Forum Discussion

katrina.yung's avatar
katrina.yung
Icon for Iress Team rankIress Team
15 days ago

AMA: I'm Katrina Yung, Xplan WealthSolver expert, Ask Me Anything!

Do you have a burning question about Xplan WealthSolver? Need help with making the most of its comparison capabilities?

Join me here on Wednesday 9th October from 2pm to 2:30pm.

With years of experience helping advisers deliver retirement and investment advice efficiently, I’m here to help with all things WealthSolver.

Start popping in your questions below and Ask Me Anything!

❗️Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions in the discussion forums and make sure you tag me at katrina.yung 

  • tomm's avatar
    tomm
    Virtual Explorer

    Hi Katrina, thank you for taking the time to run us through Wealth Solver.

    I have a couple of queries that I'd appreciate your guidance and expertise on:

    Copying customised Portfolios into a Like for Like scenario.

    • when we look at new platforms for clients, we sometimes need to customise the underlying portfolio beyond the target set functionality, which we normally use.
    • given the customisation, we need to make manual adjustments, where we may start with a target set but may alter some of the weightings for various reasons.
    • is there any possible way to ditto a customised portfolio that you build within one WealthSolver 'Recommend and Acquire' scenario across to another Platform (say a 'Like for Like' scenario) without having to do the same manual customisation all over again?
    • of course, it's a given that both platforms need to house the same underlying holdings.
    • this was an excellent little feature that was offered on the old COIN CRM technology and would love to see something similar in Xplan.

    Modelling External assets like ASX shares and including in-specie functionality

    • this question is an extension to the above scenario as we run into the same issue when modelling external assets like a client's direct share portfolio for reinvestment/super contributions but ned to space across multiples years for tax management purposes.
      • for example, a client may hold 20 ASX shares (either issuer sponsored or via Commsec/Ausiex etc).
      • these shares may have been held for a long period of time with major tax consequences if they are sold short term. 
      • as such, selling all and transferring into a platform/super for reinvestment may not be ideal short term.
      •  therefore, we may look to transfer all across to an IDPS platform in upfront (no CGT by doing this), then either incrementally selldown and reinvest/make NCCs to super over 3-4 financial years to minimise the tax impact.
    • this all requires some complex modelling on Wealthsolver. As far as I can see, the shares upon rebalance need to be manually input each scenario (including proposed and like for like), which takes a lot of time.
    • there also doesn't seem to be an 'in-specie' option for the existing shares to be retained, which would be handy so existing shares can automatically appear in the proposed IDPS/super platform we are recommending and not having to do another manual input of 20 entries of stock.
    • as in my first query, being able to build a repeatable modelling scenario which can be ported across different platforms for like for like purposes, would be a very efficient and time saving tool.
    • of course, there may be a solution already in place, so if you can point me in that direction, that would be appreciated.
    • michael.baldry's avatar
      michael.baldry
      Social Sightseer

      I'd like to 'second' Tomm's questions above. Our team have similar pain points within Wealthsolver.

    • katrina.yung's avatar
      katrina.yung
      Icon for Iress Team rankIress Team

      Thank you for your feedback! While the function you mentioned isn't available at the moment, we truly appreciate your input and will include it in our product feedback registry. We review this regularly, and we'll be sure to let you know if there are any updates in the future.

      • tomm's avatar
        tomm
        Virtual Explorer

        Hi Katrina,

        Thanks for your response. I look forward to the future consideration of this function as it appears to be a popular option.

        One more question. I see that WealthSolver has a 'Super to Pension' proposal. Is there any way to pull the existing investments from the current super account to the proposed pension? When I select this proposal, It appears to only allow for rollover as the funds in pension start from a fully unallocated position, which isn't usually the case in reality.

        When we implement super to pension transfers within the same provider, the super investments are always in-specie transferred across to the same pension account, allowing any subsequent rebalances to occur tax free (or credit of retirement bonus offered by some industry super funds).

        From a modelling perspective it would be useful to show the existing super fund investment options being rebalanced into the new pension account via the single proposal, rather than sold down and reinvested. As a workaround, we usually have to run two wealth solver Scenarios to show the pre-and post-portfolio position once it moves into pension phase.  

        Again, this feature matches what I'm enquiring re my OP on external assets being in-specie transferred into super and non-super platforms. So, if this can be added into the Super to Pension feedback register, that will also greatly improve efficiencies. Thanks.

  • michael.ryan's avatar
    michael.ryan
    Curious Observer

    We currently don't use WealthSolver for modelling existing portfolio changes and use IPS for this, however when looking into if we were to do this in WealthSolver the interface doesn't appear to work well for modelling - i.e. you have to switch screens to see changes to the asset allocation. Is this something that can be worked on to better allow for modelling? Or is there a way to do this currently?

    • katrina.yung's avatar
      katrina.yung
      Icon for Iress Team rankIress Team

      Asset Allocation is shown per proposal at the moment. So it includes all client's asset. However, WealthSolver is currently working with the UI/UX team to enhance the advice journey experience, and hopefully it will make your journey more efficient.

  • tomm's avatar
    tomm
    Virtual Explorer

    Hi again,

    Is there a way you can refresh a live  WealthSolver scenario to reflect a clients change of assets or super fund balance data feed from Client Focus (manual updates) / IPS (auto market feeds) since the initial scenario was made? It seems there is no way to update a client's position without having to start a brand new WS scenario from scratch. If there was a button within the specific WS scenario to update a client's changes, that would be super helpful.

    I know this session is all things WealthSolver but the same issue applies in Risk Researcher and can be far worse given how complex the Needs Analysis tool can be and the challenges having to rebuild that from scratch (a ditto tool in this regard per my earlier question would also be useful).

    • katrina.yung's avatar
      katrina.yung
      Icon for Iress Team rankIress Team

      WealthSolver has a refresh button via the cog in the top right hand side of current situation :

      It will update the portfolio account balance from portfolio. 

      • tomm's avatar
        tomm
        Virtual Explorer

        Hi Katrina, this is great to hear. Thank you for sharing. Does the same refresh button exist in Risk Researcher?

        Thanks again. 

  • Welcome everyone to an Advisely Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread!

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    1. Submit Your Questions: Just type them out and post now ahead of the AMA! This is a text-based event, so no audio or video is needed. Katrina will be here to answer whatever Xplan WealthSolver questions you have during the scheduled time.
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