How Green Era Financial Migrated from eMoney to RightCapital and Improved Their Planning Along the Way

Since this interview was conducted, RightCapital has introduced additional ways to help advisors migrate from other software, including Smart Import document upload and OCR (optical character recognition) capabilities to scan and read eMoney and MoneyGuide reports.

Cary Green and Jean Jacques ("JJ") Widmaier built Green Era Financial on a bold idea: two advisors who met at a non-profit event and started a firm together just days later. That same boldness shaped their decision to migrate their clients from eMoney to RightCapital, a move that ended up improving not just their tech stack, but the quality of their planning itself.

At a glance

Challenge: Building a tech stack without starting from scratch

When Cary and JJ launched Green Era Financial, one of their first and most important decisions was what their tech stack should look like. The two came from very different planning backgrounds.

JJ had used eMoney at his most recent firm and MoneyGuide before that. Cary, on the other hand, had done all of his planning "by hand, with complicated Word documents and calculations."

What they agreed on was clear: they didn't want a sprawling collection of programs that couldn't talk to each other. They needed a single platform that could:

• Integrate cleanly with their chosen custodian

• Communicate clearly with clients, not just advisors

• Handle deeper tax planning, including Roth conversions and back-door Roth strategies

• Feel modern and intuitive, not clunky or dated

• Serve as a central hub for the entire client relationship

Solution: RightCapital as the central hub

After researching their options (including industry sources like Kitces), Cary and JJ chose RightCapital. Two factors stood out: how “beautifully” it integrated with their custodian, and how fundamentally different it felt from other planning software.

"RightCapital felt more intuitive and less 'old-fashioned' and 'blocky' than the other options. There's something about the ease of use, the aesthetics, and how it communicates information to the client and to us."

They were also drawn to RightCapital's reputation among newer, younger advisors, which fit their goal of staying "more on the cutting-edge of technology."

Migrating client data manually and on purpose

Rather than outsource the migration to a paraplanner, Cary and JJ moved their clients' data themselves.

"We did it manually for sure," said Cary. JJ added, "Which was good, because I was able to familiarize myself with the new software."

The manual approach turned into an unexpected advantage. Because RightCapital integrated with both JJ's old custodian and Green Era's new one, part of the process was streamlined, but going client by client also surfaced gaps in their data.

"Some of the transfers were quick, but some took several hours because we found things that were missing and we dove in to fix them."

The team uncovered missing details such as mortgage interest rates and property tax amounts, bringing every plan fully up to date in the process.

A manageable learning curve

JJ, already familiar with planning software, picked RightCapital up quickly. For Cary, the “Creating Your First Plan” webinar did most of the heavy lifting. He learned about 95% of what he needed from that one webinar.

From there, it was a matter of handling new scenarios such as modeling survivor benefits on a client's late husband's Social Security, or planning for a client with an S corp. The Help Center and live chat covered the rest.

"I don't think we've run into anything we can't do yet with RightCapital. It's just a matter of learning: how to use it; how to plug different things in; and going to the Help Center when we have questions. The how-to videos and articles are great."

Cary has had every question answered through the online chat so far, including one instance where a support team member offered a screen share to quickly resolve the issue.

Deeper tax planning

For JJ, RightCapital's tax capabilities were a welcome step up. "I wanted to be able to prove the benefits of Roth conversions or back-door Roth strategies, for example."

Customization that puts clients in control

JJ leans heavily on Snapshot, the personalized plan summary, and the flexibility to control what each client sees.

"I like the customizability. I've built three different templates, for clients in the accumulation, pre-retirement, or retirement phases."

He fine-tunes widgets for individual clients so the experience feels relevant and reassuring.

"If I include a widget they don't understand or if there's any extra confusion, they feel out of control. My job is to design it so they feel in control."

He also uses the Tasks widget to keep clients on track, dragging it higher on the Snapshot screen to draw attention to what matters most.

One central hub

Green Era uses RightCapital as the center of everything, it's even the login on their website. Clients are encouraged to enter the portal to check linked custodian accounts, tasks, notes, and shared documents in the Vault.

Results: A smoother practice and a standout client experience

Clients have taken notice. Cary described walking one client through her plan:

"She was absolutely floored," he said, noting she kept talking about how "high-tech" everything was. A review he'd blocked two hours for wrapped in 45 minutes "because it was easy to present and for my client to understand."

JJ has heard similar enthusiasm, with clients responding especially well to the Blueprint feature, the Estate Planning tool, and the Tasks module. One client particularly enjoyed seeing future tax return projections.

"It's pretty remarkable how RightCapital found a way to take all this information and communicate it in a way that's intuitive, aesthetic, clean, and in some ways, higher-tech than a lot of the other platforms, while still feeling simple and approachable." — Cary Green

Advice to advisors thinking about switching

Cary and JJ are candid that switching platforms takes work, but they believe it's worth it.

"It's also very good to do, just from the perspective that you're going to see all the potentials for improvement on your planning. It forced us to do an incredibly in-depth review, helping us identify better and additional ways to serve our clients." — Cary

For advisors worried about the workload, Cary recommends a simple approach: set a goal to move just one or two clients a day.

JJ's message is more direct:

"If you don't change, you get left behind. Things are going to go from 'just fine' to 'not doing fine' faster than you think."

This interview was originally conducted in 2023.

Thinking about making the switch? Schedule a 1:1 demo and gain access to a free 14-day trial of RightCapital.

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