Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor

Financial Planning > Behavioral Finance

What I Learned Updating My CRM and Financial Planning Tools

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Every advisor who has been in the business for a while understands how demanding their role can become. This is especially true of advisors who manage money and offer comprehensive financial planning. At some point, it becomes difficult to keep up with the numerous tasks required for each client. I reached this point in late 2014. Hence, in the first quarter of 2015 I added or replaced several pieces of technology. In this post, I’ll share a few thoughts from this experience. 

As 2014 was ending and my number of clients was increasing, I realized I had to incorporate technology that would increase efficiency. I replaced my CRM software—ACT— with Redtail. I also changed my financial planning software to eMoney and added YCharts for securitoes and economic analysis. After the changes, I was using Retdail, eMoney, Morningstar Advisor Workstation and YCharts.

The first three integrate with each other as well as with my custodian, TradePMR. In retrospect, I should have decided what I was going to use and add them individually. Adding too many new programs at one time can be overwhelming. 

Redtail

Redtail has some unique features. Although it lacks a few things I used with ACT, the company is making improvements. When considering Redtail over ACT, I find the pros outweigh the cons. One feature included with Redtail is the ability to establish processes. This is one area of high priority at this time.

To explain, let’s say you are working on comprehensive financial plans for three or four clients at the same time. They all have a different set of circumstances and you are at a different stage of the planning process with each. As you might imagine, keeping track of where you are with each client’s plan is challenging. I am counting on Redtail’s processes to help with this. I’ll keep you posted. 

eMoney

The version of eMoney to which I subscribe is more like a complete wealth management system than plain-vanilla financial planning software. Subscribers can add advisor branded media to their subscription. ABM includes 50-100 videos narrated by famous actors covering a wide variety of topics. The videos are also customizable with your company logo and name, advisor name, etc., and can be embedded into your website or sent as a link in an email. 

As I add more processes in Redtail and use the additional features of eMoney, I will keep you posted. 

Until next time, have a great week and thanks for reading! 


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.