Tech provider increases goal-planning, data-sharing functionalities. eMoney Advisor has upgraded its AdvisorPlatform. The Conshohocken, Pa.-based wealth planning technology provider says its new Version 4.0 offers capabilities around goal planning, role-based “permissioning,” advanced data sharing and enhanced estate-planning techniques.

CEO Edmond Walters founded eMoney Advisor in 1999 after 18 years as a financial advisor. He says the idea came from his high-end clients, whose requests for “better and easier access to their information kept pushing me toward [this].” His solution was to bring the traditional “leatherbound book” of client records into the twenty-first century by putting it online and providing clients with instantaneous access to it. “It used to take as long as 12 weeks to get clients all their records and information,” say Walters. “That was unacceptable. They wanted their data aggregated daily and available to them on demand.”

eMoney’s AdvisorPlatform also functions as a wealth planning engine for advisors. It keeps track of client information including investments, liabilities, cash-flow and estate-planning vehicles and documentation on a personalized client website. That interface includes alerts to help advisors and their clients keep track of time-sensitive matters from stock options to passport renewals.

In addition to its role as a wealth management complex, Walters sees the eMoney platform as a way to help financial advisors to increase their importance to their best clients. “I saw that my high-net-worth clients frequently had four to five advisors; I was just one of them,” he says. That prompted him to search for “a new technology that helps financial advisors and clients work closely together and so it helps the financial advisor become the client’s primary advisor.”

To that end eMoney’s 4.0 platform lets financial advisors segment a client’s information to facilitate task delegation to juniors within the firm and to a client’s outside advisors. “New user roles will enable better delegation between advisors, planners and assistants,” eMoney says in a description of its latest upgrade. “Advisors will also now be able to share designated aspects of a client’s website with ‘alliance partners’ such as attorneys and accountants, [in a] collaboration [that] will assist everyone in gaining a true picture of a client’s needs.”

The new-look platform also introduces customizable goal planning for clients who don’t require comprehensive financial plans. “We implemented this new feature as a direct result of input from advisors who wanted to reach a broader spectrum of clients,” says Walters.

Despite the platform’s broad planning and management capabilities, Walters stops short of calling it a virtual family office. To his mind, a family office has to include bill payment. And while eMoney may get around to providing links to an outside bill payer, Walters isn’t sure he wants to assume any liabilities connected with that function. “It’s daunting,” he says.

The latest version of eMoney’s platform supersedes its 3.5 version, which the company rolled out last year. And Walters sees no end to the tweaking. “We don’t ever see it stopping,” he says. “We’re going to continue to build this application.”

eMoney sells annual licenses to its advisor platform. It provides version upgrades to site licensees at no extra charge.

The company’s client roster includes PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mass Mutual and New England Financial. Walters says that about 25% of eMoney’s business comes from high-end brokers and independent advisors. At last count its platform monitored about $41 billion in end-client assets.

Click here to arrange for a demonstration of eMoney’s AdvisorPlatform. –FWR