By Rob Burgess, WealthManagement.com featuring Shane Cummings, CFP®, AIF®, Wealth Advisor, & Director of Technology/Cybersecurity
Shane Cummings, an advisor and director of technology and cybersecurity, has helped keep the $3 billion AUM firm efficient, flexible and focused on security.
I’ve been in the industry for almost 18 years, the whole time with Halbert Hargrove. I fell into it by accident. I started in the mortgage industry. That imploded early in my career. My parents are clients of Halbert Hargrove. After leaving my last job, I contacted them about rolling over a 401(k). They had some job openings for which they asked me to apply. I ended up as a financial analyst. My skillset evolved. I got my CFP. Eventually, I was working with clients. I also worked as a trader for several years. I did a stint on the investment committee. I then started specializing more in operations and IT. I was promoted to director of technology and cybersecurity, but I still work with clients.
I started in our Long Beach, Calif. headquarters. I’m a California native, but I moved to Denver in 2016, where I am now. It’s been partially remote and partially in office since COVID-19. It was fortuitous because when I moved, it helped me get everything ready for the firm to be mobile. When COVID hit, it was a smooth transition for us to work remotely. We had everything ready. Nobody needed any new training.
We use Envestnet | Tamarac for reporting, rebalancing, portfolio management and trading. Because of that, we’re using their implementation of the CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365. We’re a Microsoft shop. Tight integration is essential. We had our in-house implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Over time, we migrated into the Envestnet | Tamarac implementation. Frankly, there’s not much difference between that one and the plain, vanilla version of Microsoft Dynamics 365. I like that it’s portable. If we ever migrated from Envestnet | Tamarac, and I’m not saying we’re going to, we could always find another provider.
Financial Planning: Envestnet | MoneyGuidePro
We’re a big MoneyGuidePro shop, and it’s tightly integrated with Envestnet | Tamarac. They’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes. We’ve benefited from that and harnessed efficiencies. Ten years ago, whenever we did a MoneyGuidePro financial plan, we’d have to update the accounts manually. That could be a big time suck. With the Envestnet | Tamarac integration, you hit a button, and those holdings get pushed over to MoneyGuidePro. It refreshes everything, and in about 10 seconds, you have all the accounts up to date, which helps.
We use Envestnet | Tamarac for reporting, rebalancing, portfolio management and trading. Because of that, we’re using their implementation of the CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365. We’re a Microsoft shop. Tight integration is essential. We had our in-house implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Over time, we migrated into the Envestnet | Tamarac implementation. Frankly, there’s not much difference between that one and the plain, vanilla version of Microsoft Dynamics 365. I like that it’s portable. If we ever migrated from Envestnet | Tamarac, and I’m not saying we’re going to, we could always find another provider.
