Software Review: Financial Planning Segments

Accounting Technology,  January, 2005  by Dave McClure

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Professional financial planning may have started with the life insurance industry, but it isn't staying there. What began as a more organized approach to selling insurance products has evolved in just a few decades into a robust and highly competitive marketplace in which banks, insurance firms, independent wealth management firms, accounting firms, and law firms expand their sales and management programs.

Certainly, accountants and insurance agents are still the core of the financial planning industry. Accountants carry the lead among small businesses and their owners, while insurance agents remain the primary financial advisors for individual consumers. But these two groups face challenges as never before from investment groups and trust departments of banking institutions, particularly those that are developing hybrid investment/insurance securities products.

Driving this competition are three trends.

1.The emergence of a clear "food chain" within the wealth management industry. The industry is now segmented into the ...