February 2010 Updates & Upgrades

As part of our commitment to continuously improve the Paraplanning Online software and ensure it remains the leading and most innovative Suitability Report writing solution available on the market place; we are pleased to announce the following updates and enhancements have been applied to reflect compliance directives, industry trends and the valued feedback we have received from our customers.

General

• The Report Writer Home Page has been deemed unnecessary and surplus to requirements. As such, on logging-in to the PPOL application you will automatically land on the My Reports page

• Following customer feedback, the layout and wording associated with the My Reports page has been slightly amended for greater clarity

• The "Purchase Additional Credits" and "Request Change" buttons have been deemed unnecessary and confusing and as such have been removed from the My Admin page

• It has come to our attention that the personal "additional options" added to a question in the wizard have not always been displayed in the order in which they have been applied. This anomaly has now been rectified

• Ascentric and Nucleus have been added to the list of Company drop downs. (Please note the a bespoke Wrap recommendation is earmarked for inclusion in our next release of upgrades due in Q2 2010)

• Selestia has been removed from the list of Company drop downs

• Following compliance feedback, the Cancellation Rights have been removed from the Risk Warnings in the Appendix and included within the main body of the various recommendation sections

• Following compliance feedback, some additional options for possible inclusion have been added to all of the recommendation sections under the question "Why have the funds been recommended?"

Introduction

• It has come to our attention that users have been attempting to create and download reports without an Introduction Section, which has resulted in them being presented with an "error message". Every report MUST have an Introduction section, hence we have disabled the delete button associated with the Introduction section

• Following customer feedback, the input field "Date of Final Meeting with Client" has been reworded "Date of Last Meeting with Client"

• As a direct result of customer feedback, we were alerted to the fact that there was a small bug associated with the objective options "sticking" when limited advice was selected. This has now been rectified

• Following customer feedback, the look and functionality associated with the client details page has been enhanced. A text box has also been added to allow for the inclusion of additional free flow regarding the client's personal and financial circumstances

Investment Review

• Some additional options have been added to why the re-registration of ISA's or Unit Trusts / OEICS have been recommended for possible inclusion

• Following customer and compliance feedback, risk warnings will now be automatically included within the main body of the report when an internal fund switch is selected. The options have been colour coded for ease of reference. The options in black are generally considered as mandatory, and the ones in blue are optional, and should only be included if they are reflective of the newly recommended fund(s)

Pension Review

• Following customer feedback, the input fields of "Fund Value" and "Transfer Value" have been subdivided to distinguish been Protected and Non Protected Rights

• An entitlement to a Pension Commencement Lump Sum in excess of 25% has been added as a possible option under the heading of Policy Features and Benefits

• Following compliance feedback, a functionality enhancement has been applied whereby if the highlighted Policy Features or Benefits are not selected, then an explicit statement to the effect that no such feature or benefit applies is included within the resultant report

Investment Recommendation

• Following compliance feedback, the option "This offshore investment bond is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme" has been included for possible selection under "Why has the selected company been recommended?"

Pension Recommendation

• Following customer feedback, the standard paragraphs at the end of the Pension Recommendation section have been reordered so that they flow in a more logical fashion

• Following the 2009 pre Budget report, changes were immediately applied to the standard wording regarding Personal Accounts to reflect the fact that the Chancellor announced his plans to postpone their introduction for at least one year

• The standard text has subsequently been updated to reflect that the Government's proposed Personal Accounts Scheme, has undergone a rebranding and will now be known as "Nest" - The National Employment Savings Trust

• Following the 2009 pre Budget report, changes were immediately applied to the standard wording to reflect the fact that the pensions higher tax relief earnings threshold has been reduced from £150,000 to £130,000

Pension Switching Recommendation

• Following customer feedback, the input fields of "Fund Value" and "Transfer Value" have been subdivided to distinguish been Protected and Non Protected Rights

• It has come to our attention that some users are not always including a Pension Review section(s) within their report prior to inserting a Pension Switching Recommendation section. To ensure your compliance, and minimise the chances of this occurring in the future, we have implemented a Hints and Tips Box function, which on selecting a Pension Switching Recommendation section will alert the user to the fact that they should also include a Pension Review Section, if they haven't already done so

• Following customer feedback, the standard paragraphs at the end of the Pension Switching Recommendation section have been reordered so that they flow in a more logical fashion

Retirement Options Recommendation

• It has come to our attention that some users are not always including a Pension Review section(s) within their report prior to inserting a Retirement Options Recommendation section. To ensure your compliance, and minimise the chances of this occurring in the future, we have implemented a Hints and Tips Box function, which on selecting a Retirement Options Recommendation section will alert the user to the fact that they should also include a Pension Review Section, if they haven't already done so

• The question which acted as a prompt to provide details of the existing pension arrangements from which retirement benefits were to be taken has been deemed surplus to requirements (this is covered by the Pension Review Section), and as such has been removed

• The advantages and disadvantages associated with the various options available to an individual at retirement have been reviewed and updated

Inheritance Tax Recommendation

• Following customer feedback, the wording relating to the potential tax implications of Potentially Exempt Transfers and Chargeable Lifetime Transfers made within 7 years of death has been reviewed to enhance its clarity and ease of understanding

Mortgage Recommendation

• The standard text within the recommendation section was immediately updated to reflect that the Stamp Duty holiday on properties ended on 1st January 2010

Appendix

• As a result of customer feedback, we have changed the source and look of the Market Outlook. The outlook is no longer the sole view of one Investment House. Instead it now comprises the views of a number of leading Fund Houses together with an overall consensus

• The Market Outlook continues to be updated on a monthly basis

• The Property Outlook continues to be updated on a quarterly basis

• The Financial Product Notes on Level and Renewable Term Assurance have been updated

• Following compliance feedback, one of the Risk Warnings has been reworded as follows "The recommendations are based on current taxation, law and practice and the current legal and administrational framework and are based on my current interpretation and understanding of those, all of which may be subject to change"

Admin Centre - Edit your Report Template

The Admin Centre - Edit your Report Template is a ground-breaking and wholly unique piece of functionality which allows you, as the license holder, to make permanent edits to the underlying wording of the report's standard text. A number of enhancements have been applied to this feature to improve its overall functionality and ease of use, including:

• The inclusion of a progress bar whilst the page is loading

• The font used within the Admin Centre has been changed to reflect the standard font used within the resultant report (as downloaded to MS Word)

• The incorporation of a more sophisticated Text Editor, offering enhanced functionality, which will allow text to be tailored with greater ease to more accurately reflect your individual requirements

• To ensure consistency of formatting, on pasting text into the Text Editor, the font will automatically revert to the standard font used throughout the report (ie Times New Roman)

• An enhancement has been applied to remove the additional line spacing that previously appeared when wording was pasted into the Text Editor directly from MS Word

• The individual cells, as highlighted within the Admin Centre, have been colour coded to assist with your understanding, and provide guidance as to where best to apply / include your personal edits

Blue - This represents non-editable text / input field sourced from user specified data as entered in the section wizard (question and answer session)

Orange (PPOL Conditional Text) - This represents standard editable text, which is only generated if a certain option is selected by the user in the wizard

Green (PPOL Non-conditional Text)- This represents standard editable text, which is generated irrespective of the option(s) selected by the user in the wizard

request a demo

PPOLcalcs