TFA Adds Last Piece of Paperless Platform
Advisory firm adding e-signature functionality to paperwork automation system
March 31, 2008
Transamerica Financial Advisors (TFA) is offering its brokers and advisers the tools to create a completely electronic office, from signing documents to managing them through the approval process. But while the TFA Synergy platform--possibly the first such service from a brokerage catering to independent contractors--saves resources and provides a solution for forthcoming variable annuity reporting requirements, it doesn't mean paper is disappearing anytime soon.
For financial advisory services, the paperless office represents a major change. "After 20 years in the business, I can't recall anything that's gotten me so excited," said Joe Brinker, president of Havertown, Pa.-based Brinker Organization and supervisor for 20 independent contractor affiliates of TFA.
Brinker and his advisers use the platform for imaging, document management and workflow, new accounts, and compliance functionality, including a tool that automatically provides documents for specific transactions.
In the coming weeks, he anticipates adding the e-signatures component--the newest part of the system--which lets customers sign electronic documents much like a credit-card signature pad in the supermarket. Camarillo, Calif.-based Interlink Electronics is providing the functionality, which is in beta-testing with ten users located close to the vendor.
Currently, the advisers Brinker supervises scan signed documents into TFA Synergy, which ensures they are completed properly and places them in an electronic queue for his approval. When Brinker signs off on them, often within minutes--even for reps across the country--the advisers can print and send copies to the financial product providers either overnight or by standard mail.
Paperless Push
Other brokerages supporting independent advisers and reps are also moving to automate paperwork processing. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. subsidiary Pershing, which clears Los Angeles-based Transamerica's brokerage business, is testing such a platform--including e-signatures--and plans to roll it out to adviser customers in June. Raymond James & Associates and Charles Schwab & Co. have offered some electronic functionality for several years.
For reps and supervisors, automating operations and customer services means less time spent mailing packages, updating files and correcting incomplete or incorrect manual applications. Brinker said TFA Synergy saves him ten hours a week, which he can devote to product activities, and cuts down on the staffing costs for administrative tasks.
Anthony Petsis, principal of Anthony Petsis & Associates, another Transamerica affiliate, said that prior to automating his office he had a full-time employee dedicated to paperwork and a 20-hour-a-week part-timer who updated files. "If a client called in asking whether we had done a beneficiary designation change we had talked about, we had to put the client on hold and go down and get the file," said Petsis. "Now we pull up an imaged copy of the change form and see it's been countersigned. And we can see when we last spoke to the client and whether it may be time to talk again."
Another major source of savings is office space. Petsis plans to empty his 1,200 square foot basement, currently filled with files, by converting paper documents into electronic files, which he estimates will take a year of devoted effort. That task may ultimately make the paperless office easier to wish for than achieve, at least for preexisting business.
"The advisers are all independent, so the brokerage can't really make everybody switch," said Adam Honore, analyst at Boston-based Aite Group. "When you look at those stacks of file cabinets, nobody is overly excited about doing the back work."
