Independent broker-dealer network Cetera Financial Group has integrated a web-based insurance portal into its financial planning software to make it easier for its advisors to implement insurance within their clients’ financial plans.
Los Angeles-based Cetera and Cetera Financial Institutions (CFI) announced the integration of a new feature in CFI’s MoneyGuidePro financial planning software suite and its new web-based insurance purchasing portal. Cetera Financial Institutions is the Cetera firm specifically focused on serving the wealth management programs of banks and credit unions across the country.
The portal gives advisors the ability to reduce application processing time and provides a simplified insurance purchasing option for both advisors and clients. The CFI-branded portal is integrated within Cetera’s current SmartWorks advisor platform.
Financial advisors at CFI-affiliated bank and credit union-based wealth management programs will be able to assist clients in real time with their insurance needs as part of their overall financial plan.
When financial advisors input client insurance requests, such as the amount and type of coverage a client needs, they will be taken to the CFI insurance portal, where they can generate quotes and purchase appropriate life insurance for their clients, Cetera said. Long-term care and disability insurance will be offered later this year.
“Technology-enabled financial planning that seamlessly incorporates insurance solutions represents a unique area for growth among bank and credit-union-based wealth management programs and their financial advisors,” said LeAnn Rummel, president and chief executive officer of Cetera Financial Institutions, which she says “eliminates the artificial separation of insurance from other financial solutions and does so in a way that directly supports the ability of advisors to help their clients meet their life goals across the widest range of contingency scenarios.”
Rummel said CFI launched the portal in 2017 in conjunction with Boise, Idaho-based COVR Financial Technologies, a technology firm that enables consumers to access and purchase insurance policies through financial advisors. CFI worked closely with COVR and PIEtech Inc., the developer of MoneyGuidePro, to design and implement the new features.
The Cetera network of independent retail firms includes Cetera Advisors, Cetera Advisor Networks, Cetera Investment Services (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions), Cetera Financial Specialists, First Allied Securities and Summit Brokerage Services.