THE GOAL

When Amy Irvine, owner and principal of Rooted Planning Group, started the firm, she knew she wanted to establish a practice that had financial planning at its core. After working in a variety of positions in the financial sector for 20 years, she set out to create a financial planning practice that would fill a gap she saw in the marketplace.

“As a member of Generation X, I saw that there was a lack of focus on the types of financial guidance I and many of my friends were looking for,” she shared. “We were working hard toward retirement but often didn’t meet the investable asset minimums that other advisors required.”

With many people coming to her personally for advice, Irvine decided it was time to strike out on her own. She noted, “It was a scary process and I think I planned for every type of failure possible.” But what she hadn’t planned for was immediate growth.

She began with 30 clients, which grew to 100 within 18 months of starting her firm. This necessitated the hiring of several other staff members for additional service and support. Then, Irvine needed a planning tool that could handle the complex needs of the clients she was serving.

Rooted Planning Group is a 100% woman-owned, fee-only financial planning group headquartered in Corning, NY.

After trialing several different software solutions, Irvine realized eMoney best supported a planning-first business model.

THE SOLUTION

Decision Center is where the team at Rooted Planning Group spends the most time with clients. They’ve found the custom reporting in Multi-View dashboards particularly powerful. Irvine pointed out, “We love to be able to evolve to better serve our clients. Being able to stay in Decision Center and walk clients through a variety of scenarios and how changes could affect their plan has a big impact.”

She adds, “Many of the Gen X clients I started out working with are moving closer to retirement. Now that they have accumulated their financial assets, they are interested in the what-ifs that can impact their financial stability. This includes things like when to take Social Security, how taxes could affect their savings when they can retire, and how much they’ll need.”

As the firm’s clientele expands, eMoney supports them in serving generational cohorts beyond Gen X. They’ve found that scenario modeling has been especially impactful in educating younger clients and motivating them to act on their financial plans.

This was the case during a recent client meeting where eMoney was used to model the impact of savings over time. Upon seeing a visual representation of how saving just $100 a month would grow over the next 15 years, the young clients were so motivated that they immediately opened a new brokerage account to start saving.

THE RESULT

Rooted Planning Group has not only experienced year-over-year growth at an average of 20 percent per year since using eMoney, but they have also found that it contributes to client retention.

Irvine shared, “When we’re showing clients the plan in eMoney, we’re also talking to them about how their money is allocated, how it’s bucketed, and about their long-term care and insurance. We show the estate planning tab. We show gain and loss. That’s when they realize, ‘Oh, this is not a one-and-done thing.’”

By using eMoney to view the entirety of their financial circumstances, clients understand the value of continuing to work with a financial planner to evaluate the ongoing variables that impact their finances year after year. Even clients who initially wanted a one-time engagement come to embrace their financial plan as a living, breathing thing and end up becoming clients for life.

“As financial planners, we’re in this for the long term. We don’t get a lot of instant gratification in our line of work,” Irvine shared. “But the peace of mind I can provide a client when I model their retirement in eMoney and see how good they feel about the decision—that’s one of the greatest outcomes I could hope for.”
– Amy Irvine, CFP®, EA, MPAS®, CCFC, CDFA®, CFT-I™