NaviPlan gets a new look

NaviPlan, a popular financial planning software product, is getting a new look. Zywave, the Milwaukee-based company that produces NaviPlan, this week announced a host of new features that it said will help advisers be more efficient and create more opportunities to interact with clients. The updates include a life insurance quick-assessment tool, cash flow engine improvements and a NaviPlan Learning Center that includes video and webinars to keep advisers current on technology. According to Zywave, financial advisers using NaviPlan also will be able to create “next generation” reports personalized to clients' financial goals, featuring side-by-side comparisons of clients' current financial plans and suggested improvements. Andrew Stevens, product director for Naviplan, said the update will be especially useful for financial advisers who focus on retirement planning. It offers a clear, modern framework for generating reports to more easily show clients where they are in their financial plan, where they need to go and how to get there. “When you're talking about a financial plan, the old way was, you'd just spit out a whole bunch of numbers to your client, with reams of paper and all this data,” Mr. Stevens said. “We've tried to pare that down.” The financial planning tool last December received an update to improve functions related to retirement planning and estate planning. NaviPlan is part of Zywave's NaviPro Financial Planning Suite. In early September, Zywave announced a new smartphone and tablet addition of its Advisor Briefcase application, targeted at financial advisers. Mr. Stevens said updates of NaviPlan likely will focus on adding content to the next-generation reports and enhancing the client experience. “This release is very much about the adviser and making the adviser more efficient in their work,” he said. “We want to expand that to focus on the client — how they access the report, how they interact with their adviser.” About 250,000 financial professionals use Zywave's products, Mr. Stevens said.