In Search of the Best Financial Planning Software: Integration

To close the loop on the subject on my series of blogs on which financial planning software I will choose to use in my practice, after a great deal of investigation, I am about 95% certain I will be subscribing to eMoney. Last week I mentioned the integration issue with my current custodian, TradePMR. I stated that eMoney integrates with Trade’s former wealth management platform, eCustody, but not with the new platform, Fusion. However, I received an email which stated that the integration with Fusion is in process and will be completed in the near future. This is very good news. 

As a quick recap, in addition to an excellent financial planning application, eMoney includes a fairly comprehensive account aggregation tool and a client portal which functions as a client’s personal website. For example, a client can log in to view or print a variety of reports at any time (provided I have granted permission to said client). These reports include a financial statement, cash flow statement and much more. The client can also view or print his expected financial outlook at any future age. Here’s what makes this so attractive. With the account aggregation feature the client’s information is updated daily. As a result, the client is able to access the most up-to-date information possible. I really like it. 

Why did I say I am 95% certain? Because I haven’t actually entered a plan yet. I have only seen multiple demonstrations. I will also need to discuss the subscription price. Although we’ve touched on it, I wanted to wait until I was fairly sure about it. I expect to make a final decision by December 12th. My plan is to learn it by January 1, 2015 and start using it with clients by late January. 

Another technology tool I am considering is called Thomson Select One, offered by Thomson-Reuters. At the present time, I am using Morningstar Advisor Workstation. In case you are not familiar with Advisor Workstation, it is a good research tool and contains portfolio reports and a hypothetical tool. In addition, the version I have contains all U.S. mutual funds, closed-end funds, ETFs, stocks, numerous indexes and about 2.9 million individual bonds. There are other features as well such as charting, but it’s not that robust.