Outsourced paraplanning firm PLUS Group is expanding the services it offers advice firms with the addition of a cashflow modelling service and a social media support service.
The cashflow modelling service which Scott Daniels, director of the PLUS Group says is due to launch in the next week, will produce a cashflow model for advisers to use with clients and in reports.
PLUS Group is partnering with cashflow modelling firm i4C to deliver the service. Initially it will be offered to PLUS Group clients but then it will be offered out to the market in general.
“We will do the cashflow modelling for them. So we will create the base reports, including adjustments for multiple scenarios, for when the adviser sends/takes the written report to the client. This enables advisers who don’t have the staff or to spend the time learning the software to do cashflow modelling, to be able to have the facility without having the need for a full licence. If they then decide they want to use cashflow to better engage with their clients they can trade up the licence.”
Daniels says it is a service that PLUS Group has been mulling for some time but which has been accelerated by the current climate. “With markets having dropped so much and still being volatile, it’s the perfect opportunity for advisers to engage with clients and use cashflow modelling to show that they should be looking long term and what their position could be when they come to retire and what action they may need to take now.
“It allows advisers to have more meaningful conversations.”
“We think cashflow is going to be core to the future of financial advice and that firms will find that clients start asking for it as it becomes more widespread in the industry.
“And as advisers get more used to cashflow modelling and see the value in it, then we can support them if they want to take it a step further and have interactive modelling.”
The i4C service offers a 30-day free trail but advisers who take out the service through PLUS Group will receive an additional month’s free access to the cashflow modelling software.
Social media support service
The second service will offer advice firms a support package that will deal with branding – brand guidelines, logo and website design and brochures, etc to fit with the messaging and feel around the firm that they want to give – as well as social media strategy, that can include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and content for them, to both attract new clients and build brand presence and awareness in the market.
“Even without the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic it has become clear that advisers have to embrace technology and engage with their clients through social media,” Daniels says. “This is going to be particularly important of advisers want to take advantage of intergenerational wealth planning, because with younger family members for whom social media is second nature. As they become wealthier they are going to want to see their adviser using social media and they will find their financial advisers through social media.
“Our new service will enable adviser firms to come from wherever they are on their social media strategy and to engage with clients across all different platforms.”
Daniels says this service is currently being piloted with two advice firms and will be launched to the market in two to three weeks’ time.
