When writer Gertrude Stein said that “a rose is a rose is a rose,” she meant that things are what they are.

But sometimes that’s just plain untrue, as in the case of technology companies marketing client portals to advisors.

Many tech vendors serving advisors are marketing client-facing pages and calling them client portals, but they are using the term all too loosely. Portals are supposed present information from a variety of sources on a unified site. Search engine companies created the first portals by presenting email, news, stock prices, as well as search engine access, on a single page. 

When a portfolio reporting application displays performance data on a page for an advisor’s client and calls it a client portal, that’s hard to swallow. Even if the portfolio software vendor brings in some data from an account aggregation system, calling the site a client portal gives a bad name to portals.

At Advisor Products, we’ve been offering our Personal Client Portals platform for a year now, and what we have is truly a portal. We are bringing in data from dozens of sources, including a long list of professional applications, including:

·         Advisor Exchange

·         Albridge Solutions

·         AssetBook

·         Black Diamond Reporting

·         FinanceLogix

·         Laser App

·         Money Tree

·         MoneyGuide Pro

·         Orion Advisor Services

·         PortfolioCenter

·         XLR8

At Advisor Products, we are actively developing interfaces that will allow us to display data from By All Accounts and EZ-Data Smart Office, and discussion with several other firms is under way.

Moreover, our client portals bring in RSS feeds from hundreds of websites. Feeds about health, sports, technology, science, weather, and much more are all ported in and personalized to each client’s personal interests--plus we bring in RSS feeds from personal finance websites.

In addition, our portals contain content that we produce about personal finance and that is also personalized to each client’s interests. Advisors can securely store clients' personal files in an online vault that is integrated with our portals. They can use the blog to communicate with clients, and they can assign or receive tasks in the To-Do Manager. Outside professionals, such as an estate planning attorney or tax accountant, can also be permissioned to assign and receive to dos. And feeds of market indexes, stock prices, and useful calculators are also provided as resources to clients.

Our client portal is truly a portal because we are totally focused on creating the best client portal you can get. We are not making CRM software. We are not making portfolio accounting software or a financial planning application. We want to do one thing great: make the most flexible, complete, and fully integrated client portal system offered to advisors.

So be skeptical when firms that make other applications tell you they have a client portal. While it is possible that a planning application or CRM system might create a client-facing application, it is unlikely to truly be a client portal.

Some roses are not roses at all, but are every bit as thorny. Don’t get stuck.

We recently found ourselves in a peculiar position. It happened when we launched dynamic online performance reporting for PortfolioCenter and a new online vault. Ironically, offering more features at lower prices than our competitors inspired skepticism. While advisors were thrilled to hear that we can save them money—especially since financial crisis has pummeled asset prices and, thus, advisory fees—their enthusiasm is tempered by suspicion.

Charging low prices raised a question in the minds of some advisors: If their firm for years had been paying twice as much for online reporting, why is Advisor Products charging so much less?

The answer is simple: Because we can! We can charge less because we have built a strong business. We’ve made mistakes and fixed them. We’ve hired the right people and fired lazy workers with bad attitudes. We’ve used our deep understanding of the advisory business to focus on what’s important to you.

Other advisor website development firms have focused on providing a way for advisors to share performance reports with clients. And, to their credit, they have answered a need in the market. Many advisors have wanted to display performance reports on the Web, and we admittedly lagged in providing this feature. But we were busy improving other parts of our business.

None of our competitors provides personal finance content or our level of design and customization. Moreover, none of our competitors offers the wide array of marketing products beyond websites that we do, including logo development, stationery, copywriting, client newsletters, brochures, and email newsletters. And no other vendor offers a personal client portal platform that interfaces with more than a dozen professional applications, including financial planning, account aggregation, form-filling, and CRM systems.

We have focused on developing processes and technology to improve our scalability and service. And guess what? We figured it out. We developed the processes and systems to provide excellent service across our entire array of marketing products and to develop new software applications fast while keeping our costs low. It’s been a tough couple of years, but we’ve done it. Our business is now more scalable and our service is much better.

One important change we made was in the people we who speak with advisors. Instead of graphic designers and web developers speaking with advisors about how they wanted their websites to look, we now have project managers as the single point of contact for every website we create. And if you purchase a logo, marketing copy, stationery, or a brochure, the project manager stays with you through the entire process. Providing a single contact—one person who knows design, HTML, and branding and who also has strong customer service skills—has increased customer satisfaction dramatically.

Another important shift we made was in working with Project Manager Professionals to outsource development. Rather than keeping development in-house, we now outsource most large development projects and we plan them in great detail. For instance, the planning document for creating our new vault system, which probably has more features than any other online vault offered to advisors—ran about 100 pages in length. Before a single line of code was written, we had a specification for the user interface so we knew how every major feature would be accessed by users. In addition, the world is now our labor pool. Instead of employing a few developers, we can find developers from all of the U.S. and worldwide who have skills in specific areas. As a result, we now develop applications literally five times faster than we did three years ago we’re doing it at a  fraction of the cost. That’s why we’ve been able to deploy the client portal platform and a dozen interfaces in the past year, along with the vault and dynamic performance reporting.

We also have documented our core processes for building sites and embedded our processes in our CRM system, a proprietary application that we have built ourselves. We can now handle many projects at once without calls from clients going unanswered or tasks falling through the cracks.

After 13 years in business, we are more determined than ever and more able to become the dominant provider of marketing and client communication services to independent advisors. It has not been easy, but I am happy to report that we are there. And, hopefully, you now understand how we can do what we do at such low prices compared to our competitors.

Financial advisors for years have clamored for an all-in-one solution combining portfolio management, customer relationship management, and financial planning software into a single platform. Combining these three functions, which are essential to any advisory firm that wants to adhere to best industry practices, has been an elusive goal. Years ago, I branded the long-sought breakthrough application “The Silver Bullet,” evoking the legendary powers of the only weapon capable of killing a werewolf. 

But the all-in-one application has proved elusive. So persnickety is the typical independent advisor (IA), he couldn’t work for anyone but himself. That’s why he chose to be an independent advisor. No single application incorporating portfolio management software (PMS), financial planning software (FPS), and customer relationship management (CRM) could ever be widely adopted. Uncompromising entrepreneurs don’t want a Veg-O-Matic—the kitchen appliance that sliced, diced, broiled, and boiled. A Swiss-Army-knife approach would be unacceptable.

Advisors want to choose each tool in their practice because they’re managing other people’s money. When your clients’ wealth is at risk, not to mention your livelihood and reputation, you understandably want the tools that work best for you. No wonder the typical advisor insists on individually picking his favorite PMS, CRM, and FPS applications. No wonder that advisors won’t settle for a CRM solution that’s “pretty good” even if it is integrated with a PMS system that’s great. You want things your way. You want technology tailored to you.

Getting that was basically impossible and the quest for the Silver Bullet didn’t get very far. Until now.

Web Services are now enabling advisor applications to talk with each other. These Web Services, which allow your PC to call data from a Web server—empower you to build your own Silver Bullet. If you purchase applications from vendors who are investing in Web Services, integration suddenly becomes easier. Your portfolio management application can feed data to your financial planning application. Your financial planning application can feed your website. And your website can feed your client relationship management software.

Just as the Veg-O-Matic gave way to blenders, juicers, and food processors, the one-size-fits-all Silver Bullet is giving way to new solutions using Web Services to create a new kind of Silver Bullet. eMoney Advisor, a financial planning application, uses a Web service to stream data from Cash Edge’s account aggregation application. Redtail Technology, a CRM system, uses a Web service to pull in contact data from Albridge Solutions. MoneyGuide Pro offers a Web service to pull in holdings data from BlackDiamond Reporting. The list could go on and on. Technology vendors of Web-based applications are typically able to build XML interfaces in 50 to 200 man-hours, which is not that big a commitment considering that it opens up each application to another’s user base.

For advisors, the Web Services provide significant improvement in efficiency and savings. They free advisory firms from re-keying client data into multiple applications, which saves labor and reduces errors. Service to clients is also improved because you no longer have to input all of the holdings every time you do analytics on a portfolio. If your analytics program, say Morningstar Principia, can take a Web Service from your portfolio accounting application or get it directly from your custodian, you are likely to run your analytics program more often.

A handful of technology vendors are leading the way by integrating with each other using Web Services. Please let me know which applications would you like to see integrated? Which integrations have been working well for you? Which have not worked well? Please comment. Vendors need to know what you’re thinking.

The recent integration of Albridge Solutions’ portfolio performance reporting application and Advisor Products Inc.’s Personal Client Portals™ system makes any advisory firm more scalable, efficient, and client-centric. But what’s more exciting is that it will promote financial planning to millions of American households by making it easier for them to understand, measure, and manage their progress toward achieving long-term financial goals. 

Since the early 1980s, thought leaders, professional membership associations, and governing bodies have strived to professionalize personal financial planning so it can be embraced by the mass affluent. The elusive but irresistible goal has been to deliver financial planning advice within a prescribed, systematic, and ethical framework to the masses. The challenge has been that providing financial planning services while adhering to best practices articulated by the FPA, CFP Board, NAPFA, Fiduciary 360, and other such groups is extremely labor intensive.

Integration of API’s Personal Client Portals™ with Albridge Solutions has potential to support, engage, and communicate the entire financial planning process to millions of Americans who could never before receive such a full perspective on managing their money. Albridge’s web-based application is by far the most widely used portfolio accounting system for independent advisors. API’s client portals system provides each individual client of an advisor a secure personal financial portal and promotes collaborative, transparent, and trusting relationships between advisors and investors. Integration of these two applications brings together all of the necessary ingredients to enable financial planning to be fully embraced by the mass affluent.

Albridge calculates daily the value of positions and transactions on more than $1 trillion in assets invested by more than 1 million households. More than 100,000 financial advisors utilize Albridge, which has relationships with more than 150 independent broker-dealers. More than any other technology company serving independent advisors, Albridge touches the mass affluent—the families most in need of financial planning services.

With API’s system, each client experiences a totally personalized website. Data streamed into each client’s secure personal website from an advisory firm’s financial planning application, CRM system, and content provider shows each client’s portfolio performance in the context of his or her financial plans. The achievement of a client’s long-term financial goals, articles personalized to the client’s financial situation, and details about work the advisor performs for the client are the focus of each portal.

“To-Do Manager,” a feature of Personal Client Portals™, allows an advisor to remind a client about tasks that must be completed, such as “send in your account form,” or “create an automatic transfer from your checking account to your investment account.” To-Do Manager not only allows an advisor to assign a client a task and track its progress, it also allows the client to assign tasks to the advisor. (This feature can be disabled by advisors.) Allied professionals, such as an estate planning attorney, can also be enabled on the To-Do Manager. All To Dos are tracked as a discussion thread, allowing discussion of any action item and leaving a trail of communication until an action item is completed. To-Do Manager creates a viewable archive of completed tasks, creating a record for the client that shows all of the work an advisor has performed on his behalf, which supports a transparent, collaborative, and trusting relationship.

Integration of Albridge Solutions portfolio accounting data into API’s Personal Client Portals™ platform provides an opportunity for clients to see their portfolio statements alongside personalized information that is constantly being updated, thus deeply engaging clients in their financial plans. Investment performance is shown to be just one aspect of an advisory firm’s services. A client’s focus stays on long-term issues, and the patience, collaboration, and commitment needed from clients for successful financial planning are supported.

Opening up this new technology-backed style of collaborative financial planning to the 100,000 advisors using Albridge Solutions, and to their clients, provides a real step forward for the financial planning profession as well as a clear view into the future of advisor technology.

Advisor Products added an interface for Black Diamond Reporting to its Personal Client Portal platform this past week, allowing financial advisors to securely stream holdings, asset allocation, and performance data to individual clients automatically daily. Using the latest technology for integration, an XML Web Service, the interface between Black Diamond and Advisor Products feeds each client of an advisor continuously updated performance reports with no work required by the advisor.

The Black Diamond report displayed on your clients’ Personal Client Portals has three tabs.

The Top Holdings tab shows your client his 10 largest holdings. The name of the security is shown along with the number of shares held and the security’s price as well the position’s value. The security’s ticker symbol is linked to detailed 20-minute-delayed market quote. Historical prices as well as charts for the last 10-day, one month, and one-, three-, and five-year periods are available along with the company’s profile, the latest SEC filings, press releases, and news coverage.

The Asset Allocation tab displays a pie chart with the asset class names you havedesignated in Black Diamond Reporting.The Web Service feeds AdvisorProducts raw asset allocation data and we render the pie chart on the fly on the portal system.The asset allocation data, along with the holdings and performance data are not saved on our system, ensuring the security and privacy for your client data. In addition, Advisor Products provides template forms for your client portals’ Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. You can use these documents free of charge to write your Privacy Policy andTerms of Service for your client portals.

The Performance tab on the Black Diamond report displays a portfolio’s performance data as well as a bogey you havechosen to use in Black Diamond. The performance is shown for the last calendar quarter and year-to-date as well as for the last one, three, and five years-to-date.Performance data from the inception of the client’s portfolio are also displayed. And all of the performance data is accompanied by performance againstthe index you have selected in BlackDiamond to measure the portfolio’s performance against.

Easier Workflow. With desktop applications, advisors must run their reports andthen upload the files to the Internet. This time-consuming is averted using the Web Service. There are no daily uploads required by you. Whenever a client logs in to his personal portal, the Black Diamond database is automatically queried for the latest daily data.

The integration of Black Diamond and Advisor Products’ Personal Client Portal platform represents state of the art usage of technology for advisors and illustrates how Web Services are making workflows easier for advisors and saving them money, while allowing advisors to provide superior client service and compete more effectively.

Savings. With no uploads required, you save time and labor—that can translate into thousands of dollars of savings a year. Moreover, the interface between Advisor Products Personal Client Portal platform the Black Diamond is free with your portal license.

Superior Client Service. Providing client your clients with access to their daily updated reports anytime, 24/7, demonstrates a commitment to client service that is substantial, and it supports transparency in your client relationships, which promotes trust. By providing the reports in the context of the Personal Client Portal platform, you put performance data in perspective. Since the portal platform contains information about financial planning, feature articles about long-term strategic personal finance issues, and continuously displays information about the many tasks you perform on behalf of your clients, the performance reports are shown to be just one aspect of your client relationships.

Compete Effectively. Advisors who provide client reporting via the Web in this cost efficient manner are able to compete more effectively. The reports become one of a number of differentiators brought to you by the portal system than other advisors do not offer. The client portal offers a secure online vault for storage of key client documents, a To-Do Manager for assigning action items to clients and receiving action items from clients, a To-Do feature for collaborating with outside professionals such as attorneys and tax advisors, FINRA-reviewed articles personalized to each individual’s client interests, and much more. This set of features is available only via the Advisor Products Personal Client Portal platform, which lets you compete more effectively for ultra-high-net-worth clients served by trust companies, private banks, the private-client-services division at large brokerages and other large institutions.

For more information about Advisor Products Personal Client Portal Platform, please contact Barry Weinstein at (888) 274-5744. 

Visit Black Diamond Reporting’s website or call (904) 241-2444 for more information about the company’s reporting solutions.