Report suggests that financial-planning tech isn't viewed as indispensable. Financial-planning software is too complicated and doesn't justify the investment. So at least the independent-advisory market seems to be telling advisor-technology providers, according to an in-depth report on wealth-advisory technology by Tiburon Strategic Advisors.

In any case many independent advisors don't use financial-planning software at all. One national broker-dealer tells Tiburon that a lot less than half of its advisors use financial-planning software -- and of course far fewer use it with the majority of their clients. These low usage rates "can largely be attributed to the facts that planning is time intensive, and is generally not a service for which most advisors will charge a separate fee," according to Tiburon's Implementing Cutting Edge Technology Strategies for Captive & Independent Advisors.

Like Heinz

There are 57 financial-planning technology products on the market, according to Tiburon. Among them are market leaders such as Naviplan maker EISI, (70,000 users), Financeware (28,000 users) and Money Guide Pro (17,000 users), and Money Tree.

Each provider can point to inherent characteristics that set it apart from the competition. NaviPlan is known a "linear" design suited to enterprise clients and for functionalities suited to an insurance-sales environment. Tiburon pegs Financial Profile as "a stable & mature planning product [that] allows for the handling of complex trusts" and mentions that it provides strong sales and marketing support. Financeware "is known to deliver thorough analysis of retirement portfolios, and was an early deliverer of Monte Carlo simulation in an [application-service provider] format," according to Implementing Cutting Edge Technology Strategies. Money Guide Pro lets advisors set their client's goal priorities instead of relying on a pre-set "life -stages" format. Money Tree is known "for offering a high level of connectivity with other applications including Albridge Solutions, Microsoft Outlook and LaserApps." says Tiburon.

Though the biggest financial-planning software providers target the institutional market, many cater to small niches including those that sophisticated independent reps and fee-only financial advisors inhabit.

But few advisors who use financial-planning software are much enamored with it, according to Tiburon. In surveys of financial advisors, 64% of the respondents rated their financial-planning software as "OK" and 24% said they were definitely "unhappy" with it. Only 9% of the respondents described themselves as "very happy" with their financial-planning software.

Who uses what

Independent reps most often mention using proprietary financial planning software provided by their broker-dealers with Morningstar, NaviPlan, and Money Tree most often mentioned. In Tiburon's surveys, nine respondents said they depended on proprietary applications -- chiefly Linsco/Private Ledger and Raymond James Financial Services. Six respondents reported using Morningstar; four used NaviPlan and four used Money Tree. Other Indie reps mentioned using Master Plan, SunGard's Allocation Master, and Forefield Advisor. Microsoft Excel garnered as many mentions as Money Guide Pro, typically a more popular pick.

Tiburon found that Morningstar and intuit.com/ Intuit's Quicken are the most widely used financial-planning products among fee-only advisors -- an odd finding, says Tiburon "because Morningstar did not until recently even make a full-blown financial planning software product and because Quicken is a retail product." Other popular financial-planning products fee-only advisors are custom or proprietary software (20% of those surveyed), Financial Profiles (8%), Money Tree (8%), Thomson's Wiesenberger (7%), and CheckFree's Mobius (6%).

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