Personal finance has long been a cornerstone of individual well-being and stability.
And financial planners have been instrumental in helping with this.
Today, the role of a financial planner is more crucial than ever before when it comes to helping clients manage their money and achieve long-term financial goals.
And they need the right tools to help them accomplish this.
Key Takeaways
- Financial planners need diverse tools for retirement savings, investment strategies, education funding, and wealth preservation.
- Understanding client needs and offering personalized services with the right software is crucial for delivering top-tier support and advice.
- Continuously updating your tech stack to include advanced, integrated tools helps you stay ahead in a constantly changing financial landscape.
Index
- #1: What are you offering your clients today? And what do they need for tomorrow?
- #2: Do you have strong client engagement? Are there ways you can improve it?
- #3: Are you satisfied with your firm’s level of efficiency? Do you prioritize a healthy work/life balance?
- Choosing Financial Planning Software Starts with Choosing Holistiplan
From retirement savings and investment strategies to funding education or new business ventures, financial planners provide comprehensive advice to ensure wealth preservation.
Understanding the varied tools and software necessary to support these diverse services is essential for any financial planning firm aiming to deliver top-tier client support and advice.
But how to know what tools are best isn’t always easy, particularly since technology is constantly changing and the landscape of financial needs evolves with it.
By thinking through each client’s unique needs and your firm’s goals, you can build a robust and flexible tech stack that adapts as both your business — and the financial industry — continue to grow.
Let’s explore three questions that every financial advisor should ask themselves in order to create the best financial planning software stack for their clients.
#1: What are you offering your clients today? And what do they need for tomorrow?
Understanding the specific needs of your clients is the first step in choosing the right financial planning software.
The tools that financial planners have traditionally used are still valid in most instances today.
That said, today’s clients are also looking to their financial advisors to fill even more roles than they have in the past.
This means that financial planners need to expand their tech stack to include other financial planning software tools that address a wider range of needs.
From tax planning and retirement strategies to managing debt and navigating investments, the scope of services a financial planner is expected to provide has broadened significantly.
Here are some key areas that should be part of a modern financial firm’s tech stack of software offerings:

Estate Planning
Do you plan to help clients with their estate planning needs?
Estate planning is an important part of today’s financial planning services and is an excellent addition to your firm.
Good estate planning software will empower you to transform your client’s estate planning documents into something they can easily understand and can be a part of their overall long-term plans.
Look for estate planning software that:
Provides Estate Reports: Accurate and ongoing reports will ensure that your clients’ current documents are still in line with their long-term goals.
Provides Asset Diagrams: Diagrams that are incorporated into your estate planning documents mean that your clients can easily get a snapshot of where their intended assets are set to be distributed and where they may want to make adjustments over time.
Provides a Beneficiary Report: With an accurate beneficiary report, a client can rest assured that recipients are properly named and that their transfer-on-death wishes are being appropriately granted.
Tax Planning
Are your clients interested in tax planning resources?
While you may not be in the business of tax preparation, being able to help your clients with their big-picture tax planning strategies is a huge asset for your firm.
Tax projecting can be a complex task, but the right software can greatly simplify it, giving your clients more peace of mind and saving you time as well.
The best tax planning software for a financial advising firm will include such things as:
Tax Projections:
Generate detailed tax forecasts based on a client’s financial data, helping to pinpoint potential tax liabilities and uncover tax-saving opportunities.

Income Range Calculator:
Identify the tax impact of incremental increases to ordinary income or capital gains, providing clear insights into potential outcomes.

Tax Planning Scenario Analysis:
Create multiple scenarios to evaluate the effects of different financial decisions, such as Roth conversions, tax-efficient withdrawals, and charitable giving, on a client’s tax situation.

Donor-Advised Fund Reports:
Some advanced tax planning software can generate reports detailing the benefits and mechanics of donor-advised funds, showcasing how they can offer additional tax advantages while supporting philanthropic goals.

Compliance Tracking:
Staying up-to-date with tax law changes so you don’t have to.

End-of-Year Tax Reporting:
Simplify the complexities of taxes for your clients by providing comprehensive, easy-to-understand reports. This enables clients to better grasp their tax situation and allow you to work together to decide on things like Roth conversions, donor advised funds and other such end of year decisions.

Investment and Retirement Strategies
Are your clients interested in having you help them with their investment strategies as well as review their retirement portfolios?
While many financial planners already work with their clients to help create investment strategies that align with their goals, there is now software available that is more advanced than ever before.
It’s a good idea to review your current investment software tools and make sure they are able to do the following:
Comprehensive Portfolio Analysis: The software should provide an in-depth analysis of investment portfolios, assessing performance, risk, and diversification.
Real-Time Data: Ensure it offers real-time market data and updates, enabling you to make timely and informed investment decisions.
Scenario Simulation: Look for tools that allow you to run various investment scenarios and stress tests to predict how different market conditions could impact portfolios.
Risk Management Tools: The software should help you identify and manage potential investment risks, tailoring strategies to your clients’ risk tolerance.
Asset Allocation: It should provide sophisticated asset allocation models to help diversify investments and optimize returns.
Performance Reporting: Detailed performance reports that are easy to understand, helping clients track their investments and measure progress against their financial goals.
Integration Capabilities: Ensure the software can integrate seamlessly with other financial planning tools for a holistic view of clients’ finances.
Customization Options: The ability to customize reports and analyses to fit the unique needs of each client, offering personalized investment advice.
Tax Efficiency Analysis: Tools that analyze the tax impact of investment decisions to help clients optimize their portfolios from a tax perspective.
User-Friendly Interface: A streamlined, intuitive interface that makes it easy for both advisors and clients to navigate and use effectively.
By ensuring your investment software includes these features, you can provide clients with sophisticated, informed, and personalized investment strategies that align with their financial goals.
Efficiency Meets Value in Financial Planning
Holistiplan bridges the gap between speed and quality, helping advisors like you deliver greater value to every client.
Cash Flow and Budgeting
Do your clients often ask for assistance with daily budgeting and/or cash flow management?
One of the cornerstones of financial planning is the ability to help a client assess their current financial needs and plan effectively for the future.
This involves providing tools that offer real-time tracking of income and expenses, which can enhance a client’s financial discipline.
Even if you are already engaging in cash flow planning and budgeting, check and confirm that your current software has the following capabilities:
Real-Time Tracking:
Any budgeting software should be able to provide updates in real-time, giving clients an accurate picture of their current financial situation.

Budgeting Tools:
Make sure you have features that allow clients to create, manage, and adjust budgets based on their financial goals and spending habits.

Cash Flow Projections:
Tools that provide a clear picture of future financial health are important, as these will help your clients anticipate income and expenses and make informed decisions.

Alerts and Reminders:
Look to make sure you have software that reminds clients of upcoming bills, low balances, and budget limits in order to help them stay on top of their finances.

Integration with Bank Accounts:
The ability to sync with bank accounts for automatic updates is an ideal tool, ensuring data accuracy and ease of use.

User-Friendly Interface:
An intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface makes managing finances less daunting for your clients.

#2: Do you have strong client engagement? Are there ways you can improve it?
Beyond addressing financial needs, client engagement is crucial for building strong, lasting relationships. Here’s how the right software can help:
Client Communication
How important is seamless communication with your clients?
Platforms with integrated messaging, client portals, and document-sharing capabilities streamline interactions.
These features make it easy to stay connected and responsive to every client’s needs.

Client Reporting
Do you need to provide detailed reports to your clients regularly?
Look for software that generates comprehensive, customizable client reports.
Detailed reports help clients understand their financial status and the value of your advice.

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#3: Are you satisfied with your firm’s level of efficiency? Do you prioritize a healthy work/life balance?
To maintain a high level of service while managing numerous clients, operational efficiency is key. Consider these aspects:
Integration with Other Tools
How important is integration to your firm?
Today, most financial planning firms see the benefit of having robust software that works seamlessly with other systems.
Whether it be tax planning tools, CRM systems, or investment analysis platforms, easy integration reduces data entry errors, saves time, and enhances overall efficiency.
Spend time looking for software that allows for a more holistic and streamlined approach to managing every client’s finances.

Automation Features
Are you looking to automate routine tasks to save time?
Software with automation for data entry, report generation, and routine client communications can significantly boost productivity.
Not only that, but increased automation allows you to focus more of your time on strategic planning and client interactions.

Scalability
Do you plan to grow your business and expand your client base?
Choose software that can scale with your business, offering additional features and support as needed.
Scalability ensures that your tech stack can grow alongside your firm.

Choosing Financial Planning Software Starts with Choosing Holistiplan
Today’s clients are looking for a financial plan that is easy to understand, cost-effective, time-effective, and provides them with detailed insights into their financial future…but on a Big Picture scale.
Choosing the most comprehensive financial planning software tools that can do all of this will start when you choose Holistiplan.
As the industry leader for tax planning (and soon estate planning as well!) Holistiplan ensures that you’ve got all your financial planning bases covered.
With our advanced features and user-friendly interface, you can offer your clients a seamless and thorough financial planning experience.
Here’s how Holistiplan supports financial advisors and planners:
Analyzes returns in seconds, enhancing time efficiency.
Simplifies and expands the tax planning process.
Provides actionable planning opportunities for your clients.
Eliminates tedious data entry.
Saves you hours of time and reduces stress.
When you are ready to arm your firm with the most comprehensive financial planning tools available, then reach out to Holistiplan to see what we can offer.
We can’t wait for you to join us!
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