THE GOAL

At Blue Trust, advisors apply biblical wisdom and technical expertise to help clients make wise financial decisions. To support this approach to managing wealth, the organization developed a proprietary cash-flow-based planning tool in 1989. Though this purpose-built tool has many upsides, there were a few missing features advisors wanted:

• Live modeling of “what if” scenarios: The ability to adjust a plan on the fly was high on the wish list.
• A simpler view of the big picture: Advisors sought a streamlined way to show how decisions today impact the future to create a more engaging client experience.

When they began the search for a complementary platform with these capabilities in 2015, “eMoney rose to the top as an industry leader in cash-flow-based planning,” says Nolan McClure, CFP®, CKA®, Manager of Blue Trust’s Financial Planning Department. “We started slowly in 2015 with a few advisor teams on eMoney, and over time it gained more and more momentum.”

As a bonus, the growth-oriented organization was able to capitalize on live client support for eMoney—available before opening bell on the East Coast to closing time on the Pacific—as it expanded from its Georgia headquarters, adding four branch offices since 2015, including one in Walnut Creek, California.

“We used proprietary solutions because nothing else could handle the complex cash-flow scenarios we do for clients. The fact that adoption of eMoney grew organically is a testament to the tool’s capabilities and interactive nature.”

THE SOLUTION

One immediate benefit of adopting eMoney was the time saved. “Our financial planners talk about how efficient and quick and easy eMoney is to use,” McClure says, especially the new Solvers in Decision Center.

“Advisors in our Professional Athlete Division, in particular, said ‘This is really quick. It’s scalable. It’s attractive to clients.’ They started with simple plans and now use it more for complex scenarios.”

Visuals for the Generous at Heart
The firm has a proven process to help clients determine the age-old question of how much is enough. “Our clients are very interested in leaving a legacy through charitable giving. So helping them answer the question, ‘How much is enough?’ for their personal needs creates peace of mind for practicing generosity,” McClure says.

“Imagine your ‘enough’ is $1 million and your investable assets grow to $1.5 million. You might assume you have $500,000 in excess for giving. But tax savings through strategic gifting techniques can increase that number. We always say, ‘There are no independent financial decisions.’ eMoney excels in helping us model the big picture while taking all factors into consideration.”

“Advisory teams new to the platform often ask us, ‘But can we model that in eMoney?” says Carolyn LaBella, Financial Planning Operations Specialist at the firm. “One team wanted to see the impact of a qualified charitable distribution but thought it would be too complicated. I said, ‘It’s very simple, let me show you.’”

THE RESULT

Advisors at the firm now have more tools to help generations of clients manage and transfer wealth thoughtfully. About half of their advisors use the eMoney platform, but McClure’s team is leading the initiative to build consistency across the organization and establish planning with eMoney as a Blue Trust proven method. One big reason is the Decision Center’s ability to engage clients.

Planning with Confidence
“One of the couples we serve experienced a health crisis, which forced an early retirement,” McClure says. A planning team in Atlanta used eMoney to help them make some course corrections to their finances.

“The wife told us, ‘I love it when we meet and our financial planner plays with those different little variables and what-ifs.’ She was referring to the Decision Center tool, which helped this family gain peace of mind amid a period of uncertainty.” Planners appreciate that it keeps clients focused on their goals.

“Being able to model various assumptions on the spot in a meeting has really changed the game,” LaBella says. “We’ve even won clients because of this interactive experience.”

McClure and his team are encouraged by how eMoney has invested in expanding the Decision Center, making it an intelligent hub of functionality. “Decision Center helps us simplify the complex. That’s our job.”

When you add the award-winning support team to these capabilities, it tips the scales. “eMoney’s client support is also a big reason we chose to partner with eMoney. Their customer support allows us to support all of our field members, coast to coast.”

“We like to say, ‘We are in the business of helping our clients experience peace of mind.’ eMoney helps facilitate meaningful conversations to accomplish this.”
– Nolan McClure, CFP®, CKA®