An insider's highlights from networking, vendor educational sessions and exhibits.
I attended the T3 Enterprise conference in Chicago earlier this week. Advertised as the industry's premier technology event for broker-dealers, attendees were exclusively broker-dealer executives, chief technology officers and heads of larger RIA firms, while the vendors were invitation-only technology companies. Key components of the conference were networking, vendor educational sessions and vendors’ exhibiting their newest product innovations. Vendors included MoneyGuidePro, Redtail Technology Inc., Laserfiche, Junxure CRM Software Inc., MacroRisk Analytics, ProTracker Software Inc., Orion Adviser Services and Total Rebalance Expert.
So what's new? I'll give you a few highlights.
MoneyGuidePro sees a movement among advisers and broker-dealers away from investment-centric to greater focus on planning and advice. The software company is introducing more robust investor-initiated online planning tools. (Chad and his wife are expecting!)
Similarly, Raymond James Financial Inc. will be focusing on more of a planning-based approach, with a goal of significantly boosting the number of clients who currently have financial plans — a number that sits below 10%.
ProTracker Software was buzzing about its release last week of ProTracker Cloud, its web-based relationship manager. Great features include workflows with dependent tasks and security settings that benefit broker-dealers and large RIAs. The company even have a new website at www.protracker.com. (Warren is very proud of this, so take a look!)
Next month, Junxure plans to release its fully functional web-based Junxure Cloud. The company has also developed Junxure Cloud Migration Assessment for those clients wondering if all their data will transfer over into the new cloud version.
MacroRisk Analytics now offers alerts and a much more user-friendly, web-based platform. Advisers can set customized alerts for outlying measures such as “MacroRisk Index,” R-squared and downside beta. Their new tagline is “The Economy Simplified.” (Mike, Bill and Phil are excited to have put their highly technical solution into a format that non-techies like me can understand!)
Total Rebalance Expert will be moving to a true web version from its cloud version in the first quarter of 2014. Included in the new release will be a more user-friendly interface, alerts and more. (TRX also has an updated website … with paper airplanes instead of juggling balls!)
Redtail Technology will soon release Redtail Data Cloud, which is a data dashboard for broker-dealers, large RIAs and end-users. The dashboard will feature analytics and key data from integrated programs.
inStream is a new offering designed to address wealth managers' entire workflow and delivery system. Helping wealth managers run a smarter practice, the system includes daily updated comprehensive financial plans and an “adviser ‘wikipedia.’”
Per Investment News, advisers need to beware of digital disruption (robo-advisers) and remember that online advice is threatening to change today's business model. Keeping up with technology is imperative. And according to Joel Bruckenstein, “If you haven’t updated your software within the last 24 months, you're behind.”
Were you at T3 Enterprise too? What were your highlights?
Sheryl Rowling is chief executive of Total Rebalance Expert and principal at Rowling & Associates. She considers herself a non-techie user of technology.
