Zohar is back, joins inStream

Someone I have a lot of respect for in the industry and that I have missed the last few months has returned. Zohar Swaine, formerly managing director of product and strategy at TD Ameritrade Institutional, has joined inStream Solutions LLC as its president. He gave me a call the other day to let me know he had landed there. In his role at TD Mr. Swaine had been exposed to literally hundreds of technology firms, both those homegrown from within the advisory industry itself as well as a lot of talented firms outside it. Thanks to that breadth of experience he said he was in a very good position to recognize the disruptive potential of the inStream model. I first wrote about inStream in Oct. 2011; I had gotten to know founder Alex Murguia pretty well during our rounds on the adviser conference circuit (he is a former principal of McLean Asset Management Corp.). Fast forward and today inStream claims to have more than 1,300 advisory firms subscribed and using its services. It is difficult to describe inStream and its mission in a few words so I suggest you take a look at my previous piece for something detailed, along with screenshots. Simply put think of it as a free set of financial planning applications and dashboard widgets that help an adviser manage client life cycles that includes advanced financial calculators and an integrated contact management system all hosted out in the cloud. InStream has added headcount in addition to Mr. Swaine, including such notables as John Wotowicz, who has joined as the firm's executive chairman. Mr. Wotowicz was, most recently, the head of global business development and a member of the executive committee at Dimensional Fund Advisors. Another notable is Peter Corsell, who has joined inStream's board of directors (he is founder of GridPoint, an enterprise energy management application company, part of the cleantech industry). For some additional information visit inStream online. Related stories: Turning planning on its head, Free inStream tool lets advisers anticipate clients' needs inStream, take a virtual tour of a free, new, quick, planning-centric, advisory front-end interface