We are a small, regional IFA and a family business, which has successfully run for 40 years. We first started using Dynamic Planner three or four years ago because of Bankhall essentially. We were using Bankhall’s risk profiler but they went out into the market after RDR was published at the end of 2012. Bankhall chose Dynamic Planner instead.
At the beginning of our investment process we will go out and see a client, accessing Dynamic Planner either on an iPad or with a manual copy. There are several risk profiled funds we use in Dynamic Planner and we only use funds risk profiled by Dynamic Planner, which makes life very easy.
We see a client, see what the profile of the client is and then select suitable funds from Dynamic Planner. We don’t use funds from a particular platform. The only thing we ensure is that they have a Dynamic Planner rating.
Dynamic Planner makes life more simple, in short. It means we don’t have to complete lots and lots of fund research, because Dynamic Planner has already done it for us. We are simply too small a business to physically and adequately research the market for clients. When you feel like all you are doing is running around like a headless chicken simply to keep on top of everything, Dynamic Planner saves vital time.
If we were not able to use Dynamic Planner on an iPad, I would be sat with a client using a piece of paper, going back to the office and then inputting all that information into the system, then going back to the client and telling them what their attitude to risk is.
Now, using Dynamic Planner, I can sit with the client, talk it through in real time. They can instantly feedback and tell me that they aren’t comfortable having investments that risky. In all, that saves me a heck of a lot of time.
The client can sign something there and then, saying they are happy. I can email them a copy, email myself a copy and import and upload all that information via Intelliflo, which is software that speaks to Dynamic Planner, straight into our system. That saves paper, because I don’t have to print copies out. This is where Dynamic Planner is really good and where our old system would not have worked.
Dynamic Planner is a very useful piece of kit for us. It makes the client investment process review so much simpler. We use Genovo for Suitability Reports, which following MiFID II, need to detail the cost of every fund and exactly what you are doing as an adviser.
The client knows then what they are paying for and when we complete investment reviews for clients it makes life very, very easy. Needless to say, Dynamic Planner is very much embedded within our firm and our processes.
We have found that, because we are an old business, lots of people have been dying in the last few years. But we have found that we have been picking up lots of clients in their early 40s and in their 50s now, where previously our clients were predominantly 70 and 80-year-olds. The business is getting younger.
I wouldn’t hesitate recommending Dynamic Planner to a fellow IFA in the South West. Here at Ivor Jones, we have a good relationship with Dynamic Planner and feel we receive good support from them. We had great help from Dynamic Planner when we first moved across to them and were setting everything up.
