Constant evolution is a hallmark of eMoney’s offering. From goals-based solutions and scenario analysis for building strong financial plans, to account aggregation and digital advice for working with clients who keep assets held away, to digital document storage and screen sharing for clients who want remote guidance, the platform has steadily gotten better with time and integrates with many other solutions.
Risk Analysis
Pair your financial planning software with a robust risk assessment tool like Riskalyze, and you’ve got a winning combo. I’ve found Riskalyze to be great for use with new clients whom we onboard after acquiring another advisor’s book of business. Often these clients benefit from an up-to-date review that ensures their risk tolerances match the levels of risk in their portfolios, which may be misaligned for older clients who are near or entering retirement as their previous advisor exits the business. The Riskalyze Autopilot solution has also been a great help in automating our trading and rebalancing of client portfolios.
Advisors affiliated with a broker-dealer committed to investing in its portfolio management and rebalancing technology may find that in-house platform worthwhile as well. This does not necessarily have to replace your use of third-party tools. Some broker-dealers invite select advisors into pilot programs for such software. If you have the option, this is a good way to test the waters and suggest fixes without disrupting your tech stack.
Time And Money
Balancing all these tools is a matter of time management and financial prudence. Each piece of software should play a specific role that strengthens your practice. Vendors with a comprehensive online tutorial and a responsive helpdesk are best positioned to show your team the features of each tool during the adoption phase.
Over the years, however, a vendor may introduce changes that reduce its relevance for you or make it harder for your team to extract the most value from the platform. When the cost of the service and the time your team spends trying to use it effectively outweigh the clear benefit, you should look into other options.
In general, advisors and their teams should be wary of spending too much time on learning and maintaining tech tools, because that ultimately is time not spent working with clients and prospects. Your total tech budget also should be a relatively low portion of your practice’s overhead, because when advisors minimize redundant overlap of secondary features, the right combination of CRM, risk analysis and financial planning tools is quite affordable.
Once you adopt the proper tech stack and learn how to use it, these tools will begin to pay for themselves by elevating your ability to attract and retain clients with smart financial solutions that you execute smoothly and quickly.
Alex Chalekian is the founder and CEO of Lake Avenue Financial, an independent wealth management and financial planning firm based in Pasadena, California.