Dynamic Planner is targeting the European market, appointing Christophe Ponette as Managing Director for Europe to lead the company’s EU expansion.
Ponette was previously the MD of Avaloq, the European Banking and Wealth Technology Provider for Benelux.
The move by Dynamic Planner follows a two year period of research into the needs of European financial services firms, asset managers and clients as a result of MiFIDII, IDD and the growth in risk-based investing.
As part of the exploratory process, Dynamic Planner’s head of Psychology and Behavioural Insights Dr Louis Williams, conducted a large-scale country specific and analysis study of a cross section of the populations in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain to understand attitude to risk (ATR) and views on sustainability to assist in the creation of bespoke psychometric questionnaires for each territory.
Dynamic Planner has already completed the localisation of its risk and sustainability profiling instruments for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium, which is being followed by its full functionality, including: reviews, goal based cashflow planning and suitability reporting, with the intention to offer one financial planning system to European clients.
It has also signed an agreement with The European Federation of Financial Advisers and Financial Intermediaries (FECIF) an independent and non-profit-making organisation, to identify and introduce potential partners.
Ben Goss, CEO, Dynamic Planner said: “Backed by almost two decades of experience of Dynamic Planner in the UK, we are now taking our leading financial planning system to the Continent. Europe is in the foothills of an enormous shift in the way that advisers help households manage their finances and prepare for retirement in terms of the investment risk they need to take and the regulation that they face. The market feedback we have had is that we can help financial services firms successfully meet these challenges as we do in the UK.
“This is a natural progression for Dynamic Planner and an incredibly exciting time for us as both a team and a business. We have already learnt a great deal from our engagements with European partners, advisers and experts about how financial advice is given in different countries, for example in the area of sustainability, and much of this will be beneficial for our overall product for our UK clients too.
“Our mission is to help firms match people to suitable portfolios through engaging financial planning and we believe there is a huge opportunity to contribute the expertise and one financial planning system technology we offer in the EU.”