wealthcreation

Digitally visualise cash to life goals

GoalsMapper is a fintech company based in Singapore with the vision to redefine financial planning through its real-time, scenario-based, and customer-facing financial planning software. Its co-founder and CEO, Wayne Chen, talks to Enterprise IT News about the future.

EITN: Please share what GoalsMapper is and how long it has been in the market.

Wayne: The platform enables Financial Planners to simultaneously plan and account for multiple financial goals. Our financial planners simply key in their client’s information, such as housing mortgage, children’s education expenses, their ideal retirement age, and the platform will automatically generate charts that enable them to visualise the cash that they require to achieve these life goals.

Wayne Chen

GoalsMapper saw its inception in May 2018 and in the same year, became the winner of the Dsion Startup Challenge 2018. Its triumph continues in 2019 where it was awarded “InsurTech of the Year” by the 4th Asia Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards, 2019. The start-up has since expanded to Malaysia and Thailand.

EITN: Who is the target market for GoalsMapper?

Wayne: When GoalsMapper was in the works, we knew that this software would be to redefine financial planning. Our vision was and still is to be Asia’s Most Preferred financial planning platform that seeks to empower every individual to make better financial decisions.

This revolutionary financial planning software has provided our Financial Planners with a tool to provide easy-to-understand solutions to help the end-consumer, which is the client and to assist them with making better financial decisions such as understanding the root of their financial health, helping them make informed decisions and most importantly, empowering them throughout their decision-making process.
With this guidance from our financial planners, in the long run, the client’s financial planning journey would be as smooth-sailing as possible.

EITN: How has the shift towards a more digitalised platform, impacted GoalsMapper? i.e have the number of values transacted decreased but increase in frequency?

Wayne: This shift towards a more digitalised platform has served GoalsMapper well as it has provided our Financial Planners with a platform to cater to their client’s financial needs; providing them with better clarity and greater transparency in their financial journey.
Every minute detail is laid out clearly for the client on the platform. For instance, if someone wants to know what the opportunity cost of having kids is and how much of an impact their schooling fees would affect our retirement fund, that could be demonstrated by GoalsMapper’s scenario-based planning feature. Now, financial planners are able to do holistic planning which takes into consideration all aspects of their client’s life and substantiate their recommendations to clients as they can physically see the charts in real-time on the GoalsMapper platform.

Plus, GoalsMapper also digitises the information-gathering stage which allows our Financial Planners to showcase their productivity and performance through their consultations. With the effective use of technology to gather essential information from clients prior to the actual meet-up, GoalsMapper users (i.e. Financial Planners) are able to tailor a personalised financial advisory session for prospects respectively.
Due to the ease of convenience and the accessibility of this platform, according to our recent study, it is undeniable that it has led to a 149% increase in client profiles created, as more Financial Planners understand that their work can be managed more efficiently.

EITN: Why has the number of subscribers increased 70%?

Wayne: When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, it was a wake-up call for the community as a whole as they realised just how important financial planning really is – even when things happen unplanned most of the time.

As Financial Planners were unable to meet their clients face-to-face, ever since the Circuit Breaker period was implemented, they were in need of a tool that would help them reach out to their clients more effectively. They have since resorted to GoalsMapper to support them in online meetings with their clients.

This is why, as a result, GoalsMapper has seen a 70% increase in financial planners subscribing to the platform.

EITN: Can you share the types of client profiles that GoalsMapper is working on?

Wayne: As every financial planner with GoalsMapper has a different demographic of clientele, we would not be able to provide you with the client profiles they are working on.
However, we understand that there are more millennials in Singapore that are being exposed to financial education, driven by Government initiatives and this has resulted in an increase in the number of people being more aware of proper financial planning as well as financial literacy, as a whole.

EITN: Why is a solution like GoalsMapper important during this day and age?

Wayne: As it is, Financial Planners have a bad reputation among the general public, and the industry is also associated with aggressive lead generation and product selling.

Being a groundbreaking financial planning software, GoalsMapper would like to change that. This platform has made it easier for Financial Planners to provide simple-to-understand solutions to help their clients, which is the customer, make better financial choices.

Through GoalsMapper, we were able to create a better experience for both the financial planner and the client. Our aim is to educate and improve the public’s view of the industry while also increasing the value created by financial planners because we believe that financial literacy is priceless knowledge and that a lack of confidence is the only thing standing between consumers and financial independence.

The finance business is very conventional and has been around for a long time. I figured it would be worthwhile to spend some time fine-tuning it by digitising processes so that financial planners can better explain to clients what they need, why they need it, and how they can meet their financial objectives, as well as make nuanced financial decisions for them.

EITN: What are future plans for GoalsMapper?

Wayne: As a company that aims to revolutionise the financial industry, our mission is to stay true to our core values of Integrity, Innovation, efficacy, and diversity & inclusion.

Having said that, this year, we are planning an exciting launch of a new product line with innovative features. We are also in the midst of applying for the ISO 27001 certification and Data Protection Trustmark (DPTM Certification) to better demonstrate accountable data protection practices.

Hopefully, In the near future, we would also be able to work with associations and educational institutions to form programmes dedicated to educating the public or students on financial literacy.

In hopes of striving for excellence, we will continue to innovate and evolve innovations to create more value to improve the lives of individuals, especially in their financial journey, if we stay true to those values. In the meantime, we will continue to reach out to as many people as possible, to empower individuals’ lives across Southeast Asia.