Fintech firms Moneyhub and Pennyworth have joined forces to develop a new Financial Planning and banking app.
The app is aimed at providing guidance to customers with salaries between £40,000 and £150,000.
The Pennyworth Financial Planning and banking app aims to make it easy for affluent individuals to discover, set and track their financial goals.
The app is fully automated but will offer contact with a human “manager” should a user require help with the app.
It is currently undergoing testing before launch.
Moneyhub said the app could help to close the advice gap for consumers typically not considered wealthy enough to be taken on as clients of wealth managers or Financial Planners.
Sam Seaton, CEO at Moneyhub, said: “Setting and achieving financial goals should not be the preserve of the super-rich: everyone should be able to make the most of their money. It is our pleasure to partner with Pennyworth to offer an Open Finance solution for the aspiring affluent consumer.”
Pennyworth added that traditional banks offer ‘very limited’ Financial Planning services.
Moneyhub’s API connections will allow Pennyworth’s users to pull in their financial data, including pensions, savings and investments, without needing to re-key data. An API is a form of software interface which allows multiple IT systems to talk to one another, in this case allowing the Pennyworth app to fetch data from a banks and other financial services providers.
The Pennyworth app will allow users to select from pre-set goals, or set their own, which can then be prioritised by importance. The app will offer checklists on what to consider and how to make progress with each goal. It will then automatically turn these goals into a basic Financial Plan and enable users to track their progress against each goal.
The app will also prompt action should a user go off-track with their Financial Plan.
The Pennyworth app will also offer digital banking services and is currently in the process of being authorised as a bank in the UK.
Jeremy Takle, CEO at Pennyworth, said: “Pennyworth was founded to help solve the personal finance problems of aspiring-affluent customers by bridging the value and advice gap and Moneyhub’s cutting edge technology helps us achieve that goal. We are delighted to partner with Moneyhub to play our part in democratising Financial Planning.”
Prior to Pennyworth, Mr Takle was managing director of Barclays Digital Consumer Bank, a US challenger bank formed in 2016.
Financial Planning Today Analysis: The Pennyworth app is the latest in a growing list of Financial Planning apps, several of which claim they will close the advice gap by automating Financial Planning. Other recent launches include Wyzr, which is also powered using technology from Moneyhub. They tend to rely on digital provision and automated guidance.
Some Financial Planning firms have also recently moved into the applications space. This year’s new Financial Planner entrants include Tavistock’s purchase of the ‘bionic’ personal finance app business LEBC Hummingbird which focuses on saving and budgeting, and the Academy of Life Planning, who joined forced with Moneyhub and Envisage, to launch the open-banking-powered Financial Planning app Envizage.
As open-banking continues to grow in popularity it seems likely many more firms, including some Financial Planners, will choose to reach out to lower-earning potential clients, normally below the minimum threshold for full service Financial Planning, via automated or semi-automated apps which provide some Financial Planning guidance and potentially access to a human Financial Planner for more complex needs.
