IPS AdvisorPro® Blog
Cape Ann Savings Bank – Trust and Financial Services
How a leading community bank and trust is reducing risk in its delivery of investment advice through the technology platform of IPS AdvisorPro®. Read more
IPS AdvisorPro®: Go online and save time on investment policy statements
By Davis D. Janowski, technology reporter for InvestmentNews, this article was originally published July 31, 2009 in IN: TECHbits. I got a sneak preview of a white paper from IPS AdvisorPro® that sheds light on the time, costs associated with creating investment policy statements.
By one estimate, it can take the typical financial adviser 155 minutes to create an investment policy statement from scratch using a word-processing program such as Microsoft Word.
To refresh your memory, an IPS is a written document agreed to by both an adviser and client that outlines goals, policies and procedures to be used by the adviser for managing investments.
Such statements are required these days where a fiduciary relationship exists.
The above estimate is by Norm Boone, president of San Francisco-based Mosaic Financial Partners Inc. and co-creator of the popular IPS AdvisorPro® software and online application from BLIPS Partners LLC in Miami.
While the white paper is clearly meant to urge advisers to buy the firm’s software, the estimates included in the white paper, “Investment Policy Statements: The Technology Return on Investment for Financial Advisors,” seem reasonable and should be of interest to advisers in terms of comparing their current procedures and the time involved in preparation of policy statements. Read more
Investment Policy Statements: The Technology Return on Investment (ROI) for Financial Advisors
Download a PDF version of this white paper here.
Executive Summary
The financial services industry is undergoing rapid change due to recent financial crises on Wall Street and the impacts of a prolonged recession. Market volatility has increased, creating uncertainty and angst in investors’ minds. The demand for transparency has increased, as have the expectations for better “prudent practices.” As a result, there has been a renewed focus for investment planning by financial advisors and the use of the time-tested approach of Investment Policy Statements (IPS).
Considered a “best practice” in modern wealth management, documenting advisor-client agreements in an IPS provides a systematic discipline for decision-making, bringing transparency, clarity and shared understanding to the advisor-investor relationship, helping to build an increased level of trust.
Many financial advisors are using word processing software solutions combined with manual processes to perform the related tasks of creating, updating and maintaining IPSs and the resulting inefficiencies cause higher costs and lack of controls, which result in declining profitability.
Industry experts all agree that the best solution is to adopt technology to increase efficiency, streamline operations and enable rapid response to market changes. New advances and innovations in technology specifically designed for financial advisors to provide web-based investment planning tools for creating Investment Policy Statements that allow advisors to meet these challenges head on and provide a substantial return on investment (ROI) is now available.
“If we tried to create our own Word document, the problem we see is that it would be extremely difficult to maintain consistency, what with re-entering and re-casting the allocations for hundreds of clients. By using the templates in IPS AdvisorPro® we know that we are achieving a big time savings and ROI.”
David Strege, CFP®, CFA®, Co-Founder and Senior Wealth Coach, Syverson Strege & Company
Syverson, Strege & Company
How a Leading Wealth Coaching Firm is using Investment Policy Statements (IPS) and the technology platform of IPS AdvisorPro® as a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining individual investors and small endowments, foundations and charities. Read more
NOW INTEGRATED: IPS AdvisorPro® and MoneyGuidePro™ – Import Financial Planning Data into Investment Policy Statements
IPS AdvisorPro® and MoneyGuideProTM Integrate Software Systems, to provide a Complete Financial and Investment Planning Solution
IPS AdvisorPro® is pleased to announce the release of its first software integration with MoneyGuideProTM, the industry’s leading financial planning software tool. With this announcement, the integration between these two industry award-winning online financial software programs is available immediately to IPS AdvisorPro® users. The new integration will save time and streamline the preparation of financial plans and investment policy statements (IPS) ensuring consistency of data between the two programs and providing financial advisors with a complete financial and investment planning solution. Read more
Monroe Bank & Trust
How a Leading Community Bank is Transforming Their Wealth Management Group Through Investment Policy Statements and IPS AdvisorPro®. Read more
The Investment Policy Statement: Providing the Bridge Between Compliance and a Satisfied Client
By Norman M. Boone, MBA, CFP ® and Linda Lubitz Boone, CFP®
An investment policy statement helps an advisor communicate to relevant parties the procedures and investment philosophy of that advisor, and it documents the agreements between the advisor and the client about how that client’s money will be managed. The statement should provide the guidelines for investment decisions and set forth the responsibilities of each party.
When our first article about investment policy statements was published in the Journal of Financial Planning in July 1992, very few advisors were using these statements in their practices. Today, the landscape has significantly changed: It is now considered a best practice to provide investment policy statements to all clients, whether or not it is legally directed. Although some compliance officers may disagree, we believe that a properly written investment policy statement can be critical in minimizing the legal liability of your fiduciary clients (qualified plan trustees and trustees of irrevocable trusts, endowments, foundations and charitable trusts) and for that matter, all your clients. Read more
Compliance Considerations
Compliance departments have a few concerns about investment policy statements.
First, it is critical that anything that is written down (promised) is what is actually delivered. One approach is to avoid writing anything down, but that violates a number of other principles, not the least of which is the need to develop/earn the client’s trust, which means being open with them and helping them clearly understand what they might experience. The better alternative is to make sure that you only write down in the IPS what you are actually going to do. You can (and should) be as detailed as possible in order to enhance client understanding, but you need to limit the details to accurate ones. Read more
Why pay for an application to help write Investment Policy Statements?
A common concern we hear these days of market turmoil and lowered advisor revenues is whether it isn’t cheaper to write Investment Policy Statements with a word document instead of using a dedicated application. We disagree.
How much is your time worth and what could you be doing with that time savings (servicing existing clients to help retain them? marketing for new prospective clients? training your staff to help save you even more time?)? Read more
WINNER, CPA Wealth Provider Financial Planning Awards 2009
CPA Wealth Provider is proud to present the sixth annual financial planning awards honoring CPA/financial planning firms, broker/dealers, and financial planning software vendors as well as providing special Awards of Excellence to those who are in the vanguard of leadership in financial planning. The winners are those firms or companies that have taken the lead through innovation, efficiency, initiative, or growth in the financial planning area. Read more
