Jill and Amanda both pointed to one piece of software that plays a key part in checking many of those boxes in their respective stacks.
FP Alpha is an AI-driven, holistic wealth management solution that covers more than 16 key areas of financial planning, including tax, estate and insurance planning. Advisors can upload clients’ financial documents to the software, which then processes and analyzes them for existing financial planning opportunities.
I founded FP Alpha in February 2020 to solve for some challenges we were facing as a firm to provide holistic advice at scale.
According to Amanda, while FP Alpha is effective at providing ideas and recommendations for clients, the real value is its ability to drive collaboration within her team. Junior advisors enter client data into FP Alpha, she explained, and it helps them generate ideas that they bring back to the larger team. It’s made them all more collaborative, improved client service and enhanced her confidence in their recommendations.
For her part, Jill recognized the service, support and expertise of the FP Alpha team. Because her firm is based in California, any estate planning solution has to account for nuances specific to a community property state. The FP Alpha team has worked with Financial Connections Group to address the issues that have arisen because of California’s requirements.
Jill also explained that her firm is using FP Alpha to analyze client tax returns for future opportunities.
I was most excited to discuss a new feature we’ve just added to FP Alpha called Prospect Accelerator. In today’s hybrid, dually remote and in-person world, it’s becoming more difficult for advisors to build genuine trust with prospects and showcase their value prior to beginning to work together.
Prospect Accelerator is a comprehensive financial planning prospecting tool that enables advisors to provide financial health scores to potential clients using a minimal amount of prospect-provided information. The Accelerator generates likely planning opportunities, which allows the advisor to deliver instant planning alpha, demonstrate his or her value proposition and showcase service offerings in the prospecting stage. It can be embedded on an advisor’s website, sent through email or leveraged within social media campaigns.
I would like to thank Invest in Women for the opportunity to be part of such a valuable discussion; Jill and Amanda for their inspiration, insight and conversation; and Suzanne for driving the session with provocative questions that empowered us to think critically about the role of technology at each of our practices. As our industry continues to evolve, I believe inclusive conversations at events such as these will continue to be a driving force behind real, meaningful change.
Andrew Altfest, CFP, is president of Altfest Personal Wealth Management and founder of FP Alpha.