Embrace a paperless office with Xplan financial planning software

The financial planning environment is rapidly changing, with advisors needing to demonstrate agility at every corner to keep up with regulatory requirements and the evolving client relationship. But is your business evolving with the digital age?

If you're still juggling between paper documents and financial planning software, it's time to leverage the unrivalled capability of Xplan to evolve into a paperless office. Here's why.

1. A paperless advice process is better for the planet

Saving the world sounds dramatic, but natural resources are scarce — and the more paper we use, the more precious resources we waste. It takes around 10 litres of water to produce a single A4 sheet of paper. Why contribute to deforestation, waste water and add to greenhouse gas emissions when there is a sustainable digital alternative?

Precious resources don't only exist in the natural world; they exist in business too. Time and money are arguably the most precious resources to a financial advisor. Going paperless is one of the best-proven ways to create time and money. Without bulky printers, binders, scanners, filing cabinets and paper supplies, your business can redirect those hours and funds back into your team and your clients.

2. Financial planning services are more efficient without paper

Advisers strive for the perfect balance between efficiency and compliance. The daily monotony of printing, binding, signing, scanning, uploading, filing and shredding may seem par for the course in an advice practice, but over time these micro-activities add up to mega inefficiencies.

A platform as advanced as Xplan goes beyond trading software and provides a comprehensive document management system, CRM and the ability to completely revolutionise your processes for maximum efficiency. You don't have to compromise compliance — Xplan helps secure your compliance through its intelligent design.

Xplan's digital signature functionality removes unnecessary printing, posting and scanning. Client signatures are captured instantaneously, allowing clients to sign where and when it suits them and removing the wait time before you can implement advice.

3. Paper documents can damage client relationships

Client relationships are the cornerstone of success in every finance practice. With a clear social and cultural shift towards sustainability, aligning your business with your clients' values has never been easier than when you choose digital documents over paper.

Offering this point of differentiation can be a real lynchpin in attracting new clients — and is one of the unsung benefits of going paperless. Failing to demonstrate sound corporate social responsibility could, over time, damage your reputation.

Going digital also reassures clients that their information isn't sitting in an unlocked cupboard, on a communal desk, or accessible to strangers when staff are working from home. A fully digital document management system also makes for smoother continuity if your firm changes hands or you retire.

4. Get your space back

Where do you store your files? If you're a growing firm, hard copies of client files probably take up a considerable amount of space. Going paperless gives you back office space — which could make room for even more advisors in your firm.

How can financial advisors benefit from a paperless process?

A paperless work environment provides countless benefits in financial services. Retail banking and insurance have largely been paperless for years; now it's the advice profession's turn:

• Improve sales by quickly gaining clients' agreement to proceed via digital signatures on mobile, laptop or PC
• Share documents and provide real-time data through the Xplan Client Portal as your clients need it
• Get more out of your team by using less of their time on paper and more of their skillset to service clients
• Cut supplies costs related to paper, improve cash flow, and invest more in technology-based solutions
• Eradicate postage time lag and the risk of misplacing clients' printed sensitive information

Why is Xplan the right financial planning software to anchor a paperless practice?

Many practices have realised the benefits of investing in their paperless future by using Xplan to its full potential. As one of the leading financial planning platforms, Xplan offers far more than portfolio management and retirement modelling.

IRESS, the company behind Xplan, uses the IRESS Open framework to allow Xplan users to easily connect third-party applications. This means you have flexibility over what software forms your technology ecosystem, and can complement Xplan's native capability with other apps to streamline your business and truly reach a paperless system.

The available integrations cover advice generation, document management, client portals, back scanning, analysis, digital engagement, suitability reports, online fact finds and more. With less time on paper, advisers can invest more time with their clients — and this works at every stage of the advice process:

• Capture Client Fact Find information directly into the platform — no transposing handwritten forms
• Send your Terms of Engagement and Invoice via the Client Portal
• Conduct research with WealthSolver, Risk Researcher and the Client Fact Find wizard
• Merge your Statement of Advice or Record of Advice from Xplan, save to PDF and share via the portal
• Use digital signatures to capture agreement to proceed and any implementation paperwork
• Send Ongoing Service Agreements, FDS and Opt-In documents digitally via Client Portal

If you're ready to learn more about how to move closer to becoming a paperless office, get in touch with us today. At Umlaut we offer Xplan consultancy services that help Australian financial advice firms optimise their use of the software and move closer to a paperless, efficient and modern practice.