As someone who completes a lot of the administration work at our firm, Dynamic Planner has been a great addition to the way we construct reports and research for clients.
The Dynamic Client Success team are always on hand for advice and guidance, and when I have reached out to them with ideas on how to improve the system, they are very receptive and generally you can find it added to the system only a few weeks later. That is great to see, adaptions which make not only our life easier, but also the overall result is focused to our requirements.
We first adopted Dynamic Planner around the summer of 2019 after Rob Hopkins, our director and pensions and investments adviser, first saw its Client Review process demonstrated at a trade show.
We’re a close-knit team at HL Financial and Dynamic Planner assists us to keep in touch in an easy and streamlined process during review season. The system allows you to jump in and out when required, so the team can make amendments where necessary. The report builder tool could not be easier to use. The information is all integrated within the system, which minimises the amount of data input required and reduces the time of producing an annual review report.
At the beginning of the advice process, we send clients an invite to complete the risk profiling questionnaires, which is a great interface for clients and doesn’t feel like a chore for them to complete. Clients’ engagement with the ATR has risen and feedback has proven the questionnaire is more popular due to its playful interface and targeted questions. This, in turn, makes the process quicker and more streamlined for not only us but our clients also.
The wording of the questionnaire and report produced for the client is great for a conversation opener, to outline if they are happy with the result and whether any tweaking is needed. We have found with other risk profilers that the questions can come across as very similar for a client and this can then reflect in responses being less than accurate.
We use the Client Review in Dynamic Planner to complete reviews with clients every six months. In between, we will carry out biannual fund switches for clients, so we use the Recommendation functionality as well.
Honestly, we have had amazing feedback from clients, who really like the Client Review reports Dynamic Planner produces. Clients have said how much more engaged they are with the report and can digest content quicker due to the colourful and visual layout. Historic and outdated reports can be information-overload for a client and daunting to digest, which can only raise more questions than it answers. Dynamic Planner’s report is full of visuals and highlights the main features within the report to guide clients to key sections like valuation tables.
The breakdown of the investment portfolio and performance analysis in the reports is easy to follow and focused on the client, making it easier to understand. We always want to modernise and encourage clients to be involved as much as possible. It’s also been really helpful during Covid to have the ability to email clients reports as PDFs or to print them out and send them in the post for people who prefer that.
There was a lot of uncertainty around markets, particularly at the beginning of Covid. We felt it was important to communicate with clients and keep communicating with them – just to provide that reassurance that we were taking care of everything and were only a phone call away if they did have questions or concerns. Dynamic Planner’s reports and tools are quick and easy to produce, which makes the administration quicker and easier, meaning we can spend more time with clients rather than producing reports.
Cash flow planning
We always want clients to feel in control of their finances and for us to gain a better understanding of how they’re spending their money and how best you can help them budget correctly, so they can set aside sufficient funds to help pay for their future needs. In a Zoom call with a client, we can share our screen from Dynamic Planner in the Cash flow tool. It’s so powerful showing a client, ‘If you retire here, this is the income you can expect and this is how long you can expect your portfolio to last’. It’s so easy to adjust and play out different scenarios with a client. It’s really good.
When we are able to return to face-to-face meetings with clients, it works well because you can use Dynamic Planner on an iPad, which looks professional and modern.
I would, without doubt, recommend Dynamic Planner to another firm. It completely changes the way you work, especially around client reviews and research. Once you have adopted one side of Dynamic Planner, the rest of the software comes hand in hand. It enables you to add more value for your clients. It has really paid off for us and we cannot wait to see what more Dynamic Planner will offer in the future!
