AdvisorCentral Views 2005 as The Year of The Advisor.BOSTON -- President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Harry Groom Outlines Plans to Enhance Site's Value for Users AdvisorCentral, a business-building portal for financial advisors and broker/dealers, will make 2005 "The Year of the Advisor" as it moves forward with new development plans. To help advisors better manage their book of business, AdvisorCentral will roll out several site enhancements in the first half of this year. In addition, the organization is actively pursuing creation of new products in conjunction with financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. partners. "Three years ago, AdvisorCentral was launched through a joint partnership of four financial services powerhouses who were looking to create a new standard for serving advisors over the Web. Today, we have become an indispensable resource for financial planners Financial Planner A qualified investment professional who assists individuals and corporations meet their long-term financial objectives by analyzing the client's status and setting a program to achieve these goals. and advisors, and represent an important asset and opportunity for financial product providers," said Harry Groom, President and CEO. Inaugurating The Year of the Advisor A top 2005 priority for AdvisorCentral is adding more client data, services and products to the site. As a first step, AdvisorCentral has recently enhanced the site's search capabilities--making it easy for advisors and branch managers to access their entire book of business with just one click. Based on input from focus group and phone surveys, AdvisorCentral will be adding services to help reps proactively manage their clients' accounts, such as client portfolio views with house-holding capabilities, account activity and price alerts, annuity information, and 529 transaction capabilities. "Advisors tell us they depend heavily on AdvisorCentral for the latest mutual fund and 529 plan account positions and detailed account information that they can't get through their own broker/dealer systems," Mr. Groom noted. "We want to build on our core platform of data delivery to make it even more useful for advisors." Opening New Revenue Streams for the Financial Community At the same time, AdvisorCentral is pursuing opportunities with potential distribution partners wanting to leverage its ever-expanding base of more than 100,000 advisors, as well as its technology platform. A recent survey of AdvisorCentral users revealed that over 90 percent are licensed to sell insurance products, over 80 percent advise executives at growing companies, and more than 70 percent provide estate planning Estate Planning The overall planning of a person's wealth, including the preparation of a will and the planning of taxes after the individual's death. Notes: Contrary to popular belief, estate planning involves much more than preparing a will, and it is not only for the services. "Our advisor base is a growing asset that provides market opportunities for financial product providers," said Mr. Groom. "It is not only an ideal platform for communicating data, but it is valuable for other companies wanting to distribute prepackaged pre·pack·age tr.v. pre·pack·aged, pre·pack·ag·ing, pre·pack·ag·es To wrap or package (a product) before marketing. Adj. 1. software and services." Building on 2004 Milestones AdvisorCentral's initiatives for 2005 build on several 2004 milestones for the site. Last year, for instance: --Advisor enrollments surpassed 100,000.In fact, since the site launched three years ago, users have grown more than 600 percent. --Monthly usage topped 3 million hits. --AdvisorCentral mass-enrolled reps from more than 20 independent broker/dealer firms. --Users from 1,100 broker/dealers relied on AdvisorCentral for their day-to-day business. --The site launched a new College Planning Center with Savingforcollege.com, set to become the most comprehensive 529 plan resource in the industry. --AdvisorCentral also introduced its Business-Building Center based on strategic alliances with Financial Research Corporation (providing market data for advisors), and WiserAdvisor.com (providing advisors with high-quality leads). --AdvisorCentral completed development of single sign-on An identification system that lets users log into multiple Web sites on the Internet with one username and password. Single sign-on systems are also used within an enterprise, enabling users to access all authorized resources in the local network using the same username and password. capability for seamless integration An addition of a new application, routine or device that works smoothly with the existing system. It implies that the new feature or program can be installed and used without problems. Contrast with "transparent," which implies that there is no discernible change after installation. with broker/dealer desktops. --The site also began a pilot program for annuity inquiries. About AdvisorCentral AdvisorCentral (advisorcentral.com) serves as a core business-building portal for financial advisors and broker-dealers--providing indispensable information and access to commentary, research, and workplace resources. Leveraging industry-standard technologies for ease of use, AdvisorCentral provides advisors with consolidated views of their clients' mutual fund and 529 plan holdings across all participating companies and receives more than 3 million monthly queries. While features may vary by company, AdvisorCentral offers a range of additional capabilities such as the ability to make purchases, exchanges and redemptions; view detailed historical transactions; calculate contingent deferred sales charges Contingent deferred sales charge (CDSC) The formal name for the load of a back-end load fund. contingent deferred sales charge A mutual fund redemption fee that is reduced or eliminated for specified holding periods. ; and directly link to participating companies' Web sites. AdvisorCentral has more than 102,000 registered users and services more than 1,100 independent broker/dealers. AdvisorCentral LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control was formed through the vision of Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments is a group of privately held companies in the financial services industry. It is made up by two independent but closely cooperating companies, Fidelity Management and Research Corporation (FMR Co. , Franklin Templeton Investors Services, Inc., Putnam Investments Putnam Investments was founded in 1937 by George Putnam. At the same time, he founded its first mutual fund offering, The George Putnam Fund of Boston.[1] Putnam has offices in London and Tokyo, and its headquarters is located in Boston, Massachusetts. and PFPC PFPC Professional Financial Planning Course (Canadian Securities Institute) Inc, a member of the PNC Financial Services PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC) is a U.S.-based financial services corporation, with assets of $92.0 billion. PNC operations include a regional banking franchise operating primarily in eight states and the District of Columbia, specialized financial businesses serving Group, Inc. Editors and reporters seeking interviews with AdvisorCentral should contact Dawn Ringel, Warner Communications, at 781-449-8456 or dawn@warnerpr.com. |
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