Just the Apps, Ma'am

From the Sept. 2006 Issue

Specific technologies and applications used by tax preparers providing financial
services include the following:

DOCUMENT & CONTENT MANAGEMENT — Document Management
Systems (DMS) and Content Management Systems (CMS) enable organizations to
create/capture, manage/secure, store/retain/destroy, publish/distribute, search,
personalize, and present/view/print digital content such as pictures/images,
text, reports, video, audio and transactional data, according to wikipedia.com.
COMPLIANCE & CLIENT DISCLOSURE — These systems
help the practitioner disclose fees, possible conflicts of interest, expected
investment risk, and other required disclosures to clients. While some disclosures
are required by statute, others are to prevent legal liability or to protect
the practitioner against charges of an undisclosed conflict of interest.
FINANCIAL PLANNING & WEALTH TRANSFER PLANNING TOOLS
— Financial planning tools help the practitioner define a client’s
investment objectives and calculate the resources needed to achieve those
objectives. The findings are assembled into a financial plan, which is then
presented to the client. With the annual flurry of new and expiring tax provisions,
this software segment requires the practitioner to select a tool that meets
their current needs with frequent updates.
INVESTMENT RESEARCH — These tools are used to obtain
information about products, earnings histories and investment strategies for
an investment.
TRADE MANAGEMENT — Trade Management tools are used
to initiate, settle and record purchases and sales of holdings. Since these
assets are usually held in “street name” by a broker/dealer or
a trust company, it is imperative that all parties keep detailed records of
transactions. These tools also have the potential to shift time-consuming
tasks such as stock trading data from the busy winter season into portions
of the year that are less hectic.
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT — Portfolio Management tools
are used to periodically analyze a client’s holdings, and they can be
programmed to alert the advisor if adjustments are needed to the asset mix.
Most software for performing this critical task will also do many of the calculations
needed when rebalancing open positions.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) — CRM is
used to manage and track all correspondence associated with a customer, including
letters, e-mails, faxes and trades. Effective client interaction tools can
simplify collaboration with customers and enhance an organization’s
ability to retain and serve the challenging needs of high net worth individuals.
CLIENT ACCESS & REPORTING — These tools provide
a web-based interface for anytime, anywhere access to current investment performance
for clients. Since most small firms do not have the internal resources to
provide the necessary security and information infrastructure needed for online
reporting, this application is almost always outsourced to a third party.
ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE CAPTURE — This allows forms
to be executed with special pads like the signature pads used by many merchants,
or with digital imaging tools like Logitech’s
io digital pen and notepad technology. Such tools facilitate
the conversion of handwriting into searchable text and images that can be
layered over *.PDF versions of the documents to give an image that looks just
like a manually completed version of the document that has been scanned.

Technology