99 Designs hosts graphic design contests for companies looking for logos, web site design, and print design. A company creates a “contest” that describes what they’re looking for and the dollar amount of the “prize”. Then designers, who track the site, begin submitting designs for the company to rank and comment on. The number of designs submitted depends on the amount of the prize and whether designers find your concept interesting enough to design for. The prizes typically range from $200-500, with the site record being $5,000.

I was a bit skeptical about the contest model, until I started poking around the site and looking at some of the logos that won. They are *really* good. Here are some examples:
                  

I was so impressed with the results, I created a contest for FinFolio. I made our current logo and had been planning on having one professionally designed. You can track our logo contest here. I set the prize at $350, and stressed creativity and originality. It’s a seven day contest so I’ll post the winning logo here next week.

Did you know you can pay for portfolio management software using 12b-1 fees? The quarterly performance reports are, after all, an important component of the ongoing marketing effort to retain your clients. Yeah, I never quite bought that explanation either, but every software company where I’ve been employed had some portion of their revenue coming from advisors using their mutual funds’ 12b-1 fees.

Apparently this is about to change. The SEC is going to revamp the 12b-1 fee structure. From an article in Investment Advisor Magazine:

Eight months after holding a roundtable discussion on its Rule 12b-1, the SEC is planning a “complete overhaul” of the rule, according to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Yes, “complete overhaul” are the words Cox used in a speech on February 8 at the SEC Speaks conference in Washington. Cox said that Buddy Donohue, head of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, is preparing to issue a formal rule proposal sometime this spring.

While the SEC has divulged few details about the changes that are in store, industry officials doubt that any rule would get passed this year since the SEC is down two commissioners and the length of Cox’s stay at the Commission is questionable. But these officials are providing educated guesses about what modifications may be likely.

Excellent article. I’ve long thought this was a fairly straightforward problem, and I’m glad to see it being fixed.

There’s a conference in San Francisco called Finovate where all the big financial startup players will be demoing their products. FinFolio won’t be attending as we’re in too specific of a vertical niche for this to be valuable. (Nor do we have a demoable product yet.) But it is a great roundup of all the interesting financial startups out there, including Prosper, who I’ve blogged about before. The products are exclusively targeted at investors–it’s amazing how many options investors have now, and how many of them are better than those available to professional advisors.

Already 40 leading startups have committed to demoing their products (no PowerPoint allowed) including: Andera, Aradiom, Authentium, Boulevard R., Buxfer, Cake Financial, CAPS, ClairMail, Credit Karma, Confident Technologies, Diversinet, Expensr, First ROI, FindABetterBank, Guard ID, Guardian Analytics, Inversa, IP Commerce, Jwaala, Loanio, Mint, Prosper, SmartyPig, SmartHippo, SimpleTuition, SocialPicks, TradeKing, TrustedID, Tyfone,VaultStreet, Vestopia,Wesabe, Wonga, WorkLight, Zecco and 4 more still in stealth.

I’m tempted to see if my WealthFly blogger status could get me a press pass, but I’m so swamped with FinFolio and life in general right now, I don’t even have time for a short boondoggle.

It’s less of an endorsement and more of a desperate plea for Hillary to just go home. After going on record disagreeing with both candidates’ opposition to liberal trade, the Times claims the candidates’ “differences on policy look small and in reality are even smaller.” The Financial Times also recognizes Obama’s great oratory ability and Clinton’s lack of similar ability, calling her speaking style “grating.” Lastly, they point out that her campaign has been “a shambles,” which “does tell you something, especially if [Clinton] is running on a claim of management expertise.”

From the article:

After Tuesday’s vote, the Democrats should move quickly to affirm Mr Obama’s nomination. That is not just because his lead in elected delegates is already unassailable and the contest should be brought to a swift conclusion. It is also because he is, in fact, the better candidate.

The Democratic party has waited an awfully long time for a politician like Barack Obama. Enough already.

Ouch.

Joel Bruckenstein takes a skeptical look at Adhesion’s WealthADV platform over on Morningstar Advisor. It’s an interesting offering, but isn’t a generic portfolio management system and it requires you partially buy in to their account management philosophy, which focuses on UMAs. They network into various money managers who can manage specific accounts for you.

WealthADV is not a portfolio management system like Axys or PortfolioCenter. In fact, they’re actually using PortfolioCenter behind the scenes to run the platform:

Adhesion Technologies has made some astute decisions with regard to their portfolio accounting and performance reporting. They use Schwab’s PortfolioCenter for portfolio accounting (for example tracking tax lots) but they calculate performance using their own proprietary performance engine. “This is one of their competitive advantages”, says Gardner. Why?  Well, first of all, one of the major impediments to changing portfolio accounting systems is the data conversion. If an advisor currently using PortfolioCenter in-house wants to switch to an outsource provider that uses some other application, the conversion process will require time and an additional outlay. A move from PortfolioCenter to WealthADV does not require a conversion since Wealth ADV already uses PortfolioCenter. Since PortfolioCenter is probably the most widely used portfolio management and accounting system among Adhesion prospects, compatibility with PortfolioCenter is a big plus.

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I haven’t seen this in print anywhere, but I’ve heard that Albridge sold for around $350 million. Advent’s current market cap is $1,150 million.

Wow.

I created a meta-page for tracking all the players in the “wealth management blogosphere”. You can see it here, or click on the link in the sidebar. Please let me know if I’m missing anything.