Whether or not EISI ultimately becomes the dominant force in financial planning software, the company definitely bears watching. It has had impressive success at a time when many technology companies have stumbled badly. The firm assembled an excellent platform, which could propel it to much greater success in the years ahead. It would be a great mistake to underestimate EISI in the future.
Pershing to Deploy NaviPlan
As Financial Advisor went to press, Pershing LLC and EISI were preparing to announce an agreement whereby more than 50,000 users of the Pershing NetExchange Pro platform would be offered access to a customized version of NaviPlan Online. A formal announcement is expected to have been issued by the time you read this. "We went through a very extensive evaluation process", said Pershing Director Marc R. Butler. "We came away with the conclusion that these guys are the real deal."
According to Butler, the initial rollout will be the online version of NaviPlan Standard. The platform will offer data integration, so that a client's personal and portfolio data already housed on Pershing servers will populate fields in NaviPlan. In subsequent phases, Pershing plans to offer NaviPlan Extended online. They also plan to build a trading applet into NaviPlan so that advisors can construct portfolios and implement them from within the financial planning program itself.
Joel P. Bruckenstein, CFP, is co-author of the book Virtual Office Tools for the High-Margin Practice: How Client-Centered Financial Advisers Can Cut Paperwork, Overhead, and Wasted Hours. (See www.virtualofficetools.net for ordering information.)