Building a financial plan can generate a lot of information and paperwork. The result is all too often that clients are left feeling overwhelmed.
Adam Holt, founder and CEO of Asset-Map, a Philadelphia-based financial software company, saw first-hand the problems caused by clients disengaging from that process. “Clients did not want to read voluminous reports, so they missed out on information and were left feeling less empowered,” he says.
Holt set out to create Asset-Map, a digital platform that helps clients visualize their household finances so they can more easily get a handle on their financial plan. “We didn’t want to compete with financial planning or portfolio analytics platforms,” he says. “Instead, we wanted to complement them by providing an initial visual inventory.”
Asset-Map provides a way to visualize data from other planning, CRM and portfolio tools such as Riskalyze, Redtail and Orion.
The map itself is a single screen that lays out a client’s financial life. The client is placed at the center surrounded by the financial instruments they’re managing, as well as their income, assets, liabilities, insurance and accounts. The map also includes other members of the client’s household who are important to their financial plan.
“When you put an organized visualization in front of people, they start to look at their financial decisions in a way they may never have experienced before,” says Holt. When clients understand their financial situation, they can ask good questions and advisors can share their expertise more easily, he explains.
Holt’s firm designed Asset-Map for financial professionals of all sizes and disciplines, including CPAs and attorneys. Now, over 200,000 diverse households in the U.S. use the tool, representing billions of dollars, including foreign currencies, says Holt.
“Asset-Map is about unleashing advisors’ expertise by laying out complex information in a smart way,” says Holt. “This give clients clarity and confidence that they’re making good decisions because they have you involved.”
