National Bank sells in-house financial planning tool to IT vendor

Information technology vendor CGI Group Inc. is adding new features to its existing Wealth360 software by acquiring AdviceSuite from National Bank Financial.

The intellectual property sale could potentially let Montreal-based CGI expand its Wealth360 customer base beyond securities and mutual fund dealers to retail banks, said Bryan Waldeva, CGI’s vice-president of intellectual property and head of CGI Wealth360.

CGI was already a technology provider for National Bank before the deal was announced on Thursday. (CGI didn’t disclose the deal’s financial terms.)

AdviceSuite, an existing National Bank Financial in-house financial planning tool, “lets clients see a barometer and graphs showing where they are in terms of reaching their very specific goals,” said Amy Dietz-Graham, senior vice-president, portfolio manager, with National Bank Financial Wealth Management.

Wealth360’s existing features include portfolio management, investment funds processing, order management and record-keeping services.

“The way [National Bank] described [AdviceSuite] to [CGI Group] was that they had done a market scan of available solutions, and felt that they needed to build a unique offering to meet the needs of their advisors and their clients,” Waldeva said, adding that incorporating AdviceSuite into Wealth360 means a client can “articulate” their financial needs and goals.

“Part of that is understanding whether they are OK from an investment perspective and [whether] they are OK from an insurance perspective,” Waldeva said.

Separately, Montreal-based Equisoft Inc. announced the acquisition of CompuOffice Software Inc., which provides independent multiple carrier life insurance analysis and research software.

That deal, announced on Thursday, gives Equisoft “increased access to the full network of Canadian life insurance stakeholders and presents exciting opportunities to share data analytics that reveal buying and performance trends,” Equisoft founder and CEO Luis Romero said in a release.