Your clients have a new tool to check up on you. On GradeMyAdvisor.com, investors create a free profile and enter their investment portfolio and their advisor. The information is secure, the site claims. They then select a benchmark that matches their risk tolerance, and the company’s software will analyze the performance of their portfolio spitting out a grade from A to D, according to how the portfolio is performing on a risk-adjusted basis. Should you be worried? Not if your clients’ portfolios are well-maintained, the allocation lines up with their risk tolerance, and your fees are not out of whack.
It seems students are finally taking notice of career opportunities in financial services, albeit in technology. American Banker reports professional 'fintech clubs' are springing up at prominent business schools around the country, including the Wharton FinTech at the University of Pennsylvania and MIT FinTech Club. The groups are primarily MBA students who bring fintech startups to campus and organize networking events. Wharton’s club, now in its second year, has 400 students on an email list and has helped place students at internships with Personal Capital, MasterCard and Apple.
The First Blockchain Price Index
While the bitcoin craze has cooled since 2014, blockchain, the technology behind digital currencies like bitcoin, is becoming one of the industry’s hottest technologies that everyone is talking about but few understand. Brave New Coin and Smartbit announced a new partnership Monday to create the world’s first price index on the blockchain. In a process they call “Market-Chaining,” financial data such as market indexes, quotes and trades will be secured on the blockchain, creating a record of transactions and feeding financial service providers with quotes, trades and settlements. Smartbit’s co-founder, Jarred Spriggs, said the biggest benefits are transparency and security, as anyone involved in a trade could use Market-Chaining to verify third parties are acting legitimately. “We can tie any number of data points in a provable and predictable fashion to the blockchain,” he told Bitcoinist.net. “Doing this gives new and existing applications the security and immutability of the blockchain, without having to create new tokens or competing chains.”
It's Easier Than Ever for Investors to Hire a Swiss Wealth Manager
The Swiss Platform Where Americans Are Welcome (WAAW) has added new features that makes it easier for U.S. investors to receive the wealth management services of Swiss advisors registered with the SEC, the company has announced. The platform has redesigned its alphabetical and regional listings, as well as added lists of when and where Swiss welath managers are participating in conferences in the U.S. or abroad. The organization also has created a "Getting Started in Switzerland" cheatsheet, newsletters with blogs, interviews and reports with Swiss welath managers and a Q&A submission form. The group also organizes visits to Switzerland, which mixes Swiss RIA meetings with sight-seeing. "Switzerland is viewed as a safer place, perhaps the safest place for one's assets," WAAW CEO Anne Liebgott said. "Americans are coming to realize that jurisdictional diversification is a prudent, forward-thinking strategy and getting started is easier than one might think. There is no need to waste time searching the Internet for the Swiss wealth managers that welcome American clients. WAAW brings them closer."
