10 Best Tools for Financial Advisors
Juggling client meetings, managing portfolios, staying compliant, and keeping up with market trends can become overwhelming. Financial advisors need sophisticated tools to provide clients with better service and stay ahead of their competition. As robo-advisors gain popularity, human advisors must leverage technology to streamline operations, improve client communication, and help drive data-based decisions.
Below, we present 10 tools that can simplify your daily tasks, automate routine processes, and free up valuable time to focus on what truly matters: building lasting client relationships and achieving financial success. From retirement planning calculators and portfolio management platforms to social media marketing tools and virtual meeting products, these tools cover many of the functions essential for today’s financial advisors.
Key Takeaways
- As an independent financial advisor, having a suite of tools and applications at your fingertips can streamline your business and help you better serve your clients.
- Software and apps (many of which are free) can help you organize your business, track clients, compute financial formulas, and find new client leads.
- Building a far-reaching online presence is an important part of an advisor’s business.
- Many tools allow for screen sharing and virtual meetings, eliminating the need for in-person appointments.
- Advisors should choose the tools they believe will give their clients the cleanest, easiest-to-understand experience.
1. Retirement Calculator
A retirement calculator is a valuable tool that helps you estimate how much money your clients need to save for retirement and project whether their savings are on track. Many calculators, like the AARP Retirement Calculator, Empower Capital Retirement Planner, the Fidelity Retirement Score, and the T. Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator, allow you to input clients’ portfolios, income, retirement date, and other essential information to see the potential impact on their retirement income.
This can be particularly useful when discussing different investment strategies with clients who would understand the information better with visuals.
2. Black Diamond Wealth Platform
The Black Diamond Wealth Platform is a cloud-based portfolio management platform. It allows you to aggregate information, customize reporting, rebalance portfolios, and reconcile accounts daily. This tool is useful for client meetings as the dashboard is clear and easy to understand, even for those not well-versed in finance.
The Black Diamond mobile app, an add-on to the Black Diamond management platform, is for the clients. It keeps them updated on their account and portfolio information. The app also offers a secure messaging system, ideal for advisor and client collaboration.
3. Riskalyze Risk Analysis
The Riskalyze risk assessment and alignment platform helps advisors put a number to their client’s risk tolerance and build portfolios that match their risk preferences. You start with a risk questionnaire for your client and then submit the choices into the program. By quantifying each client’s risk tolerance, advisors can tailor investment strategies that are appropriate for them, while a single number makes things easier for clients to understand. The platform also provides clear, easy-to-understand reports and visuals.
Another feature of Riskalyze is its ability to stress test portfolios under various simulated scenarios. This allows you to show clients what they can expect under different market conditions. The app also integrates easily with many financial planning tools and platforms.
Tax Tool
Mike Hunsberger, a financial advisor and founder of Next Mission Financial Planning, which focuses on military personnel and veterans, said a go-to tool for him is Holistiplan tax planning software. “Clients send me their tax returns, the software scans it, and it produces an analysis in under two minutes,” he said. “You can then use the software to create projections and scenarios for future tax years. I find it essential for in-depth tax planning.”
4. Hootsuite
Advisors without a robust online presence across LinkedIn and other social media can often be at a disadvantage. Hootsuite is a social media marketing aggregator that can coordinate your posts across multiple social channels.
The “freemium” product allows you to post and respond to many social media accounts from one central location. A favorite Hootsuite feature is the ability to schedule social media posts in advance. Depending on your subscription, you can group all social messaging platforms into Hootsuite and analyze your performance across all channels. Similar products include Buffer and Sprout Social.
5. Paladin Research and Registry
This free-to-consumer site serves people seeking a professional financial planner. To appear in their directory gives an advisor credibility and exposure. For a fee, this investor watchdog organization will rate an advisor according to experience, education, certifications, and other proprietary criteria. If the advisor passes the Paladin screening, they are eligible for a spot on its “five-star registry,” broadening their professional profile.
Other registries you’ll want to ensure you’re on—especially if you’re already paying for membership—are directories and platforms for the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, the Garrett Planning Network, the Association of African-American Financial Advisors, and the Financial Planning Association, among others.
6. Fugent
Fugent offers apps geared to sales managers, wholesalers, marketing teams, and financial service professionals. Its app for tablets is a remote presentation tool for out-of-office client meetings. The beauty of the app is that you can elaborate on any uploaded document or report’s content, trends, and information by writing on the document with your finger or digital pencil.
To save time and avoid travel inconveniences, many people forgo in-person meetings as much as possible. Fugent gives you the ability to present virtually, which can be used to expand one’s geographical working area without losing a personal feel. While there’s Zoom, Ring Central, and Google Meet for meetings, and Microsoft and Google’s presentation tools, Fugent brings them both together while having features like a scheduling assistant. This simplifies booking appointments by allowing clients and prospects to view availability and request meetings online.
7. Dropbox
Cloud-based backup services are constantly improving their accessibility and security. There are many to choose from, but today’s advisors and clients need a system to access and share important information from anywhere. Dropbox is popular and reliable.
Dropbox also offers a document scanner, massive file storage, watermarking, device syncing, and screen capture and recording. These can all be useful tools when advisors need to communicate something to their clients when the clients may not be available in person. It also offers protection for cloud-based client data.
8. Precise FP
Data-gathering is one of the most tedious parts of a financial advisor’s job. Precise FP outsources this task. Clients input their information (or you do it for them) and attach the appropriate forms and documents, and Precise FP aggregates the data into consistent, user-friendly forms. It can then present the client’s data in diverse formats.
Precise FP also helps with lead generation as part of its service. This is designed so advisors can spend more time focusing on developing content and actual client meetings instead of being bogged down in clunky marketing software.
The platform also integrates well with other financial planning tools like eMoney Advisor, Redtail, RightCapital, and Wealthbox. In addition, the platform supports customizable templates, allowing advisors to tailor the client experience to meet their needs.
9. Bookeo
Scheduling meetings can be time-consuming for both the advisor and staff, frequently leading to lost minutes or hours. Bookeo acts like a supersecretary. From a “get acquainted” meeting to a follow-up with an existing client, Bookeo takes care of making appointments and gathering the name, email, address, and phone information of the other party or parties.
The system is highly customizable and can be deployed across various platforms, including cloud, SaaS, and mobile devices. Alternatives include Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, and ScheduleOnce.
10. Google Alerts
Every advisor needs to stay on top of their online reputation. Google Alerts is a helpful tool for finding out the “who, what, and where” of your personal and company mentions. Set up an alert for the company name and your name. That way, you know whenever you receive a media mention online. This allows professionals to monitor their social media marketing efforts and online presence. Alternatives include Talkwalker Alerts and Mention.
To take it up a notch, you can work with Google Search Console, which provides information on how your site appears in Google results, including the keywords people use to find your site and any issues affecting your search visibility. This can be used with Google Trends to monitor brand awareness and see if competitor firms are gaining steam.
What Is Monte Carlo Financial Planning?
Monte Carlo financial planning is done with a tool called the Monte Carlo simulation. It can be used for corporate business as well, but it is commonly used by financial models when considering retirement savings outcomes. A Monte Carlo simulation takes in information and then puts it through an array of potential circumstances—for example, you can use it with a portfolio to show how it would handle a large number of different scenarios.
How Much Do Financial Advisors Make?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that the median annual wage for a financial advisor was $99,580 in 2023. The mean hourly wage for professionals in the field was $47.88 as of 2023, the last year for which this data is available.
How Do Financial Advisors Get Clients?
The best way for advisors to get clients is to service their clientele so well that they can’t help but refer their friends and family. These leads are some of the easiest to close, but a financial advisor who doesn’t have referrals coming in can perform outreach services, such as discounted planning or pro-bono work, giving speeches, hosting small community events, or simply marketing online.
The Bottom Line
The financial advising landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by rapid technological advances and the rise of robo-advisors. To thrive in this competitive environment, financial advisors must embrace sophisticated tools that enable them to work far more efficiently. From retirement planning calculators and comprehensive portfolio management platforms to social media marketing tools and secure cloud storage products, these tools cover many functions essential for modern financial advisors.
By mastering these 10 tools—or those like them—you can streamline your operations, improve client communication, and expand the amount of work you can handle without hiring assistants.
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