AXA Wealth has unveiled a new online ‘LifePlanning’ toolkit for advisers to use with clients to give them a “clearer view” of their financial well-being.

The company says that demand for innovation is increasing with half of advisers saying they are looking to offer new investment services, such as cashflow and income modelling, in the wake of the pension freedoms. The amount of choice and flexibility consumers now have has meant advisers are looking for clear and easy ways to show clients how they can achieve their financial goals, says AXA Wealth.

The new service has many features that will be familiar to Financial Planners.

AXA Wealth’s new adviser LifePlanning toolkit will enable advisers to explore clients’ financial goals, enhance tax efficiencies and plan cashflows, all in one place.

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The new toolkit contains:

• the goal planner, which means advisers can identify what matters to their clients and engage them in the planning process from the outset. It can help to plot life events that cover aspirations and priorities as well as presenting their goals in a simple way
• the retirement income optimiser helps advisers to identify tax efficient income strategies for the year ahead, show clients the potential results and export the findings into client reports
• the cashflow planner makes it easy to demonstrate the potential effect of an income shortfall or excess by simulating the impact different investment returns could have on a client’s plans.

AXA Wealth bases its views on demand for the toolkit in part on recent research. It says that research from actuarial consultancy AKG “Pensions freedoms: Clearing the hurdles to business success in the retirement income market” found that when asked what new products/services advisers or firms planned to offer as a result of the pension freedoms, some 54 per cent of advisers said cashflow modelling and 44 per cent income modelling.

David Thompson, managing director of business development and proposition, AXA Wealth, said: “Most people have some idea of what they want from their money and it’s only natural that advisers want to be able to help clients visualise their finances. That might be their goals, income, outgoings or how tax might impact them.

“Our new LifePlanning toolkit offers them a set of tools to do just that. And it’s all in one place.”