Here's a statistic that should get every advisor's attention.
"If there is no technology integration in an advisor's office, they'll typically spend only 13% to 18% of their time with clients," says Chris Valleley, a senior product manager with TD Ameritrade Institutional. "If they are integrated that number quickly moves to 50% of their time spent with clients."
Valleley spoke with AdvisorOne on Thursday at the company's annual conference in San Diego, and noted, "We're going to keep the momentum up and continue to have an incredibly strong commitment to technology."
"Advisors need to stay efficient and technology is driving efficiency in the office. It frees the advisor's time in order to meet with prospects and existing clients," he added. "It's something that the advisors are asking for. They know they need to spend more time of clients and prospects; they just need help in being able to do so."
Commenting on the announcement by TDAI CEO Tom Nally earlier in the day that the company's rebalancing technology, called iRebal, will now be available at no extra charge on the VEO platform, Valleley said the RIAs and advisors TDAI works with now have "a state-of-the-art rebalancing tool that is completely integrated with VEO data."
"We are also concentrating on building out and working with third party vendors," he added. "My team has 12 to 15 vendor meetings per week. We're looking at new vendors to make sure we offer best-of-breed, but we're also going back and looking at our existing vendors and how their services can be more efficiently delivered on our platform."
The iRebal announcement covers the following versions:
iRebal on Veo
A web-based portfolio rebalancing solution leveraging the features and functionality of iRebal's desktop solution. One-click access through TD Ameritrade Institutional's Veo advisor platform allows for more efficient processing of trades, saving advisors time and eliminating the need to translate data between multiple, disconnected platforms.
Pricing: Available at no cost to advisors on client accounts custodied with TD Ameritrade Institutional
