We recently added a new team member. Craig Julien joined us in early June to help us with our systems, operations, and IT. Craig has a couple decades of experience in the IT industry, most recently with the accounting firm EFPR Group. Accordingly, Craig knows firsthand about data security and the importance of confidentiality in the financial industry. He’s already done a great job of tweaking our systems so they are more efficient and user friendly, and we’re looking forward to some enhancements that will make electronic account access easier for our clients as well.
In fact, we’ve been working on a portal to do just that. This would be a secure website where you could log in to view dynamic reports at any point in time. Account balances, performance, asset allocation, holdings, and tax reporting would be much easier to view, without having to wait for statements to come.
Electronic account access is already available through your custodian (e.g., TD Ameritrade or Charles Schwab), but our portal will give you the ability to run different kinds of reports, including performance, which is generally not available from the custodians.
We would also likely start to upload reports to this portal rather than sending hard copies. Of course, we realize not everyone is comfortable with electronic communications, so hard copies will always be available as well. When the time comes, you can let us know which you prefer.
Speaking of preferences, it has been three years since we last did a client satisfaction survey. We’re currently working on the next one. We always like to hear your feedback on what we’re doing and how we could improve. The survey will likely be sent both electronically and via hard copy, so keep an eye out for it, and please let us know what you think. You can expect it late summer or early fall.
Finally, we’re considering moving away from semiannual billing to monthly billing. The rates for our service would stay the same. We would just bill smaller amounts each month, rather than larger amounts twice per year. The new approach would still bill in arrears, after we have provided service, but it would occur more often. This helps smooth our cashflow, which can be quite lumpy. It also should help provide greater transparency to our clients, as you will be able to look at any monthly account statement to see what your fees have been. This is still a work in process, and subject to change, so again, let us know what you think.
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