Palo Alto, California-based Financial Engines is in the news again. The third-party advice-giver has redesigned its website so now individuals whose employers are not clients of the firm can now access the product. Sources told InvestmentWires that the new site will be launched next week. This move marks the first time an advice-giver has directly targeted participants with a product.

Earlier Friday, we were able to get a preview look at a test version of the site.

Links

Financial Engines

The site essentially has two levels. There is one that provides forecasting, and this area is free. The other section, which costs $14.95 for three months, also offers advice. For the latter, a page pops up requesting billing information.

InvestmentWires entered the site and examined its content. Initially, the forms where the system requests information from the user seem very standard. The individual enters a variety of information from date of birth to marital status to 401(k) plan investment options to percentage of salary invested.

Financial Engines also requests retirement goals. The system then calculates all the information and comes up with a series of probabilities of meeting those goals. There is also a small display designed like a "today's weather" graphic that changes as the probability of the individual achieving retirement goals increases. The greater the chance the sunnier the display, but the less the chance the cloudier the display.

Further, the system makes suggestions as to what funds in the 401(k) plan in which to invest as well as what percentage to do so. It also cautions the user that a certain amount of money may be lost in the coming year. If the user changes certain criteria -- such as desired year of retirement -- then the forecast changes as well.

The system is fairly easy to use and basically intuitive. The one trouble we found with the test site was with the Java script. It seemed that every page had some Java script on it, and we are 0 for 2 in making it through the entire system. The first time, it froze one of our computers completely. The second time, it caused a browser on another computer to shut down.

So, while Financial Engines's new website has a great deal of potential for the firm, there are still some kinks that need to be worked out -- nothing surprising for any website in its beta days. We look forward to driving the final version of the site next week. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE