When you have a job to do, the right tools can make a big difference. This is the same in the financial services industry. We have a job to do and having the right tools makes our job much easier. In this post, I’ll provide an update on the tools I have recently added and discuss how they are helping me do what needs to be done.

Financial Planning

I have to confess, it took a long time for me to switch from the financial planning tool I had developed to an off-the-shelf product. Years ago, I couldn’t find much which was compelling enough for me to change. I found my planning tool was much better in most respects.

Today, all that has changed.

Since I’ve added eMoney, I can already see how much easier it will be to conduct business. This system is integrated with my custodian, TradePMR, which means I can easily import my clients’ account data into the system. That’s where I stand at the moment.

After I have imported all account data, I will establish a link between my clients outside assets and liabilities (i.e. mortgage, bank accounts, etc.) and eMoney. Then, I will enter additional information such as date of birth, personal goals, income sources and amounts, etc. and plan updates will be much easier. I’m really looking forward to the future with eMoney.

Asset Management

My final decision is to keep Morningstar Advisor Workstation and supplement it with YCharts. Many of you are already aware of Workstation so I’ll focus on YCharts. YCharts is an amazing tool with some very interesting functionality.

In fact, if you are a ‘quant’ at heart, you’ll love this product. There are more than 4,000 data points for individual stocks, and over 200 each for mutual funds and ETFs.

What I especially like is the ease in which you can create a chart and compare it to other data by placing the other data in a separate chart or in the same chart as the initial data. Then, with a click of a button, you can save the image as a picture file and add text and other items in Microsoft PowerPoint. It’s really great for presentations.

Conclusion

As I step into the 21st century (that’s how it feels, anyway), I am finding these new tools will save me time and effort. Rather than recreate the wheel, I now prefer to let others do that and I’ll just drive.

Until next time, thanks for reading!