No. My job is the information gathering. Your job is to provide the planning advice. However, if you would like my informal input, I am happy to assist.

My primary deliverables are my written summary of the background information I have gathered and the mistakes, oversights, and opportunities I uncover along the way. This report is provided in a MS Word Document. I also provide PDFs of all of the documents we gather.

For additional reporting, such as balance sheets, net worth statements, asset allocation summaries and the like, I have experience on a range of popular financial planning apps and am open to using your software if you can provide access to me. Alternatively, if you want this kind of reporting I use eMoney for my financial planning foundation. For an additional $50, I can establish an eMoney account for your clients and grant you advisor access.

I am familiar with a wide range of planning software and am always open to learning new platforms. However, the challenge often lies in obtaining access to your software. If you can provide me with legal access to your software, I may be game to use it. I do not accept password-sharing arrangements and will never accept offers from you or your clients to use their/your usernames and passwords to log in.

Alternatively, I use eMoney for my financial planning information gathering platform. I can establish eMoney accounts with log in access for your clients and can establish advisor access for you. There is a $50 additional fee to use my platform. If your clients wish to continue to use eMoney on an ongoing basis, I charge $30 per month for client access to eMoney and, with their permission, can grant you advisor access.

Maybe. I am pretty well versed in the financial planning software space. However, there are literally dozens of fintech apps in the independent financial planning software space. I am familiar with some of the largest, best-known apps and a handful of lesser-known specialty apps. I do not charge for software advice.

Yes. I use eMoney. It is a wonderful platform for information gathering and ongoing updating and maintenance of the client’s financial planning documents. It is also great for account aggregation and report generation. There is a $50 up-front fee to you if you would like me to gather and organize your client’s information in eMoney. If you wish to do this, I can establish advisor access for you as well.

If your clients would like to have continuous ongoing access to eMoney beyond the 30-day engagement period, I charge a $30/month subscription fee that can be automatically charged to their bank account or credit card.

NOTE: If you choose to use my eMoney subscription to gather and organize your client’s data, I will give you and them a URL to login to my login portal. If you plan to use this for a number of clients, you can incorporate the URL into your website.

I would like to think that my service model is both unique and elite. The option to offer your clients subscription-based access to eMoney ($30/month) for account aggregation, document storage, reporting, and budgeting is arguably the most visible example of a service that is different from most competing paraplanner engagements. However, I also offer the following services that are both valuable and entirely unique in this space –

• Affordable, expeditious estate planning document prep – For a one-time fee of just $300 per person I can assist your clients in getting a will, durable power of attorney, and power of attorney for health care. For $800, I can get these documents for each spouse along with a standard revocable trust. The documents are drafted and provided by attorneys in their home states to conform with their own state’s laws. If you are tired of pestering your clients to get these critical documents in place, this is an extremely valuable service, and it can be done in less than an hour.
• White labeled password management – Give your clients a valuable free service that will bond them to you and will help make your website a valuable client hub. A subscription costs just $150 per year and the white-labeled client portal can be embedded into your website.

Steps 1-4 of the 7 steps of the financial planning process involve client relationship building and information gathering. This is often the most labor intensive and tedious part of developing a comprehensive financial plan. Below is a partial list of the types of information I gather.

⦁ Detailed multi-generational family information (clients, parents, children, grandchildren)
⦁ Professional contact info (attorney, CPA, insurance agent, primary care physician)
⦁ Personal contacts for successorship
⦁ Income and expense data
⦁ Tax planning information and returns
⦁ Estate planning documents
⦁ Real estate ownership documents
⦁ Employee benefits info
⦁ Beneficiary information
⦁ Insurance and risk management info (P&C, Life, LTC, DI, Medical, etc.)
⦁ Social Security and Medicare Information
⦁ Account information for all banks, credit unions, investment firms, etc.
⦁ Debt information (revolving credit, installment credit, mortgages, etc.)