FinovateSpring 2011 Best of Show: BancVue, BankOns, Dwolla, oFlows, Mitek, PayNearMe & Wikinvest

imageFinovateSpring 2011 is a wrap. It was an inspiring two days, with 64 demos, all with an interesting twist or two or three on the state-of-the-art.

In the end, seven were chosen by the audience as best of show, but it was a tight race. Most companies received a significant number of audience votes and piles of business cards in the networking sessions.

The FinovateSpring 2011 Best of Show winners (in alphabetic order):

  • BancVue for its youth-oriented financial game system, MoneyIsland
  • BankOns (company launch) for its mobile merchant-funded rewards system
  • Dwolla for its alternative payment service (taking root in Iowa)
  • oFlows for taking mobilizing the application process via iPad2
  • Mitek Systems for Mobile Photo Billpay, doing for paper bills what it did for checks
  • PayNearMe for enabling online bills and transfers to be paid with cash at a 7-11 store
  • Wikinvest for SigFig, a service to help users understand investment costs & alternatives

Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who presented, sponsored, attended and followed the #finovate tweets.

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.   
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on and choose 3 favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day. 
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation they demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted.” 
4. The seven companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.

BrightScope’s New Tool Shines on Financial Advisors

Last week, BrightScope launched Advisor Tool, a new and improved way to search for investment advisors.

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Twin brothers Mike and Ryan Alfred founded BrightScope in 2007 with a goal to “bring transparency to opaque markets.” It accomplishes this through two free services:

  • A tool that allows users to view the ratings and rankings of public-company retirement plans (401ks) accessed through a public database.
  • The new Advisor Tool, which provides key info for selecting an advisor such as experience, fees, and average account balance.

Here’s how Advisor Tool works:

  1. Decide: Choose to search for an individual advisor or firm
  2. Set parameters: Enter what you’re looking for, such as the advisor’s name, city or state, the value of assets, and so on (see inset below).
  3. Compare: The results include basic info: location, qualifications, area of specialty, client types and more detailed data such as legal disputes, formal complaints, cost of services, and a list of exams passed.  
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Advisor Tool Features

It allows you to compare and contrast the following characteristics of up to three advisors at a time:

  • Type of registration held
  • Current employer
  • Dollar value of the assets under management
  • Average account balance
  • Primary client type
  • Years of experience
  • Fees the advisor charges
  • SEC & FINRA disputes

Results can be filtered by the following criteria:

  • Number of assets
  • Average account balance
  • Current employer
  • Client types

Analysis

Besides sitting down with a phone book, asking Aunt Laura, or Googling financial advisors, users can search directly through the FINRA and the SEC databases. However, both have been described as “clunky” and “needlessly complex.” BrightScope brings web 2.0 search and discovery to this important area.

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While the tool is powerful, it is not without limitations. The results are only as good as the sources of information used, primarily Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) BrokerCheck database and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) investment advisor database. 

But as advisors upgrade their listings, for a fee, with photos and other detailed information,

search results will prove even more useful. BrightScope expects to be one of the most effective marketing tools available to advisors. 

And BrightScope has ambitions beyond investment advisors. It’s already working on a similar service for insurance agents that should be available later this year.
Search results allow for a quick view of advisor info (5 May 2011)

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