A new end-to-end retirement income planning platform called RetireUpPro has launched to help financial advisors in an increasingly regulated environment.
The RetireUp retirement planning software and RepPro, an automated form and application filing platform, partnered to create the new platform, which uses technology to expedite the operational workflow of an advisor's business and puts the client in the driver's seat of their own financial futures.
RetireUpPro originated as a response to the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule.
As the rule was approaching a year and a half ago, Jim Richards, director of the board at RetireUpPro and managing partner at Annexus Ventures, realized that Annexus "needed to acquire some resources or support some resources" to accelerate its development there.
"That was the sense of urgency. Everyone was panicking," he told ThinkAdvisor. "As we saw broker-dealers and such investing millions of dollars, [we thought] why don't we help fix the problem for a lot of distribution, not just one particular entity?"
So around that time, Annexus Ventures made strategic investments in RetireUp and RepPro with the vision to couple these technologies and create an integrated end-to-end retirement planning solution with an overarching compliance workflow.
Despite Labor's fiduciary rule delay, Richards said he feels good that this platform has been built.
"The goal here, whether DOL happens or it doesn't, it's about helping someone grow their business efficiently in an increasingly regulatory environment," Richards told ThinkAdvisor. "Whether that's DOL or some other regulation that comes out from another regulatory body, it doesn't matter. This entire platform was built to have full transparency and record every aspect of the advisor-client interaction."
Every feature, from the visuals to the advanced data analytics, is aimed at making retirement planning understandable, accessible and personalized for the client. The goal of RetireUpPro is to put the clients on the same side of the table as the advisors so they can uncover challenges and work together in real time.
