Tech Review: Collegiate Funding Solutions

Written by Josh Meyer, CFP® Tuesday, 22 February 2011

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Executive Summary:

Collegiate Funding Solutions (CFS) is web-based college planning software that lets an advisor easily become an “expert” at college planning. The software is straight forward: Input client financial and demographic information and the software will generate a report with a wealth of information on college savings strategies, with tax laws and college specific financial aid information considered.

Pros:

• Immediately become an expert in college planning and provide a value added service to clients.
• Discover tax and savings strategies for your clients’ that would most likely take days of research.
• Integrations with popular planning programs make it a great “add-on” to an advisors financial planning offering.

Areas of Improvement:

• Comparison functionality would be a huge help for comparing strategies. As it stands, a brand new report would need to be generated to see results of different inputs.
• The reports are quite extensive which unfortunately makes them probably “too much” to show a client.

Best for What Type of Firm:

Any type of firm could benefit from the software. Pricing is easy on the wallet and the software packs a lot of knowledge that a firm would need a dedicated person for.

Key Features:

• The ability to become a college expert, for a very low cost.
• Integrations with MoneyGuidePro and MoneyTree, which helps eliminated some data entry.
• Fill in a client’s data yourself, or allow a client to login and fill in the data.

Summary:

The concept is simple: Input demographic and financial information you know about your client, and the software will output an extensive report with a wealth of college savings strategies. The software has a familiar Turbo Tax feel where you follow along page by page, inputting information with new questions sometimes appearing depending on a previous answer.

The reports cover an incredible amount of information and considerations; asset and savings strategies, loans, tax credits, financial aid (government and school specific), insurance strategies, gifting, and other considerations most advisors would never think about (nor should). A best practice would most likely be for an advisor to take the report, read, and then list out the best solutions to follow based upon their knowledge of the client. One great aspect of the reports is that they give explanations for their recommendations, instead of scratching your head as to why it suggestions a certain strategy.

Most advisors could probably talk on a basic level about college planning strategies, but from a pure business perspective, there isn’t much incentive to memorize the changes in financial aid, tax laws, and many other factors that influence college saving. With CFS, an advisor can probably offer a value added service that helps retain and attract even more clients.

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