Words to the wise from our elite team of experts and executives with knowledge and experience from all corners of the financial services industry.
Practice Management Tip: James Carney, CEO
“Good practice management starts with good process management/understanding. Take one internal process per quarter, (i.e. account opening) review it, revise it, document it and put it in a binder for new and existing employees.”
Business Development Tip: Joseph Murphy, Executive VP
“It is always best to have a solid needs requirement before reviewing and selecting a technology solution. With a solid needs analysis you can also determine which delivery option is best (i.e. outsource or internal). Today’s wide array of solutions coupled with your requirements will quickly sort out the best of breed for your firm or clients.”
Marketing Tip: Cynthia Stephens, VP of Marketing
“Set a target “client allocation”. Asset allocation is probably “business as usual” for you. However, applying the same discipline to your current and future client roster may not be. Think about how your clients are allocated across age groups, incomes, lifestyles, etc to create a healthy practice. Are you looking to add 1-2 ultra HNW clients to quickly increase assets under management? Or, do you need to add several Gen-Xers to your client roster, who are still accumulating wealth, to plan for future growth?”
Compliance Tip: Karla Paxton, Technical Services Representative
“Are you tracking your held away assets in your portfolio management system? Did you know that the SEC determined during an exam that an investment advisory firm is required to produce a blotter of all the investments they monitor for their clients that are held at custodians other than their primary one? I was recently asked the question, how in the world does anyone do this without it being a huge manual undertaking? The answer is, gather the account information and deliver it to your portfolio management or accounting system, so that you can produce the same type of reports for your held away investments as you do for those that you manage. The increased pressure to be your client’s fiduciary is driving the SEC to look at your ability to report on all of your client’s investments.”
