RazorPlan’s simplicity can make you a better and more referable advisor

By Jay Palter

The key to creating effective financial planning software is to understand how advisors use it. So, we set out to talk to advisors who are actively using RazorPlan in their practices and asked them how it was helping them.

What we learned about financial planning is relevant to every financial advisor’s practice:

• Having an objective financial planning process increases your credibility and referability.
• Financial planning can help you uncover your clients’ objectives and advise them better.
• The easier it is for a client to understand their plan, the more time you can spend helping them make good decisions.

Here are three advisors that are using RazorPlan to offer better advice while growing their practices.

Mark Kotris – Ease of referability

Mark Kotris (CFP, CLU, CH.F.C.) operates VIP Moneywise, an independent financial advisor based in Calgary, AB. His practice is rooted in financial planning and includes investment management and insurance.

Kotris has used RazorPlan for a number of years as his primary tool for giving clients an overview of their finances.

“RazorPlan’s holistic approach allows me to show clients where they will meet their financial objectives or where there will be shortfalls,” Kotris says.

Kotris likes using the RazorPlan questionnaire to gather financial information from clients because it’s quick and efficient. Prior to meeting his client, he prints their RazorPlan report and highlights key areas, then walks them through the report at the meeting. “I can also save the case in RazorPlan and boot it up on the flatscreen in the office in order to review various scenarios,” Kotris adds.

“It helps to uncover financial issues that many people don’t realize they have until it’s too late,” he says.

But what he likes about RazorPlan is that it “addresses problems and proposes objective solutions. It’s not a product push.”

This objectivity is important to Kotris because, not only does it ground his advice to clients in a holistic financial plan, it also increases his credibility with clients. And that increases clients’ comfort with referring him to others.

More information: Contact Mark Kotris – mkotris@vipmoneywise.com.

Tom Kirdeikis – Getting the full picture

Tom Kirdeikis operates Integrated Planning Solutions, an independent financial planning, investment management and insurance advisory practice based in Edmonton, AB.

Kirdeikis started using RazorPlan two years ago and has become a more active user in the past several months. Like many advisors, he likes to review his clients’ financial plans while looking at the results with them in the live software.

“I can’t imagine a financial tool that does a better job of visualizing someone’s financial situation.”

“Using RazorPlan has been a tremendous learning experience for myself and for clients,” Kirdeikis says. “Every time I play with numbers live with a client, they are impressed and they have revelations about their own plans that they didn’t have before.”

Clients complete a questionnaire on their assets and holdings and Kirdeikis has his assistant input the data into RazorPlan. Then he reviews the report results in the software. “When reviewing the plan with my clients, I often discover other assets that I wasn’t aware of,” Kirdeikis adds. Clients are more willing to give a fuller picture of their finances in the context of planning, he finds.

“Ultimately, if I had my ducks in a row, I’d be using RazorPlan for all my clients.”

Art Salvalaggio – Simple, but comprehensive

Art Salvalaggio (CFP) is a certified financial planner with Cumberland Private Wealth Management, Inc., based in Kingston, ON. He provides financial planning and life insurance advisory services to his clients whose investments are managed by Cumberland.

Salvalaggio uses RazorPlan exclusively to support the retirement and estate planning work he does with clients. “The focal point of the software is the summary report. It gives the client something visual to help them understand their projections and estate planning needs.”

For Salvalaggio, RazorPlan’s simplicity is its most powerful feature. “I like what it produces for the client in terms of a report,” he says. “Other tools are way too technical. I don’t want to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining the report to the client.”

Having a report that clients can understand at first glance means that Salvalaggio can spend more time discussing options with his clients. “I always say to clients, it’s a good discussion piece for us to start with and focus on, then expand the financial plan from there,” he adds.

He has used other planning tools, but RazorPlan has turned out to be the best fit, he says.

More information: Contact Art Salvalaggio – salvalaggio_2@sympatico.ca.