Casey Mills, of Essex-based TFP Financial Planning, gives some insights into how the firm uses technology on a day to day basis and how it has made a real difference to both the client experience and the success of the business
TFP Financial Planning (The Financial Practice) has been going since 1995. I joined six years ago, after being in Business Development Manager roles with Skandia and Friends Provident, and brought client banks into this business. The challenge over that period has been dragging old, traditional businesses with paper-based files in filing cabinets into what is a modernday financial planning firm.
Tech talk
We use a number of different systems ranging from Intelligent Office and Voyant to FE Analytics and Microsoft 365. With all technology, we see it as a case of small improvements and constant review. We believe that it does help that we have a young team in place, who pick things up quickly and are openminded to change. All members of our team have dual screens. We also use laptops and iPads to access emails and documents remotely via Dropbox. We’re always looking for ways to improve, whether that’s with new software, hardware or just streamlining our processes. One thing’s for sure – you can’t afford to stand still where technology is concerned.
The client effect
From a client perspective, I would say that our use of Voyant for cash flow modelling has had the greatest impact. Clients really value the visual experience it provides, as they see their life played out in front of them. The‘what if ’ scenarios can be a real game changer. Our client meetings have changed so much as result of this. What, historically, would have been a meeting spent talking about portfolio performance and investment funds, is now entirely focused on discussing our clients’ lives, maintaining their lifestyle and their goals. The client’s only real concern now is “are we still on track?”. This means there’s a much higher level of engagement with the whole financial planning process as clients view it as ‘their story’.
Business benefits
In terms of the business, our back-office system, Intelligent Office (IO) is absolutely fundamental. We use the software for fact finding, client reports, fee reconciliation and managing all of our workflows. Voyant also integrates directly with it. It’s certainly enabled us to work in a much more efficient and integrated way.
Technology has changed the dynamic of our relationship with our clients. We are starting to have meetings via Facetime or Skype as our clients tend to travel more in retirement. While we still meet up with them face to face when they are in the UK, this means we can keep in touch more regularly.
The BT Cloud phone system has been invaluable in futureproofing the business. If the office burnt down, we know we could just redirect everything via mobile phones and carry on.
The challenge with all these pieces of technology is to try and make them talk to each other
Voyant is extremely complex, so one thing I would recommend to other financial planning firms is Andy Hart’s Voyant Mastery service. It helps your team to get the most from using it through a huge library of video examples and enables them to become skilled users. Or, as Andy describes them, “Black Belt Voyantists”.
We also use Towers Watson (TW) for risk profiling. Although, two years ago, we spent three months reviewing some of the other main providers, we came to the decision that using TW was more than sufficient to support the in-depth risk discussions we have with clients.
In terms of research tools, we’ve used FE Analytics from the start. It may be expensive but it’s a fantastic bit of kit and the clients seem to appreciate the outputs. All of our team members are accredited on it and use it every day.
The challenge with all these pieces of technology is to try and make them talk to each other. We can push information into Voyant from IO, for example, but not the other way. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a silver bullet that will integrate everything – although we are always on the lookout.
Looking ahead
We’re now starting our next five year plan and will be working with Michelle Hoskin (Standards International) to build a blueprint for our business and see how we take our processes to the next level.
It’s easy to take the technology we do use for granted. My advice would be to try and use the best that’s out there and constantly evaluate what it’s doing for your business, looking for microefficiencies or improvements to the client experience.
Casey Mills BSc (Hons) APFS
Chartered Financial
Planner & Director
Casey joined TFP Financial Planning Ltd in August 2012 as a Director and shareholder in the businesses. He has more than 16 years’ experience in the financial services industry and was awarded Chartered Financial Planner status in 2012.
He is passionate about the tangible benefits of financial planning and also believes that proactive ongoing investment management is a key driver to help ensuring that clients meet their financial goals and objectives.
Casey is married and has two (very active) children, Zachary and Darcey. Outside of work he is a keen sportsman, and enjoys playing golf, squash, tennis and going to the gym.
