Financial planning software developer Advicent is providing certain financial advisors with free access to the client portal of its NaviPlan platform, from April 1 through the end of next year, according to an advanced copy of a press release obtained by WealthManagement.com.
This appears to be following a trend among technology providers in recent days, including Orion Advisor Solutions and platform provider AdvisorPeak.
The move by Advicent, designed to help small RIAs and independent advisors, means that advisors who currently pay for access to the client portal will see immediate savings. Meanwhile, the thousands of advisors using NaviPlan who have not purchased licenses for the client portal will now have free access. NaviPlan does not bundle its client portal and advisor-facing financial planning software.
The move will potentially save “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” in total, for advisors using the NaviPlan client portal, according to Angela Pecoraro, Advicent’s CEO. The firm declined to provide exact pricing for each individual client portal license, citing that it was privately held.
The client portal facilitates account aggregation, fact-finding and client communication. The latter could prove particularly useful, Pecoraro added. “While advisors and their clients are subject to travel restrictions and shelter-in-place orders, the NaviPlan client portal can facilitate virtual meetings which are essential to protecting, and improving, clients’ financial futures,” she said in the statement.
Meanwhile, some videoconferencing solutions, like Zoom, are facing scrutiny for security and privacy lapses.
While they will be saving money on the sticker price of NaviPlan’s client portal, advisors will also have access to hundreds of pieces of marketing materials, according to the press release. The new pricing, designed to “help advisors mitigate” the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic on their businesses, is only available to non-enterprise NaviPlan customers.