Using Investment Suitability Questionnaires Electronically.

These are the instructions for clients to use to get their financial data back to financial planners / investment managers without having to use paper, the post, nor fax machines (paper has always been the best way to gather client data, but it's slow).

Financial planners: You should copy just these directions into a Word document/web page, so only the information inside the light green middle of the table shows. Why? Because you probably don't want to send your financial planning / investment management clients to this website! So if you don't want them to see this page, you'll need to copy the meat into something you'd make on your own.

The first thing you'll want to do is edit the front page of the fact finders to reflect your name (the financial planner) and business contact information. This all begins on the front page under the words "Prepared By:"

You also may want to change the headers and footers to reflect your firm too. Don't change the date above because you want it to be the date the client actually worked on it, or the date they sent it back or the date you started working on the plan, not the date you sent it to them.

Directions for Clients

· Start with opening Fact Finder Part I. Then proceed to the others. This all depends on which ones you have, of course.

· First, find the date on the front page. Click a couple of inches to the left of the date, but at the same level vertically. This will highlight the date if you did it right. If the whole date is highlighted, then you can just type in the current date.

· Repeat this process by typing in your name under the text, "Especially Prepared For:"

· For all check box answers: If the answer to a multiple-choice question is answered by choosing a text box, then here's how to do it:

Just select a box that reflects your answer by RIGHT clicking right on the box. A little menu comes up, then choose, Properties. Then another menu comes up. One of the options is "Default Value." The "Not checked" option will be selected. All you need to do is click on the "Checked" button, and then click OK. The box with your answer is now checked (and will stay that way after you save and exit).

· For all other questions that want a typed in response, just type in your answers on the line. These fact finders were painstakingly formatted to look good when printed, and then used by writing on them. If you're going to be doing this electronically, then the formatting is mostly meaningless. So feel free to make all the long-winded notes you want to as it doesn't matter one bit what they look like to your financial planner.

So just click to the right of the end of the question, and type your answer. Again, pay no attention to the fact that it looks bad because it doesn't matter one little bit. The planners can format them to make them print nice if they want to. If the line is messed up, and you want to make it look nice, then delete the whole line, then just start typing. If you want to put the line back in after you're done typing, then highlight it then underline it.

· After you're done, save the Word document using a different file name with the "Save As" function under the File menu. Choose a name that's relevant to the work - for example, "John Sample's Investment Fact Finder.doc" This will make it so the original file that was sent to you will be preserved, so you can start over fresh if you want to later.

That's about it. Once it's done, and saved, you can attach it to an e-mail, or put it online for download (or FTP).

Personal Finance Software Modules

Fully Integrated Financial Planning Software

Menu of Retirement Planning Software

Asset Allocation Overview with Historical Portfolio Returns

Comprehensive Asset Allocation Calculator

Asset Allocation Models with Historical Investment Returns

Monthly Updated Mutual Fund Picks

TVM Financial Tools

Free Personal Budget Software

Investment Policy Statement Software

Bond Calculators