Fintech in focus: Conquest Planning

Every month, Advisor.ca looks at a fintech platform that’s working with wealth management firms.

Company: Winnipeg-based Conquest Planning Inc.

CEO: Mark Evans, who was the CEO (from 1990 through 2012) of Emerging Information Systems Inc., the developer of the NaviPlan financial planning software, which is now owned by Advicent Solutions.

Funding: Since inception in 2018, Conquest has raised $34.5 million — including a $24-million round in February backed by Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, Portage Ventures, BNY Mellon and RBC. Funding sources from previous rounds include the fintech strategic investments group at Eight Roads and IGM Financial.

Service: Software that lets advisors provide customized financial plans according to clients’ circumstances, cash flow, goals, priorities and risk tolerance.

Problem it’s trying to solve: Advisors don’t like to pick strategies by trial and error in front of clients, as doing so can undermine their authority and reduce clients’ confidence in them. The Conquest software lists possible strategies to meet the client’s goals and ranks those strategies based on their impact.

“It’s kind of like editing a plan that somebody has built for you as opposed to having to start from scratch,” Evans said.

The Conquest Strategic Advice Manager (SAM) uses artificial intelligence to analyze what would happen, for example, if a client were to save more, delay retirement or sell their house.

“You can just say, ‘OK, SAM, you create the plan for me,’” Evans said, and it will start selecting strategies. The client can then say, for example, “‘No, I don’t like that one. I don’t want to work part time during retirement.’”

Conquest makes the client engagement process “much more technology driven,” Evans said.

“You’re not dealing with a client bringing in their shoebox full of statements and having to wade through those.” Advisors can import a firm’s existing data (from Salesforce, for example) into the Conquest software.

Wealth management firm adoption: Users include IG Wealth Management, Sun Life, Canada Life, Investment Planning Counsel, Worldsource, Canadian Western Bank, Wellington-Altus and CG Wealth Management. Conquest clients have done close to 750,000 plans with the software, Evans said. “That will probably end up doubling by the end of this year.”

Pricing: Conquest typically charges $25 to $50 per large enterprise client plan, depending on complexity, Evans said. Wealth-management clients are charged not by the number of advisors using it but on factors such as the number of client plans they predict they will use it for and the complexity of those plans.