KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON:

PRESTWOOD CONTINGENCY PLANS ENSURE ZERO DISRUPTION IN SERVICE.

Whether the Government orders a complete lockdown or not, Prestwood’s MD Ritchie Walton has made plans to ensure that there is zero interruption for Truth users.

“I wanted to reassure our customers that despite all the alarm surrounding COVID-19, access to the helpdesk and the software systems will not be affected.  We have invested in technology so that, if we are required to remain in quarantine, staff can keep giving excellent service, from home, with no loss of service.

“At the moment, we are following all the precautions and advice the Government has issued and our office is fully staffed, continuing to answer telephone calls and emails as always,” Mr Walton said.

All face-to-face training and user groups are postponed in an effort to minimise the risk to our customers and staff.

“Instead, we have developed FREE webinars for our popular Level 1 and Level 2 training courses.   Each module will allow new users to study at a time to suit them.  They will be set homework, and we will, of course, be at hand online to answer live questions.  I’m happy that as a result, new users will not be adversely affected.

“In addition, our User Groups all around the country have had to also be postponed.  So, we have ensured that the FREE topical webinars will help our customers, whether they are at the beginning of their Truth journey or just need a little brush-up, to access training videos to keep their cashflow skills honed.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and advice from Public Health England,” Mr Walton concluded.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Prestwood Software offers complete end-to-end solutions for Financial Planners.
2. Prestwood software is developed by Financial Planners for Financial Planners.  The Company exists solely to develop and support top of the range programs for Financial Planners in the UK, and Prestwood® Software is widely recognised as the UK’s leading software in the lifestyle linked sector.

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Underfunded pensions are a terrible reality for our society and getting consumers to face up to it is not easy.  Much of the problem can be the complexity and jargon relating to pensions.  To help planners, Prestwood has been developing a suite of new Pensions Planning tools making life even easier for advisers, bringing live pension planning in to client meetings.

Phase 2 is designed to help clients see and understand the complexity of contributions.  When clients have under-funded their pensions, maximising contributions in the run-up to retirement is often the only way to ensure they can maintain their standard of living when they stop working.  But this solution often creates a lot of headaches: –

• how much carry-forward is available?
• has my client triggered the Money Purchase Annual Allowance?
• can they make a larger contribution through their employer?
• would they be better off benefiting from tax relief now, and potentially having a Lifetime Allowance charge later on?

Prestwood’s new Pension Contribution calculator, available from 16 July, answers all these questions in a single click, directly from the client’s Cashflow.

Julie Lord, director of Prestwood said: “Just doing cashflow is not good enough anymore.  These comparison tools help to deal with the issue of underfunding pensions and show clients how much even a small increase in contributions can make to their retirement planning.

“Our customers told us they wanted new pension planning tools to do more complex calculations in front of the client at the touch of a button and save considerable time digging around for an answer.  I really believe you need the right tools to do the job properly and just being able to produce a cashflow chart is not enough from the FCA’s perspective.”

Choose which years you’d like to contribute; whether contributions are paid by client or employer, and whether you want to prevent a breach of the projected Lifetime Allowance.  Click ‘Calculate’, and the result will be shown instantly on the client’s Cashflow.

As with all Prestwood Cashflow Tools, planners can overlay the result over the client’s cashflow.  This powerful functionality helps impress on clients the impact of your advice, both now and in retirement.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Prestwood Software offers complete end-to-end solutions for Financial Planners.
2. Prestwood Software Ltd is part of The Prestwood Group, founded by Paul Etheridge MBE.
3. Prestwood software is developed by Financial Planners for Financial Planners.  The Company exists solely to develop and support top of the range programs for Financial Planners in the UK, and Prestwood® Software is widely recognised as the UK’s leading software in the lifestyle linked sector.
4. Press enquiries email sandra@prestwood-group.co.uk or 07795810171

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One of the biggest headaches for planners is the constant tinkering with pension regulations, whether tax changes or planning rules.  Now, hours of behind-the-scenes research can be saved with the launch of a new pensions planning tool by Prestwood Software Ltd.

A small group of top pension planners tested it with clients.

“Financial planners have always had to do these calculations.  Now, rather than taking clients through an Excel spreadsheet that has taken hours to complete, a press of the button reveals charts that simply explain a very complicated piece of planning,” said Graham Waterworth, Chartered Financial Planner, CFP Chartered MCSI and director of Trusted Planning Ltd.

Graham Ponting, CFP Chartered MCSI of Clearwater Wealth Management LLP, thought it was a game-changer.

“I love it.  I bet there are lots of people who don’t realize when you crystalize your benefits, the way you do it and how you do it, can have quite a significant impact on the lifetime allowance (LTA) and having this tool to use in front of clients is really useful.”

The new pension tool is part of a suite of new enhancements from Prestwood who have always kept one step ahead of changing regulation.

Each year, planners have to talk to clients about:

• Crystallisations – any charges this year and how the client is contending with the projected LTA?
• Contributions – can they add more or have they over-contributed?
• Fund Values and Withdrawals – what are their pension pots worth now; what benefits have been withdrawn in the past year.

Prestwood has taken all the difficult areas to calculate and made the overview look engaging and straightforward.

Ritchie Walton, MD of Prestwood said: “More and more planners are just shying away from pension planning because of the complexity and potential liability if something goes wrong.  We will be launching more new tools over the coming months that will make them better planners in addition to making their lives easier.”

The new pension tools will be available to all Prestwood customers from today and as always, is accompanied by a video explaining how to use it.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Prestwood Software offers complete end-to-end solutions for Financial Planners.
2. Prestwood Software Ltd is part of The Prestwood Group, founded by Paul Etheridge MBE. 3. Prestwood software is developed by Financial Planners for Financial Planners.  The Company exists solely to develop and support top of the range programs for Financial Planners in the UK, and Prestwood® Software is widely recognised as the UK’s leading software in the lifestyle linked sector.
3. Press enquiries email sandra@prestwood-group.co.uk or 07795810171

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Our next Scottish user group will be at Nucleus HQ in Edinburgh on Wednesday 10 January 2018, 10am-1pm, followed by lunch.

The full address is:
Nucleus HQ
Greenside, 12 Blenheim Place
Edinburgh EH7 5JH

If you would like to attend, please email sandra@prestwood-group.co.uk.  We will be going through a case study of a DB transfer scheme which is highly topical at the moment and if there is a subject you would like to include on the agenda, do let us know.

Sleeping in the park!

Jason Betteridge and team freezing for the homeless!

On a completely different note, Jason and his team spent the weekend sleeping rough in the ‘Sleep in the Park’ event in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens, to raise money for the homeless. His team raised over £13,000, and their freezing night’s sleep contributed to over £2m being raised in total.

The post Sign up to our FREE Scotland Truth User Group appeared first on Prestwood Software.

We’ve been working on a beautiful new Client Objectives Statement, which will help you to record and prioritise your clients’ goals and dreams.  A brilliant aid for financial planning, it allows you to prioritise objectives and track their progress in terms of time and money.  It’ll show you what they’ve already achieved, and whether each objective is on track or not.  There’s even an interactive timeline to help visualise when everything should be achieved by.

We are always looking for ways to make your life as a financial planner easier so you can spend more time looking after clients and helping them achieve their goals.

To find out more about our leading Cashflow Modelling software, check out our features page.

The post Client Objectives – New Tool for Lifelong Cashflow Modelling appeared first on Prestwood Software.

At the end of June we ran a hugely successful consultancy event in Birmingham along with Engage Insight’s Chris Davies.  Designed to help planners improve their business and profitability, the feedback has been amazing.  This has reinforced our own view that cashflow modelling underpins the most successful financial planning businesses. 

If you haven’t already read this article in Adviser Business Review, you should!  Find out how one of planner felt about taking time out to focus on himself. 

Truth^® users not scared of DB transfers…

Interestingly, all attendees at the Birmingham event said they did DB transfers and weren’t scared of them!  The media and the FCA seem to be urging caution, suggesting in many cases it is wrong for the client.  However, Truth^® planners know that using cashflow modelling eliminates any doubt about the advice you offer.

You can read more about how Truth^® can help with DB transfer advice in our recent blog – DB or not DB: that is the question!

Next stop: London

On 21st July we will be holding another free Prestwood/Engage event in London.  If you would like to book a place contact sandra@prestwood-group.co.uk, or call our support team on 01384 273736.

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Ex-IFP President Julie Lord has described how she and fellow Financial Planner Gretchen Betts helped a client who was plunged into uncertainty in middle age after being unexpectedly made redundant.

https://www.financialplanningtoday.co.uk/news/item/6884-julie-lord-how-we-came-to-aid-of-client-after-sudden-job-loss

The post Julie Lord: How we came to aid of client after sudden job loss appeared first on Prestwood Software.

Explaining the proposition, Julie Lord, Prestwood director, said it brought together Prestwood’s many years’ experience of the market and helping its users, with the analytical capability of Engage Insight’s Model Office system, to give smaller adviser firms an awareness of their businesses that they needed to improve their operations and their profitability.

“From the Prestwood end we want to show people that cashflow planning is not complicated and used effectively it can be fundamental to their business proposition, making them more profitable and their clients better engaged, which is where we all want to be.

“At the same time the Engage’s Model Office can help firms benchmark themselves either against similar business or their own measure for success, dealing with the compliance issues and helping them become professional practices.”

Engage director Chris Davies explained that Model Office works across five key business areas:

1. Focus: Strategy and risk management

2. Engagement: Client and stakeholder engagement

3. Promise: Client service proposition

4. Systems: Operations and service supports

5. People: Human resource development

“Model office provides a snapshot of current business performance and design, against which firms can plan to implement and monitor a more streamlined, compliant and profitable strategy, focused on their goals, client needs as well as regulatory requirements.

“It helps firms understand how well they are performing and what needs to be done to ensure regulatory compliance and competitive advantage.”

Lord continued: “Often business consultancy is blinding obvious common sense. What people need to know is where and how they can do things better. The Prestwood and Engage Insight software are not just pieces of kit but a means to bring awareness to businesses and to help them underpin their whole proposition.”

Adviser view

Neil Rossiter, director of Taunton-based Blackdown Financial, attended the first presentation. He said: “The main point for me was that this was a way smaller firms could become more robust in their business by bringing in services that advisers might see as outside their reach on a cost basis. It is difficult when you are a certain size because cost can become a barrier to what you can do.

“I tried out the Model Office diagnostic tool in relation to our business. I think most advisers probably know where their weaknesses are but seeing them on screen it brings it home.

“It shows you proposition and processes and so on, and for me it helped highlight that while we have a good proposition, where we could make improvements is in our processes. For a business to be successful you need to have all those things in place.

“Prestwood knows that the people using their software use it as the bedrock of their business, so they know where we are and where we are trying to go. As a result, and through the business experience of people like Julie Lord, they are naturally going to be au fait with the things that are going to be beneficial for us and how we should be moving forward.

Rossiter added: “As a business you’re always changing but it’s only when you look back on the business that you can see how far you’ve come. The purpose of this consultancy is to help you focus on the things that you can improve to continually make your business better. I think it’s something that is genuinely going to add value to our business.”

The consultancy will offer one to one as well as group consultancy sessions.

Prestwood is running three more roadshows in the coming months:

26 May Manchester: Macdonald Hotel, London Rd, Manchester M1 2PG

30 June Birmingham: Novotel, 70 Broad St B1 2HT

21 July London: venue to be confirmed.

These events are open to all planners, paraplanners and wealth managers, whether Prestwood users or not. All events are 10am-1pm with coffee and lunch.

Free places can be reserved by emailing sandra@prestwood-group.co.uk or calling 01384 273736.

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Paul Etheridge, Chairman of the Prestwood Group of companies said:

“Prestwood was developed by Planners for Planners.  In order to maintain our position as the leading firm for cashflow modelling, we conduct regular research amongst our users identifying new tools they would like to help enhance the service they give their clients.  After a year of intense software development, the new version of Truth has delivered exactly what our users asked for.”

Ritchie Walton, MD of Prestwood Software said:

“We’ve significantly revamped functionality and design with superior technology.  It’s cloud-based, accessible through iPads, mobile phones and multiple monitors etc – and it’s visually beautiful.  We can integrate with most investment wraps and back office systems so our users’ experience a seamless, holistic solution.

“The software is more intuitive in line with Microsoft Office.  It’s much simpler, and for the novice, if they can operate Microsoft Office they can operate Truth.

“Prestwood Software already enabled Financial Planners to increase their profits, produce compliant records, and develop highly effective visual images of clients’ future scenarios.  Now we have made financial planning much more easy and less time-consuming.”

New enhancements include:

• All statements can be animated – so Financial Planners can show a moving picture to clients and watch the graphics change through the projected years without having to switch or click between different data

• There is a touch mode for tablets, phones and hand held devices. – it’s minimalist making it cleaner visually and easier to use

• Bespoke dashboards that allow Financial Planners to put any charts they want from any statements on the same screen. Instead of having to click back and forth Planners can see on one screen whatever they choose eg. Planners often want to be able to show before and after scenarios at once and the dashboard allows them to do it

• Multiple monitors can be used – Planners can open whatever statements they wish and drag them to different A great way of watching the impact decisions made, or simply keeping your favourite area of the software always to hand.

Other new updates:

• Rate stepper – allows the Financial Planner to take select investments or assets up or down ¼% to see how this will affect the cashflow – an incredibly useful tool in a low growth environment
• Investment wrap integrations with Truth

“All the enhancements are designed to enrich the client experience for both Planner and their client.  Reducing time spent on input will free them up to spend more time with their client,” Paul Etheridge concluded.

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“With the myriad of technologies and systems that Financial Planners use to run their business including investment platforms, client management, portfolio management, risk assessment, remuneration management, submission of business, compiling management information etc, it is important we enable Planners to link seamlessly with different providers so they can perform their role better”, said Ritchie Walton, Managing Director of Prestwood Software.

He continues:  “Rather than rest on our laurels, we aim to remain the leading cash flow modelling partner to the top Financial Planners and Para planners in the country.  Integrations with Transact, Ascentric, Cofunds, FundsNetwork, Nucleus, Raymond James, Parmenion, 7IM and Old Mutual Wealth will ensure clients who have licenses solely for our cash flow modelling software will experience seamless, holistic data integration allowing them to provide high quality, client-centric services.  Access to timely, up to date information about a customer’s investment is an essential part of any financial planning service.”

Paul Etheridge, Founder and Chairman of Prestwood Group, said:

“If consumers today are expected to pay for the best advice the very least they should expect is a Financial Planner with the best tools available and it is important to us that we deliver the Rolls Royce of financial planning tools to our clients.”

The integrations will deliver increased efficiency, replacing manual updates so that client accounts are accurate with up to date valuations, thereby enabling Financial Planners to have more time to build relationships with clients.

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