That’s why LPL is introducing what it calls a digital “envelope” that advisors can send to their clients with all the forms that need signing.

“We have a ton of opportunities for process improvements and helping investors go paperless in general,” said Rob Pettman, also with the title of LPL’s executive vice president, investor and investment solutions. “As you look at how we do it today, we ask you or your investors to do it in a number of different places, for different things, and it’s not consolidated. The good news is that we’re actually improving that.”

Another example of improvement, according to Pettman, is a plan to roll out a feature in September that will allow the end client to agree to a fully paperless relationship with their advisor with a single opt-in for their accounts.

But Pettman also discussed interoffice improvements for advisors, significantly around meetings, where LPL is rolling out a new meeting manager.

“We realized that advisors were spending hours just to prepare for one meeting, and we saw tremendous opportunities not just for the annual advisory meetings, but meetings in general,” he said.

The meeting manager offers advisors a dashboard of all their upcoming meetings  -- when scheduling a new meeting, advisors can automatically create a report for their specific cient or clients, using pre-saved templates, agendas and cover pages.

“All of that will be run for you the day of the meeting or the day before, whatever you choose,” said Pettman. After a meeting is finished, an advisor can return to their dashboard to enter notes about the meeting. The dashboard then connects to a Form F450, completing the compliance workflow associated with client meetings. “That’s the workflow we have right now because that’s what advisors told us they want to do first, we have a ton of different meetings we’re going to add in as well.”

Moving forward into the fall, LPL will also be adding new order entry forms integrated with  its e-signature and e-delivery capabilities, said Horan-Adams.

As far as technology trends of note, Pettman brought up advisors’ expanding use of model portfolios in their practice.

“It’s very popular because of the time that we’re in and the market volatility,” he said. “Running a models-based practice means having a discreet set of models that you can apply across your entire asset base, and there’s numerous benefits. You have a narrower due diligence set so you can stay on top of what’s actually in your portfolios all of the time. Second, you’re going to have more efficient,, more consistent communications with investors because when someone picks up the phone and says hey, what’s going on in my models, you’ll know what’s going on because you’re close to them, they’re part of your day-to-day.”