Clients of Ancora have access to our client portal, which is a very powerful personal organization tool called eMoney. You may have heard us talk about it before, but we want to further highlight some of the reasons we feel it’s a resource worth utilizing.
At its core, eMoney is an account aggregation tool that allows you to see all your Ancora-managed accounts in one place, as well as link to any outside assets not managed by Ancora (this includes other brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, bank accounts, 529 plans, mortgages, credit cards, etc.). eMoney is strictly a visual aggregator; no money can be moved or managed within it, but the software allows you to see a totally up-to-date net worth across your entire financial life, which is powerful. Populating eMoney with this additional data is certainly helpful to you, but it is also very useful for us as your advisor. We can advise and plan alongside you most effectively when we can see your entire household’s financial picture, identifying any blind spots or asset allocation adjustments that may be needed because of the additional data.
Once you have populated your account with data, there are many other capabilities. Some of these include:
The Vault: Online document storage is very easy to access within this secure portal. We have clients utilize it for insurance documents, tax returns, estate planning documents and important family directives. The Vault can become the hub of all your financial records, a true north for record keeping if you will, rather than or in addition to a desk drawer. We also share your Ancora performance reports directly in the Vault for your reference, which makes for more timely communications.
Spending/Budgeting: Once a spending-related account, such as a credit card, is linked, the transactions will display in the Spending tab within eMoney. These are totally private unless you choose to share them with us. Many clients do choose to share that activity if they would like our help tracking and/or building a budget. You can also categorize transactions, create custom labels and build a budget that tracks alongside your spending activity per month. Oftentimes, by looking at cash flows like this, we can identify helpful strategies to maximize savings.
Goal Planning/Cash Flow Reporting: eMoney has robust reporting that your Ancora planner can assist you with. Whether it be planning for college or saving for a home, we can create reports showing your savings plan over time and illustrate how to get you where you want to go. eMoney is a nice complement to our MoneyGuide Pro system to develop and manage an individualized financial plan based on your goals.
Connectivity to MoneyGuide Pro: If you have gone through the full financial planning process with us, you have a lifetime plan in MoneyGuide Pro. You can click into your MoneyGuide plan from eMoney and review it at your own pace at any time with eMoney acting as the conduit. If you have not gone through the MoneyGuide Pro planning process and would like to, please reach out to your Ancora advisor.
To see a walkthrough of a sample eMoney account, watch our recent webinar here. We encourage any of our clients who have not registered for an eMoney account to reach out to your advisor and we will assist in getting access set up for you. We feel this is a very helpful and worthwhile tool and there is no charge for using it. The more active you are in providing us the most up-to-date information, the better service we can provide to you and the more peace of mind you can build for your family.