Tag Archives: TD Ameritrade

Break In – Our Platform/Vendor Merger = BIGGER and Better (Hello Schwab) … Fun Animated Chart – Best Selling Artist 1969 to Present

Break In

Earlier this week a formal announcement of our Vendor/Platform – TDAmeritrade being acquired by Charles Schwab – deal to close second half of 2020 if all goes well!

We expect no significant changes for any of us, and would add additional resources will be available to us after the merger – We have been asking for advanced Banking Services for some time… likely will be a result of the merger!

Can you hear new 1 Minute “How To” Videos in the works??

Should be fun as we always like new technologies and resources!

Now to our regularly schedule program….

These from our new friends at Data is Beautiful… we agree….

Of course there will be financial related animation to come soon…but not on Thanksgiving Week – especially after that heavy Monday Post!

Take a moment …

Its worth the watch….

Try to guess who comes up next!

 

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

 

Preview: Donald “The Brain” On Deck Speaker – History of Our Software – Annual Conference of Thousands – Travels

Mid-week, we (DC and I) travel to the West Coast for an annual gathering of thousands of our peers, along with consultants, asset firms, and as many technology firms that you could shake a stick at…. with a new cell phone (and more importantly camera and battery), twitter followers ( @johnkvale ) can check some pictures that will be posted – and of course we will have items here as well… hopefully later this week….

A History of Planning Technology

Technology allows great things as most everyone knows. Over the last several decades, the Financial Planning and Portfolio Management process has adopted technology… as has our firm.

Originally the seemingly unstoppable power of Excel continued to improve speed, make for greater accuracy, and ever detailed specifications.

As a firm, we gravitated from the powers of Excel (Once upon a time this was done with pencil and paper – we know some that still do it this way today!) on to a heavy server burdening system, then on to a slightly lighter in house/on-line system, finally to the web based/full on-line systems (each time with much heartache and heartburn.)

Enter Donald “The Brain

Donald “The Brain” On Deck this WeekDonald Capone

With an almost from scratch to modern day software background as mentioned above  – Excel to server/web/cloud systems, Donald, who has always been in charge of this, immediately understood the challenges, necessary views, and possibilities when an all-new, completely cloud based on-line system became available.

As a Beta tester, and later almost a technology consultant (offered up enhancements that were eagerly accepted) Donald has been a go-to person for our modern day software and the firm that created it!

In the spirit of helping as many as possible, Donald will be on panels during the annual conference this week helping fellow advisors understand the power, simplicity, accuracy and productivity enhancements that we utilize, much to our software providers pleasure.

It is a great honor to be asked to do this before thousands of your peers- Well Done DC!

Spirit of the Conferencemeetings-1149198__480

We know what your thinking … big party that you get to write off the expenses? Once upon a time many years ago – maybe! NOT TODAY – showing our age I guess…haha

Today, we have a working list of items to review with various providers (all of the team has been gathering wish lists and needed understanding items for the last month from each perspective), multiple meetings as soon as we hit the ground, specific questions from you guys/clients in the field on certain subject matters, as well as a full schedule of planned viewing of panels of others, that we are not specialists in!

Several years ago, while solo and a morning of too much coffee, multiple new items were agreed upon and contracts signed ( i.e. New Web site provider, other tech services). Upon return, the gang was NOT happy (sorry guys) as we tried to digest everything over the next several months… we have learned to keep things bite size, but we will certainly stay informed!

Look for an informative post on Wednesday as we travel, then likely a brief post of Friday as we make our way back home, with frequent twitter posts and likely a deluge of posts here once we get our feet back on the ground …. stay tuned – Can you tell we are excited and ready to go?

Have a Great “Inform and get informed” Day/Week!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
jkfinancialinc
street-cents

Always pushing for better… guest speaker panelist- Friday.. MLK Honored Monday

In the middle of the week, actually the same day as the Wharton Sirius Satellite Radio show, our investment clearing vendor, TDAmeritrade Institutional asked myself along with two other advisors to speak to a team of back office leaders on how to improve their customer service to you, our client, and ourselves.

Round Table Event

For almost two hours three advisors, including myself were asked to speak to a room of managers for our clearing vendor.

Here are a few of the topics:20170110_161126468_ios

  • What made you go into this business?
  • What goals do you have for your firm?
  • What fears do you have about meeting your goals?
  • How can we help you?
  • How can we do better?
  • What improvements can we make for you?

It’s always amazing to hear fellow advisors say almost the identical themes of the above. Even as our businesses are different, our goals of taking care of you the clients are the main focus.

It was a pleasure to give input to our back office team managers and help them help you ….and us! Well done!

Today is Friday and tennis in a distant town is calling… Monday, in honor of Martin Luther King day, banks will be closed, post offices, capital markets and our office as well!

Enjoy your weekend and your Friday!

Best Wishes to a SUPER good start to 2017!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

Constantly Improving …. John Invited on Panel Discussion

In an either moving forward or backward world (very difficult to just stand still) we were recently honored with an invitation to a discussion for over two hours with the top brass of our most important vendor.

Panelist in Voice of Client Discussion

We choose our vendors very carefully and are not bound in any way to a specific company. Recently we were reminded why our most important vendor, the Institutional Division of TDAmeritrade is our choice, and a golden one at that.

With a very large group (see picture) of the top folks from the Institutional side of our vendor, three planning professionals, including myself, were asked to give our opinions on what could be improved, air ANY complaints on ANY subject (GUTSY … ), and compliments as well (notice the compliments were last … continually improving.)

10-3-14 JK at TD Roundtable

John, middle, in the stuffy suit

After two hours of a very rewarding conversation and constructive criticism (not a gripe session) including direct questions from the top brass, I was reminded what a class organization our vendor is and their constant goal of improvement.

Constant improvement and superior service, align with our goals, and confirms our relationship with our vendor. We will continue to help serve YOU, the client, in a top echelon manner….. Many thanks for the invite guys … 

Later we learned this was the first such discussion, my bet is this will continue yearly from now on … Constantly Improving!

Have a Great Columbus Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

http://www.jkfinancialinc.com
http://www.street-cents.com
8222 Douglas Ave # 590
Dallas, TX 75225

Donald W. Capone III CFA… AKA “The Brain” Does it Again, In Nationwide News

Another reason we all call him the Brain !

Donald W. Capone III, in the news.

Just few minutes ago, this press release from Business Wire went out nationwide.

Here are Donald’s comments:

 “thinkpipes is much more than a trading platform and has truly become one of the most powerful tools that we leverage day-to-day,” said Donald Capone, CFA, portfolio manager at JK Financial, Inc. “If it’s being traded on the market, I no longer have to use multiple sources for historical data or quotes. It’s all right there at your fingertips in thinkpipes.”

What you don’t see is the fact that there are more than four thousand RIA’s that use TDA’s platform. When the powers of TDA were asked about utilization of the new, most technical, trading platform, (Thinkpipes) TDA went directly to Donald as a first choice to visit with due to his knowledgable of Thinkpipes.

Congrats again Donald and thanks for making such a great impression, keep up the great work!

Have a Super Day.

JK

214-706-4300

www.jkfinancialinc.com