Finametrica enters Canadian risk market
FinaMetrica is to launch its psychometric risk profiling systems in Canada after striking a deal with PlanPlus Web Advisor.
The deal has seen the web-based risk profiling system being translated into French, which is a legal requirement in Canada’s bi-lingual society.
FinaMetrica managing director Geoff Davey said they had been talking to PlanPlus since 2002 and both companies had to work out how the system would fit into each other’s businesses.
“PlanPlus operates in a multi-cultural, multi-language environment - for example their website is in five languages,” he said.
“This inclusion of our software strengthens our offering in our current markets and introduces us to new markets beyond our current scope — most important of which is Canada.”
PlanPlus president Shawn Brayman said his company came across the FinaMetrica system in the US and UK.
“We saw it as a world leader in risk profiling and in use by leading advisers in eight countries including the US and the UK where we first became familiar with it,” he said. “During the past several months we have been working with FinaMetrica to localise the model for Canada as well as to integrate to their new web service interface for common customers in Europe, Asia and North America.”
PlanPlus provides wealth management and financial planning solutions software to financial services firms worldwide.
It has users in North and South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe. Customers include banks, stock brokers/investment firms, insurance, credit union, mutual funds and financial planning firms. There are also educational users for teaching financial planning skills.
PlanPlus users will have the option to move to the FinaMetrica system and switch between the standard 10-question profile in Web Advisor and the more elaborate FinaMetrica profiling questionnaire.
The profile then maps to an appropriate model portfolio based on asset allocation principals to generate a customised investment policy statement.
Davey said this was the company’s eight country using the risk profiling system.
Having translated the software in French, it now opens up other French speaking countries as potential market.
“We will look at France, but will need to find a French speaking partner before we seriously consider launching in that country,” he said.
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