How an iPad app can help with financial planning

Mark Loosmore of AT8 Group looks at the new iPad application for financial planning from Italian firm Finantix.

At AT8 we have heard many advisers champion the potential that the Apple iPad offers in enhancing the advice process but I have seen few applications that take full advantage of the device to support their claims.

There have been a limited number of niche applications and several customer-facing solutions but few that address a full advice application via the iPad.
True Potential has come closest to achieving something usable so far but this week we saw the Finantix application which raises the bar further.

Finantix technical focus

Finantix is an Italian-based firm that has been providing Financial Services software around the world for several years. Its core strength has been a strong technical architecture that enables large customised solutions to be delivered to large clients - typically banks and wealth managers.

The Finantix technical focus has allowed it move to a new technology environment more easily and as a result, it has gained an early mover advantage in taking its solution to the iPad.

One of the founders of Finantix, Alessandro Tonchia, is keen to discuss the Finantix approach to financial planning – Apple style. It is obvious from the start that the iPad app is not a passing fad for Tonchia and his team. The iPad is now a central element within the Finantix multichannel product strategy and the Finantix team has done its homework.

Tonchia explains the impact he is seeing from the iPad: “There has traditionally been resistance to using technology in front of the client,” he begins. “But the iPad changes that. It does not get in the way of eye contact and it can be easily picked up, used and put away again without breaking the flow of the meeting – no booting up a computer and no waiting for the application to start up or connect.

“The iPad is also collaborative so, if passed to the client to use in the planning process the client begins to own the plan more. The planning process begins to feel more transparent if the client is involved.”

Finantix says it has done considerable research into the form factor, to the point of using the iPad to deliver advice in restaurants and train stations and has found the technology is acceptable in environments you simply would not dream of using a laptop. Tonchia says that he spoke to one IFA that deals with sports stars and only gets to meet his clients briefly at the airport –he felt that having a mobile app on the iPad is ideal for such scenarios.

App-iness

It is not just the convenience that has won Alessandro over, it’s also the speed and instant nature of the apps. He says that although web-based solutions are portable and can be accessed via laptops and PCs, they just cannot compete with the immediacy of an iPad app.

The Finantix solution is impressive and contains several different apps. Its media portal, for example, is a library of information for use with the client. The type of material in the portal includes traditional documents such as brochures and client documentation but given the multimedia capability of the iPad, it can contain video and presentations as well.

Within the portal are individual folders for advisers to plan meetings and place the documents and media they want to use to help drive the meeting. The iPad, being fundamentally a communications device, can then be used to instantly send the documents reviewed at the meeting at the press of a button with no need to wait until they return to the office.