Makers say most CPAs dissatisfied with financial-planning tools now in use. BNA Software and Financial Guidance have released BNA Wealth Manager, a financial-planning system for CPAs that combines interactivity with the ability to view client data broadly or with respect to particular aspects of a client's financial plan and capabilities around providing effective wealth planning for high-net-worth clients in a format that goes along with the way accountants tend to work. About 60% of accountants offer some level of wealth management services but their satisfaction with the available [support technologies] is low, according to BNA Software's research. Purpose-built

"Accountants are using applications ranging from Excel to tools that can handle only a small portion of wealth management, not the entire spectrum of topics," says BNA Software's product director Dean Sonderegger. "Most were built for the banking or insurance industry, and don't take into consideration the way in which accountants do business." The point of BNA Wealth Manager -- which uses technology developed by Financial Guidance for its Methuselah financial-planning software -- is to give "CPA practices a tool that can help them turn tax-time clients into lifetime clients," adds Sonderegger. "Our value proposition is simple: BNA Software is nationally recognized for delivering applications that enable accountants to quickly and efficiently provide accurate guidance to their clients about complex subject matter." BNA Wealth Manager calls for nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection.

"Our partnership with [Financial Guidance's corporate parent] Scivantage allows us to leverage a proven wealth-management product with our expertise in serving accounting firms, thereby enabling them to compete in the rapidly growing CPA wealth-management market," says Sonderegger. "BNA Wealth Manager complements the intense analysis that can be done using the BNA Income Tax Planner and BNA Estate & Gift Tax Planner products to fulfill the need for a complete suite of cost-effective planning tools practitioners can use to better serve their clients."

BNA Software is a division of the Arlington, Va.-based news and information publisher BNA.

The Financial Guidance business unit of Jersey City, N.J.-based Scivantage provides financial-planning and wealth-management technologies to financial advisors. -FWR

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