Those crafty Canadians at Emerging Information Systems Inc. know how to keep financial advisers coming back for more.
Last week, EISI introduced new feature- and module-packed versions of NaviPlan and Profiles, their venerable
financial planning and needs assessment software packages. The updates should do their job of retaining advisers as customers.
“It takes a lot to learn everything [NaviPlan] does, but the new releases really do stay true to what it has always done,” said Glenn A. Large, owner of Magna Financial Planning LLC, a solo
financial planning firm.
Every year, because EISI increases its subscription fees, he evaluates other software. But Mr. Large has stayed with NaviPlan for the past seven years.
“From retirement education to
estate planning, it remains a good one-stop shop,” he said.
Among this year's top additions are a new presentation module and integration between Profiles and the popular web-based Redtail customer relationship management application.
The presentation module ($95 a year as an add-on to a single-user license) allows advisers to create a slide show quickly, using calculations and data from either NaviPlan or Profiles.
EISI thinks that the new module will allow for better collaboration between an adviser and a client or prospect, compared with the way advisers work currently, which involves sharing the adviser-oriented (and not-so-client-friendly) screen of the planning application itself.
The module still will allow an adviser to switch on the fly between the presentation module and planning so that adjustments to the plan or hypotheticals can be changed in real time.
“This is really an alternative display that resides on top of Profiles Professional,”said Linda Strachan, senior vice president of product marketing at EISI, who also happens to have a doctorate in computer science.
Plans presented in the module also can be easily printed as a report for the client.
There is even more capability built into an enterprise-level version of the presentation module that allows for the inclusion of audio, video or hyperlinks. Sun Life Financial, a unit of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, provides its 3,000 advisers with this.
I was glad to see that NaviPlan Select ($1,395 for a single-user, one-year license of the desktop version, plus $200 for the web-based version) has added features that have been around for quite some time in other
financial planning applications, such as Finance Logix (from Oltis Software LLC) and MoneyGuide Pro (from PIE Technologies Inc.).
One feature I like is a slider bar in the NaviPlan Scenario Manager, where advisers perform retirement plan analysis. By dragging the bar, an adviser can immediately see how adjusting clients' retirement age, for instance, or increasing their fixed annual retirement expenses or adding to savings each month, will affect their goal.
“We have redesigned the Scenario Manager to make it much more flexible and interactive,” Ms. Strachan said.
New to Profiles Professional Version 10.0 ($1,045 and up for a single-user, one-year license; $1,245 and up online) are some basic work flow features that will assist advisers with their case management needs. For example, a new screen I will call the jump-off screen (see our slide show at InvestmentNews.com) allows advisers to select and launch a goals-based analysis of their clients' portfolios in either “express” or “compre- hensive” versions, or a cash-flow-based analysis.
Users also can create a new “case” for prospects, which allows advisers to track client cases and documents from draft to final and PDF presentations, all of which can be stored once completed.
A new case review feature lets advisers pre-populate client review worksheets, which makes it quicker for them to work with clients in meetings or on the phone and then update existing plans.
In Profiles Forecaster Version 5.0, new budgeting features assist advisers in spotting cash surpluses and deficits, and help them track client living expenses.
Since I continue to be a big fan of integrations, especially among third-party advisory technology firms, I was pleased to see that the web versions of the new Profiles release integrate with Redtail Technology's Redtail CRM.
But don't get too excited. This isn't a full integration with two-way effortless data flow between applications, but rather a way for an adviser to export Redtail data into Profiles with fewer clicks.
Finally, a growing number of EISI customers are migrating to the web. According to the company, the majority of new NaviPlan users buy the web version, as do half of Profiles users.
The company boasts 250,000 users overall.
(Visit the online version of this story for a slide show of the some of the key new features in the new offerings.)
TECH UNDER THE TREE
As much as I love my iPad, I get irked because the touch-screen keyboard slows my typing to a crawl no matter how hard I try to speed up.
For frustrated users like me, Apple offers a $69 Keyboard Dock accessory. But there are alternatives.
Frugal frustrated users might try the Azio Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard for iPad (from Azio Corp.), which retails for $49.99 and also works with iPhones and Mac computers. It has LED indicators for -battery status and Bluetooth connectivity, and runs on two triple-A batteries.
Stylishly frustrated users may opt for an all-in-one leather case and Bluetooth keyboard from Solid Line Products LLC. Available in black or brown, it lists for $119 and has an internal battery that is charged using a mini-USB cable.
E-mail Davis D. Janowski at [email protected].
