Financial technology firm AstuteWheel has launched an estate-planning solution aimed at removing friction from advisers’ interactions with clients and providing them with a tangible estate plan tool.
The standalone Astute Estate Planner tool aims to streamline the process by providing a cost-effective and efficient proposition for financial advisers, risk professionals, accountants and lawyers. The offering from Astute Wheel, which first announced its plans to move into estate planning in 2014, allows users to determine how they would like their estate to be distributed and protected.
AstuteWheel managing director Hans Egger said advisers were seeking to spend better quality time with clients, and the tool used a spate of auto-generated visuals – such as digital family trees and entity diagrams – for clients to record preferences for wills, beneficiaries, powers of attorney and guardianship ahead of meeting their adviser. “Astute Estate Planner translates to considerable savings in both time and money for the client and better, more efficient meetings not only for financial advisers but also for other professionals engaged in the process,” he said.
“Clients can therefore complete much of the perfunctory information required by their professionals electronically before meeting with them.” The fintech group’s estate planning module was launched to financial adviser users of AstuteWheel last year. While Egger was quick to dismiss the notion of the tool as a vehicle for advisers to provide estate planning advice – which is not permitted under current legislation – he said it was a means to facilitate client information-gathering, as well as providing a simpler means for creating a briefing document that could be taken to an accountant or lawyer.
“The information collected and documented using Astute Estate Planner by the adviser can be imported into legal document generation systems such as Yodal and View Legal to produce draft wills and estate planning documents,” he said. “This integration work has provided a seamless, cost-effective and efficient experience for clients.”
