Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

FP Alpha, the wealth management technology firm, has made a series of enhancements to its Estate Lab offering, a central component of its estate planning module for financial advisors. The updates deliver new estate planning capabilities for financial advisors, according to the firm, including features to help them better project and quantify long-term asset growth during the legacy planning process. “In light of the upcoming changes to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, these enhancements are timelier and more impactful than ever,” Andrew Altfest, CEO of FP Alpha, said in a statement. “The ability to project and quantify asset growth provides both advisors and clients with valuable insights for future estate planning decisions.” The new projection capabilities allow users to input custom growth rates per asset and project balances over time, according to the announcement. This should allow advisors to provide clients with a clearer picture of how asset growth could affect estate tax liabilities — and the amount of wealth passed to heirs.

What You Need to Know More than 1.3 million client households have been served by the MoneyGuide planning platform. Expanding use of Salesforce delivers artificial intelligence-derived planning insights at scale. Advisory offerings need to resonate with younger clients who stand to earn and inherit significant wealth. Some 2 1/2 years after Edward Jones announced plans to provide its 19,500 advisors with access to the MoneyGuide planning platform, more than 1.3 million client households have been served by the tool, according to Lena Haas, head of wealth management advice and solutions. That is more than twice the projected uptake at this stage, Haas recently told ThinkAdvisor, and it’s strong evidence that a healthy culture of internal “coopetition” is driving tech adoption and fostering a planning-first service mindset at the firm. Haas said she expects the vast majority of the firm’s 8 million-plus client households to eventually come to embrace the planning toolset, driven by advisor advocacy and organic market demand for more holistic financial planning services that go beyond investment management. “It’s been really special to see how our advisors are talking about the tools internally and inspiring one another to engage in this planning-first approach,” Haas said. “They are embracing...

Two financial advisors with a $700 million book of business at Bank of America Private Bank have moved to LPL Financial’s high-net-worth-focused employee affiliation channel to start a firm called BrookBridge Private Wealth. The Long Island, New York-based team consists of veteran private client advisor John Duane and portfolio manager Gregory Giantsos, who have been working together since 2015. Duane has been a part of the financial industry for 30 years, including 25 years in private banking, while Giantsos joined the industry in 2012 as a portfolio manager. They offer a range of high-end wealth management services, including investment management, financial planning and custom lending solutions to their private wealth clientele. At Bank of America, their client base included business owners, nonprofit organizations, foundations, professionals and executives. In a statement, the pair said the move to LPL’s HNW employee channel, known as LPL Private Wealth Management, will allow them to offer expanded services to additional client segments. “Our goal is to help clients use their wealth to live the life they want to live,” Duane said. “Our clients run the spectrum, from business owners, to families, to organizations, to folks in the media industry. We aim to help each client...

What You Need to Know An emergency fund can provide breathing room while assessing the situation. Securing health insurance on a spouse’s policy is often the cheapest and best option. Clients may consider getting into consulting or starting a business. Retirement planning is likely one of the main areas of focus in your work with clients. They rely on you to help them plan, save and invest for a comfortable retirement. In most cases, they likely have an age, or an age range, in mind to move forward into retirement. Things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes, clients will face an unplanned early retirement due to a job loss, a medical situation or other unforeseen circumstances. If this happens later in their working years, between about 55 and 65, there are some key decisions to be made. Here are several steps to best navigate this situation. Emergency Fund Part of ongoing planning should include maintaining a sufficient emergency fund. This will certainly not get clients through an unplanned retirement, but this money can provide some breathing room as they assess the initial impact of the situation and plan for the future. Financial experts typically suggest having at least six months’...