Filling in the gaps the easy way

Brian Dance and his wife decided it was time to leave the hustle and bustle of Sydney and instead move to the Blue Mountains, where they bought a small cottage which needed renovations.

Dance wanted to know what impact an event like a holiday, the purchase of a car or the birth of a child would have on their mortgage repayments and renovation plans, or even if their plan was realistic.

“But none of the financial institutions could tell us if we could do it under changing circumstances, especially with things like offset loans. You want to understand how much you can borrow in different circumstances,” Dance says.

So Dance, who is now the managing director of Ironstone Software, designed and wrote the software for the Complete Mortgage Calculator.

Dance was experienced in writing financial software after years spent designing technical analysis and graphing software for the stock market. While the Complete Mortgage Calculator was initially sponsored by one of the big home loan companies, Dance says now he’s not aligned with any mortgage provider or broking service.

And Dance says while his Mortgage Calculator is designed for everyday people, it is best used as a visual aid in conjunction with a financial planner.

“Ideally, an investor would go through the software with a financial planner, but then they can also take it home, sit down, and run through a whole lot of ‘what if’ scenarios so they can see the impact different events will have.”

But some software just isn’t that simple.

For the last year, former IWL staffers Laila Khodr, Jenny Lee-Koksal and one of the original creators of VisiPlan, Robert Green, have been helping advisers purchase and make the best use of financial planning software.

Khodr says through their business, which is called On Cue Support, she and her colleagues have worked with large and small players on everything from choosing the right software, to efficiencies in business, as well as paraplanning services in all the software packages.

According to Khodr, On Cue Support will do their own ‘fact-find’ on a business, look at the financial planning software available and then present the package which is most appropriate for the business to use.

Once a software provider has been decided on, On Cue will help to implement the software and establish work flow processes, financial plan and review templates, and tailor the software for any special requirements.

After installing the software, the group will build a training plan, which can be customised for different staff members depending on what area of the business they work in.