Money Tree Software Blog

Money Tree Software's President, Mark Snodgrass, will be on the panel discussing trends in financial planning at the FPA Business Solutions Conference, held in San Francisco March 4-6.

How do you compare to your peers when it comes to the amount of time you spend creating financial plans and the fees you charge for your planning services?

Don’t miss the most recent data presented by the Financial Planning Association based on their October 2011 Financial Plan Development and Fee study.

Advisors are required to be extra savvy when it comes to data protection, as the personal and financial client data they have access to can make the advisor or firm a tempting target for cyber criminals.  Advisors are also in a unique position to help educate clients on best practices to protect their own personal and financial information. 

A recent article from Investment News highlights do’s and don’ts to be aware of, and to share with your clients to keep coveted information safe and secure.  Please take the time to read this article to help ensure you are following the best practices for data and computer security.

Clients and advisers all know it has been a tough few years in the market.  Advisers have been busy figuring out their best strategy to handle the volatile markets.  Clients have been busy wondering if their adviser is making all the best moves and fully understands their needs and objectives.   

Rates of return in the TOTAL Planning Suite can come from four different places:

The importance of accurately modeling retirement spending needs for a retirement projection is vital, because relatively small change to spending can add up to make a big impact on the clients overall success.  This article from CNNMoney discusses the different phases of retirement and the importance to not under estimate expenses during the last phase of retirement.       

This article from Financial-Planning.com sheds light on some of the differences between men and women when it comes to planning for retirement. 

Men and Women Do Retirement Planning Differently
By Michael Cohn
January 25, 2012

The January update to Silver Financial Planner is now available!

The new inherited IRA feature in TOTAL Planning Suite allows planners to enter inherited IRAs in the Asset Details section. When entering an inherited IRA, make sure to select the asset type of "Retirement Plan" and the retirement plan type as "Inherited IRA". A new tab will become available called "Inherited IRA". Move to this tab to select details about the inherited IRA. The program will enable/disable certain options and fields based on selections to gather only the required information.

The January update to TOTAL Planning Suite is now available!  This new version includes tax updates for 2012, and a new feature to support inherited IRAs.