I was on the Dynamic Planner – Quilter pilot and have been using Dynamic Planner for it must be more than two years now. It’s fantastic.
In 20 minutes, you can produce a decent report, which is editable; looks good; is accurate; and it has enough weight and detail to keep every type of client happy. That’s ideal, especially as a sole trader. I wouldn’t be without it. Any issues you have are far smaller than the eventual outcomes – good reports and messages going out to clients in a consistent manner. How long was it taking me to produce a report previously? A couple of hours.
Dynamic Planner does what it says on the tin – from the point of view of producing something for a client, in a timescale which is appropriate. And if you want to expand what you do for a client, you can. But two hours compared to 20 minutes? That’s huge.
Managing your advice gap
Dynamic Planner allows you to do quick reviews for certain clients. It’s allowing you to broaden your scope. It’s positive. If a client, say, just has an ISA, £50,000, you can quickly produce a report for them, and that client, who was non-productive, perhaps you’re waiting for them to downsize or retire, you can keep them involved. Before, you would have had to say, ‘I can’t afford the time to keep in touch’.
Cash flow projections are included in the review report. These are your aims, as a client; your objectives; and currently you’re likely to achieve them.
From a firm’s point of view and a firm like Quilter, because everyone is using the same style of reporting, it sets a benchmark which they can reference against. This is our standard, all within one package.
Real-time, half-the-time cash flow
I’ve had the time now to introduce cash flow planning, for more clients. In Dynamic Planner, once you’ve imported the information, you can generate a cash flow within about an hour. Previously, that would have been a separate piece of work, and another two, 2.5 hours. In Dynamic Planner, it’s literally halving the time for a cash flow. And because the information is there, you can produce something quite quickly and get it out to a client within half an hour. That’s real-time advice, which is great. I like that.
For some clients, the intricacies of a cash flow are nice to have rather than a must-have, but Dynamic Planner allows you to offer that. It opens up the range of advice you can give – and its complexity.
The Consumer Duty audit trail.
And addressing the advice gap
Dynamic Planner proves your work. And the Consumer Duty, proving your fee. I haven’t had to change anything, leading up to the Consumer Duty, because it’s always been there. That’s been really useful. It’s a clear audit trail showing I’m fulfilling my duties.
For the Consumer Duty, Dynamic Planner allows you to show consistency, which is a big thing – a consistent service and pathway for your clients. I’m doing the job I said I would, within the tram lines of my advice fees.
