two systems will run in parallel until ClientWorks has all of the required functions, after which BranchNet will be retired. Initially, the developers of ClientWorks are concentrating on providing the following functionality: client information, client management, cash management and digital account openings with e-forms and e-signatures.

The new ClientWorks should solve a number of other problems for LPL. Much of BranchNet’s functionality goes unused because advisors don’t know it’s there, or they can’t find it. That should be remedied with an improved interface and better navigation. The display and filtering have also changed so that advisors will be able to view the information they want, the way they want to see it in ClientWorks. The filters can also be saved so that advisors don’t have to recreate the sort/search the next time they want to access information.

More important, ClientWorks has allowed LPL to build a robust new foundation. It did not make sense for LPL to keep building new capabilities onto a platform that was old (technologically). ClientWorks allows new enhancements, including third-party integrations, which we expect to see in 2015.

Raymond James
Raymond James has been working on adding functions to its advisor-facing technology, says Vin Campagnoli, chief information officer at the company.

“One area where advisors distinguish themselves is client reporting,” says Campagnoli. “Many of our advisors create their own unique reporting package for clients, but creating the report packages for clients can take hours.” Raymond James is working on combining everything necessary for the report into one tool, so that the custom report can be sent back to the client through multiple channels (on paper, into an online vault, etc.). This system would allow advisors to create report package templates and save them for future use. Advisors can assign templates to clients and then schedule future reporting intervals. The system would then prepare an updated package at the designated time and alert the advisor that it is ready for review or adjustments.