It may be January, but spring has come to the Canadian financial planning technology landscape. The vendor community remains small, with just a half dozen serious players of whom only two are homegrown, but its relevance to Canadian banks, insurers and retail investors is surging. Three observations from my recent report, The Financial Planning Technology Landscape in Canada:
Modern financial planning technology is helping boost distribution and maximize the use of the advisor’s time. Increased automation is moving hand in hand with the increasing fluidity of advice provision, which for individual clients may range at different points of time from DIY to advised.
Planners are embracing portfolio management tools, including those focused on market risk, to generate conversations with clients. This blending of investments and planning is driving the development of front-end platforms able to serve the enterprise across multiple channels and business units.
The visibility of robo-advisers and the advent of CRM2 have made adviser positioning crucial for Canadian wealth managers. Vertically integrated banks and insurers must deploy technology in a way that shows the client the value of the advisor and indeed, the entire wealth management process.
The entry into Canada by Voyant, a financial planning front runner in the UK, and the recent acquisition of Apeiron (RetireWare) and Planist by Equisoft, suggest the extent to which the market is heating up. Readers interested in learning more about what I call FinPlanTech can look for further posts on this topic, or reach out to me directly.