Study dissects the best (and worst) financial planning tools

A study assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a range of financial planning tools available to advisers has been published.

The survey, which examined tools supplied by product providers, platform operators and software suppliers was carried out by financial services consultancy the Finance & Technology Research Centre (F&TRC).

It covered 57 different tools across the areas of investment, pension accumulation, at-retirement planning and protection.

Each tool provider supplied answers to some 6,000 questions posed by F&TRC, which then based its conclusions on the responses.

It said it hopes the study will assist advisers in identifying which of the various suppliers of tools have the best level of content and functionality.

IFAonline has highlighted some of the key findings below (where we will also point out where you can view the full results for each area).

Investment

Voyant topped F&TRC's ranking in this category, scoring the most five-star ratings for functionality. It also took the most four-star scores.

Morningstar Enterprise Solutions came in next with the greatest number of three-star awards.

Standard Life fared less well, scoring a number of two-star ratings, as did Scottish Widows, which scored the most single stars.

See the full results for investment tools HERE.

At-retirement

The top at-retirement tool was Voyant. It scored well in almost all categories, particularly in annuity data capture, at-retirement data capture and its tax free cash calculator, where it scored five stars.

Avelo, Dunstan Thomas and PlanLab all also scored highly.

Tools provided by the large life offices languished behind, with Aviva, Axa Wealth, Friends Life, Legal and General, LV= and Scottish Life all failing to match the higher scorers.

See the full results HERE.

Growing pension

Distribution Technology scored best overall, followed closely by Voyant, Avelo and Aegon.

Distribution Technology scored particularly highly for its re-balancing functionality, affordability and tax relief data capture.

The worst-rated tool was that from Morningstar Enterprise Solutions, with Aviva, Durell and Wealthtime all failing to score well overall.

See the full results HERE.

Protection planning tools

Software suppliers produced the best protection planning tools, according to the analysis.

Focus was awarded five stars - the top rating - in seven categories, which is more than any other provider. It scored particularly well for its sum assured and income replacement calculators, as well as for its life cover tool.

Avelo and Distribution Technology scored highly, with six five-star ratings each, while Voyant was also among the consistently high-scoring tools, scoring particularly well for functionality.

While most tools looked into income replacement, inheritance tax, life cover and sum assured, few included a long term care planner or a state benefits calculator.

Among the worst-performing tools for functionality alone were Durell and Plum Software, although the latter did score well for data capture generally and particularly well for its life cover tool outputs.

Aviva only managed a single star for the functionality of its home & contents and income replacement calculators, as did Legal & General for its sum assured calculator.

See the full results HERE.