We have completed the latest upgrade to ATEB suitability on 5th April 2020. This is a significant update to our software and incorporates some fantastic new features as well as over 30 client suggested changes.
As always, our updates come at no additional cost and will offer you and your company:
- Enhanced standard features,
- New product support,
- A more intuitive and streamlines report writing interface.
Details of the changes can be found below.
New Content Management features
3 new Content Management features have been added to ATEB Suitability:
- Providers/Platforms,
- Investments,
- Custom Appendices.
The Providers/Platforms feature provides you with a range of descriptive text for over 100 of the top Platform, Investment, Pension & Insurance Providers (incl. DFM’s and Mortgage Lenders), currently operating in the marketplace. Simply select your frequently recommended Providers/Platforms within the content management area and you will be able to pre-populate your suitability report with a relevant piece of descriptive text. You can also add your own Providers and Platforms to compliment those supplied by ATEB.
The Investments feature provides you with a range of descriptive text for over 500 of the top Multi-Asset Funds/Portfolios in the marketplace; from Aviva Multi-Asset Funds to Royal London Governed Portfolios, you will always be able to pre-populate your suitability report with a relevant piece of descriptive text. You can also add your own Investments to compliment those supplied by ATEB.
The Custom Appendices feature allows you to use your own structured content to create your own customised appendices and store them for future use. Each time you create a report you can select which customised appendices you wish to include or pre-select them as part of a template. Each selected appendix will be correctly formatted with your report style and is included as a numbered section within the report contents page.
Please note – the above features are only available within our new suitability report template (see below for further details).
New Suitability Report template
Our newly restructured Suitability Report template comes with less tick options, greater flexibility, and a more streamlined and intuitive approach to the report writing process. Further details below:
- Removal of the ‘Report Builder’ – the tick option exercise within the report builder page has been removed. You now have suggested sections that have already been pre-selected within the ‘Introduction to Advice’, ‘Planning Ahead’ and ‘Important Information’ pages; depending on the ‘Advice Areas’ selected from the ‘Getting Started’ page. These sections can still be changed by selecting or deselecting from within the page itself.
- Removal of Section Builder vs Plan Builder – to assist in decisions regarding what to include at overarching report (section) level or plan level, we have replaced this functionality with a more streamlined and flexible approach. The relevant ‘Provider/Platform/Fund Recommendation’ pages and ‘Charges’ outlined now appear after you have completed your plan recommendation(s). You simply link the provider/platform/fund recommendation (or table of charges) to the relevant plan(s) by selecting from a drop-down list of all the new plan recommendations you have included within your report.
- New Investment Strategy Recommendation functionality – the ‘Funds Recommendation’ and ‘Investment Strategy’ pages have been merged and upgraded to become a newly dedicated ‘Investment Strategy Recommendation’ section (see below for further details).
- Upgraded Attitude to Investment Risk section – for simplicity, you can now only include Attitude to Investment Risk at the ‘Introduction to Advice’ level of your report. We have also upgraded this area to provide you with the ability to record the client’s current and new ATR and outline reasons for the change.
- New Duplicate Plan functionality – for reports where an investment plan recommendation is identical for both client 1 and client 2, you can now replicate the plan recommendation with the click of a button.
- New Existing Protection Policies table – you can now record the details of the client’s existing protection policies in table format and outline your recommendation to retain or cancel.
- New General Investment Account (GIA) plan type – we have added a GIA to our existing suite of available investment, with corresponding reasons, disadvantages and risk warning text.
- Risk Warnings/Glossary terminology – prior to generating your report in word/pdf; risk warnings and glossary text are now visible within the wizard and are fully customisable.
- Enhanced ‘Template’ functionality – when creating or editing a company or user template, a number of selections within the wizard can be made mandatory, or invisible to an end user who subsequently uses the template to generate a report. Initially this applies to areas of the report which relate to sections for inclusion, but we plan to extend this functionality further in future releases.
IMPORTANT – The existing ‘Suitability Report’ option is now known as the ‘Suitability Report (Legacy)’ and we will continue supporting it for a period of 3 months. After this time all reports and templates should be migrated across to use the new Suitability Report template.
Further changes include:
- Independence and Focused Advice text – advice status definitions have been removed from the covering letter and placed within the main body of the report.
- Lifetime Allowance – our dedicated lifetime allowance section has been refactored to include upload/copy & paste functionality.
- Transfer Value Comparator (TVC) – for all DB transfer recommendations, it is now possible to undertake TVC analysis at 2 different retirement ages.
- Existing Retirement Plans table – ‘Plan Term’ and ‘Crystallised/Uncrystallised?’ fields have been added to our existing retirement plans table.
- Transferred Amount field – ‘Transferred Investment Amount’ field added to our ‘Actions Applicable’ section.
- Emergency Funds – a dedicated ‘Emergency Funds’ section has been added to our ‘Important Information’ page.
- Initial Rate Term – ‘reasons for initial rate term’ free text functionality has been added to our Mortgage Advice area.
- Discounted Alternatives – a dedicated ‘Discounted Alternatives’ tab has been added to our new and existing retirement plans page.
- Discounting Cheaper Mortgage Contracts – dedicated section to outline the rationale why the cheapest mortgage contract available was not recommended.
- Protection Commission – refactored protection commission table included within the ‘Cost of Our Services’ tab.
New Investment Strategy Recommendation functionality
Our new suitability report template comes with a fully upgraded ‘Investment Strategy’ area, providing you with a range of enhanced features and benefits. Some of the highlights are:
- Ability to outline an overview of your centralised investment proposition at the ‘Introduction to Advice’ level of your report.
- Newly upgraded fund/portfolio switching functionality.
- Ability to draw through the descriptive text for your recommended fund/portfolio from the content management area containing over 100 Providers/Platforms/DFMs currently operating in the marketplace.
- Ability to upload/copy & paste your fund/portfolio recommendation directly into your suitability report or manually create a table on screen.
Periodic Review template changes
Following the changes outlined above, we have also made some significant upgrades to our Periodic Review Report/Letter template. Further details below:
- Fund Performance – in addition to the pre-existing upload/copy & paste functionality, it is now possible to manually build your fund performance table on screen.
- In-house Model Portfolios – any model portfolios you have stored centrally within the Content Management area can now be drawn through to the Funds Recommendation area of your Periodic Review Report/Letter.
- Revised Funds Holdings – you can now outline the client’s revised fund holding following a switch by manually building a table on screen or via upload/copy & paste.
- New Recommended ‘Action’ – a new recommended action of ‘Fund Switch only’ has been added to our existing arrangement table.
- x2 Client Declarations – the review report can now provide an adviser and client copy of our Authority to Proceed form.
Tax Year End changes
As always, our report writing software has been fully updated to accommodate changes to allowances, rates and reliefs in advance of the 2020/21 tax year.
New Data Integrations page
A new data integrations page has been added to the application which provides the ability to enable and disable selected third-party integrations and provides information and guides for using the data integrations available. We will be announcing a number of new integrations in the coming weeks.
Please also see our collection of ‘how to’ guides, articles and hints/tips via an FAQ which is available now on our Help & Support Portal.
Our support team are available 9am – 5pm / Mon – Fri to answer any further questions you may have support@atebsuitability.co.uk / 0191 338 8177.
Many thanks for your continued use of ATEB suitability.
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