New Functionality: Asset Allocation Ranges and Much More
September 1, 2010
We are pleased to announce a new version of IPS AdvisorPro® released this morning containing a wide array of new functionality:
Asset Allocation Ranges
Other Improvements in the Asset Allocation Area
- Asset Class Groups
- Add new asset class groups
- Group labels may be changed
- Colors of asset class groups may be changed to reflect display within the pie chart
- Asset classes may be moved to different groups
- You may override the calculated historical return or standard deviation for an asset allocation model even if no custom asset classes are used
Improved list of existing IPSs
- You can quickly identify the IPSs that are standard vs professional
Template Management Improvements
- You hand-pick the templates to which you wish to apply (sync to) a particular paragraph
- Header/Footer customization was added to standard templates as well
New Verbiage Available For Your Review and Import To Your Current Templates
- Executive Summary
- Removed duplicate “Asset Allocation” title
- Adjusted expected return tokens in Profit Sharing template
- “Asset Classes to be included” under “Diversification and Investment Constraints”
- Added space
- “Plan Fiduciary Bond Information” -> “Overview”
- Updated verbiage for Self Directed 401(K) plan, Pension Plan, and Profit Sharing templates
- “Investment Monitoring and Control Procedures” -> “Reports”
- Updated template sections to accommodate the new asset allocation ranges functionality
- “Asset Allocation” -> “Portfolio Allocation, Statistics & Rebalancing – With Statistics”
- “Asset Allocation” -> “Portfolio Allocation, Statistics & Rebalancing – Without Statistics”
- “Asset Allocation” -> “Portfolio Allocation, Statistics & Rebalancing (Projected Returns)”
- “Asset Allocation” -> “Portfolio Allocation, Statistics & Rebalancing (Historical Returns)”
- “Asset Allocation” -> “Portfolio Allocation, Statistics & Rebalancing – Updated Allocations”
Investment Policy Statement Software at IMPACT 2010
July 21, 2010
Investment Policy Statements (IPS)
Professional, Fully Customized
Create and Manage your IPS, QUICKLY and EASILY
Please Visit the IPS AdvisorPro® EXHIBIT BOOTH to learn more!
WHEN: October 26-29, 2010
WHERE: Boston, Massachusetts
We Hope to See You Soon!
Advanced Technology: Investment Policy Statement Software @ ABA Annual Convention, Business Expo
July 20, 2010
IPS AdvisorPro®, a comprehensive online platform for the creation and management of Investment Policy Statements, will exhibit at the ABA Annual Convention, Business Expo & Directors’ Forum.
Find out why an increasing number of bank/trust companies have chosen the cutting edge technology of IPS AdvisorPro® for producing highly professional, fully customizable Investment Policy Statements (IPS).
Please visit us at Booth #418 for information about how IPS AdvisorPro® will standardize your Institution’s process.
WHEN: October 17 – 20, 2010
WHERE: Booth #418, ABA Annual Convention
Hynes Convention Center
Sheraton Boston, Massachusetts
Investment Policy Statement Software: Standardize Your Process
July 19, 2010
IPS AdvisorPro® is exhibiting!
Professional, Customized INVESTMENT POLICY STATEMENTS
~ created quickly and easily with IPS AdvisorPro® ~
Please visit booth #120 to find out how to Systematize the creation & management of your IPS process!
WHEN: October 9 – 12, 2010
WHERE: Booth #120
Colorado Convention Center, Denver Colorado
IPS AdvisorPro® Celebrates 4th Anniversary!
April 15, 2010
IPS AdvisorPro®, an award-winning online technology platform fro creating fully customized Investment Policy Statements, is proud to announce that it has been 4 years since its initial launch April 16, 2006.
Thank-you for your support!
IPS AdvisorPro® Exhibited at Recent ABA Conference: Co-Founder Linda Lubitz Boone Commented on Increase in Wealth Mgmt. Opportunities for Bankers
March 15, 2010
March 15, 2010
Banks In Wealth Management – Is Now The Time?
Charles Paikert
Editor in New York – Family Wealth Report
The proverbial window of opportunity for bankers who want to be in the wealth management business has never been wider.
And bankers can’t say they haven’t been alerted: the seize-the-moment theme was repeated throughout last week’s American Bankers Association’s annual Wealth Management and Trust Conference in Phoenix, both from the podium and on the exhibit floor.
In fact, the conference began with the keynote speaker exhorting bankers to “switch to offense this year.” Read more
An IPS Pro: Norman Boone’s expertise on investment policy statements powers his software product-and his advisory practice.
February 4, 2010
February 1, 2010
Norman Boone has an impeccable resume. Founder and president of Bay Area-based Mosaic Financial Partners, Boone earned his CFP certification in 1984 after an undergraduate degree from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard. He served in the first class of directors elected to the national board of the FPA. And he has been included as one of America’s Best Financial Advisors by the Worth/Robb Report every year since the list’s inception in 1994. Read more
New Functionality Released: Additional Template Control
December 14, 2009
As part of our commitment to continuing to enhance the IPS AdvisorPro® platform to make it even more useful, we are pleased to introduce a new set of functionalities. With these new functionalities you will have increased flexibility when customizing your templates AND you will have increased options when tailoring each of your client IPSs.
The new features include
- Compare a paragraph of your template to the latest version in the default IPS AdvisorPro® template
- Add a paragraph to all your IPSs
- Remove a paragraph from all your IPSs
- Restore an IPS to its original verbiage as configured by template
- Add new or pre-existing paragraph to an IPS
For instructions on how to use this functionality please refer to our HELP MANUAL. Additionally, please take a few moments to view the video below that will provide a visual illustration of the new functionalities. For better visibility, you can click “Full Screen” in the video player. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact our Help Desk at support@IPSAdvisorPro.com.
As always we thank you for your continued support of IPS AdvisorPro® and would like to remind you that we appreciate and value your feedback. If you would like to provide feedback and/or suggestions regarding this improvement or others you are interested in then please contact us at support@IPSAdvisorPro.com.
We wish you a Happy and Healthy holiday season!
The IPS AdvisorPro® Team
ASN Summit Successful-Norm & Linda Boone, session hosts
December 1, 2009
The Advisor Solutions Network (ASN) held its first Practice Management Summit in November in Atlanta, Georgia. Sixty participants were treated to a world-class line-up of speakers who delivered two full days of thought-provoking content. The program agenda was designed to achieve three key objectives:
- Help render appropriate advice in a post-Black Swan Era
- Help advisor regain client confidence
- Help advisor rebuild or win new business
Thirteen (13) sessions held during the Practice Management Summit included, but was not limited to, the following:
- Investment Management Consulting in the 21st Century: Craft or Trade? Ron Surz, President, PPCA
- To Be or Not To Be: Fiduciary Landscape Under Regulatory Reform; Kristina Fausti, Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, fi360
- Using Public Relations to Turbo-Charge Your Marketing Plan; Marie Swift, President, Impact Communication
- Dynamic Asset Allocation: Rx for a Post-Black Swan Era; Rex Macey, Chief Investment Officer, Wilmington Trust
- Providing A Comfortable Ride for Your Clients (and Your Practice); David Loeper CIMA, Wealthcare Capital
- In Search of Manager Alpha: Does Active Management Still Make Sense? Larry Sinsimer
- The Value Gap: In Search of Advisor Alpha; Steve Barger, Consulting Partner, Advisor Solutions Network
- The Art of Conversation: Your Leading Advantage; Lewis Walker, Founder, Life Transitions Advisors
- Rebuilding Your Business and Managing Client Expectations with Investment Policy Statements; Norm Boone and Linda Lubitz-Boone, IPS AdvisorPro®
- How Personal Legacy Planning can Differentiate Your Practice and Drive Your Production; Mark Colgan, President / Plan Your Legacy
- Audio recordings and speaker presentations are available at www.asn360.com.agenda.asp
VSR Financial Services, Inc. Selects IPS AdvisorPro® for Investment Planning Technology
August 28, 2009
~ Innovative Platform Will Provide VSR’s 200+ Advisors with Web-based Tools for Creating Investment Policy Statements
Miami, FL and Overland Park, KS – August 26, 2009. VSR Financial Services, Inc. announced today the selection of IPS AdvisorPro® to provide their over 200 financial advisors with advanced investment planning tools for developing Investment Policy Statements (IPS). Read more
Coming Soon:
August 28, 2009
IPS AdvisorPro® integration with Redtail ( CRM).
Cape Ann Savings Bank – Trust and Financial Services
August 21, 2009
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
August 6, 2009
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
July 31, 2009
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
June 22, 2009
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
June 8, 2009
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
May 19, 2009
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
May 15, 2009
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
April 26, 2009
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?
April 23, 2009
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
