AMA: I'm Lachlan Fuller, Xplan product manager for Visualise & Client Portal, Ask Me Anything!

Are you fully utilising Xplan to deliver a superior client experience? Are you making the most of Visualise and Client Portal?

Join me here on Wednesday 4th December from 3pm to 4pm.

With years of experience helping financial advice practices deliver better client experiences with Xplan, I’m here to help or hear your feedback.

❗️Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions in the discussion forums and make sure you tag me at @lachlan.fuller

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rainier.reyes

Welcome everyone to an Advisely Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread!

Here's how to get involved:

Submit your questions: Just type them out and post now ahead of the AMA! This is a text-based event, so no audio or video is needed. Lachlan will be here to answer whatever Xplan Visualise and Client Portal questions you have during the scheduled time.
Be respectful: Keep it friendly and professional. Respectful dialogue makes the AMA enjoyable and informative for everyone.
Stay engaged: Feel free to follow up or ask about different topics as the thread goes on. The more you interact, the richer the conversation. Don't forger to refresh the page to see new responses.
Enjoy the experience: Use this opportunity to gain insights, share ideas, and connect. Let’s make this AMA one to remember!

Looking forward to all your amazing questions and let the asking begin!

luke

@lachlan.fuller @lachlan.fuller @lachlan.fullerhas there been much progress with the client portal/changes? I have not pushed this much further with our business (I want to) but I want there to be a bit more of a “need” for the client to use and adapt to it.

Has there been any consideration for open banking integration in the client portal? A few examples, if you send the client portal access to a client and you haven’t established a partner the client cannot add any details of the partner. The 2FA with the email option still had issues when I last used it and clients were not receiving the email, it was a big barrier to entry. I do understand that there maybe some restrictions from licencees, so you maybe able to fill me in?

What about being able to see your goals as a client and the progress you have made? Or sharing the Xtools modelling scenario that has been recommended, or portfolio tracking to the set goal. One thing I have been waiting for is a review questionnaire for the client where they can see all of the current personal information we have on them that they can simple update profile to the meeting which feeds back and updates XPLAN?

Appreciate your time and efforts, you guys are doing a good job

lachlan.fuller

Thanks Luke,

We are discussing the Open Banking piece in detail as a potential option to improve the fact finding experience from the perspective of the client. It's certainly something that has gained interest in the recent past and I believe it offers a path to a more seamless experience.

For 2FA your Xplan site needs to have this enabled and it is pushed out to all users, so it could be the decision of a licensee not to impose this on all users. Relevant to any potential changes to 2FA is that we are very close to the rolling out our new authentication screens that retires a legacy dependency in the application. The practical effect is that it will be easier and quicker to rollout more changes in the authentication space including, potentially, the use of authentication apps which are available to Xplan users, just not clients currently.

Other items we are looking at include, but are not limited to goal tracking, embedding strategy modelling and giving the client more visual feedback on how their financial plan is moving them closer to meeting their objectives. At the heart of this is allowing Client Portal to help advisers promote the value of their advice to the client.

On the review questionnaire, much of this should already be catered for in the fact find which can be provided as a review, inclusive of existing information. We are delivering a comprehensive output report to compliment this to give the adviser a clear picture on what has (and has not) changed.

Thanks for the kind words, don't hesitate to get in touch directly if you wish to discuss any of the above in more detail.

Lachlan

mbaldry

Hi @lachlan.fuller - within Visualise, are there any plans to include a section dedicated to taxation, similar to the xtools>cashflow>taxation>client/partner sections? We are a multi disciplinary firm and love diving into xtools with clients to show tax outcomes.

lachlan.fuller

Good morning Michael,

Nothing immediate is planned but that sounds like a useful enhancement. In terms of showing the tax effect of strategic advice, what are the things you are wanting to display? Is it a matter of displaying to the client "here is the tax you are currently paying and here is what you can expect to pay following the implementation of this advice"?

Or are there specific breakdowns you are after?

What line items would you consider necessary to display? Would the items of "Total Assessable Income", "Total Deductions", "Taxable Income", "Net Amount Payable" offer sufficient detail? Noting that Visualise would need a more succinct output compared with the detail from Xtools+

Lachlan

sevans

Hi Lachlan,

We're keen to know more about the expected ETA for the "comprehensive report" of what data has been\hasn't been changed when a client updates a fact find via the client portal. The overwriting of existing data has been our biggest hesitation in moving our clients fully to the portal for fact find completion ahead of a review. My understanding was that it was on the roadmap for delivery this year- if you can provide any clearer dates it would be really appreciated!

Sharyn

dela

Hi @lachlan.fuller Is there any plan to connect Visualise with Xtools+? We are external paraplanners so don't use it often, however our advisers like to use Visualise with their clients. Is there (or could there) be a way to pull a scenario from Xtools+ to be shown in Visualise?

Thanks!

s.hanley

Hi, will electronic signatures in client portal be implemented in the near future? Thank you

martin.joughin

I haven't looked at the client portal but in the past if a client had multiple entities e.g. trusts, companies, SMSFs, you couldn't see all of the assets at the same time. You had to switch between the different entities. Has this been fixed, or are there plans to fix it?

claire.mclean

Hi, Is it possible to get some of the graphics in visualise updated to be a bit more specific?

They default to having the primary client's information, but when you are dealing with a couple, it's not obvious to the clients who the screen is referring to. It would be good to have both of their names & ages listed.

Is the portfolio average return just based on the primary client? Or the client & partner together? Where does that come from?

When doing a withdrawal from a capital asset to establish a pension account it pulls through to Visualise as 'income' and 'expense' respecivley, but it's not income. This is missleading and out clients find it confusing.

Even if we de-select the expense, the total ‘income’ still shows which doesn’t help the graph look any better.

Also, is any work being done to change the X axis to include the partner's age as well? Or have the option to toggle between the two? Or even just have the year instead? (2024, 2025 etc).

It's frustrating to only have one client show - most of the time we deal with couples - and one person in the couple isn't more important than the other!

Even the language of 'Client' and 'Partner' annoys me to be honest. It implies the Partner isn't a client, when more often than not they are. Can they be renames 'Client 1' & 'Client 2' or something?I know the coding in the background would still say partner, but if any client facing documents/information could change that would be brilliant.

claire.mclean

Hi Sharyn,

We had some clients complete updates online before they come in for their review, but because we don't get a run down of what they have updated, we've decided not to bother at this point as we had to go through it all again anyway.

We really wanted it to produce a summary of what the client had changed so we could discuss the changes with them if relevant.

And there were too many bits they can't edit anyway - there's no Estate planning yet, and the way we enter their bank accounts (In IPS) meant that they couldn't update the balances, which is one of the bits we wanted them to take on!

We don't even really use the online fact find for initial clients either anymore, because there were too many sections where the data wasn't being entered in a way that came through how we want it to. Or whole sections that aren't there (estate planning - looking at you again!!)

And using Planner Central means that we have little to no control/customisation

kshanks

Hi Lachlan

We're at the early stages of considering Client Portal and were wondering if there is any high level data available around:

what percentage of firms who use Xplan, also use Client Portal?
for firms using Client Portal, what are the features/functionality most used?
how many individual client users are using Client Portal?
what is the average number of times a client user logs in over a one year period? (or monthly - however the data is captured)
will the DocuSign integration that is due for release within Xplan, also be availabe on Client Portal?
we have our own Xplan site. Would we be able to fully customise a Client Portal fact find, or are there limitations to which of our XPlan site fields can be included in a fact find?

Thanks a million

Cheers Kerri

sevans

@lachlan.fuller we are planning on enabling 2FA on our client portal in the New Year after successfully transitioning most clients over to it earlier this year. Can you please advise what we need to consider before we do this, given that many of our clients travel overseas and will need to be able to access their 2FA code either via email when travelling or locally via SMS. I have read we need to have a Country Code recorded for all client mobile phone numbers- is this correct?

lachlan.fuller

Hi Sharyn,

Thanks for the question!

Based on our latest estimates we anticipate releasing this work into Client Portal in Q1 next year. I am aware that we've had to move this date a number of occassions. But I can assure you that the team's full focus is on delivery of this feature.

We are very excited by the prospect of introducing it and based on the question from yourself and the regular questions I get from others about this item, I cannot wait to see it in production.

Lachlan

lachlan.fuller

Hi Dela,

Thank you for your question. Visualise is build as a layer on top of Xtools+. When created, Visualise scenarios are available to view and edit in Xtools+. And Xtools+ scenarios are available to view and adjust in Visualise.

The main thing to be mindful of is that the Xtools+ scenario needs to be added to your Case to make it accessible in Visualise.

Please get in touch if you would like me to run through the steps needed to make this happen.

Lachlan

lachlan.fuller

Hi Sally,

Thank you for the question. Xplan has its own digital signature function and it is currently available in Client Portal. There is another question below on DocuSign and I will answer that here and in that thread.

DocuSign integration that is build in Xplan is not yet available in Client Portal, the signing of documents will occur in their signing platform.

It would be a useful extension to include this in Client Portal and we are considering this, and other digital signing platforms in the future, though it is not yet on our roadmap.

Lachlan

lachlan.fuller

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the question an previously taking a look at Client Portal.

Regarding the single view of assets, you can see investment assets across entities in a single screen. Where your question may relate to assets recorded in Client Focus, the balance sheet you can only view these assets (and liabilities) on a per-entity basis.

You can of course provide comprehesive custom reports to your clients to generate this data in a format that best suits your needs. Let me know if you would like to understand more about how to do this.

Lachlan

rainier.reyes

Hi everyone and welcome to today's AMA! Great to see all your questions already.

Please ensure you read my instructions earlier in the thread before you post.

In order to see new questions and responses, make sure you refresh the page regularly.

Let me know if you need any assistance!

lachlan.fuller

Hi Claire,

Thank you for the detailed post. I'll try to answer one by one below:

Is the portfolio average return just based on the primary client? Or the client & partner together? Where does that come from?

If you have included client & partner in your scenario then it will include both.

The average return is based on the average return as at the start of the projection. The assets included in the calculation are:
- Financial Assets held under Individual
- Accumulation Super
- Untaxed Super
- Financial Assets held by SMSF

Note: Properties and assets held by Companies and Trusts are excluded.

Income in the context of both Xtools+ and Visualise refers to money that is making a positive contribution to the cashflow, including the sale of assets. Conversely, any spending, including for capital assets and cashflow streams will be represented as expediture.

In discussing this with the Xtools team we certainly see merit in allowing additional views that could include the ability for users to display the data in different ways that best suit your circumstances.

Also, is any work being done to change the X axis to include the partner's age as well? Or have the option to toggle between the two? Or even just have the year instead? (2024, 2025 etc).

There isn't anything currently being worked on but this sounds like a useful enhancement that could be considered. Xtools+ does display both Client and Partner.

While I don't disagree about there needing to be equity in the consideration between clients, label changes need to be like this need to approached with care. Displaying as Client and Partner in one area of the software and then Client 1 and Client 2 in could be problematic and introduce additional issues.

lachlan.fuller

Hi Kerri,

Thanks for the question,

I'm don't have an exact figure on percentage of firms that use Client Portal in relation to Xplan. However I can confirm that there are several hundred active Client Portals in use today.

We see greater than 40,000 unique users accessing Client Portal monthly.

I don't have average data for individual client logins that could extrapolate this information.

I made mention of DocuSign in a thread above, DocuSign integration that is build in Xplan is not yet available in Client Portal, the signing of documents will occur in their signing platform. We will continue to look at integrating this, and other digital signature providers into Client Portal.

Regarding the Fact Find, you are limited to the existing universe of fields that Client Portal provides, in relation to this we are considering how we might extend this list to suit your requirements.

Lachlan

lachlan.fuller

Thanks Sharyn,

A very timely call out as we have seen a marked increase in 2FA use for Client Portal in 2024 and expect that to continue for the foreseeable future.

Yes, 2FA does require the country code to be added against the mobile phone record. This is irrespective of where the client is. You must also ensure that 'Preferred SMS Mobile' is set otherwise the user will not be presented with the option to enrol this device.

Client Portal has always required users to have a preferred email address, so that is an additional option available to clients.

And while authenticator apps are not yet available for Client Portal clients, it is another consideration that we would like to introduce.

I hope this helps to answer your question!

Lachlan

sevans

Hi @kerri.shanks

I thought I would chip in on this one as we have transitioned most of our clients over to the client portal over the course of the last 6months, and away from our previous file sharing system. There are some interesting client behaviours to be observed, which potentially can be linked to DiSC or personality profiles (if you like to analyse client behaviour like that). We have some clients who consistently login multiple times a day and others who call us to reset their passwords when they do have to login as they can't remember what they originally set them to and haven't logged in since!?

We use the portal to send any documents containing personally identifiable information, reports, risk renewals, and encourage them to use the "compose message" feature within the portal to do the same back to us. Some clients still want to send us updated bank details via email, so it is a constant education piece, but the goal for our business is to eventually expand our use of it to become a one-stop shop, so they can complete pre-review fact finds, access reports and secure messages, view portfolios, generate their own reports etc rather than use multiple platforms that currently only fill one part of the advice process. Generally speaking our experience, and that of our clients, has been positive, and it has created efficiencies within our business.

kshanks

Thanks Lachlan

gurpreet.parmar

Hi Lachlan,

I have question regarding if I am looking at the right place in Xplan, considering I am a fairly new user and getting myself familiarized to the system.

If we need to look at Cashflow and Debts of a client, do we go to XTools> Cashflow? I understand we can view this in Visualise too. or is there another location that may have this info? Asking on behalf a team member.

Cheers Gurpreet.

kshanks

Thanks Sharyn, very helpful indeed.