Financial Planning - January 2013

practice

Asset Management:
8 Great iPad Apps
New tools help advisors research
investments and follow economic
news. Here are a few top picks.
By Bill Winterberg

Financial advisors want eas- ier ways to stay informed about economic news and events, andresearchinvest-ment products offered by the leading investment managers.

Many have adopted Apple’s iPad as a way to perform those tasks (and more) while on the go; December’s Financial Planning Tech Survey found that half of all advisors now own a tablet — and of those, 81% own an iPad.

In response to the trend, investment managers are now providing their own iPad apps to showcase their products and services in an engaging, interactive way.

Below is a list of free iPad apps developed by investment managers that advisors can use to touch and swipe their way through relevant news and information. The best of these offer video commentary, social media integration and interactive menus that allow users to search and filter products. One note: Apps that require proprietary subscriptions or login credentials were not included.

1. INVESCO US

One of the most visually appealing apps in the list, Invesco US includes a mutual fund finder tool, an interactive wheel to view the company’s product categories, a Twitter news feed, and written and video investment insight summaries. The app also features content from Invesco Consulting, with a variety of practice management resources targeted to financial professionals.

2. SCHWAB MOBILE

This iPad app provides periodic market updates throughout the trading day from the Schwab Center for Financial Research, as well as articles aggregated from a variety of media outlets, including Market Watch and The Associated Press.

The app is primarily for use by Schwab’s retail clients, who can use the app for banking and brokerage activity. However, advisors can get useful snapshots of each trading day from the market overview screen to help them stay updated.

3. FIDELIT Y INVESTMEN TS Like Schwab Mobile, Fidelity Investments for iPad is designed for the retail investor audience. Nevertheless, financial advisors should find the interactive menus a useful way to access market news and insights and video content from Reuters, as well as Fidelity Viewpoints, featuring opinions from Fidelity portfolio managers and more.

4. VANGUARD ADVISORS From one of the world’s largest asset managers, Vanguard Advisors’ iPad app allows advisors to quickly search among the company’s ETF and mutual fund products, read research and market commentary articles, and watch videos on a variety of content, from estate planning to global economic changes. The app also ties in the company’s real-time Twitter feed for advisors.