EAssistLLC.com: RIA/IBD Operational Support and Compliance Blog

Access Financial Group - Case Study: Sept 08

Administrator — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:39:25 +0000

Founded in 2004, Access Financial Group is a commission-based retail group. AFG serves mid- to high-net worth individuals as an independent registered representative and works with other registered representatives and registered investment advisors providing private labeled turn-key technology solutions critical to their business. Access Financial Group is Headquartered in Miami, Florida.

Challenge
Access Financial Group President Mike Simmons spent a number of years working with CRM and other automated and back office systems. During this time he discovered the value of automation for prospecting and on-boarding new clients.

“In our business the key to client prospecting is multiple, escalating touch points. You have to continuously maintain a presence in the back of the prospect’s mind until the right time arrives. The only way to do this effectively and professionally is to automate that process. As a start-up, we needed a cost effective, yet complete, technology that could handle client prospecting and on-boarding. No other solution addressed the entire process in a single application, and we couldn’t manage or afford the process of cobbling together multiple applications to develop a comprehensive solution,” explained Simmons.

Solution
When Access Financial Group was introduced to E*Assist by their broker-dealer — BrokersXpress — the firm was using a general CRM system, but looking for a more specialized solution. “E*Assist was the perfect fit. They offer a more comprehensive suite of services and are completely focused on the financial services market. We’ve been using E*Assist as a CRM and prospecting tool for two years now.”

Once a prospect becomes a client they are automatically transferred to the next phase within the same platform. “Normally I’d have to switch a new client over to a new system. But E*Assist automates every step of process, making it fool-proof. The history is already saved, so when the client converts from prospect to client, the system retains and automatically transfers all of the information so that it is readily available for moving forward with the new client relationship. No other single system can support this new client transition.”

Outcome
Since Access Financial Group began working with E*Assist, new business has picked up by 25% annually and efficiency has doubled. “The system is so efficient that it structures my time. I can conduct all of my prospecting in 2 hours a day and spend the rest of my time focusing on my clients’ business.” he explained. “Furthermore, because the system keeps a record of every client interaction, I have a complete record for compliance purposes at my fingertips,” he added.

What’s Next?
AFG has had so much success growing business through technology, that Mike has developed a collection of technology best practices that he is making available to young reps he is bringing into the firm. “E*Assist is the most important technology I use, and a solid backbone for any independent brokers looking to grow and better manage their business.”

WS&T Byline: Deploying Technology to Conquer Your Compliance Demons

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:08:15 +0000

In the July issue of Wall Street & Technology, our CEO, Ted Tsung has a featured article (click here) on how to approach technology as a solution to your compliance woes. The article includes helpful formulas to calculate your cost/benefit analysis of automating administrative tasks:
% of admin tasks that can be automated x # of support staff x average staff cost/year = staff reduction savings

Determining your potential growth through additional producers:
% of admin tasks that can be automated x # of producers = # of additional producers that can be supported by existing staff

And your potential increase in gross revenue:
# of additional producers x firm’s annual earnings per producer = projected increase in gross revenues

Ted concludes by offering the following tips for selecting and implementing an automated technology approach that will address your compliance needs now and into the future:

1. Review your updated Written Supervisory Procedure (WSP), if you can still lift it, and seek a platform that can address everything that’s in there now and support everything that will be added for years to come.

2. Ask questions about flexible and expandable technologies that are “future-proofed,” and be sure to find a platform that can be updated and customized on demand to suit your changing needs and the endless list of new regulations.

3. Get commitments up front. Perhaps most important, make sure you work with someone who is able to perform a review of your WSP and ascertain the minimum percentage of your current compliance tasks that can be automated. As indicated in the models above, this is the single greatest factor in calculating your cost/benefit analysis.

4. Seek CRM integration. Make sure the new platform addresses CRM or can integrate seamlessly with your existing programs. Ideally, you want a soup-to-nuts automated solution for integrating your back-office data, compliance tasks and client records through a single platform.

5. Demand an implementation plan to ensure rep adoption. All too often this gets ignored. Your new system is only successful if your reps use it. Put the onus on the organization that develops your platform to help you market it internally. Ensure there are communication processes to explain the benefits and procedures to internal staff, broker-dealers and reps. Focus on those processes that engage the producers and make them want to use the solution. A good example is building order processing into the solution, linking producers’ earnings with system use. Make sure all your people are trained on the platform, what it can do, and how to monitor and fine-tune it over time. Finally, be sure to include a feedback loop so the product can be effectively and continuously improved.

FINRA audits and check blotters

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:45:07 +0000

One of our clients recently completed a month long FINRA audit where they asked to see the check blotter and procedures. Unfortunately the existing manual processes where not adequate. E*Assist created a bespoke blotter in days that allowed reps and home office to store and track the progress of every client check. Development was so swift that the new capability was shown to, and signed off, by the regulators mid audit. E*Assist brings the advantage of real-time enhancements, something that is becoming increasingly important in today’s regulated markets.

Regulation S-P. What it could mean for you?

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:44:18 +0000

Absent any modifying agreements between a firm and a rep, in most states, clients’ personal information is the property of the firm and the firm is responsible for protecting it. But how much do you really know about your client? In many firms, reps hold client data in flimsy databases that lack broader access and protection against theft, fire or computer crash! E*Assist’s web-based CRM allows all client data to be held in a protected, hosted and backed up environment that allows both rep and management to view client records and overall books of business. Reg S-P could be yet another reason to consider automating your company’s data from back-office through to client records.

Implementing Rule 2821 during a tight financial market

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:43:18 +0000

The imminent implementation of Regulation 2821 affecting the sale of variable annuities has many compliance teams searching for viable solutions. Unfortunately the recent market turmoil has CEOs looking to hold or cut costs, complicating the building or buying of effective 2821 solutions.
E*Assist’s low cost platform allows many of the compliance tasks incorporated in a firm’s written supervisory procedures to be codified, including 2821, which removes the need for large support teams to chase reps and brokers for documents. Such a level of automation would allow your firm to dramatically improve its producer/support ratios, something CEOs love hearing.
E*Assist addresses FINRA’s concerns over the monitoring of variable annuity sales though a series of easy-to-learn and use features. Imagine that at the touch of a button you can print your firm’s deferred variable annuity disclosure form complete with the relevant client’s information rather than having to rely on the rep to manually enter them on a blank VA disclosure form. You can also track the date the order/check was received, the date the documents arrived at the OSJ/Home office, the date of the review/approval and the date of the forwarding to the insurance company - all in one easy-to-use order management form. Summaries of progress through each of these stages are available through a variable annuity blotter and a check received blotter, again, all at the touch of a finger.

Growing your business while holding or shrinking your support costs

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:42:38 +0000

Progressive firms make every effort to minimize overhead and support costs. But with ever more stringent regulations, demands to hire more support and compliance personnel keep increasing. Firms are throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars in inefficient and wasteful manual procedures that require more support heads than are actually needed.
In order for firms to achieve profitable growth, it is critical that senior management take the time to study this dynamic. Instead of taking a piecemeal approach and hiring one more head here or setting up one more standalone system there, time taken now to review the savings to be gained through automation could result in enormous benefits.
E*Assist has developed a complimentary proprietary process to help firms understand their cost containment potential.
The first step is to understand which of your firm’s manual processes could be fully automated. After signing an NDA to protect confidentiality, we create your E*Assist automation score by analyzing your current written supervisory procedures and determining which of these can be automated.
Our proprietary financial model then illustrates the potential productivity gains and/or the opportunity to hold or trim support expenses.
Existing E*Assist clients have seen cost and headcount savings measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Complete & automatic form filling & filing

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:40:48 +0000

Removing the need for a rep to fill out a form manually is well understood. Popular form filling software, while expensive, helps to ensure that all the relevant fields are completed, which helps to remove the risk of rejection due to missing data or illegible handwriting.
But is this enough in our fast moving industry? Form filling 3rd party applications automates part of a reps’ workflow, but what about all those internal forms? And where is the completed application filed?
What reps really need is a process that seamlessly drives both external application form and home office internal form completion to the reps’ client database. So, irrespective of whoever created the form, the software completes all the required fields and creates a final copy that can be printed. The missing link is then to automatically save an electronic copy into the respective client’s master record. From the reps standpoint, there is one workflow to learn and no additional filing effort to complete. The added bonus is that the home office compliance team can access the client’s master record and attached application copies at anytime.
All forms and applications can now be completed with one click, reducing errors and mistakes. Plus, there are no additional fees to pay! Automated form filling is a standard capability in E*Assist’s complete business platform.

A single integrated compliant communication platform to manage client emails

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:39:42 +0000

Building deep client relationships requires extensive communication and email is a profoundly important communication channel. But it comes with inherent limitations and surveillance headaches. Firms are mandating the use of popular email tools such as Outlook, but these tools often lack an easy way to automatically customize emails to specific clients. This leaves brokers and advisors with no choice other than to manually edit each email they send to a specific client, which takes time and can lead to mistakes. A more systematic solution would be to deploy a single platform to manage the mass / blast emails. Such an engine needs vital capabilities. Firstly, it has to be tightly integrated with the client database to provide the accuracy and customization required. Secondly, it needs a process that allows the compliance team to approve the email content, which are then saved into a master template. Thirdly, a record of each email sent should be appended to each client’s master record to provide an audit trail of past correspondence. Lastly, the platform must be coupled to the firm’s surveillance engine to ensure relevant oversight.
The E*Assist platform easily accommodates all of these requirements and top producers are currently using it to drive their outbound communications with excellent results.

The industry’s first true succession management platform?

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:38:13 +0000

A panel of independent brokers/advisors at SIFMA’s May conference in Chicago highlighted a key business concern. In many cases the BD/IA’s business is the individual’s largest asset – bigger than their house or retirement fund. This makes protecting it all the more important such that when it comes time to sell, the most preferential valuation can be achieved. Several anecdotes highlighted examples where a seller had done little to organize their books and records, making the process of demonstrating its value all the more difficult.
Another concern was the threat of litigation from a disgruntled heir or relative. With little to no systematic documentation of the past client relationship, the advisor/rep has few quantifiable tools, data or evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness and relevance of advice given in the past.
Technology has reached a point where both of these key concerns can be addressed in large part. With a master client record at its heart, any information or action relating to a specific client can be effortlessly appended to this master record. These data can include emails sent to or from the client, records of products sold (such as variable annuities) with the home office approval, past asset performance, scanned images of any documents such as wills, attestations or applications. The list is literally endless.
Over time, a system such as E*Assist builds into an invaluable record of your client base. This can be easily passed over to the appropriate successor, helping to ensure a seamless transition and further demonstrating the professionalism of the particular franchise.
This also provides an opportunity for home office broker/dealers and investment advisory firms that are struggling to offer a differentiated solution set for their independent agents. There are few better ways to build demonstrable value of your agent’s business than a systematic record of their client servicing history. Offering a platform that helps the agents retain and grow their client base on a daily basis while quietly building an invaluable record of the business is both truly valuable and surprisingly rare!

Free investment calculators to help brokers and advisors analyze complex financial scenarios

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:37:10 +0000

Explaining complex financial concepts to investors is never easy, especially now that regulators are also looking for more evidence of suitability. This is forcing home office and compliance teams to be equally demanding, which can delay or even prevent a sale.
The challenge facing registered representatives includes showing a remote & perhaps skeptical compliance officer that a particular 1035 variable annuity exchange or asset allocation switch is beneficial for a specific client. The same evidence could be required several years later if FINRA asks for evidence during their biannual audit. This all becomes even more complicated should an irritated heir start to question the original sale that may be decades old.
One solution is to emulate the practices of large wirehouses where calculators are used to allow a rep to compare products. The results can be saved for discussion with clients, OSJs, regulators and heirs as and when needed. But many mid to small firms do not have the IT resources to develop these tools.
E*Assist has responded to this need with a series of complimentary sophisticated investment and financial calculators to help independent registered representative and RIAs.
Users can:
• See the cost-benefit analysis of switching from one variable annuity to another potentially more lucrative VA product (1035 exchange)

https://sales.eassistllc.com/sales/va1035.php

• Determine the best product for your clients that are new to variable annuities by comparing the financial benefit of two proposed deferred variable annuities.

https://sales.eassistllc.com/sales/vanew.php

• Analyze the number of years a client’s assets will last after they start their retirement.

https://sales.eassistllc.com/sales/investment.php

Other calculators are being built and E*Assist is developing many of these for free. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your specific requirements.