POWHATAN, Va., April 18, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - PIEtech's vision, "Everyone needs and deserves a quality financial plan," has never been truer - for both advisors and clients. Today, PIEtech released the fourth generation of MoneyGuidePro® to help financial advisors develop and deliver quality financial plans on an unprecedented scale. With a responsive user interface, MoneyGuidePro® now allows advisors to leverage an efficient discovery process that enables a client or prospect to enter some or all of the data. This is a first – now advisors have the ability to scale quality plans broadly by providing as much client access to the software's planning capabilities as the advisor wants.
With the Department of Labor's (DOL) final rule release, financial planning is now inextricably linked to investment advice. MoneyGuidePro® helps financial advisors meet the new DOL rule and get ahead of developing trends by elevating the quality of planning. According to Kevin Knull, CFP®, President of PIEtech, Inc., "The question every firm and advisor should begin to ask over the next 350 days is this – 'How will you defend that your investment recommendation or product solution was in the best interest of your client?' A quality financial plan is likely to be the most prudent solution."
MoneyGuidePro®: G4 incorporates years of research with key features that can help advisors develop a deeper understanding of their clients' expectations, concerns, and goals. By introducing behavioral components into the system, a detailed exploration of retirement expectations and concerns can help an advisor surface issues and worries of a client at the beginning of the planning process - thereby identifying factors that may significantly impact investment and product recommendations. While the average financial plan includes two goals, the new "drag and drop" goal interface now promotes clients to incorporate seven to eight goals per plan, thus improving client engagement and ownership throughout the process. This is a significant breakthrough, as a larger number of goals equate to a better overall plan.
PIEtech's redesign of the software places emphasis on critical elements that are commonly overlooked by advisors. Elements such as health care costs, Social Security, loss tolerance and longevity can play a critical role in whether clients achieve the retirement they want. Health care represents the single largest (and only mandatory) expense in retirement for most Americans, yet few advisors include this cost in financial plans. Medicare parts B and D, Medigap and out of pocket expenses are now automatically included in each financial plan through MoneyGuidePro®'s Health Care Smart Goal (which recently received BISA's 2016 Technology Innovation Award). Another important element is the seamless Social Security analysis, automatically part of the process, that helps clients select the most appropriate claiming strategy to meet their retirement goals.
Traditional views of risk tolerance can limit the effectiveness of a plan, especially in a market downturn. MoneyGuidePro®'s risk tolerance feature allows the client, spouse, and combined household risks to be evaluated and tested. This exercise can then help the client determine if the risk is appropriate based on how they would react to a simulated market downturn.
MoneyGuidePro® also offers advisors a number of new ways to engage their clients through an interactive experience. With a new and improved client portal, clients are focused on what matters most – whether their plan's probability of success is still on track rather than focusing on short term market fluctuations as do most portals. The portal provides access to two highly interactive features, Play Zone® and "What are You Afraid of?" The Play Zone® feature empowers clients, enabling them to adjust those variables within their control and then, in real time, see the impact of those decisions. "What Are You Afraid of?" explores factors outside of clients' control, such as market corrections, an early death, a long term care need, concentrated stock declines, Social Security and pension cuts, and how those factors could impact their plans. The planning portal ushers in a new level of client engagement with a dynamic plan that is always up-to-date.
Summing up the impetus of the new release, Kevin Knull said, "At PIEtech, we are focused on two things exclusively – helping firms deliver higher quality plans and doing so in a scalable manner. The newest generation of MoneyGuidePro® does both, while helping reinforce the 'human value' that the advisor delivers to his or her client."
The results section of the software now offers a completely new way to explore Monte Carlo results, and allows advisors to easily explain plan results, sequence of return risk and even allows the examination of each Monte Carlo scenario individually. Four options are available to help an advisor optimize the plan result and help clients understand tradeoffs, such as retiring later or not funding their wants or wishes, and how that impacts the probability of their success.
With this latest release, MoneyGuidePro® has raised the bar in what advisors should expect from their financial planning software with a heavy focus on creating a quality plan. Industry expert Joel Bruckenstein said, "MGP: G4 takes what is already the industry's leading financial planning application to a whole new level. G4 provides speed, efficiency, intelligent automation, and workflows. It focuses on areas where the advisor can add real value. Plan co-creation with clients has never been this easy. I'm impressed." MoneyGuidePro® differentiates advisors through a high level of client engagement and allows them to demonstrate the real human value of advice that can only be rendered by a human advisor.
About PIEtech, Inc.
PIEtech, Inc.'s vision is that everyone deserves a quality financial plan. PIEtech is the creator of MoneyGuidePro®, the industry's leading financial planning software, and myMoneyGuide®, a client-driven digital planning solution that allows firms to broadly offer financial planning. For more information on PIEtech's powerful financial planning solutions, visit http://www.moneyguidepro.com.
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