Canadian investment and financial planning software company PlanPlus has merged with Australia’s financial risk profiling firm FinaMetrica, with the merged entity branded as PlanPlus Global.
The merger, effective on 1 August, will still see both the globally recognised PlanPlus and FinaMetrica brands continue to offer their products separately.
The two companies say the merger means that PlanPlus Global can now offer an integrated solution — around evidence-based investment suitability — to banks, investment managers and financial advice enterprises that want to build robust, defensible planning and advice applications that can be scaled globally.
PlanPlus founder and chief executive Shawn Brayman said: “We believe we are the first truly world class provider of professional advice solutions for enterprises and individual planners. Our products range from the world's most respected psychometric risk tolerance profiler to a goal-based robo adviser to comprehensive financial planning, all in several languages with more than 12,000 users in dozens of countries.”
{loadposition peter}Brayman says the two firms have collaborated together for more than a decade, “sharing a deeply-held belief that customers and providers all benefit when rigorous academic research underpins financial advice processes”.
According to Brayman, each has individually built an international reputation for delivering tools to help enterprises build consistency into scalable advice solutions.
FinaMetrica co-founder Paul Resnik says “the strategic match between FinaMetrica and PlanPlus is extraordinary”.
“Our products complement each other and we share a common commitment to delivering financial systems that prioritise client’s best interests. Meanwhile, we both have global businesses serving the corporate market and individual advisers.
“The merger comes at just the right time for us to meet the market’s demands for an affordable, scalable and defensible advice solution that can be applied internationally across platforms, channels and borders.”
The two companies say the merged business serves customers in more than 30 countries with significant presences in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia, and substantial user bases in India, Germany, South Africa and Malaysia – and PlanPlus Global has staff, offices and representatives in all major time zones “to ensure all clients, large and small, are fully supported”.
FinaMetrica co-founder Geoff Davey will now exit the business after his retirement from executive roles in 2015.
Resnik said “FinaMetrica’s world leading reputation in financial risk tolerance is largely the result of Geoff’s insight, intellectual rigour and hard work. We thank him and wish him a long and happy retirement.”
According to the two companies, PlanPlus Global is accelerating an ambitious development plan, including continued expansion of their collaborative platform that provides scaled advice from Do-It-Yourself to traditional adviser-driven, “and exploring the potentials of big-data and artificial intelligence as additional components in standardising and automating the Know Your Client process”.