Reps can use the TWAIN scanning interface built into the system, or they can use their own scanning interface to get documents into the system. Once the documents are in the vault, the software will perform optical character recognition (OCR). This allows users to perform full text searches of their documents.
SAI Desktop Vault is designed to automatically synchronize the user's computer or server with the SA servers. This alleviates the need for reps to upload files to or download files from SA manually. Since reps will have a fully synchronized version of their files at their own location, this should alleviate the need for SA to send out disks, since reps can do so locally whenever they want to. It will also give the reps the opportunity to make multiple copies to multiple media.
Commonwealth
Commonwealth Financial will be adding a planning tab to its Client 360 platform. Darren Tedesco, Commonwealth's director of business systems and strategic development, calls this new software "financial conversation software." "We want to engage the client in a conversation that is goals based," he says. The software is designed to track goals and it provides basic Monte Carlo functionality. It will help clients address questions such as, "Are you on target to reach your goals?" and, if not, "How much will you need to achieve 100% of your goals?"
According to Tedesco, this software is collaborative. It is designed to be used with clients during meetings. Advisors and clients will be able to use simple sliders to change assumptions on the fly. The software is designed so that accounts are linked to one or more goals. There are 12 goal types in total. Each includes a work sheet. Each work sheet includes hyperlinks associated with the goal so, for example, if someone is creating a college savings goal, the work sheet might include links to a tuition pricing database.
Goals are subdivided into basic needs and lifestyle needs. The software runs two types of probability analysis, one assuming "average" market performance (50th percentile) and the other assuming "poor" market performance (90th percentile). The software uses 20 years of historic data and it runs 1,000 simulations for each scenario. "We don't want this confused with comprehensive financial planning software," Tedesco said. He indicated that the strength of this software is that it can be set up in a few minutes, so more clients can be engaged in a conversation about their long-term goals.
Tedesco says Commonwealth is "really close" to rolling out its new, proprietary portfolio accounting engine. At that time, the company will sunset the existing Advent engine. Tedesco expects the new engine to deliver multiple advantages to Commonwealth advisors and their clients. For example, if an advisor wants a time-weighted return report today, the new system can deliver it, whereas the old one would generate it only monthly. In addition, the new system will be able to offer daily time weighted returns for any set of accounts that the advisor wants. So an advisor will be able to generate returns by account, by household, by book of business or by any other grouping. Tedesco says the reports generated by the new system will be more eye-pleasing and will include better graphics. Another advantage of the new engine is that it will better integrate with other Commonwealth systems and much of its functionality will extend to Investor 360, the firm's client-facing portal.
Raymond James
Raymond James is also hard at work delivering new and improved technology solutions to its representatives. One major new initiative is the enterprise-wide deal with PNC/Albridge to provide consolidated reporting and other value-added services. According to Mike Shelly, VP of Technology Practice Management at Raymond James, all Raymond James advisors will have access to a "lite" reporting package, similar to those offered by other B-Ds, at no charge. For a modest additional monthly fee, advisors can choose to add Web services to push data to other systems, and/or a client data aggregation tool. Those who want to purchase the top-of-the-line Albridge performance reporting package will be able to do so through Raymond James at a substantial discount to the prices Albridge typically charges individual RIA firms.
Shelly highlighted CRM as another area of improvement. "We are a Microsoft CRM shop," he says. "Many of our advisors still use ACT!, but we believe we can offer them a more compelling product. We are creating a product based on Microsoft CRM that we think can win ACT! users to our system."
By the end of June, Raymond James plans to release its new Investor Access client-facing portal. The updated portal will supply clients with more data points, including asset class data on their holdings from Morningstar and Raymond James Research Reports. In addition, reporting will be improved so that clients can create household groupings and thereby generate reports at the household level.
Security settings are being enhanced. To better protect data, Raymond James will offer two factor authentications. Security settings will offer more granular control, so someone can be granted permission to see some data, but not all. This new functionality might be used to give third parties such as accountants or attorneys access to pertinent data.