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Financial advisors have a tough job. Not only must they balance the various needs of their customers, but they also must produce returns to keep pace with the market, market their businesses, and make sure routine tasks like bookkeeping and accounting are handled. That's a lot of hats that individual advisors have to wear. Thankfully technology is making handling these tasks much easier. There are many tools in the market to help financial advisors and investment consultants manage their businesses better. In no particular order, here are the most important types of tools a financial advisory practice must have. Invoice automation Invoicing and accounting are basic business tasks that can often seem impossible to execute efficiently. Running a business' operations consumes a lot of time. Preparing invoices, sending them, handling disputes, and making sure cash is deposited can turn into huge headaches if not handled well. Technology has changed invoicing and accounting these days. Everything from free invoice templates to automated bank transfers helps financial advisors ease the task of collecting payment. In addition, by automating many of these tasks, financial advisors can spend less time on clerical work and more time on value-added tasks that boost business bottom lines. Marketing suite Financial advisors who have been in business for a long time tend to neglect modern-day marketing suites. Their vast client base and many years in the business help them preserve business. However, newer advisors have to rely on new-age marketing tools that can help them spot opportunities. Professionals who do not have a strong presence across social media and the internet cannot hope to compete in today's marketplace. Managing all of these platforms individually can be tough. For instance, scheduling social media posts and manually posting them on platforms takes valuable time that could have been used to engage clients. Social and content marketing suites help advisors pinpoint the most common questions customers have about investment products. This allows them to disseminate helpful content and attract a wide audience to their digital assets. The result is a strong customer pipeline and great referrals. Advisor registry services A financial advisor lives and dies by their reputation. To this effect, many registry services offer consumers help in identifying the right advisor for them. While these services won't guarantee a steady stream of clients all by themselves, they do boost an advisor's online reputation. Most registry services have screening criteria that put an advisor's abilities to the test. Upon passing these tests, an advisor can rest assured that they've received a rubber stamp of approval that consumers can trust. In addition, the seal of authority also boosts an advisor's online reputation and search position rankings, assuming they create helpful and timely content. Cloud storage Storage is one of the last things an advisor thinks of when planning their business. Most advisors assume they'll store documents and reports locally and send copies of them via email. These methods are surefire ways of prompting data loss and hacks. Financial advisors handle a ton of sensitive client data and cannot afford to ignore basic data security measures. Outsourcing storage to a cloud provider is one of the easiest ways to assure clients of maximum security. Cloud providers invest resources into ensuring their services are safe and backed up at all times. The result is advisors don't have to invest in IT resources and can simply outsource these functions to service providers who specialize in them. This in turn frees up time for advisors to focus on their core business. There are many cloud storage options, both free and paid. Most of them allow users to quickly scan and upload documents for free while converting all documents to different file formats at the click of a button. Portfolio management suite As an advisor's business grows, disseminating portfolio information and returns projections becomes tough. When an advisor has a handful of clients they can send reports manually without wasting too much time. However, a large client base is best served by providing them access to a single platform that gives them all the information they need. Portfolio management suites simplify this task for advisors. Financial advisors can create secure access portals for their clients to log in and view portfolio-level data easily. They can view asset allocation, change asset allocation numbers and mandates, and even ask their advisor questions. On the back end, portfolio advisors can re balance their portfolio allocations by mandate-level goals with a single click instead of wading through individual accounts. This makes portfolio administration a breeze and frees more time for research and marketing. Financial estimators These invaluable calculators help financial planners create reports they can present clients with. Every client has goals in mind, and financial advisors can input data into these estimators to illustrate the effects of various portfolio choices. For instance, a retirement calculator can help a client figure out how much they need to set aside monthly to hit their savings goals. All of these tools help financial advisors serve their clients better and maintain a top-notch business. Best of all, they free up time for advisors to manage their marketing and sales processes, thereby boosting their reputation in the long run.