Fintech in focus: Conquest Planning

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

Financing: Since its 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 strategic investment fintech group at Eight Roads and IGM Financial.

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

The problem it tries to solve: Counselors do not like to choose strategies by trial and error in front of clients, as this can undermine their authority and reduce clients’ trust 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 someone made for you, as opposed to having to start from scratch,” Evans said.

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 it. 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 who brings in their shoebox full of statements and has to wade through them.” Advisors can import a firm’s existing data (from Salesforce, for example) into the Conquest software.

Adoption of asset management company: 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. “It will probably end up doubling by the end of this year.”

Prices: Conquest typically costs $25 to $50 per client plan, depending on complexity, Evans said. Wealth management clients are charged not by the number of advisers who use it, but by factors such as the number of client plans they predict they will use it for and the complexity of those plans.