We are currently looking into a making a mortgage sourcing system available through the websites in conjunction with a market leading provider, we have negotiated substantial discounts which we will be passing on 100% to our users, in addition we have secured a 30 day free trial for all our users so you can try it out!!

We need your feedback so that we can tailor the product to our users satisfaction so the more feedback the better-could you please take a few minutes to make comment on the following questions.

1. Would you pay for a B2C sourcing application to plug into your site that would drive email leads straight back to you?
2. Would you be happy to include direct only deals in the results?
3. Would you want to show best buy tables with products by category e.g. “Top 5 fixed rates” or just have a short fact find and results?

But you already know this!  You'll have had a few letters from us by now, informing you of how we are handling it.  In the main this means converting all our clients from standing order to direct debit - so we can manage future changes and you don't have to worry about amending standing orders.

It's only a few quid off your monthly subscription, not something that will break a business, but with times as hard as they are, and the financial services sector feeling it more than most, acting on the rate change quickly and, making sure we passed all of the rate change on to our clients (who in the main aren't VAT registered), from 1st Dec, was a top priority for us.

We've been housekeeping on the servers in the last few days.  We've noticed some of our clients using very large image files on their websites - some are as large as 5Mb!! 

It's only a problem if you include these images on your pages - you're forcing your website visitors to download them - this will take a long long time even with a reasonable connection speed. Many people won't wait for the page to load.

Image files used in a page should really be no bigger than 50kb.  Read our knowledgebase article for more information on how to use images on your website.

IFAPortal websites for IFAs now include a Longevity Calculator which will provide your clients with some interesting food for thought!

Based on statistics and research the calculator can assess both the chances of an individual reaching a certain age and what things will cost in years to come.  The calculator has been kindly provided by Lifetrust Insurance.  It's a generic calculation so it doesn't take account of individual circumstances but it's quite an eye opener.

By default it is not visible on your IFAPortal website, you need to login visit the Calculators section of your website and enable it by checking the checkbox to the right hand side of the calculator.

One of things we come across regularly are problems with domain transfers, or DNS configuration. It seems all domain registrars were not created equal.

From poor customer support that is slow to respond to punitive charges when you want to make a change or move the domain away from them.  Some registrars take the proverbial.

Even if your regsitrar is one of the better ones, as an IFAPortal website user, there is good reason to transfer your domain to IFA Portals. As a client you would see no difference, you can still use your current email services if you wish, there's no need to use ours if you have a setup that works.

You might also save a few pounds as we pay the renewal fees on co.uk domains, and don't pass these costs on as we view them as covered by your monthly hosting fee. 

Should you leave IFA Portals the domain can be moved away from us to another registrar at no cost. It only takes a few minut ...

A new pensions article has been added to IFAPortal websites for IFAs titled "Reshaping Retirement".   The article has been kindly supplied by Life Trust Insurance, and presents an objective report on retirement planning given increasing life expectancy.

By default the new article is not visible on your IFAPortal website; to make visible you will need to login, visit the pensions/retirement section of your website and make the article viewable by selecting the checkbox beside it.

A new Investment calculator is available in your IFAPortal website*.  By default it is not visible on your website.

To make it visible just login to your IFAPortal website, visit the Calculators menu section, locate the investment calculator and tick it's checkbox. You can then log out again.

This has been developed in response to feedback from our users.

*This calculator is not available on PinkPortal or MortgagePortal websites

IFAPortal Platform 2.0 features an "Our People" section, where you can list your people, provide their contact details (whilst protecting their email addresses) and provide a biography for each person.  We added this as a result of feedback from Platform 1.0 users.

It's been very well received but it's not enough. Since we launched this new functionality, we've been asked on numerous occasions - "Can we add photos in the 'Our People' section?". Our normal response is "not at the moment", as you can't upload a picture when completing a biography, but we might change that at some point.

The good news is that for every problem there's always a "hack" - as programmers call them - we call them workarounds! If you want to host pictures of your people on your IFAPortal website you can do it, and within each persons biography too.

We've added this workaround to our knowledgebase. You can find  ...

We will have a stand at the Adviser 2008 exhibition in Manchester this year so if any you want to pop along to the stand and introduce yourselves in person we would be only to happy to see you.

On another note we would be interested to gauge interest as to whether you would find a mortgage sourcing tool on your website of interest- we believe we can bring you an up to the minute sourcing tool which you could either use yourselves,with clients or let clients use it themselves-the sourcing tool would be free of charge on an ongoing basis but there may be a small charge for integrating it into your site.

Please post your responses onto the Blog and let us know what you think?

Mark.