What Companies Are Doing

New Institutional Platform
PENSCO Trust Company is introducing a new institutional platform for advisors. Here, a company executive, Rob Spalding explains it to a financial advisor at a recent three-chapter FPA symposium in Connecticut. Its key features:
• Dedicated relationship manager for your firm;
• Integration of client data into your preferred client portfolio management system;
• Consolidated institutional reporting designed to suit advisors’ needs, including an annual asset valuation worksheet, monthly asset maturities and comprehensive fee management reports.
• Secure interactive web portal for both accessing client data and transmitting confidential documents;
• Bulk processing of transaction entries through pre-defined formats and
• Customized education on self-directed IRAs and alternative investments along with training on PENSCO’s forms and logistics.
For more info, attend PENSCO’s Alternative Investment Seminar, June 10-11 in Boston. (See Big Events, page 16) Call experts on new institutional platform at (866) 818-4472: Ron Spalding is at x5707
(rob.spalding@pensco.com) and Michael Scott at x5701.

Encrypted and Secure Email
ePostal Services, Inc. is telling the world that your email is the easiest of targets to hijack, read and change. So, today’s Internet email with confidential personal and business information must be encrypted and secured. Here, ePostal Services President Jon Gardiner (r) explains all this to financial planner Robert Danzig and shows how his firm, with its unique patented two-way delivery service, can accomplish this “better, easier and less expensive” than other email solutions and hard-copy delivery services. ePostal recently announced expansions of its services to:
• Allow clients to encrypt for storage any email sent or received using the ePostal system. . . and
• Support clients who move to Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. Previously, it has supported Microsoft’s Outlook 2003 and 2007 working with Windows XP and Vista. The company’s patented technology is also expandable to other email applications and operating systems.
ePostal’s website is www.ePostalServices.com Phone for the company, based in Stamford, CT is (203) 461-9955. President Gardner’s cell is (203) 561-2458 and email: JSG@ePostalServices.com
Danzig, the FPA member at left, is on the New York chapter’s Sponsorship committee.

Tax Planning Guide
YSL & Associates, Manhattan certified public accountants, distributed a comprehensive pocket-size 2010 Tax Planning Guide at the recent spring forum of the FPA’s New York chapter. It suggests a number of strategies you might recommend to help lower clients’ federal income tax liability. For a copy, contact one of the firm’s partners, Susan Li, CPA, MBA, at (212) 232-0122 (susanli@yslcpa.com). Here, Li (r) and an associate, confer with Betty Robbins. CFP, a Manhattan financial planner. The YSL website is www.yslcpa.com

‘Nuclear’ Practice Management Software
ProTracker Software President Warren Mackensen, CFP®, was a nuclear submariner who surfaced to become a financial advisor and develop his own client relationship and practice management software. His work was revolutionary and led to the founding of his New Hampshire firm, whose product provides fast navigation and an intuitive graphical user interface. Here, Mackensen explains his ProTracker Advantage to UBS Investments Vice President Michelle Lavigne, CFP®, at the recent three-chapter Connecticut FPA symposium. ProTracker Advantage includes features most often requested by financial advisors:
• Built-in online help for every screen and every field;
• Downloadable 4-part training.
• 30-day trial license; and
• Enhancement updates.
Mackensen’s email is warren@protracker.com. Sales and marketing officer Barbara Hoffman is at barbara@protracker.com. The company phone is (603) 926-8085 and website is www.protracker.com

Million Dollar Bills
Merit Insurance Services President Jace Rosenbluth (l) distributes “million dollar bills” to dramatize the benefits his full service brokerage agency can bring to advisor clients through long-term care insurance. Getting the message at the recent three-chapter FPA symposium in Connecticut is Christopher Murtha, a rep of Howard Financial Corp. of West Hartford and co-chair of the symposium. Rosenbluth says long-term care insurance sales are “poised for their greatest growth ever” because of:
• An aging population;
• Wealthier elderly;
• People living longer;
• Tax advantages. . .and
• Coverage gaps resulting from Medicare and Medicare supplement policies paying little, if any, benefits for custodial care.
Merit Insurance Services of West Hartford, CT, specializes in LTC insurance and is an affiliate of CPS Insurance Services. Rosenbluth can be reached at
(860) 233-3626. Merit’s website is www.meritins.com

Combating Compliance Costs
Accelerated Information Systems of Hicksville, LI, a leading reseller for Laserfiche, says it has the answer for small to midsize advisory firms facing more oversight and higher compliance costs resulting from Wall Street abuses. It is the Laserfiche Avante, an affordable business process management system that fully integrates document management with other office systems. Here, Accelerated’s Chris Franzino (r) and Seth Goldberg (c) describe the system for Manhattan Investment Advisor Tom Leswing at the FPA/NYC spring forum. Laserfiche, one of the leading providers of document management software to financial professionals, believes there has never been a better time to invest in technology because of the growing challenge to control expenses. Accelerated Information Systems can be reached at (516) 822-4466. Its website is: www.aisww.com

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