Defined BenefitAug 23 2018

CashCalc offers standalone pension transfer tool

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CashCalc offers standalone pension transfer tool

Cash flow planning tool CashCalc has decided that its Transfer Value Comparator (TVC) tool will be offered as a standalone product in order to let financial advisers build their own suite of tools.

The company announced earlier this year it would be developing the TVC tool and has since said it will be implementing a 'modularised' approach to its products, allowing financial advisers to only pay for the tools they use.

The TVC is being developed with guidance from ex-Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) technical specialist Rory Percival, in preparation for the FCA’s pension transfer rules which come into force in October this year.

Financial advisers will be able to add the stand-alone TVC tool to their existing services and build up their own suite of planning tools which are specific to their needs from 1 October.

CashCalc's offering consists of 26 financial planning tools, ranging from cashflow planners to investment calculators.

Ray Adams, chartered financial planner and director at CashCalc, said: "We understand not every CashCalc user is a pension transfer specialist, so why should they pay for something they are not going to use? The upcoming TVC tool will therefore be a standalone or add-on tool.

"This way of thinking lends itself to a modularised approach for the entire suite of tools, or to put it simply, allow users to create their own suite of tools."

Mr Adams said each user who is paying for the service before 1 October will remain on their existing deal with access to the entire suite for an indefinite period.

Under the FCA rules financial advisers will have to provide their clients with a value of how much the benefits in their DB scheme would cost today in the open market, which is the TVC.

The TVC will show, in graphical form, the transfer value offered by the DB scheme and the estimated value needed to replace the client's DB income in a defined contribution environment, assuming the investment returns are consistent with the client's attitude to risk.

This will be included in the appropriate pension transfer analysis, or APTA, which will replace the current transfer value analysis (TVAS).

Alan Chan, director and financial planner at IFS Wealth and Pensions, a current user of CashCalc, said: "[CashCalc's approach] is a good idea as it offers flexibility to firms who just want to use certain features from Cashcalc.

"For example, if they just want to use the cashflow modelling and none of the other tools or calculators. As we’re an existing subscriber we get all of that within our package and we make use of the other tools available so we’re quite happy."

Last month, CashCalc integrated with adviser-backed startup Advicefront, allowing financial planners to share client data across their CashCalc and Advicefront accounts without having to re-enter information.

It came after the back office software secured a £1.3m investment round led by technology provider FNZ, in June this year, whereby FNZ took a £1m minority stake in the start-up.

rosie.quigley@ft.com