Yes. Advisor Products offers a PDF-only Custom Newsletter option. For more information, please contact sales@advisorproducts.com.

The storage amount for each client can be set by the advisor when each client vault is created, unless performing a bulk client creation.

When using bulk client creation, all clients will share the available Vault storage space (which is 2000 MB with performance reporting capabilities, and 3000 MB if it does include performance reporting capabilities.)

1) Via the BackOffice, in the text editor, add the text you want to hyperlink (example: Who We Are) and then select it with your mouse. Click on the tool in the 3rd row, second section (looks like 3 chain links) and a pop-up window will appear.

We’ll use this URL as an example:
http://sample1.advisorsites.com/whoweare.aspx?spid=3841&Title=Who We Are1

2) Remove everything at the beginning of the URL, up to and including .com (http://sample1.advisorsites.com)
3) Before the remaining URL /whoweare.aspx?spid=3841&Title=Who We Are1 add two periods: ..
4) The remaining URL will look like this: ../whoweare.aspx?spid=3841&Title=Who We Are1
5) Then click “ok” at the bottom of the page

When the site goes live, the internal links will then remain, connecting to the correct pages. The link will also work if the firm ever changes the main URL of your site.

In the admin menu at left, the “Visual Settings” tab can be used to create a style sheet for all of the content on the site (fonts, colors, sizes, etc.) Then, using the text editor for each page, in the top row of tools, the sixth graphic is of a whisk broom which can be used to strip out any formatting using the Font, Span, and Word options in the pop-up box. Once this is used for the content on each page of the site, any content imported into the site will match the established style settings.

Once the external formatting has been removed, the text can be reviewed and ensured it is laid out correctly in the text editor.

The default “viewing” font in the BackOffice is 10 pt Arial – however the style sheet will ensure the fonts appear correctly on the live site.

Using the text editor, right-clicking on the images you have placed into the site, and at the bottom of the pop-up menu is "image properties" - select this option.

Another pop-up box will appear which will allow for formatting of image placement, size, borders, spacing, alignment, etc. to ensure the image appears correctly and to your satisfaction. If you are uploading new images to your website, know that the size of the image file will affect how fast that page on your site will load. Photo files from most digital cameras are very very large (3-5 megabyte) and should be reduced to less than 75-100k prior to uploading them. Reducing the pixel dimensions of the image to the size needed on the website is a good way to start. You can also use this online service, www.imageoptimizer.net but you may have to experiment a little to see which quality level works best for the photo. If you need help reducing the size of the photo file, please contact service@advisorproducts.com and someone can help you.

Yes.

To begin, you’ll need to set-up an account with Google at http://www.google.com/analytics/ and placed into each content page of your site via the ‘Edit Properties’ tool in the navigation column at left in the BackOffice. Alternately, you can provide the corresponding code to our developers (service@advisorproducts.com) and they'll add it using your annual service time.

On custom websites, our developers can add the code to the master file for the entire site which will track visits to every page of the site.

Additional instructions can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/AdvisorProducts/seo-google-analytics

Featured News Page
Exclusive in-depth personal finance news articles about cutting edge planning strategies and investment ideas for people like you.

Financial Briefs Page
Financial articles which are prepared each month in an easy-to-read format covering a variety of topics.

Articles of Interest Page
Articles which are gathered from across the web covering a wide range of topics we feel can be useful to your current state of financial affairs.

Financial Calculators Page
25 Java-based financial calculators which calculate various scenarios to help you consider options for your financial plans.

Market Data Bank Page
Six charts using Standard and Poor's data offering an in-depth graphical view of performance in the previous quarter and valuation measures.

Stock Quotes Page
Stock quotes and indices, market and stock news, UPI, US, world, and business news, updated throughout the day.

Web Links Page
A selection of external websites which may be useful for your investments and financial planning.

Check My Account Page
This is the gateway to your account information hosted by our custodian.

In the contract you signed with Advisor Products when purchasing the Vault, the topic of liability is addressed, outlining the responsibility and role of Advisor Products. We recommend reviewing that information and contacting us if you have any further questions.

In the event of a system breach, we will notify you and, with your assistance send the proper notification to your clients. We will also notify the appropriate authorities, if required. We recommend that you contact your legal advisor and determine what precautions and contingency plans need to be in place for your clients’ records.

Website archiving allows your firm to keep copies of every page on your site in .html format.

For websites on the platinum level, archiving is automatically turned on at the launch of your website.

For websites with gold licenses, archiving your website must be done manually through the website BackOffice. We recommend that the created .zip file of your site be saved to your local system.

For websites on silver licenses, archiving is not available. To purchase, please contact our marketing team at 516-333-0066 x 223.

For firms associated with compliance using our BackOffice compliance engine and sites with Platinum licensing, archiving occurs automatically every time changes are made to the site. An automated email is sent to you when the Archive .zip file is ready for download via the BackOffice.

Storage of the archive files is kept on Advisor Products' servers as a courtesy for at least the past three (3) months. Storage beyond three months is not guaranteed, and is dependent on overall storage capacity of our servers. Access to files after three months will incur a service fee.

Website archiving can also be manually scheduled via the BackOffice for routine archiving which can serve as a system restore for your site to ensure the site is preserved at particular time points.

Advisor Products recommends downloading the archived files via the BackOffice on at least a quarterly basis, to ensure your firm has proper back-up files of the site.

You may want to check with your compliance officer and/or legal advisor on storage requirements and frequency of updating archive files.

If you encounter any difficulties with the archiving process or have further questions, please contact our service team at service@advisorproducts.com

Yes. HOWEVER, please note that all videos can only be uploaded to content areas. Videos cannot be uploaded to banners in either website.

Yes. We will be unveiling new design motiffs in the coming months. For more information please contact your project manager, or advisor products at 516-333-0066.

It should take no more than 24hs for your website to go live once the okay is given to Advisor Products. If your website needs to be reviewed by compliance, please allow for 3-5 business days as API cannot take your website live before compliance approval has been made.

No. If your firm does not sell or endorse a paticular product (i.e. Annuities or Insurance), API will send you, at no additional cost, alternate articles to select from.

Video files up to 25mb can be added to the content area via the BackOffice.

For larger files, you can submit them to our developers (service@advisorproducts.com) and they will upload the file using a portion of your annual service time.

While logged in as the Advisor Admin account, you can create clients in bulk through Manage Clients > Bulk Client Creation. Download and save a local copy of the Excel template to your computer. Following the instructions on the first sheet in the file, enter up to 150 new clients into the BulkClient sheet. After the file has been populated with the account information for your clients, select the Excel file in the Bulk Client Creation screen to upload it to our server. All bulk client uploads are processed overnight and e-mail notification is sent to the Advisor Admin letting them know of all successful client creations. In the case of any errors, you will be notified and the accounts may not have been created. Please address the errors and re-upload a new bulk client Excel file to be processed or contact Advisor Products for assistance.

If the Excel file was uploaded on the same day, please wait until overnight for the file to be processed and an e-mail notification will be delivered to the Advisor Admin account. Other possible reasons why a client may not be created using the Bulk Client Creation are the following: 1) The Advisor Field must be populated with the Advisor's username. If the AdvisorVault cannot find a valid Advisor account based on the provided username, it will not be able to create and associate the new client account. 2) Required fields were not populated. Not all fields are required but information like the client's E-mail address must be included. 3) Special characters were used in the new client's username.

The Investments directory is a special reserved folder used by the AdvisorVault for our Performance Reporting module. If you have not added the Performance Reporting module to your Vault, the Investments directory may be deleted from the Template Folder structure similar to deleting any other folders under Modify Template Folders. We have recently added the ability to remove the Investments directory from your Template Folder structure as well as from all client's Vaults if it is not being used. Please contact us at service@advisorproducts.com for assistance. If the Performance Reporting module has been enabled for your Vault, this folder cannot be deleted and must remain including its two sub folders (Portfolio and Portfolio_XML_Reports). Any PDF reports uploaded using this module must be placed within the folder Portfolio or a respective sub folder. All XML reports will automatically be placed within the client's Vault under Portfolio_XML_Reports.

The Portfolio_XML_Reports directory is used by our Performance Reporting Module. Any XML dynamic reports uploaded to the Vault will utilize this directory in each respective client's Vault to store their account information and reports. The directory is not visible to the client as the data stored is instead displayed as graphs and charts under Portfolio Reports.

After a client Vault has been created using the Template Folder structure, it can be customized independently from the Template Folder and any other client Vaults. Simply find the respective client's Vault under Documents and the Advisor's username that it is associated with. All client Vaults will be listed by their username. Any directories added or removed will only apply to that individual client's Vault. For this reason since all clients may have unique and customized Vault folder structures, it is not possible to remove a folder in bulk. As a precaution, when creating clients using the Template Folder structure, make sure it has been reviewed and finalized first.

Yes, please contact Advisor Products with the e-mail address that you would like to use. We will add it to your Vault so that any non-password e-mails will CC the address provided which can be used for archival purposes.

The AdvisorVault is programmed around a one to one relationship between Advisor and Client accounts. Each client must be assigned to an Advisor when created but this relationship can be reassigned at a later time. This was primarily built upon a system where each Advisor within a firm works with their own individual groups of clients. In this scenario, each Advisor can be created with their own account and clients will be assigned respectively. If however clients do not have assigned Advisors and instead work from a pool of Advisors from your firm, it is recommended to create a single Advisor account on behalf of the firm. All clients can then be assigned to that Advisor which all Advisors would access. This is a very important step when setting up and configuring your Vault so please feel free to contact us at Advisor Products to discuss this further.

Each client Vault can only include a single e-mail address for security purposes. If additional e-mail addresses need to be configured for notifications, we recommend setting up a distribution list, or an e-mail address that can forward any e-mails from the Vault to additional addresses that you want to use.

When creating new client accounts, you will need to determine a naming convention that can be used so that each account is recognizable and easy for your client to use. Some typical conventions used as follows: Full Name: John Smith jsmith johnsmith johns Naming Restrictions: Any special characters except underscore( _ ) cannot be used. The period or space character cannot be used. The username cannot begin or end with an underscore ( _ ) .

All file types can be uploaded to the Vault as long as it is less than approximately 25mb in side. If there are issues opening files directly from the Vault, you can also compress and Zip the file before uploading. When uploading .mp3 or video files, please always zip before uploading. A known issue exists between Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player causing certain audio and video files to not play correctly unless saved locally first.

Advisor Products currently offers nine different brochure motifs, each which can be modified to match the colors of your firm's brand.

Please provide your firm's Logo (logo files should be full-color, high-resolution, suitable for print - 300dpi or better – preferred file formats are vectored .eps or .tif.)
If you have any questions regarding the format, resolution or size of the file, feel free to contact your project manager.

• Your disclosure text (please include the exact text required to be included at the bottom on the last page of the brochure)

We can swap out any or all of the default images in each design either from out image library (http://imagelibrary.advisorproducts.com or from iStockPhoto (www.istockphoto.com)

Addition options for a Choice Brochure include:

• Your photo (images should be full-color, high-resolution and suitable for print - 300dpi or better – preferred file formats are .eps, .tif.)
If you have any questions regarding the format, resolution or size of the file, feel free to contact your project manager.
• Your bio for inclusion on the last page of the brochure, should be no more than 300 words.

Your bio text and photo are included as standard features in an Elite Brochure.

Advisor Products will provide a compressed file which contains your logo in color and black & white, saved in various file formats for your records.

Also included will be a style sheet which features the logo, the pantone colors and font used in the new design for your reference.

AI = Adobe Illustrator – This is the original art the logo was created in. This is the MASTER copy.
BMP – This is a low resolution format good for web & email proposes
EPS – This is a vector format file that is was “created to outline” and is usually used for high resolution printing. This will be an artist’s first choice when designing a marketing piece and is best for print products.
GIF – This is a transparent web file
JPG – This is a low resolution format good for web & email proposes
PDF – This is a low resolution format good for web & email proposes
TIF – This is a high resolution file good for MS Office templates (ie word, excel, powerpoint, etc) and in-house printing on laser & inkjet printers.


We recommend making a backup copy of the final files, or burn them to a CD for archival purposes.

If you need the logo created in an alternate file format, we can create them as well.

Here are some helpful tips to ensure your new site is available for viewing on your internal network and computers.

1. Hosts file not correct:
In rare cases a machine may also have an LMHosts file
Both of these are Typically stored at: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\ The name of the hosts file must always be exactly hosts and never hosts.txt this is the Most Common mistake made when editing the hosts file.

2. Clear the Local DNS Cache
Internet DNS can take up to 48 hours to update, but even when it does the local computer can still have the old IP address cached locally.
Any time a host file or DNS has been modified you need to Clear the Local DNS Cache:
If the DNS server the machine is using has not been updated yet and you attempt to reach the site, the Old IP will again be cached locally and need to be cleared again.
On most Windows machines this is done by clicking Start then run then typing cmd and hit enter.
On the black screen type ipconfig /flushdns hit enter
On Vista machines you need to Modify the Start button to Include the RUN command so you can use it.
In all cases the user Must be a Local Administrator or have Administrator rights on the machine.

3. Run a Ping test
A definitive test to see if the machines is resolving the website name to the proper ip address is to Ping it from command line:
Click Start then Run then type cmd and hit enter.
On the black screen type ping thenameofthewebsitehere and hit enter
For example to check www.advisorproducts.com I would type ping www.advisorproducts.com
It not so important that you receive back Successful Pings, some firewalls will block this traffic. What we're really testing for is to see what ip address the name resolves to.
All of our websites resolve to an IP address starting with 69.18.153.something.
For example for www.advisorproducts.com the entire test would look like the below. Again the most important text to look for is the very first line in Bold. That tells us that the name is resolving to 69.18.153.50 and shows that the name is resolving to one of our servers. You should be able to perform this test on your local computer and come up with the same result.

C:\>ping www.advisorproducts.com

Pinging www.advisorproducts.com [69.18.153.50] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 69.18.153.50: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=112
Reply from 69.18.153.50: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=112
Reply from 69.18.153.50: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=112
Reply from 69.18.153.50: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=112

Ping statistics for 69.18.153.50:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 20ms, Average = 17ms

C:\>

4. Many companies use their External Domain name as their Internal Domain name in Active Directory.
You can ask if they are using Exchange/Active Directory, you may need to talk to their IT person. One way is to ask if they have 3 login fields when they login to their machine. UserID, Password and Domain.
If they have that domain field you can bet they are using Active Directory.
If the domain in active directory is the same as the name of their website you will need to talk to their IT person. They will need to do some work in the local servers DNS to work around the issue.

5. Browser Based Issues
Be sure to close all of the browsers and then open one single fresh browser to test the site with.
Be sure to hit CTRL+F5 this clears the Browsers cache and loads a fresh copy directly from the webserver.
It is very typical for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 to have overactive security measures turned on. Using a fresh copy of Opera or Firefox will give you an alternate browser to test with.
Norton/McAfee/Spydoctor and numerous other Firewalls, Spyware protection and toolbars in IE and on the machine can also interfere with displaying websites.

6. Large companies (banks) use Internet Proxy services.
This is brings in a slew of possible issues that we can't cover here but you can ask to speak to their IT person and explain the issue directly. If they are using Proxy Services they will have an IT Department in house.

You may want to coordinate with your IT specialist to check your system.

If you do not have an IT specialist, you may need to contact a local service such as a member of Best Buy’s Geek Squad or another computer service provider to determine why the site is not visible on your office computers.

The e-newsletter product is available for use once your website is live.
If you have a new website, the e-newsletter will become function once the site is launched. For existing websites, the e-newsletter will be active once added to your website.

We have six different graphics which can be customized and added to your site, allowing visitors to your site to sign up to receive the e-newsletter when you distribute it.

If you have an existing client list which you want to import into the system, we recommend using an excel file with three fields (first name, last name, and email address).

The training video in the BackOffice will walk you through the set-up of an e-newsletter and if you need further assistance feel free to contact our developers via email at service@advisorproducts.com and they will help you set up the first e-newsletter message and send it out.

Please send your mailing list to printservices@advisorproducts.com.

The Upload Reports functionality is included only in the Performance Reporting module for the AdvisorVault. This module allows your firm to bulk upload PDF reports and dynamic XML account information based on a Client Mapping list created during each first upload of client files. After uploading report files when this module was purchased, each account uploaded can be mapped to one or more client accounts in the AdvisorVault and subsequent uploads will automatically distribute these files to the corresponding Vaults. If this module was not purchased, documents and reports can be uploaded manually to each client's Vault using the Documents link in the left navigation. Each client's vault directory will be found under their respective Advisor folder.

If the automatic e-mail action for Client Creation is enabled, then you will be prompted with your associated e-mail template when manually creating a client Vault. Options to Send, Save As and Send Later are displayed. If Send Later is chosen, you can send these welcome e-mails under Manage Clients and Send Invitation E-mails in the top right corner of the screen.

Additionally if clients are created in bulk using the Bulk Client Creation functionality, all clients will not be automatically sent. Instead the welcome e-mails will be listed under Send Invitation E-mails for each client Vault.

The following instructions can be tweaked and provided to your clients.

1. Log in with your username and password.
2. If you cannot remember your password, press Forgot Password on the login screen.
3. If you cannot remember the security question and answer for the Forgot Password functionality, you will need to contact us in order to reset your password.
4. For further issues, please see the Having Trouble Logging In link on your AdvisorVault login page.

Instead of welcoming all of your clients together in a bulk welcome, we recommend breaking it down into smaller batches particularly when you are working with your client over the phone or in person. This way you can walk them through any issues they may face and also make sure they were able to log in with the temporary password which is valid for only 24 hours.

After your client has been sent the initial welcome e-mail, if they did not successfully log in before the 24 hour expiration of their temporary password, you can reset their password under Manage Clients in the left navigation of the Vault. This will send another e-mail using the "Client Password Reset" e-mail action with a different temporary password.

In order to check if your clients have successfully logged in, you can find this information under Login Count and Last Login Date under Manage Clients.

With the launch of your new site, you may want to contact Google (Bing, Yahoo, etc.) to request they crawl your site which can help with search engine results.

Typically, Google regularly crawls sites every 4-6 months. If your site is going live now and is brand new - this will affect your site's search results. Even if the site has been live for a while, there is no way to know when Search Engines will crawl the pages of your site to include them in organic search results.

Be sure you have first updated the keywords, title tags, and meta tags in the BackOffice for your site. Once you have completed these updates, we suggest contacting Google at http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl to request a 'recrawl' of the site to update the page links.

Other search engines which you can submit to are:
Bing at http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx

Yahoo at http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit;_ylt=A0oG7zHJ87ZNAWEBp5.s.M4F



We have found that requests for site recrawls may be processed within a number of weeks or even months, depending on the current list of sites submitted. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine when the recrawl takes place as search engines do not promise any set response time.