Eavesdropping on the FPA Business Solutions conference: Mobile apps, web-based marketing -- and how you can make the most of the connected world

Elizabeth’s note: The record attendance at the FPA’s Business Solutions conference, its heavy focus on technology and its showcase of innovations reinforce the sense that advisor technology is about to make another big leap forward. See: T3 reflections: Where to watch for the next big advances in RIA technology. Thanks to Tim Welsh for providing this report from Cambridge, Mass.

Hard on the shores of the frozen Charles River in Cambridge, Mass., just outside of Boston, the Financial Planning Association’s 6th annual Business Solutions Conference convened over three days last week.

Fittingly located near MIT, the conference had a technology bent in an agenda jam-packed with business and practice management content. More than 350 advisors from across the country braved the cold Northeast to learn about efficiencies in their practices, the latest technology offerings and what it takes to build a scalable and sustainable business at the Hyatt Regency.

“This year’s conference was the largest attendance we’ve had in the history of the event,” noted Joette Cross, director of meetings for Financial Planning Association.

Tough topic

The conference kicked off with buzz around the keynote from noted futurist Gerd Leonhard. Leonhard’s speech was titled “The Future of Business,” a tough topic for anyone to cover in an hour, though he made the most of the time. A key message was to “think beyond what we are doing today, understand where things are going and prepare for it.”

Leonhard cited many examples of how fast our world is changing and the impact of disruptive technologies. These new, connected technology platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and YouTube along with the rapid growth of mobile devices are having a dramatic impact on business. (See: Advisor Tested: How LinkedIn can truly build your business and not just feed your ego.)

“As a society we are moving from the world of paper, to the world of the screen and as a result you need to ask yourself, are you approaching your clients with paper or a screen?” Leonhard provocatively asked the audience.

“We are rapidly changing from traditional commerce to social commerce. And if you want to remain relevant you have to adapt quickly and disrupt your own business before someone else does it for you.”

Go mobile first, before others do

Leonhard did end the keynote on a very positive message for advisors. “Your value and importance in the ocean of information in which we are now swimming is to become a filter and provide contextual information to help people make the right financial decisions. Technology will never replace people; however people who use technology will replace those who don’t.”

Other prescient advice Leonhard provided in a rapid-fire conclusion for success in the new, connected world for advisors was to:

• Be bold, but not stupid
• Build trust by admitting your mistakes
• Try to be a connector
• Go mobile first, before others do
• Become a magnet and attract people to you by your content
• Think of yourself as a TV station or publisher and broadcast content
• Become a platform that others can build upon
• Provide synchronized, contextual advice to help people make decisions
• Become a filter for your clients to identify the important information
• Think about “now-ness” and how people only care about the latest developments

As the conference continued, FPA President Marty Kurtz welcomed the attendees, thanked the many sponsors and drilled down on how FPA was focusing on the standard of care: “The Fiduciary approach is not a destination, but rather a vehicle to transport us to a better place.”

The FPA Business Solutions conference is really a conference within a conference. The first day is all about technology and features the Investment News / FPA Technology Expo. The Tech Expo agenda was full of innovative content and speakers on the latest trends in technology integration, social media use, web-based marketing tools, as well as featuring some of the industry’s latest mobile applications.

Combined with a technology vendor exhibit hall, the Tech Expo created a compact ecosystem for attendees to translate Gerd Leonhard’s vision for the future into real technology resources for today. The latest mobile financial planning applications from Finance Logix and innovative email marketing tools from Boulevard R were among the coolest developments at the conference.

Tech-buying habits of RIAs

The other highlight of the Tech Expo was a presentation by Kelli Cruz, director of custom research for Investment News, along with an advisor panel featuring David McKinley of McKinley Carter Wealth Management and Anthony Schembri of Clarfeld Financial Advisors. Cruz provided an early look at the findings from Investment News RIA Technology study about advisor use of social media, technology purchase decisions, cloud computing and more:

• RIAs spend 3-5% of revenues on technology
• 49% of RIAs consider social media to be an important part of business development
• 30% of RIAs are using Cloud Computing for all or part of their back-office
• 40% of RIAs buy technology based on integration capabilities

“We get far more results from our blog than any social media use,” noted McKinley when asked about his firm’s use of the new communication channels, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked In “Our approach is that we don’t want to be on the bleeding edge of technology, let others go first and refine it, then we’ll adopt it.”

“The real game changer now is for third-party applications to be custodian neutral,” noted Schembri when asked his thoughts about the race by the custodians to create integrated technology platforms. “We are unlikely to use custodian tools since we have multiple custodians.”

After a full day of content the Tech Expo closed with a networking reception in the exhibit hall that spilled into the bars, Irish Pubs and restaurants surrounding the Cambridge Hyatt.

Days two and three of the FPA Business Solutions conference were focused on all aspects of business and practice management, with a key theme of leveraging technology for growth.

Practice management consultants from all of the big custodians, including Schwab Advisor Services, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, TD Ameritrade and Trust Company of America led many of the keynote and breakout sessions. These aggregators of best practices are able to identify top performing firms, study how they have grown profitably and relay those tips, techniques and benchmarking information for other advisors to learn from.

Additional sessions focused on ways to improve service and focus on the client, including segmentation, new service models, client engagement and ways to generate referrals.

Timothy D. Welsh, CFP® is president and founder of Nexus Strategy, LLC, a consulting firm to the wealth management industry. Tim can be reached at tim@nexus-strategy.com.