Why this SG-based fintech firm is ending the pen-and-paper era of financial advisors
GoalsMapper used its cloud-based platform to help financial advisors support 80,000 clients.
GoalsMapper, a Singapore-based fintech software-as-a-service firm, said that the pen-and-paper era for financial advisors and financial consultants should be over and done with as traditional methods lack the accuracy to cater to a client’s needs.
This was based on the experience of GoalsMapper co-founder Dato’ Wayne Chen. 14 years ago, Wayne was an independent financial advisor. During those times when he was offering his services to clients, he found it difficult to prepare materials that would accurately capture a client’s financial snapshot and instead found himself relying on a standardised presentation and script
“Due to the lack of clarity of a client’s situation, the product that I recommend to them during a meeting might not be the best fit for them. What I have observed is that I will require more meetings with a client before getting the right solutions to them as I will require more time on the side to prepare calculations and materials in order to help clients visualise the possibilities in the solutions,” Wayne explained during a quick chat with Singapore Business Review.
He quickly identified the problem: a lack of real-time digital tools. This was the spark that motivated him to build GoalsMapper.
The platform
To address the traditional problems of financial advisors, GoalsMapper created three important products namely GM Planner, GM Brand, and GM Connect to help financial advisors support more than 80,000 lives.
The GM Planner is a financial planning tool with goals and scenarios projections via interactive charts that allow clients to stress test and visualise their portfolios. This means financial advisors can create a simulation of how clients can achieve their financial goals.
“GM Planner allows financial advisors and institutions to personalise financial advisory, taking into consideration the client’s goals and different life scenarios,” Wayne explained.
Meanwhile, GM Brand was created to help the image of the financial advisor. It helps them create personalised websites in just a few clicks. Wayne added that GM Brand was tailor-fitted for financial advisors to help them enhance their brand and image.
The last product, GM Connect, helps financial advisors maintain communication with their clients. It helps automate post-sales engagements like premium reminders and policy reviews.
GM Connect is essentially a customer relationship management platform that stores notes of appointments with clients, helps financial advisors remind clients about premium dates, and stay in communication with clients.
An interesting product they created was the recently launched GM Rewards. This product was created through the focus group GoalsMapper has created to get more ideas from platform users on how to improve their product.
GoalsMapper found out that a lot of financial advisors have difficulty giving tokens of appreciation to clients, especially on occasions. This is especially true for financial advisors who have 100 to 300 clients.
“We came up with GM Rewards, where financial advisors can easily give gifts to their clients. The feature allows financial advisors to collate their gifting orders, customise it for clients, and coordinate delivery as well,” Wayne explained.
Expansion
Every year, since its inception, GoalsMapper expanded its reach from Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Most recently, it landed in Indonesia.
Wayne said they see a lot of potential for its Indonesian expansion because of its low insurance penetration rate at 3.23% and a financial literacy rate of 15.8% in the underserved market.
“There is an urgent need to close the financial literacy gap for normal everyday people and the financial advisors. We see a potential 600,000 financial advisors that the platform could support,” Wayne added.
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