New platform is designed to eliminate the traditional barriers, glitches. CUSO Financial Services (CFS), a San Diego-based broker-dealer and registered investment advisory that provides investment services to credit union members, says it has a new web-based financial-planning tool called Forecaster to help its investment advisors and the credit unions they’re allied with improve performance and productivity.

Forecaster is the result of a tweak to a Financial Profiles product that integrates with CFS’ database. “All sorts of issues can arise and present challenges when a program isn't web-based and fully integrated,” says Steve Hollenbeck, CFS’ head of marketing. “The new platform is designed to eliminate the traditional barriers that often deter reps from using financial planning technology – manual data entry, software upgrades, desktop sharing, electronic document storage and security issues.”

Modular by design and needs-based, Forecaster is designed to help reps do everything from relatively simple to moderately complex financial planning and needs analysis. They can focus on just one part of a plan or on many different components, depending upon a client's preferences. This results in improved levels of credit union satisfaction, according to Hollenbeck, which in turn means “means more assets for the [credit union], better production and more fee-based revenue.”

David Oates Carlsbad, Calif.-based Financial Profiles head of marketing, says its user-friendliness is matched by its “ability to provide clear and compelling graphic presentations of a client’s financial planning needs.”

With around 300 reps, CFS provides investment services to more than 100 credit unions, including 26 of the 100 biggest.

“CUSO” stands for “credit union service organization.” CUSOs are meant to help credit unions compete with banks, brokerages and other private-investment channels by providing brokerage and investment advisory services – things credit unions are barred from doing directly. Financial Profiles is a financial-planning and wealth-management software maker. –FWR

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