Fintech Impact

This is the 19th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Eric Arnold, the Chief Executive Officer at Planswell, an online financial planning software platform that is really targeted at individual consumers, helping customers implement their financial self-planning. Eric shares how Planswell was started, its capabilities, and ways in which it continues to expand.

●     01:36 – Eric began his career starting many businesses including tea at shopping      malls, driveway sealing, independent music distribution, children’s birthday parties, and window cleaning.

●     03:11 – Eric and his wife moved to Toronto from Aurora for her to attend the University of Toronto and he took on a job as an investment advisor at Wood Gundy.

●     06:14 – In 2016, investor dollars went into building up Planswell and have since made over 30,000 financial plans for people—about 20,000 in the last six months.

●     07:12 – The client experience begins with clients hearing about Planswell from ad campaigns or referrals, going through about 40 questions in 3 or 4 minutes, and they are then walked through their strategy plan.

●     10:56 – The 3 Pillars to Implementing a Plan: Acclimation of investments, Insurance, and Mortgages.

●     12:00 – Planswell Portfolios is a stand-online PM, a no-call a robo advisor license.

●     12:45 – On the insurance side, Planswell is a fully licensed insurance brokerage essentially, it’s called an MGA in the industry, which is the highest relationship that you can have with insurance manufacturers

●     17:06 – A lot of the plans Planswell have implemented were before they were even onboarding.

●     20:13 – Currently, Planswell has about 50 team members, doubled from last year, and next year the staff should increase to between 100-150.

●     20:56 – Over 25% of the potential investors Planswell has pitched to have invested.

●     25:20 – The general feedback from the financial advisor community is that many are uneasy about their futures.

●     26:50 – The demographics of Planswell skew a little older and coming from high net-worth brokerage and homeowners. The average client age is 40 years.

●     29:46 – About 5% of advisors are actually making plans for clients.

●     32:12 – Everyone is on a salary and receive performance incentives to get them excited about onboarding clients effectively and efficiently.

3 Key Points:

1. Planswell has since made over 30,000 financial plans for people—about 20,000 in the last six months.

2. The client experience starts with clients hearing about Planswell from ad campaigns or referrals, going through about 40 questions in 3 or 4 minutes, and they are then walked through their strategy plan.

3.The 3 Pillars to Implementing a Plan: Acclimation of investments, Insurance, and Mortgages.

Tweetable Quotes:

-     “Planswell is a way to figure out what you need to do on a monthly basis to maintain your lifestyle into the future.” – Eric Arnold.

-     “We are like a fully licensed insurance brokerage essentially, it’s called..an MGA in the industry, which is…the highest relationship that you can have with insurance manufacturers. – Eric Arnold.

-     “We definitely see a future where there are probably still a lot of advisors. I don’t see a future where top advisors are making $3 or 4 million a year, I don’t think the financial institutions thinks that either.” – Eric Arnold. 

Resources Mentioned:

● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn

● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook

● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial

● LinkedIn – Eric Arnold’s LinkedIn

● Planswell – Website for Planswell