Is Xplan a ‘necessary evil’ for financial advisers?
Several financial advisers have expressed their frustrations with popular financial planning software Xplan, while Iress remains focused on improving its user experience.
The software, offered by Iress, is among the oldest and most-used core financial planning software in the market with 38,000 users in Australia.
Advisers have told Money Management they feel it is “clunky” and in need of improvement, but feel constrained to use it as smaller players may be more intuitive but do not yet necessarily include all the vital features.
Jaimie Ramsey, founder and principal consultant at Advice Business Consulting, said: “Iress has certainly nailed data warehousing, so most advisers out there are using Xplan. The challenge with Xplan is that it’s been around for a very long time, and you’ve really got to know how to use it and how to make it work for your business.”
“[Xplan] doesn’t necessarily interact with other software as well as we would like. I think people see Xplan, to some degree, as a necessary evil, and the prices are certainly going up,” she remarked.
Dylan Pargiter-Green, director and adviser at Bold Wealth, also hopes to see further enhancements in the software landscape.
“Xplan is such a dominant force in the market, but it’s not getting any better. Then there’s other providers which look fantastic, like Plutosoft and DASH and AdviserLogic – they all have some great bells and whistles, but they’re not quite what they need to be to provide the current level of advice,” he explained.
Natallia Smith, founder and principal adviser at TruWealth Advice, said that Xplan is lagging when compared to other technology providers in the advice market.
“Currently, when we are in a meeting and we use Xplan in front of the client, it takes longer – it’s not very fast. Hopefully this will improve,” she told Money Management.
Transformation strategy
In late 2023, Iress announced that it was on track with its “significant” company-wide transformation strategy, which will continue into 2024. This includes a technology uplift for Xplan by providing improved tools to deliver better customer value, which will be completed by Q1 FY24.
In response to Money Management, Kelli Willmer, Iress’ executive general manager for wealth management APAC, said the firm continually seeks feedback from its customers to improve their Xplan experience.
“Last year, as part of our company-wide transformation, we announced plans to reinvest in our core platforms, including Xplan. Since then, based on that client feedback, we have uplifted nearly 500 of our most-used screens in Xplan, streamlining and improving the user experience.
“The improvements thus far have been really well received by clients, and we continue to evolve our user interface with weekly updates and new features being tested within Xplan Labs,” she explained.
Iress has also launched several new features on the software, such as a visual cash flow modelling tool and a separately managed account (SMA) capability for portfolio construction.
Willmer continued: “We will also continue to have open dialogue with our customers about the future direction of Xplan, including how we can embrace emerging technologies and support them to adapt to industry and demographic changes.”
Moreover, the firm recently hinted at potentially offering artificial intelligence toolkits for advisers and professionals in the financial services industry to remain up to date with technology developments.
AUTHOR
Jasmine Siljic
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RE: "Several financial advisers have expressed their frustrations with popular financial planning software Xplan" 100% of XPLAN using advisers that we speak to are frustrated with XPLAN....it should be much better than it is, especially with the technology solutions available these days. But still their prices rise above inflation with no noticeable improvement in the product.