The Future of Financial Planning Software

Abstract

The rapid advances being made in financial planning technology will cause fundamental changes in the future delivery of financial advice. The purpose of this chapter is to look at what those changes are likely to be and how they might affect the future of your practice. The evolution of the financial planning profession has been significantly influenced by the evolution of the software available to support it. During the last five years, three major changes have impacted financial planning software. The first is the most obvious-the broad availability of high-speed Internet. The second, less obvious change is that financial planning has finally broken free of its spreadsheet origins. The third change is a direct result of the first two. There will be three major trends in the development of financial planning software are: smartness, accessibility, and centering. Each of these trends has distinct characteristics and consequences of its own. Controlled Vocabulary Terms Financial planning; internet; spreadsheet