THE GLUCK REPORT -- Software Showdown

The enhanced estate planning, plus a deepening partnership with Ibbotson Associates to handle Monte Carlo simulations, asset class forecasts and other investment issues, is likely to make Financial Profiles Professional a more serious contender on desktops for independent advisors who want to do comprehensive cash flow plans for clients. "It used to be that we did not have a way to start and stop mortgage payments and income, and do other complex cash-flow changes," says Dave Freitag, a VP for client development. "Now we have those issues covered."

A Web-based version of its goals-based planner, Forecaster, is available now. What Profiles does not yet have covered, however, is an enterprise-wide Web-based solution for its comprehensive planning program, Professional. Instead of a Web-based version, Profiles has integrated its Professional desktop application with B/Ds by piping in brokerage account data from clearing firms. That functionality is being launched now. That desktop version will allow a rep to store brokerage account data locally or on a B/D's server. A full-blown browser version of Forecaster is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter.

"For producers, a Web-based version is a bitter pill to swallow," says Freitag. "They're not willing always to turn their data over to their B/D, and they believe the client is theirs. For the reps to surrender control of their data, there must be compelling benefits–an integrated application that does more than just financial planning."

Financial Profiles' identification with reps stems from its 35-year-old roots. Profiles was founded in 1969 by a general agent for Mutual Benefit Life, Gus Hansch. Hansch, described on Profiles' Web site as "the father of financial planning," enlisted the help of a computer programmer to run plans on a mainframe. His agency then led Mutual Benefit in sales.

After Mutual Benefit collapsed in the 1980s, Profiles was bought by another planning software company, Sterling Wentworth, Freitag says. But when that merger foundered a couple of years later, Hansch's son, Tom, bought it back in 1989. He turned it into a PC-based program, and by 1995 had migrated to a Windows platform, Freitag says, which started bringing in the deals with B/Ds and life insurers with captive sales forces. In 1998, Allmerica, an insurer that ironically had been an early backer of NaviPlan, acquired Profiles.

The company now has two products–Professional, which is a comprehensive cash flow based program, and Forecaster, which is a simpler goals-based planning program. The full retail price of the Professional version is about $1,250 annually, which includes asset allocation functionality based on Ibbotson Associates data and a Monte Carlo simulator, but can be bought by reps working through a B/D for 15% less. A demo version is at

Money Tree

The big news at Money Tree is that its goal planner (Easy Money) and its more comprehensive package (Golden Years) are now fed by one database, combining its planning applications into what Money Tree now calls Total Planning System, or TPS. TPS lets you key data into one input screen to access calculations and reports of Money Tree's three planning applications.

In addition to Easy Money and Golden Years, the third program that shares the database is Strategic Solutions, which is used to generate detailed reports about thorny planning problems such as Rule 72T distributions, IRA required minimum distributions, lump sum distributions, single life versus joint pension payout, and other illustrations of complex problems. Another new feature from Money Tree is an "age change event table," a not-too-catchy way of saying you can model irregular income and expense streams for an individual.

Significantly, you can store your database that feeds all three programs on your network, your local machine, or a Web server. The application has been reengineered under Microsoft's .NET framework in an effort to attract B/Ds and other larger enterprises, says Mike Vitkauskas, Money Tree's founder and chairman.

Vitkauskas, a pioneer of financial planning software since 1968, says he never tried to make the Corvalis, Oregon, company a dominant player in its category. "We'd rather have strong, modest growth and be in the same world as our customers than try to be everything to everyone," says Vitkauskas, who in January named Mark Snodgrass president of the company.

Vitkauskas started his career as a life insurance agent in 1964. "I realized after about a year that what the insurance companies were teaching me about money was not always what I needed to know," he says. He went to work at a planning firm in 1965. For the decade beginning in 1968, he cranked out financial plans for $1,000 apiece for doctors and dentists using calculators. In 1979, when the Apple II computer was rolled out, Vitkauskas used it to create spreadsheets with VisiCalc. In 1981, when he was a chapter president for the International Association for Financial Planning, colleagues began asking him if they could buy his spreadsheets, so he founded Money Tree Software. By 1984, he gave up his planning practice in favor of selling his spreadsheets. In late 1993, Silver Financial Planner, a simple collection of planning calculators, was launched in a Windows platform. That remains Money Tree's most popular program, with 5,500 users. Vitkauskas says the guiding principal behind Money Tree's software is keeping it simple and affordable for planners. Total Planning System with all three planning applications is $1,925 initially and $750 a year thereafter. A demo version is available at