The Kitces Report, Volume 1, 2023
By channel, RightCapital is most common in RIAs (27% adoption rate) compared to
Hybrid (18%) and IBD (17%). More CFP professionals (23%) compared to non-CFP profes-
sionals (20%) use RightCapital.
How They Use It. In terms of planning approach, RightCapital is used by 28% of Custom
plan creators and 24% of Collaborative plan creators. Conversely, RightCapital is only
used by 18% of advisors using financial planning software as a product Calculator, and by
only 15% of advisors who report creating out-of-the-box Comprehensive plans that they
simply print and deliver to clients.
Not surprisingly, given its popularity among planners using a Custom approach, by plan
breadth RightCapital is more common among advisors making Extensive plans (25%
adoption rate) compared to Broad (22%), Narrow (20%), and Targeted (15%).
In practice, users rank RightCapital most similar to eMoney in the depth of analysis.
Though notably, RightCapital ratings equal eMoney in comprehensiveness while also
scoring the highest in satisfaction across all applications in simplicity and ease of use,
which helps to explain its relative win in market share.
Impact On Planning. Only 41% of advisors using RightCapital also used specialized plan-
ning software, compared to 48% of all advisors using comprehensive planning applica-
tions. This suggests RightCapital is doing a better job of actually incorporating the full
breadth of analyses that advisors tend to conduct, reducing the need for advisors to
invest in other software to supplement. The propensity for RightCapital users to rely on
any other applications for financial planning remained similar to overall averages.
The median time spent using RightCapital per plan was 5 hours, 1 hour greater than
typical for users across all third-party comprehensive applications. However, the time
spent is the same for eMoney users, which was the other software most commonly
used to create Extensive plans. This suggests that RightCapital, like eMoney, isn’t a more
time-consuming software per se, but rather one that is more likely to be used by advi-
sors who want to take the time to create the most in-depth (time-consuming) plans in
the first place. In turn, given that RightCapital users tend to have reduced reliance on
other specialized software as well, RightCapital is effectively proving itself to be the most
efficient at creating Extensive financial plans by more consistently operating as a ‘one-
stop-shop’ compared to its competitors.
Unique Considerations. RightCapital showed by far the biggest increase in market
share over our 2020 study, which appears to be driven by a combination of its low price
point and its highest overall satisfaction rating of all comprehensive financial planning
software. Which, in turn, is borne by the fact that RightCapital rates highly in depth and
comprehensiveness – but without sacrificing ease-of-use and simplicity to get there
(as most of its competitors do). Also notable was RightCapital’s top ratings (by a large
margin) in its Client Portal, a domain where competitor eMoney historically excelled.
The end result is that while RightCapital remains most popular among pure solo firms,
teams with less than $250,000 of revenue, and practices under 4 years old, that is not a
reflection of any limitations inherent in the software. Rather, it simply chose to enter the
market and grow by pursuing newer advisory firms that wouldn’t have to switch plan-
ning tools in order to gain initial traction. Which leaves RightCapital very well positioned
for growth if it can continue to capture the bulk of new advisory firms while its high sat-
isfaction ratings and word-of-mouth accolades win harder-to-achieve defections from
competitors.
NaviPlan
Who Uses It. NaviPlan, with an overall market share
of 4%, has deep roots as being one of the most com-
prehensive financial planning software tools. Conse-
quently, like eMoney, NaviPlan tends to be utilized
by teams with higher revenues and more affluent clients. NaviPlan usage is highest (9%)
in teams with revenues between $1 million to $1.5 million, followed closely in usage for
teams with revenues over $2 million (8%) – double its overall usage rate.
On the other hand, NaviPlan has lost what RightCapital has won in adoption with new
advisors; there was not a single instance of a team under $100,000 in revenue using
NaviPlan. By channel, owing to its deep roots in large-firm enterprise sales, NaviPlan was
far more common in IBDs (9% usage) and with W2 brokers (7%), compared to RIA (4%)
and Hybrid (3%) advisors.
How They Use It. In terms of planning approach, NaviPlan is most used among ‘product
calculator’ planners, with 7% adoption. Conversely, NaviPlan was least popular among
Collaborative planners (3% adoption). With the exception of advisors preparing Targeted
plans, advisor usage was fairly consistent in terms of plan breadth: Consistent with the
comprehensiveness for which it is historically known, there was no instance of NaviPlan
being used to create a Targeted plan (5 or fewer planning topics covered in a single
plan).
Impact On Planning. NaviPlan was used in concert with other technology tools more
than any other application. Whether it was specialty software, Word, or Excel, about ⁄
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