A bountiful summer crop of user-friendly improvements is ready for picking.

Balmy weather, school recess and vacations can sometimes conspire to create a summer lull in the financial advisory business, but it is often a busy time of year for the technology vendors who serve us. This year is no exception. In what appears to be turning into an annual event, our government has seen fit to make "revisions" to the tax code, which sent software vendors scurrying to incorporate the changes into their financial planning programs.

Even without tax changes, summer is usually a busy time, because some vendors like to time their new releases to coincide with the busy fall conference season. In this issue, we highlight the recent activities at three developers of financial planning software: Money Tree Software, PIE Technologies Inc. (MoneyGuidePro), and WealthTec LLC. In addition, you'll learn of a new utility, Attach Plus, and receive a brief update of the goings on at ProTracker Software.

WealthTec

WealthTec founder and President Howard L. Eisenberg, CPA/PFS, CFP, CEBS, CLU, ChFC, readily admits that his firm's programs are not right for everyone, but those who are qualified to use them currently receive an incredibly good deal. WealthTec's original program, WealthMaster, a Microsoft Excel-based product, now contains 56 modules. Many of the modules offer the user a great deal of control when modeling both intermediate and advanced planning techniques. For example, the deceptively simple looking VA (variable annuity) Investment Planner allows the advisor to select from five different life expectancy tables; there's also a life expectancy override. One can control assumptions with regard to tax law, such as whether or not to assume sunset provisions will take effect. Contribution term, variable or fixed contribution, contribution timing (monthly, annually, etc.), and withdrawal options are all highly customizable. If a modified carryover basis regime applies to the illustration, it can be modeled as well.

Other modules for tax and financial planning include a capital needs planner, education funding planner and a mortgage investment planner. Planners for qualified plans and IRAs include a CRT (charitable remainder trust) planner, a lump sum distribution planner and a Section 72 (t) planner. Estate modules include a GRAT (grantor retained annuity trust) planner and an IDGT (intentionally defective grantor trust) planner.

WealthMaster received a significant update in June to comply with the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. Other improvements to the Financial Profile module include better integration, improved usability and new asset allocation pie charts. Users of WealthTec's Counselor program can now access and print Counselor presentations from within WealthMaster.

WealthTec's Counselor, released in the second quarter of this year, consists of a series of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations covering a variety of wealth planning topics. While there is one presentation that serves as an introduction to estate planning, these slide shows are geared to a more sophisticated audience. The topics include charitable lead unitrust, flip charitable remainder trust, installment sales, private annuities and sales to defective grantor trusts. Overall, these well-written presentations do an excellent job of explaining advanced planning techniques to clients while avoiding technical jargon.

WeathTec's Foundations, now in beta testing and scheduled for release this fall, is a comprehensive planning product designed for the high-end retirement planner, estate planner or insurance expert. Since the focus of this program is estate and insurance it omits asset allocation capabilities, which means less data entry is required.

In contrast to WealthMaster's 56 modules, Foundations contains only three. FinancePro is a lifetime cash flow model for retirement and insurance planning. This is the core module where client data is saved. Much of the data entered here automatically passes to EstatePro. EstatePro is an integrated, cash-flow-driven estate planning model. DesignPro extends the EstatePro functionality by importing up to three EstatePro cases for side-by-side comparisons, and adds the estate planning flowcharts for each scenario. Monte Carlo simulations can be applied to variables in both the FinancePro and EstatePro modules.

Eisenberg says he is particularly pleased with the insurance planning capabilities of the product. The FinancePro module, which handles integrated lifetime cash flows, adds morbidity and mortality scenarios. The user selects which scenario applies to the client, spouse or both, death, disability or long-term care.

Input screens handle such items as insurance premiums, benefits, special expenditures.. MCS applies to any scenario. Eisenberg says that the user can turn on or off income and/or expense items on an item-by-item basis under any scenario; so, for example, a client's salary is turned off in the client disability or client death scenario.

As mentioned earlier, WealthTec's current pricing is attractive. WealthMaster subscribers ($1,195 download, $1,395 CD-ROM) earlier this year received Counselor as part of their regular annual subscription at no additional cost. Current subscribers, and new subscribers who sign up before the release date of Foundations, will receive that program included in their annual subscription as well. One final note: In the recent past, as tax law changes have occurred, WealthTec has consistently delivered prompt, accurate updates ahead of their larger rivals.

MoneyTree Software

It appears that the MoneyTree's programmers have been racking up some overtime lately. On July 24 the company released version 3.9.e of their Silver Retirement Planner. Silver is an intelligent, easy-to-use program that offers clients a snapshot of their current financial condition. It is primarily designed to answer the most frequently asked client question: "Will I outlive my assets?" The most significant changes in this release are improved cash flow and Monte Carlo reports and the addition of long-term care reports.

In what could be a significant breakthrough, the company recently announced that it has developed a Web-based-server version of its Silver Financial Planner for use by major financial institutions; their first enterprise installation is currently taking place. In the Web version, the application client is accessed completely within a Web browser.

According to Money Tree Software Marketing & Sales Manager John W. Kollaer, "We have modeled the application in a format similar to Silver Financial Planner, using the proven technology developed for the desktop version of Silver. The end result is an application that is simple to use yet provides detailed reporting capabilities. The core engine has been honed to deliver sub-second response times, including 5,000 iterations of Monte Carlo true calculation runs."

A major benefit of the application for larger institutional customers is the centralized repository of information. Customer and financial data are stored on the server side of the application. This allows the enterprise to retain its valuable intellectual property as well as administer tight controls on the users of the system.

On July 29, MoneyTree released an incremental update of the MoneyTree Suite, version 2.46.8. The suite includes four programs that share a single database: Easy Money 8.20, a comprehensive financial planning program; Golden Years 8.20, a flexible program capable of producing highly detailed retirement projections; Retirement Solutions 8.20, which generates reports and graphs; and Money Tools 8.20, which includes client management, portfolio management and practice management tools. Kollaer says improvement have been made based on customer suggestions, including: creating a single data input system for use with Easy Money and Golden Years; enhanced data entry methods for greater ease of use and learning; increased flexibility in cash inflows and outflows, and rates of return, at different ages; and additional report pages for more detailed tracking of results.

These and other enhancements are facilitated through the conversion of the applications to Microsoft .NET technology. The new features automatically will be integrated into Money Tree Software t as the changes are implemented in future releases.

MoneyGuidePro

Over the last few years, MoneyGuidePro has evolved into a very good, easy to use, Web-based financial planning program. However, its lack of an estate planning module curtailed acceptance in some quarters. The release of version 5.0, scheduled for this fall, should remove this last impediment to the company's growth.: "It has taken us a little longer than we would have liked integrate estate planning capabilities into MoneyGuidePro, but we wanted to do it right. I think customers will be pleased with the results," says PIE Technologies Inc. President Bob Curtis.

Initially, the module will provide coverage of basic estate planning techniques such as bypass trusts, gifting and ILIT's (Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts), with additional strategies to be added in a future release. Curtis says features that will make the module attractive to advisors include:

Integration with the financial goal plan.

"One-click" estate need functionality.

A powerful "estate what-if" section that can compare multiple scenarios side-by-side.

A unique feature that demonstrate the clients' ability to fund estate strategies (such as paying an ILIT premium) and still meet goals.

Calculations for three periods: die today, die in future year and die at life expectancies.

A new asset ownership and beneficiary report.

Estate flow charts.

Version 5.0 will also include improvements to the asset allocation portion of the program, including a more complete risk tolerance questionnaire, the ability to select a target allocation before running what-if scenarios, and additional graphs.

The reporting package will receive an overhaul that includes an improved custom reporting interface, page previews of reports and the ability to copy and modify an existing report. Advisors will be granted greater control over client access to "shared" reports.

A number of additional enhancements will be available solely to enterprise clients. Institutions will have access to an implementation module which can: create standard auto-allocation solutions using multiple products to fulfill each class (such as a wrap account); create an approved product list; enable the user to select an auto-allocate function or, as an alternative, select individual products from an approved list to recommend buys; and re-balance the portfolio as products are selected.

Institutions using MoneyGuidePro 5.0 will be able to integrate Morningstar Workstation data into their plans if they are subscribers to both services.

Attach Plus

Attach Plus is a nifty new utility marketed by Trumpet Inc. The applet is designed to do only one thing: simplify and accelerate the sharing of Adobe PDF files with clients and colleagues. Attach Plus can convert a document to Adobe PDF format, attach it to an e-mail message, password protect it and e-mail it to a recipient in a flash. The user simply selects a file, supplies a recipient, types in a password and sends the file. Achieving the same result without the use of Attach Plus takes considerably longer; I'd estimate the time saved with Attach Plus to be in the 75-80% range. Adding to its appeal, the product is attractively priced at $49.00 for a single-user version, with volume discounts available. Trumpet Inc. currently offers Attach Plus versions for Microsoft Outlook Express and Goldmine. A version for Microsoft Outlook should be available by the time you read this.

ProTracker

ProTracker Software has been busy developing ProTracker System 4.0, which the company is touting as a whole new approach to client relationship management (CRM).

Sources report that version 4.0 will focus on the practice management and daily task execution aspects of client relationships. To achieve this goal, job descriptions of each person in typical financial advisory firms, both large and small, were studied carefully; the results of the studies will be incorporated into the upcoming release.

Says developer Warren Mackensen, "After seven years of ProTracker experience with a thousand sets of eyes, we have a pretty firm handle on what advisors really want. We will be delivering that product in the next six months."

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.)