Paul Feeney, a driven entrepreneur with a background in wealth management, is changing the way people access independent financial advice.
Having worked for many years as a financial planner and then a private banker, Paul knows only too well the challenges people face in managing their finances, no matter what stage of the wealth journey they’re on.
“I believe that the financial planning industry needs to change how it interacts with clients,” he says. “There is an inherent conflict across the industry that restricts the ability of people to receive independent financial advice — if they can access advice at all.”
It is inevitable that the majority of Australian will access personal financial advice via an interactive digital platform.
The evolution of MapMyPlan
MapMyPlan is Paul’s third startup — he previously started and sold two businesses adjacent to wealth management, in Singapore and London respectively. MapMyPlan is designed to help every person make a well-informed financial decision and live their best financial life.
“Wealth management is not rocket science. Sure there are lots of variables, but once you understand where that person wants to go, and give them a personal path it becomes less challenging.”
Paul originally launched MapMyPlan in 2016, and had early success before he decided to re-write the entire platform from scratch.
“It was a big risk, but it’s paid off in spades. We really pumped up the security, as well as incorporating a suite of algorithms that build a unique plan for each user incorporating debt management, saving, investments, retirement planning and insurance. The new platform went live in 2020 and it’s been fantastic so far.”
Reducing the impact of financial stress in the workplace
MapMyPlan is unique among the digital financial wellness players in the market in that it’s currently delivered via employers as an employee benefit.
”We really focus our platform on helping employers reduce the impact of financial stress in the workplace,” Paul says.
“Most employers offer seminars or online modules covering advice around super, or some basic financial education, but there’s no personal context. So we thought by allowing employers to give their people a completely individual, living financial plan that’s linked to their unique situation and delivered through their existing work platforms, it would work. And it is.”
MapMyPlan is working with employers including Suncorp, Medibank, SunSuper, Latitude Financial and Rio Tinto, to name a few.
An individual’s plan is updated every day, so whenever a their situation changes, their advice, tips and recommendations are recalibrated to take this into account and their entire plan changes to reflect their new situation.
“This is really popular with our user base — it makes it very personal and gives a level of personal control that isn’t possible when you’re using a third party adviser. Also it’s free for the employee! The benefit for the employer is a more engaged and less financial stressed workforce. We’re seeing around one-third of employees taking up the offer, which is really high and a great testament to what we’re enabling these employers to offer their people.”
Employers also benefit from accessing de-identified data points showing a macro view of where the common pain points are for their employees. This allows companies to adjust their employee benefits to better support people where they need it most.
Making the complex simple
Paul and his team will roll out MapMyPlan direct to consumer this year, having added some more features to the platform that will resonate with a broad audience.
“We launched some really new innovative features last month around automating intra-fund advice — looking at people’s holistic goals and recommending perhaps some extra contributions, looking at whether their investment options are right, what insurances they have in super vs what they need, all 100% automated from the click of a button.”
Users can optimise their financial life in under 10 minutes, and the average user identifies $250,000+ of saving and wealth creation strategies.
“Our premise is we don’t need to have someone on a phone to help someone through it — we put the individual in charge. Advice is expensive because you have to pay for someone’s time, but we’ve found a way for the individual to run it themselves. We make the complex simple.”
About MapMyPlan
Map My Plan is changing the way people access independent financial advice. Map My Plan is 100% online and provides a fully automated self-directed tool enabling users to create their very own personalised financial road map.