How good is dutch planning tool Figlo?

Mark Loosmore of AT8 Group looks at a financial planning system from the Netherlands that is getting a lot of attention around the globe – namely Figlo.

In reality, describing the differentiation of the Figlo solution as being its user interface is doing it a disservice. While the look and feel is different, the whole way in which the functions are laid out and organised represents a fundamental change of approach compared to other solutions in the market.

There are four distinct sections within the solution – ‘What the client has’, ‘what they want’, ‘what they need’ (to get what they want) and ‘what they should do’. Four clearly labelled tabs – Have, Want, Need and Do are presented for the adviser to navigate this process with wizards in place to guide the adviser through different stages such as factfinding and solution presentation.

Within each section, the system presents information in the form of ‘Financial Cards’. A ‘Financial Card’ takes a need area such as retirement and presents the core information as an index card eg displaying planned retirement date and target income.

An example would be an ‘Asset Card’, such as a pension, which will contain a graphic to represent the pension and then core data on the pension including a forecast illustration. The information is brief at this level, around six pieces of key data in order to keep the cards quite small and use up minimal screen real estate.

By double clicking on the card or clicking on the edit button further detail can be produced and a second click will turn the card around to present further details. The transitions between screens are animated and very smooth giving the system a very dynamic and modern feel.

The ‘Have’ section has a collection of these financial cards to show the current assets, liabilities, incomes and expenditures. It also includes a ‘client card’ that on the detailed level contains Attitude to Risk (driven from a questionnaire) as well as other personal details.

This client section also provides a few tools to illustrate the current position including a graphical view of the affordability of arrangements such as mortgages, a current cashflow forecast and a ‘Monte Carlo’ simulation (or Stochastic model) of returns on investments.

We are told the system has an upload facility to capture details of cash transactions from bank accounts to prepopulate the financial cards. However, currently there are no automated links to product providers to update the financial assets in the same way many UK product providers now operate contract enquiry links.

The ‘Want’ screens are very clearly laid out along an interactive timeline that allows clients to set ‘Want Cards’ and allocate these to a year on the time line. Each year is represented as a block on the timeline and if the ’Wants’ cannot be met in any year that block is coloured red, the depth of the colour red being dictated by the amount of divergence away from the original ‘Want’.