If Google can create an automated car that stays in its travel lane, why can’t financial technology help advisors stay within the limits of the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule?

Milwaukee-based Advicent is now pitching its newly updated suite of financial planning software as a toolbox to prepare advisors for the enforcement of the fiduciary rule slated for next year.

“The DOL rule has created tailwinds towards transparent, collaborative and advisor-led planning experiences,” says Advicent CEO Phil Cunningham. “Financial technology has to find ways for advisors to be more efficient planners and more effective communicators.”

On Monday, Advicent announced that it is building a DOL Education Center in its Advisor Briefcase communications tool.

The education center will include an overview of the DOL fiduciary rule, content to assist in positioning the value of planning that advisors can use when educating clients about the rule, and shorter advisor modules around specific topics like collecting commissions, potential changes to the rule and anticipated enforcement of the rule.

Advisor Briefcase assists advisors in creating sales and marketing content to provide relevant, real-time information to their clients.

Advicent’s newest offerings are designed to build trust between advisors and clients through collaborative technology that can be implemented throughout the planning process. Key to strengthening the advisor-client relationship is a higher level of transparency between firm and client.

The DOL fdiduciary rule is making financial planning software a “must have,” says Anthony Stich, Advicent’s director of global marketing

“Technology makes compliance so much easier,” Stich says. “Now advisors and clients can stay connected to the financial plan not just every three, six or 12 months, but constantly. Being able to show someone at any given time their retirement plan is a win for both advisor and client.”

Last month, the firm rolled out its Narrator product suite featuring three tools: Narrator Clients, Narrator Advisor, and Narrator Connect.

Narrator Clients and Narrator Advisor are designed to work hand-in-hand, Cunningham notes.

“Narrator allows an advisor to tell his or her story,” Cunningham says. ”Whether that story be at an enterprise level or an independent level.”

Narrator Clients is a portal that provides clients with a readily accessible means of reviewing their entire financial plan, including all related accounts. The software provides streamlined document exchange, trusted account aggregation through Quovo and real-time access to goals and personal financial management.

“The client portal allows an advisor to easily communicate and collaborate with their clients as they grow their business,” Cunningham says. “Clients will have access to a full-feature financial management solution that allows them to create their own goals, monitor their progress and be alerted when changes happen. It’s designed to help people better understand their financial plan. The key element is that we bring the goals and the plan to the forefront.”

Quovo account integration can link to different held away accounts like 401(k) plans, brokerage and bank accounts, and also to custodians containing managed accounts. Quovo accesses client accounts nightly to retrieve updated data from approximately 20,000 financial institutions.

Narrator Clients’ interface resembles web-based personal budgeting tools like HelloWallet and Mint, but with one key difference, says John Dziedzic, Advicent’s product marketing specialist.

“Tools like Mint have not entered the financial advisory relationship, while robo-advisors haven’t yet broached these budgeting elements,” Dziedzic says. ”This is one of the only products that unites and integrates both elements fully.”

Narrator Clients also includes a “financial life timeline” that allows a client to make forward-projecting calculations to see how different financial decisions will impact their overall wealth management plan, creating a link between their current cash flow and budgeting habits with their future financial well-being.

“Many advisors are looking for ways to compete against fully-automated solutions like roboadvisors,” Cunningham says. “By putting the plan at the center of these tools, Narrator offers something very different from any roboadvisor out there.”

Narrator Advisor is an advisor dashboard that allows advisors and other financial professionals to manage their book of business and to access analytics that can be used to identify sales opportunities. The dashboard can also be used to view financial plans within the Narrator Clients tool.

Narrator Advisor will be available as a complimentary add-on to Narrator Clients. Both tools come with integration with Advicent’s NaviPlan and Figlo financial planning tools.

“We’re wrapping our financial planning tools with the Narrator solutions which are client and advisor tools,” Cunningham says. “With Narrator Advisor, financail professionals can look at their book of business and not only see activity in client accounts, but understand how activity impacts a client’s financial plan and whether there is significant goal drift from that plan. That then may become a conversation point for advisors.”

Narrator Connect is a customizable tool for Advicent’s third party partners that want to develop their own features, applications or tools to meet their company-specific needs via API.

The Narrator suite will allow advisors to deliver proof that they’re offering goals-based planning in their clients’ best interest, says Cunningham. “If a plan is at the center of the advisor-client relationship, and the client has signed off on that plan, advisors have a strong basis to operate.”

Advicent hopes its new tools allow advisors to find an optimal mix of technology and personal relationships to meet client demands for comprehensive planning and always-on services.

“I believe the cyborg or bionic advisor is where we’ll see the industry go in the next decade,” Cunningham says. “You can’t automate a relationship.”

Advicent currently serves more than 100 enterprise clients and 3,500 independent financial firms for a total of more than 100,000 individual users.