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5 Mistakes High-Net-Worth Families Make in Financial Planning
High-net-worth families face complex financial planning challenges. Learn five common mistakes and how to take a more strategic approach to managing...
Explore recommended financial planning tools and apps for tracking assets, modeling goals, and organizing your financial life with greater clarity and ease.
Top Recommended Apps and Tools to Begin Financial Planning
Financial planning starts with gaining clarity about what you own, what you owe, and how your resources align with your long-term goals. Today’s digital tools and apps can support this process by helping users track assets, monitor progress toward goals, and develop a clearer picture of their financial situation. From budgeting and investment dashboards to retirement modeling and document organization, these platforms can make it easier to identify spending patterns, track progress, and evaluate potential next steps.
While using financial planning apps can help get you off to a great start, working with a professional advisor can add valuable context to what these tools reveal. Our team at EP Wealth can recommend which platforms are most appropriate for your needs, help you set them up effectively, and work with the information they generate to guide more informed, strategic decisions.
Tools and Apps to Begin Financial Planning
Whether you're seeking to consolidate your accounts, visualize your portfolio, or project retirement income scenarios, there are several types of tools worth exploring.
Wealth Tracking & Aggregation
Platforms like Empower, Vyzer, and Addepar provide a consolidated view of bank accounts, investments, real estate holdings, and even alternative assets. These tools can help individuals:
- Monitor net worth over time
- Identify asset allocation patterns
- Centralize information from multiple institutions
For individuals with diversified holdings across entities or geographies, these dashboards may offer helpful insights at a glance.
Investment & Portfolio Management
Tools such as Ziggma and advisor-facing platforms like Addepar offer features including:
- Performance tracking by account or asset type
- Risk exposure analysis
- Dividend and income tracking
These platforms may assist in ongoing portfolio oversight, but integrating them with a broader investment strategy typically requires professional financial guidance.
Tax Planning Tools
Platforms like Holistiplan (which is mainly used by advisors) and Mezzi can support various aspects of tax analysis:
- Scenario modeling to anticipate taxable events
- Evaluating tax implications of withdrawals or capital gains
- Identifying opportunities for tax-efficient giving or income timing
While these tools can provide forecasts, implementing strategies typically involves coordination with a CPA or tax advisor.
Estate & Legacy Planning Tools
Digital platforms such as Trust & Will or advisor-focused tools like Vanilla allow users to start organizing key documents and visualizing potential legacy scenarios. These apps may include:
- Will and trust creation templates
- Vaults for storing estate-related paperwork
- Charts to map potential wealth transfer outcomes
Though these platforms can be helpful for preparation, legal coordination is often necessary to finalize estate documents and strategies.
Goal-Based Planning Software
Platforms like eMoney Advisor and RightCapital allow users to model different financial paths. These might include:
- Retirement income projections
- Education funding scenarios
- "What if" modeling for large purchases or life events
These tools can help bring goals into focus, though the usefulness of the results often depends on the accuracy of the inputs and the quality of the underlying analysis.
When Financial Complexity Goes Beyond the App
Apps can serve as helpful entry points, but certain financial scenarios often require more than digital assistance. High-net-worth individuals may encounter challenges that involve multiple variables and require long-term strategic planning.
Some examples include:
- Managing concentrated equity positions—especially if tied to employment or a business interest.
- Handling real estate portfolios with variable cash flows and tax implications.
- Planning around a business transition, liquidity event, or multi-generational family transfer.
- Structuring charitable giving that includes donor-advised funds, charitable remainder trusts, or foundation work.
- Coordinating tax strategies across various entities, jurisdictions, or income sources.
These situations often benefit from working with a financial advisor who can provide a broader planning context, helping connect the dots between legal, tax, and investment decisions.
Privacy and Data Protection: What to Keep in Mind
When using apps and digital platforms to store or monitor sensitive financial data, it’s important to consider how that information is protected. For those with substantial wealth, aggregation across multiple institutions can introduce both complexity and risk.
A few key considerations:
- Choose platforms that use robust encryption protocols and secure authentication processes.
- Avoid sharing personal or financial information via unencrypted emails or cloud-based documents.
- Review a tool’s privacy policy to understand how data may be stored, shared, or used.
Working with a financial advisor can also help you evaluate tools that align with your comfort level and risk tolerance around digital privacy. Advisors often use platforms that meet institutional standards and provide more controlled access to sensitive data.
Partnering with a Financial Advisor to Strengthen Your Planning
While apps can help organize and visualize your financial life, they rarely tell the whole story. A financial advisor brings a deeper layer of context, judgment, and strategy—helping you navigate questions that go beyond the technical capabilities of software.
Here’s how an advisor can support the use of financial planning tools:
- Tool selection: Recommending platforms that align with your goals and complexity.
- Customization: Configuring inputs and assumptions to reflect your actual financial picture.
- Interpretation: Translating results into real-life decisions.
- Integration: Coordinating insights with your attorney, CPA, and other professionals.
Technology can assist with clarity, but working with an advisor can help you take more meaningful steps based on the insights those tools provide. Learn how EP Wealth supports clients in building a personalized financial planning strategy that accounts for every stage of life.
Contact an advisor to learn more.
DISCLOSURES
- EP Wealth Advisors, LLC. is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Commission nor does it indicate that the advisor has attained a particular level of skill or ability.
- Request an appointment with an EP Wealth Advisor when you have a minimum of $500,000 in investable assets – which includes qualified retirement plans (IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), taxable brokerage, cash (savings / checking) and CDs. Investable assets do not include your home, vehicles, or collectibles.
- Hiring a qualified advisor and/or financial planner does not guarantee investment success, and does not ensure that a client or prospective client will experience a higher level of performance or results. No guaranty or warranty is made that any direct or implied results or projections being represented here will be met or sustained.
- The need for a financial advisor or financial planner and/or the type of services required are specific to the uniqueness of each individual’s circumstances. There is no guarantee or warrantee that the services offered by EP Wealth Advisors, LLC will satisfy your specific financial services requirements. Services offered by other advisors may align more to your specific needs.
- Information presented is general in nature and should not be viewed as a comprehensive analysis of the topics discussed. It is intended to serve as a tool containing general information that should assist you in the development of subsequent discussions. Content does not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice nor is it intended to supplement professional individualized advice.
- EP Wealth Advisors (“EPWA”) makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, timeliness, suitability, completeness, or relevance of any information presented. All expressions of option are subject to change without notice.
- All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. Use of a financial planning app and/or tool, while working with an advisor, does not guarantee investment success. Different types of investments and investment strategies involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that any specific investment strategy will be suitable or profitable for a client’s portfolio. The risk of loss can never be eliminated even if working with a professional.
- The apps referenced here are limited in nature and may not achieve the comprehensive analysis required by some to be viewed as valuable. In some instances, they will not replace the review and detail that is performed by a financial professional.
- The referenced list was subjectively created by members of EPWA. Although, a number of apps and websites were assessed, this is not intended to be viewed as an exhaustive list of all available financial planning apps or resources. Also, inherent bias for some options could not be eliminated from the options that were selected. For this reason, there are other, and, in many instances, more suitable options available to address your specific needs.
