An official launch ceremony was held at the Consul General of Canada in Mumbai in December, where PlanPlus’ latest version of its software was unveiled for use by financial professionals in India.
“PlanPlus has come a long way in terms of customization of the PlanPlus Planit solution for the Indian market,” said Partha Iyengar, founder and CEO of Accretus Solutions, a fee-only financial planning firm in Mumbai.
“India is an amazing country undergoing massive changes with their emerging middle class and the need for sound financial advice,” said Shawn Brayman, PlanPlus Inc. president.
“Although I believe PlanPlus will bring great value to local financial planners, I also believe we will learn many things as well. The Indian regulator is taking some innovative steps to try and evolve proper channels for true objective advice without commissions while at the same time supporting traditional commission driven sales roles,” said Brayman.
India has well over 1 million insurance agents and a growing community of mutual fund sales people. FPSB India, holder of the CFP mark in India is working aggressively to introduce the concept of financial planning with tens of thousands enrolled in the education and certification programs.
“Aside from the technical competence of the planners here in India, I have been very impressed by the spiritual and ethical commitment to try and do the best things for the client,” said Tang Wee Hen, VP Asia for PlanPlus. “Many of them appear to be natural life planners and it will be very rewarding to work with them to provide software and training to make their planning practices more effective.”
Based in Lindsay, Ont., PlanPlus Inc. develops personal financial and investment planning software tools and training for use by financial institutions, professional advisors and consumers.
PlanPlus is being used in over 30 countries and in several languages including English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Hungarian, German, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese and more.