A client-facing, goal-tracking portal with real-time plan monitoring, probability-of-success scoring, tax-impact visualizations, and collaborative what-if tools — designed for the gap between advisor meetings.
Financial planning has become table stakes — clients expect it. Yet the technology supporting it is the least satisfying category in the advisor tech stack. Cerulli's 2025 WealthTech report found that while 92% of advisor practices offering planning use planning software, the highest satisfaction rate was only 69% for general planning tools. Specialized areas fare worse: stock option planning satisfaction was just 40%, and income tax planning had the highest dissatisfaction rate at 22%.
The root cause is structural. Current planning tools are built for the advisor, not the client. Advisors spend a median of 5 hours building a plan — inputting data, running scenarios, generating reports. Then the output goes to the client as a static PDF or a client portal that gets checked once and forgotten. Only 18% of full-service firms' apps provide a proactive, valuable experience with features like interactive planning tools and tailored guidance that meet client expectations.
Meanwhile, 44% of clients strongly expect digital goal-planning guidance, and 78% expect interactive digital experiences from their advisors. The gap between what clients want (always-on, self-service, engaging) and what they get (annual PDF, quarterly login reminder) represents the largest client-experience opportunity in the advisory industry.
Cerulli believes AI-powered capabilities that can ingest and analyze a client's financial information and identify planning opportunities will be the most impactful force driving broader planning adoption — automating the time-consuming analysis that historically required deep human expertise.
Three platforms dominate: eMoney (28% share), MoneyGuide (23%), and RightCapital (21% and growing fast). Each has distinct strengths — and revealing weaknesses in client experience.
| Platform | Market Share | Satisfaction | Best For | Client Portal | Pricing | Key Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eMoney (Fidelity) | 28.2% | 8.5/10 | Complex HNW, estate planning | Strong (emX) | $3,500–$8K+/yr | Steep learning curve, slow innovation |
| MoneyGuide (Envestnet) | 22.8% | 7.9/10 | Goals-based, uniform delivery | Basic | ~$1,400/yr | Lacks native portal, declining satisfaction |
| RightCapital | 20.7% | 8.7/10 | Tax planning, modern UX | Market-leading | $1,680–$2,160/yr | Newer, less complex estate tools |
| Orion Planning | 6.3% | 7.5/10 | Integrated with Orion PMS | Basic | Bundled | Planning as add-on, not core strength |
| Elements | Growing | 8.0/10 | Financial health scoring | Limited | ~$1,200/yr | No projections — current state only |
The critical gap across all platforms: Even the best planning tools focus on plan creation (the advisor's workflow) rather than plan engagement (the client's ongoing experience). eMoney's Decision Center allows live scenario editing, but it's designed for advisor-led meetings — not client self-service. RightCapital's Snapshot and Blueprint visuals are excellent, but they're outputs, not interactive experiences. No tool fully solves the "between meetings" problem: keeping clients engaged, on track, and seeing the value of their advisor relationship in real time.
Clients want to open their phone and see — immediately, visually — whether they're on track for retirement, education funding, debt payoff, or any other goal. Not a 47-page plan. Not login → navigate → find. A single, clear answer: green, yellow, or red.
Clients want to explore scenarios themselves — adjusting retirement age, spending, savings rate, or major purchases and seeing the impact instantly. MoneyGuide's "PlayZone" pioneered this, but it's meeting-only. Clients want it on their couch at 9pm.
47% of advisors offer tax planning services, and this number is rising fast. Clients want to see the tax impact of Roth conversions, harvesting, distribution strategies, and charitable giving — visualized, not buried in tables.
Major life events (job change, inheritance, home purchase, divorce, new baby) create planning moments. Current tools are reactive — the advisor finds out at the next quarterly meeting. Clients want proactive guidance the moment things change.
The tool is an engagement layer that sits in front of (or integrates with) existing planning software — transforming static plans into living, interactive experiences. Not a replacement for eMoney or RightCapital, but a client-experience layer that makes their outputs come alive.
Every existing tool optimizes for creating the plan. None optimize for the 364 days between annual reviews. The portal lives in the engagement layer — making the plan a living conversation, not a dusty document. No competitor occupies this space.
eMoney's Decision Center and MoneyGuide's PlayZone are advisor-controlled, meeting-only tools. No platform lets clients safely explore scenarios at home with guardrails. This is the #1 requested feature from next-gen clients.
Clients pay 1% per year but interact with their advisor 2–4 times. An always-on portal that shows planning value daily answers the fee justification question and dramatically increases retention and referrals.
Position as a complementary layer to eMoney, RightCapital, and MoneyGuide — not a competitor. Build API integrations that pull plan data and display it in the portal. Partner co-marketing: "Your plans, brought to life." This removes adoption friction and channels existing user bases into the portal.
Content marketing around the advisor value gap: "Your clients see you 4 times a year. What happens the other 361 days?" Position the portal as the always-on relationship layer. Use the 18% stat (only 18% of apps meet expectations) as the hook in webinars and conference talks.
Schwab's benchmarking shows 95% of firms focus on enhancing client experience. Offer the portal as a white-labeled client experience upgrade within Schwab and Fidelity's practice management programs — directly addressing their stated #1 advisor priority.
Advisors answer 10 questions about their client communication cadence, portal usage, and between-meeting touchpoints. Output: a Client Engagement Score with benchmarks and improvement recommendations. Low scorers become high-intent buyer leads.
90% of clients say their advisor's communication frequency directly impacts their loyalty and likelihood to refer. An always-on portal transforms communication from quarterly event to continuous conversation — the single biggest driver of retention and referral generation.
Companies that enhance their client experience see revenue increases of 10–15% on average. For a $300M AUM firm generating $2.4M revenue, that's $240K–$360K in additional revenue — from retention, referrals, and wallet share expansion — against a $4,188/year portal cost.
The portal addresses the most dangerous question in advisory: "What am I paying for?" When clients see their plan progressing daily, explore scenarios on their own, and receive proactive guidance, the advisor's value becomes tangible and continuous — not episodic. This transforms the fee conversation from "1% of my money" to "my financial life is being actively managed every day." The result: higher retention, more referrals, greater wallet share, and a client experience that competitors can't replicate with quarterly PDF reports.