eMoney, the financial planning software provider, is set to launch a premium client portal next year that will allow advisors to create personalized financial plans in greater detail and at greater scale. The firm is also investing in new data integrations and a new insight engine to help advisors streamline the planning process.
The platform enhancements were shared during the firm's annual digital advisor summit, which kicked off Monday morning. In addition to highlighting the new client portal, top executives at the firm, including CEO Susan McKenna and Tom Sullivan, head of product, detailed a roadmap for platform innovation in the year ahead.
The forthcoming updates include new API integrations and a curated version of the eMoney Decision Center that draws on data aggregation and artificial intelligence capabilities designed, in the words of Chad Porsche, a senior vice president of product and design, to "shift more of the planning burden off the advisor and onto the technology."
"We're beta testing these capabilities right now," Porsche said. "The goal is to deliver, with one click, a real-time analysis of all client data and all the potentially relevant planning techniques. Once the analysis is complete, the advisor will be supplied with multiple planning strategies that can be built together into the plan."
Beyond the tech updates, the executives also spotlighted new proprietary research underscoring the value that consumers place on a technology-driven and collaborative planning process. They noted how consumers have evolved to embrace technology in the planning process — not as a replacement to the advisor, but as a source of planning analysis and a means of more easily visualizing their plan.
Client Portal Updates
Before detailing the premium client portal, Porsche said that the basic client portal is also being updated to include exciting new capabilities that advisors have pushed for.
Among these is an overarching "ribbon" tool that gives users a graphical control element in the form of a set of toolbars placed on several "tabs" or "tiles" grouped by functionality. The tech-speak might sound complex, he said, but the goal is a highly intuitive and more engaging planning platform.
"It allows users to engage visually and intuitively with their plan, and the ribbon format allows everything to be highly personalized," Porsche said. "Each tile in the ribbon represents a key aspect, from the plan summary, to net worth, to progress towards personalized goals. It's about ease of access and providing a clear overview, and clients can add and adjust their preferred topics."
The premium platform will build upon this enhancement and offer users the chance to explore even more elements of their financial journey, both alone and in collaboration with their advisor, including topics such as buying a new car or saving for children's education.
In the premium version, users can input and save information that is automatically shared with their advisor, and users can also create a personalized home page that encourages greater engagement and interaction with the plan.
