Abstract: A practice management benchmarking tool may provide actionable feedback on practice and individual financial advisor performance that may identify how participants can improve their business. For example, the tool may provide a customized report that compares a practice's performance against other, relevant, local practices. The tool may also include an industry trend report that summarizes industry performance and compensation. An industry trend report may be relevant to larger corporate financial services companies with regional or national interests. The tool may provide a comparison analysis of a financial advisor practice according to three areas: 1) productivity and growth, 2) expenses, staffing, and profitability, and 3) individual financial planner productivity and pay.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for coordinating access to a shared object amongst a plurality of processes in a distributed system. One process is identified as a lock owner process controlling a lock associated with the shared object. When a process needs to access the shared object, it requests control of the lock from the lock owner process. When no other process controls the lock, the lock owner process grants control to the requesting process. When another process controls the lock, the lock owner process places the requesting process in a queue and waits for the lock to become available. All accesses to the shared object are processed through the lock owner processes thus assuring coordination and synchronization among the processes.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for coordinating access to a shared object amongst a plurality of processes in a distributed system. One process is identified as a lock owner process controlling a lock associated with the shared object. When a process needs to access the shared object, it requests control of the lock from the lock owner process. When no other process controls the lock, the lock owner process grants control to the requesting process. When another process controls the lock, the lock owner process places the requesting process in a queue and waits for the lock to become available. All accesses to the shared object are processed through the lock owner processes thus assuring coordination and synchronization among the processes.