Early Insights Around Financial Planning Software

Here we take a look at what advisers are saying about some of the financial planning software they are using. Drawing some early insight from our Marketplace (contribute here!) it's fair to say advisers are less happy than they were last time we checked in. The problems advisers are trying to solve may be too vast, and too complex for this technology. Alternatively, as shown by some of the adviser comments we highlight here, even if the software could help - advisers are not “IT wizards” as far as being able to use all the software has to offer...

These insights from our data scientists, focus on longitudinal responses across HNW advisers managing over $100M, compared with advisers managing under $100M.

We wanted to see the differences in responses between these two segments, rather than a blanket response across the whole profession. Each of these data points has at least 10 responses, with the exception of Midwinter >$100M in 2018, and an average response rate of around 50.

With respect that these insights will change over the next few weeks as more advisers provide their feedback, we present these findings so far. If you’d like to participate in the marketplace click here

Midwinter, with their recent sale have experienced a major drop in NPS for the HNW adviser segment. Notwithstanding the multitude of additional expectations all softwares are now burdened with off the back of the Royal Commission, Midwinter have come in at the bottom for advisers managing over $100M in these early insights. A saving grace is for other advisers under $100M FUM, they have fallen the least over the last twelve months, proving the majority of advisers are not blaming Midwinter for these new problems.

Out of the early insights from these three companies, XPLAN were the top rated from 2018, and even with these large drops in NPS scores for both over and under $100M FUM, XPLAN remains the slight favourite for the majority of advisers, and essentially equally favoured for the HNW advisers. A remarkable outcome, giving more credibility to the idea the entire software category is feeling the pain right now. 

COIN, another staple of the financial advice profession, has edged home first place for HNW advisers with only a small drop in NPS over the last twelve months. This being to closest thing to a good news story in software at the moment. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the majority of advisers, coming in last place in these early insights for under $100M FUM.

We are still taking on feedback from advisers for the next couple of weeks and expect to see some changes as more answers drop into the pool of feedback.

Software is obviously suffering from a systemic issue in not addressing the problems advisers are faced with every day. It could be that the problems are too vast, and too complex to solve in a single piece of software, and potentially these problems will never be fully solved using dedicated financial planning tech. Another reason for the dissatisfaction indicated is potentially that advisers are not putting the time and effort in required to fully understand what these pieces of tech can do.

We can see a combination of these possibilities coming out in the commentary from advisers regarding their use of financial planning software:

"At present this is what we are using. It's very difficult to know what is better out there because it’s not easy to understand what others do. There's not enough detailed information from the respective software companies to judge who is the better. Most advisers are not computer wizards and thus it’s very hard to get it right. You tend to follow others and work it out yourself.

- Midwinter user

"It's clunky and often painful.  I probably don't use every feature as best I could or even understand everything it offers.  Possibly the best of the limited offering available for planners."

- XPLAN user

"Software itself works and is functional, could be updated to be more modern."

- Coin user

We are seeking adviser feedback on platforms, risk, research, and technology companies. Feedback is collated to become the foundation of the permanent area for you to compare the best products and services in the market for you and your clients. The marketplace will be free for advisers. Click here to have your say now.

 

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