As the development around the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) implementation draws to a close, new research shows financial planning software companies have shifted their focus to scaled advice and customer engagement.
The completion of FOFA development marks the end of several years of software development focussed on practice operations, said Investment Trends analyst Ian Webster. According to the 2013 Investment Trends Planning and Advice Applications Report, FOFA development has been completed with a range of enhancements to client service package management which give planners the ability to individually manage service package elements and control the level of reporting detail in client fee disclosure statements.
“Vendors have moved on from FOFA to refresh application interfaces, mobile functionality development and client engagement,” Webster said. “Vendors are trying to improve planning efficiency by connecting planners and clients to practice workflow wherever they are.”
Software development companies have also moved to ensure their online applications are supported on tablets, with IRESS and recently Coin releasing tablet apps providing planner and client access.
According to a survey conducted by Investment Trends, XPLAN has achieved the highest benchmark score for any financial planning application in the seven years of the report.
Its top rating was closely followed by Coin and AdviserNETGain.
Projection-based engagement has been a feature of superannuation fund websites for many years, Webster said.
In recent years, financial calculators have been replaced by projection-based self-directed advice recommendation services and call centre-based scaled advice applications for superannuation advice provision.
“Provisio has been part of the development of superannuation advice technology for many years and has been joined by several other applications offering different approaches to scaled superannuation advice delivery,” he said.
“Rubik’s Proviso was surveyed as the best superannuation scaled application followed by Decimal and XPLAN Engage.”
