Conquest Planning has added modules for planning related to insurance and corporations, and is currently building out its trust and estates module.Mr. Evans, a former University of Manitoba professor who built leading planning software NaviPlan in the 1990s, retired in 2012 after selling his company to Zywave Inc. However, “being retired when none of your friends are isn’t much fun,” he says.
While there’s no direct-to-consumer option, some firms are making the software available to investors in different ways. For example, Sun Life is providing access to those with workplace defined-contribution pension plans. When they get closer to retirement, Mr. Evans says, those customers will have a financial planning tool they can access on their own, and they might be more inclined to keep their funds with Sun Life through decumulation rather than moving them to an outside advisor.
Then, there’s the core technology itself. Mr. Evans says the Conquest team used what they’d learned from the NaviPlan days to launch the platform with features for mass-market financial and retirement planning, but with the foundation built for more complex planning modules to be added over time, and for different rules to be applied once the software goes live in new markets.
Jim Andrews, CEO of CWB Wealth Management in Toronto, says his firm became the first Schedule 1 bank to partner with Conquest in 2021 because of the founding team’s background in financial planning software and commitment to ongoing investments in the platform.