Preparing for and completing a client review can be time consuming and complex. But now Selectapension has created a new online tool to improve the efficiency, and therefore reduce the costs, associated with this essential part of the financial planning process.
Anyone working in the personal financial advice market is aware of how long it takes and how much administration is required to complete a client review. In fact, in a recent survey, advisers told Selectapension that the average client review takes over 4 hours to complete, including a client meeting.
Completing a Client Review
Depending on how many products are to be reviewed, an enormous amount of time is taken up just gathering and analysing the product data. It seems that no two Providers’ present information in the same format, and the review period will usually depend on when the product was bought, not when the client wishes to review its performance.
Typically, product data doesn’t include information about how well the existing product is performing compared to others in the market. A fund may have performed well, but were there others doing better? Could the existing charges have been reduced with another product? In order to find out the answers to these questions, Advisers have to carry out additional manual research.
Recently, a press report* suggested that advisers could face additional “onerous” workloads due to the way platforms are preparing to implement the new transaction cost reporting rules under MiFID II.
Rapid Reviewer
Selectapension has launched a new tool called Rapid Reviewer which addresses these issues. Rapid Reviewer enables financial planners to quickly run a comprehensive review of their clients’ investments and pensions.
Users can determine the review period they wish to evaluate. Rapid Reviewer will benchmark, in both monetary and percentage terms, the fund performance of the client’s products against other sectors or selected Morningstar Indexes. An Adviser can then easily determine how closely their clients goals are met or exceeded, or whether some changes are required.
The amount of data input required to complete a report is reduced thanks to Selectapension’s system. The user needs only the product details or fund ISIN numbers, the current value of the product, and the percentage splits of the investments. Then they simply choose the benchmarking index, determine the review period required and the system does the rest. The client report is generated in minutes.
Bulk Upload
To make the review process even more efficient, the new software includes a unique flexible bulk upload facility which enables users to upload multiple investment information for both single and multiple clients, and to run multiple reports simultaneously in minutes. This feature will save hours of time and administration costs.
Back Office Integrations
Selectapension already has in place back office integrations with Intelliflo iO Store, True Potential and Fairstone. Any Rapid Reviewer reports can be stored on these back office systems in the same way as other Selectapension reports.
Add active investment management to the proposition, and an advice firm has a winning formula to demonstrate value to their clients, drive down their administration costs and meet MiFID II requirements.
Selectapension is offering free demonstrations of Rapid Reviewer. To book a place, please email
sales@selectapension.com or call 01892 669494.
Further information is also available at
www.selectapension.com/rapidreviewer.
About Selectapension
Established in 2004, Selectapension Ltd is an independent, specialist software firm providing a range of comprehensive pension and investment planning tools for those working in the personal financial advice market.
Selectapension’s system includes over 200 products and 60 Providers, and sources fund information through AKG and Morningstar.
*FT Adviser, 11.4.19: Advisers face headache over cost disclosure.