Clients are looking for more sophisticated planning software that can manage multiple goals at once and run ‘what-if’ analyses.ToucanStudios/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
As financial planning software takes a bigger role in guiding client decisions, advisors can use the new tools to build scale or go deeper with existing clients.
FP Canada and financial planning software vendor Conquest Planning Inc. launched an educational course for planners called Conquest Ready in October.
The course targets financial planners who want to use Conquest’s product, providing a “sandbox” environment in which financial planners can work through fictional case studies using the platform.
The partnership with Conquest is FP Canada’s first with a software vendor, although it’s open to more, according to Alexandra Macqueen, vice-president of learning, development and professional practice. She has been using financial planning software for 20 years and believes it has evolved considerably over that time.
Two areas of innovation in financial planning software stand out for Ms. Macqueen. The first is its ability to visualize the outcome of financial decisions.
“You and the client can see the impact in real time,” she says. “If you retire later, or save more, or retire earlier, or pay down your mortgage faster, you can dynamically see changes in the financial plan in a way that just wasn’t possible before.”
The second is the integration of artificial intelligence. Its ability to run many simulations at the same time to track multiple scenarios makes it valuable for financial planners, she says.
Large institutions are embracing financial planning software. After years of running its own proprietary software, Edward Jones Canada is now making the transition to Conquest Planning in a roll-out that will finish by the end of April 2026.
Edward Jones Canada’s previous software handled simple, single-goal planning such as retirement, education or vacation planning, explains Julie Petrera, the firm’s director of financial planning.
“What a lot of clients want now is holistic planning,” she says.
Rather than examining one goal at a time, they want to manage them in concert, running “what-if” analyses that show what adjusting one goal does to the others.
“[Financial] planning itself, and how clients want to be served, has led this evolution. So, we’re moving toward software that will better serve our clients,” she says.
Financial planning’s robo moment?
Although Conquest Planning works mainly with large institutions and has reseller agreements for companies that work with independent advisors, another financial planning vendor, Adviice, offers accounts for financial planners along with a do-it-yourself version accessible to consumers at $49 annually.
The company, which focuses on decumulation planning, has a few thousand consumer users with $5-billion in assets under guidance for those accounts, says Owen Winkelmolen, its founder and a certified financial planner (CFP) in London, Ont.
Is DIY financial planning software a threat to financial planners? When robo-advisors first appeared, many advisors worried the platforms would eat into their business by reducing customers’ need for advice. Generally, though, investors still want human help.
Robo-advisors looked at portfolios without considering the broader aspects of the client’s finances, Mr. Winkelmolen says. And Adviice’s consumer accounts are best used in conjunction with advice from a CFP, who can provide additional perspective.
The decision on when to start drawing Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits is an example of where advice from a financial planner can complement quantitative analysis from software, he says.
“Even though starting CPP at a certain age has a financial implication, there are also a lot of soft factors involved,” he says – such as a client’s longevity, health and financial psychology – that can’t be easily put in an algorithm. “And so marrying that up with the financial implications will become quite important.”
There’s also a coaching aspect to financial planning that software can’t handle, Ms. Petrera says.
“Recommendations are useless unless they’re implemented,” she says. “The advisor remains part of the relationship to take the client through implementing the recommendations that were made by the software and the advisor. Our data tells us that this is what clients want.”
Lead generator
Some see basic financial planning software functioning as a lead generation mechanism for CFPs.
Conquest Planning offers a module that creates guidance for clients automatically based on minimal data. It targets clients of banks who might not have a personal relationship with an advisor or financial planner.
Specifically, the software provides some financial context for the customer using only basic information such as their birthday, location, salary and account data, says Ken Lotocki, chief product officer at Conquest Planning.
When they’re ready to talk to the bank, they can reach out for a conversation.
“There’s a button that says, ‘Go work with an advisor,’” he notes.
Alternatively, a bank monitoring for partly or fully filled-out online financial plans might take the initiative to contact a customer and offer a meeting.
Meanwhile, for financial planners, adopting financial planning software can go two ways. Some might choose to scale up their client base by offering tutorials and videos to thousands of clients, all using DIY software in what Mr. Winkelmolen calls a “one-to-many” model.
Or, as Ms. Macqueen says, they can retain the same number of clients but create more intense relationships that go deeper into the complexities of a client’s financial affairs.
Ultimately, it’s up to the CFP to choose their business model, she notes.
“Whether it’s deeper with the same number of clients, or extending out to encompass more clients, this is about how they want to run their practice.”