IDT rolls out planning software adapted to GST

Investment Data Technologies (IDT) has upgraded its financial planning software suite to ease the burden of recent tax changes for advisers.

IDT has added an upgraded capital gains tax calculator to the GST compliant version 6 of its Investment Architect software package.

According to IDT national marketing manager Bob Kenny, the capital gains tax calculator is the first of its kind in Australia. It firstly calculates tax payable on capital gains using both the traditional indexed method and the post-Ralph method. It then compares the both results, allowing advisers to use the optimal method to calculate capital gains tax.

IDT is also about to roll out an upgraded long term cashflow profiler to the Investment Architect software. Kenny says the profiler allows advisers to calculate cashflow for its clients for up to 99 years into the future.

"Most other systems on the market allow for up to 30 years," he says.

"However, if you are advising a client in their twenties or thirties, this is insufficient to calculate post-retirement cashflow or for estate planning."

IDT also has a number of further upgrades planned for later this year. One currently under development is a share analyst capable of comparing performance of shares against performance of managed funds over a given period.

Another is making its entire database of 6300 managed funds available to fund managers to allow them to benchmark their funds against all managed funds available in Australia.

More than 3000 financial planners currently use IDT software, including those belonging to MLC's dealer groups, Pacific Rim's Deakin Financial Planning and Saxby Bridge.