LPL Financial is going even further on its bet about the importance of financial planning. The firm is announcing Thursday that Envestnet MoneyGuide is the latest to integrate with the independent broker/dealer’s ClientWorks Connected platform. MoneyGuide will be the third financial planning tool available on ClientWorks, alongside its own free application called Client Goals and an offering from eMoney.
Of course, LPL advisors could use MoneyGuide previously; in fact, the technology has been part of LPL’s Vendor Affinity Program since 2015. But this will provide a deeper integration for the 1,450 advisors who currently use the software.
“This is more than just passing data back and forth,” said Rob Pettman, LPL Financial executive vice president for products and platforms.
In the client section of ClientWorks, advisors who use MoneyGuide will now see the PDF of the financial plan they created for that client, probability of success in reaching those goals, and a button that takes the advisor straight to MoneyGuide.
“I have these quick references that tell me if an adjustment might be needed; I have a quick access to your plan,” Pettman said. “So the only time I really need to go step out and go back into the planning tool is if an adjustment is necessary or if I’m just going to go create a new plan.”
LPL is currently working on a new investor portal, which will also benefit from a tighter integration with the financial planning tool.
“When a client goes in to access the information about their account, you’re going to want them to see their goals too, so this is another place where the goals from the ClientWorks system or the MoneyGuide system are going to show up,” Pettman said.
In March of last year, Envestnet announced its acquisition of PIEtech, the parent company of MoneyGuidePro, for about $500 million.