• It’s planning a pilot of financial planning software, Client Goals. The software is designed for advisors who find comprehensive financial planning too complex and time consuming, or for advisors who do planning but who deal with some situations needing a less complex solution. The initial version of Client Goals addresses retirement planning only, but LPL plans to expand it in the future to encompass education, insurance, long-term care, and other goals.
When an advisor lays out a scenario using Client Goals and the probability of plan success is low, he or she can easily manipulate the common levers (save more, devote more assets to the plan if available, retire later, spend less in retirement). As the advisor manipulates these levers, the client can see the impact on the plan.
When the advisor and client arrive at an acceptable plan, the software generates a simple three-page report that is eye pleasing and easy to understand. Client Goals is an excellent first step, but LPL needs to fine-tune it. Currently, held-away assets must be entered manually. LPL soon plans to add account aggregation; sooner would be better. The optimization algorithm currently weighs the save more, retire later and spend less in retirement factors equally. That’s not the way it works in real life. The algorithm needs tweaking.
In the future, it would be nice if the application could move from the planning stage to the implementation stage from within ClientWorks. For example, if you created a plan for a new millennial client, wouldn’t be nice if you could open a taxable investment account in GWP tailored to the client’s needs automatically?
Finally, the application currently assumes that the household portfolio is rebalanced periodically but not tax efficiently.
• LPL is in the initial stages of developing a highly competitive mobile app. It is scheduled for release some time in 2018.