Advisors who work with FocusPoint immediately have access to what we believe is the best integrated, non—proprietary, intuitive software package available—at an extreme discount. We call it OASIS (Online Advisor System Integrated Seamlessly).
This includes contact management, portfolio performance reporting, form filling, SEC—compliant scanning, risk profiling, and investment policy generation software, plus all nightly/weekly backups and DVDs burned quarterly.
With an Internet connection, you can view all client files, including scanned—in documents, daily market values, and every activity you, your staff, and your FocusPoint back office team has ever done for/with a client.
We feel strongly that when it comes an advisor's virtual office, what's paramount is that all software is seamlessly integrated and talks to everything else.
One strategic decision we've made is not to incorporate any financial planning software into our systems. This is because we have found that most every advisor has a slightly different planning process. We suspect that, like most advisors we support—including our founder—you are fiercely independent. That's why we will never dictate how you communicate with or service your clients. On a similar note, we have created systems which can work with just about any planning software or process you've chosen as best for you and your business.
“I remember vividly realizing I needed to make a change when I had a new client who had transferred over from a friend of mine. The prior advisor hadn’t had his eye on the business in the last year or so he was a broker. My new client owned some extremely poorly rated bond funds by that point—no matter which rating system you use—and I wanted to switch those out for a couple other much more reputable funds. When everything was said and done, I received an email from my IBD’s compliance department wondering how on earth I could have justified transferring from one bond fund to another. Rather than sending something back with some basic reasoning, I put together a 5-page email. In it I explained thoroughly my planning and review process, that if you took any time to look at things you would see the justification.
Don’t get me wrong—it wasn’t the compliance department at my IBD—it was the compliance environment everywhere. In my view, everything someone did to generate a commission, unless it was coming from cash, was questioned.”
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