Boulevard R offers actionable financial plans

BoulevardR.com, an interactive website that has been used primarily as a tool for retirement planning, is launching a three-step process that provides an actionable financial plan prepared by a financial planner for $49. The new tool's interactive Q&A now begins with short-term and near-term goals instead of just retirement and creates the plan based on what the user has input. The plan provides users with steps to meet their goals, an analysis of their risk exposure, and a net worth statement. A fancier option for $199 includes the site's so-called Roadmap plan and a one-hour consultation with an independent financial planner. "What we've created is really for the people that fall between pro-bono services and those able to afford the services of a wealth management firm with minimum requirements beyond the assets they have," said Matt Iverson, chief executive of San Francisco-based Boulevard R. "The mass affluent is who we are serving." Among the 2,000 registered users of the site to date, 36% were born between 1965 and 1979; 20% were born between 1955 and1964, and 15% were born between 1946 and 1954. Despite the website's Web 2.0 features and feel, just 13% of users fall into that most web-savvy group of users, those born between 1980 and 2001. "The most common users of Boulevard R are upwardly mobile Generation X professionals in their early 30s and early 40s making between $60,000 and $100,000 a year and [who] fit in the mass affluent segment with around $200,000 in total assets," Mr. Iverson said. Meredith Johnson, an independent certified financial planner in San Francisco, participated as a guinea pig in testing and improving the plans. "I was really impressed with the quality of the output. After all, everyone is being tasked with planning for their own retirement these days, but that doesn't mean they can afford to pay $100 an hour or $2,000 for a financial plan," Ms. Johnson said. "This is a really good way to get some of these folks to begin thinking about their future," she said. "I also think it is important that they haven't aligned themselves with any particular financial institution [that] has products to sell," Ms. Johnson said. She said that other calculators tend to lack context. "You may be punching in similar data to such a calculator but it doesn't give you the context of, say, the standard of living you will have in retirement, or that you'll want to travel to Europe in style," Ms. Johnson said. "The Boulevard R calculator asks you to prioritize travel, vacation, retirement homes, charitable giving, etc." However, Boulevard R does have some drawbacks, Ms. Johnson said. She has questions about how the plan will be updated and how it will respond to changes in people's life situation. In addition, although "the plan gives you a lot of really good ideas — such as purchasing insurance, a money market fund or a home — but there needs to be some guidance as to when you implement these," Ms. Johnson said. Alois Pirker, a senior analyst with Aite Group LLC of Boston, said that he sees the services offered by Boulevard R as a good thing. "The mass affluent [are] terribly underserved," he said. "Their whole retirement readiness is very low, and they just aren't able or willing to pay the thousands required for a professional plan." Mr. Pirker recently wrote a report, "The Practice of Financial Planning: A Consumer Survey on Wealth Management's Key Proposition," that was based on a survey of 505 retirees or near-retirees. "These services can attract a younger user, too, and give them a leg up on their planning and allow them to start early, and it is more of a daily life site to visit than many others, especially those found on retirement product-oriented sites," Mr. Pirker said. Joe Pitzl, a financial adviser and certified financial planner at Gen Financial Management Inc. in Plymouth, Minn., who has also worked with Boulevard R in developing the new plan features, said, "It has been very interesting to watch it evolve the past couple of years into what it is today. Most retirement calculators on the web are very static in nature and ignore how decisions and exposures today can impact the long-term picture. Boulevard R makes an effort to tie every component back to the ultimate goal." Mr. Iverson said he doesn't view the tool as competition for wealth managers. "[Managers] go into the nitty-gritty of finances and cash flow. We focus on goals and some high-level things [users] can focus in on in terms of steps and things they can do to get ahead," Mr. Iverson said. "We're [giving] expert advice at a high level," he said. E-mail Davis D. Janowski at djanowski@investmentnews.com.