Virtual adviser to the mass affluent gets a little more sophisticated

Back in May, we introduced you to Sophie, SimpliFi's free virtual financial planner. Well, Sophie's grown up since then. As of today, she's gotten a lot more sophisticated, at least for the customers of financial institutions such as credit unions and banks that provide SimpliFi LLC's Planning Service Plus to their customers. SimplFi is integrating personal financial management services —including account aggregation and expense tracking— into the financial planning features rolled out back in May. It was unclear at press time whether the upgrades would be available to all at the Simplifi.net site, or just to institutions that use Planning Service Plus. In a nutshell, once a first-time user registers and logs on, SimpliFi gathers information by asking questions about his or her financial goals, as well as that user's various accounts and expenses. The application then provides guidance, including a set of action steps, on long-term savings, debt management, insurance and investments. Sophie reminds users about keeping to their goals and suggests when it is time to update their plan to reflect changes in their circumstances. “Middle-income consumers need to plan, but they also need their plan to talk to their budget and help them track their progress,” Bryan Link, chief executive and co-founder of SimpliFi, said in a statement. “Our new account management and tracking services work seamlessly with our planning tools to help users connect the dots between their longer-term goals and their regular spending decisions,” the statement added. For more information visit SimpliFi.