For an industry not usually on the cutting edge of technology, financial planning is getting more and more chances to try out innovative, next-generation tools to make the job of advisors easier. The days requiring the creation of custom spreadsheets and checklists and performing tedious data entry to create a holistic view of a client’s financial picture are being replaced by platforms and automation that can allow advisors to think more deeply and creatively about how best to help clients meet their goals.

Speaking on a recent webcast for advisors titled, “How Wealthtech is Impacting the Advisor of the Future,” Joel Bruckenstein, co-founder of the impactful Technology Tools for Today (or “T3”) Advisor Conferences and a former advisor himself, described some of the new offerings that have caught his attention in exciting ways. He was particularly impressed by the following wealthtech products presented at his 2020 T3 event in February:

• Act Analytics’ Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) platform that enables registered investment advisors (RIAs) to screen and weight investments in terms of ESG factors, as well as compare, contrast and construct custom sustainable investing portfolios for their clients.

• Plantech Hub’s affordable financial planning software that integrates client information to create a single-page financial plan, which can enhance conversations about anything from retirement planning to tax strategy.

• FP Alpha, an AI-driven comprehensive wealth management platform that extracts information from clients’ wills, trusts, tax returns, and insurance policies to identify planning opportunities for advisors. Utilizing its proprietary recommendation engine, a database powered by dozens of subject-matter experts, the software crafts custom advice and creates a scalable process across more than 15 financial planning disciplines.

• ATA Risk Station, a program that creates an automated, customizable daily risk oversight process with actionable insights for client portfolios. It can also be used as a compliance dashboard by RIAs and enterprise firms.

• Vanilla, an estate planning automation tool that uses templates to save time and money by addressing the inefficiency of document preparation, increase understanding of an estate and demystify dealing with an estate after a client dies.

• Supernova, a digital end-to-end lending platform that analyzes the securities in a client’s portfolio and can uncover ways to refinance his or her debt. It connects broker-dealers and RIAs to wholesale funding opportunities with attractive rates to optimize return.

Maximizing Tech As An Advisor
As the founder of FP Alpha, the comprehensive wealth management platform launched in February 2020, CFP, Andrew Altfest said on the webcast that he decided to invest copious hours of his free time in building the software because he was keenly aware that a solution to scale true comprehensive financial planning for a wide client base simply did not exist.

Working as president of Altfest Personal Wealth Management in New York City, Andrew saw that the wealth management industry “still in the Stone Age regarding technology and innovation,” was missing out on the benefits of machine learning and AI, among other technological advancements. FP Alpha, he hopes, can offer advisory firms including his own, a complementary extension to current planning software, freeing up advisors through automation, rather than filling their positions with it.

Altfest also praised financial advisory CRM products like Practifi, Redtail and Salesforce’s Einstein Analytics for Financial Services as ways his firm and others can squeeze the most out of their client data and communications, all the while making advisors’ work smarter and add more value for the firm.

Schwab’s TD Ameritrade Acquisition—What’s Next?
As another technological change approaches in the industry, advisors are trying to anticipate how Charles Schwab’s acquisition of TD Ameritrade, expected to close soon, will affect their custodial operations and interfaces, whether they’ve used both, one or neither of these major players to manage client assets.

Altfest, whose investment and financial planning firm has used both Schwab and TD Ameritrade as custodians, said he thought future tech fit with the merged organization—for example, the digital experience and integration with a firm’s customer relationship management (CRM) system with the larger, adapted custodian—will be critical for advisory firms. He also predicted the takeover will initiate the release of new tools from smaller custodial firms seeking to fill service voids.

Bruckenstein agreed. “Initially I had a lot of concerns” because TD Ameritrade helped launch most new and innovative technology companies over the last 10 years and that platform and facility is going away for new firms. “Both [Schwab and TD Ameritrade] have little gaps that haven’t been filled yet.” He too sees opportunities for “emerging” custodial firms, even as the number of custodians become fewer. “It will take a while until that [marketplace] totally settles down.”

Jane Meacham is a veteran freelance financial services journalist who previously worked for Dow Jones & Co. and RiskMetrics Group (now part of MSCI Inc.) as an editor and research analyst.