A Paying Advisor's BAD Experience
I am an actual advisor who has subscribed to Planswell since April of 2024. I followed all the recommendations to get the most from the program, getting 1-on-1 coaching from some of the really successful planners who have been around forever, joining a Plancraft group, sitting through numerous Zoom calls learning the software inside and out, and so much more. Ultimately, though, it has only resulted in nothing more than wasted time and money. It certainly wasn't from a lack of trying, though. The concept sounds great, and there were lots of folks I talked to, or listened to online, who seemed to be experiencing great interactions and success. I got none of that, and it is just such an extremely weird situation. The long and short of it is simply this: of the nearly 200 households that were assigned to me since early 2024, ONLY TWO ever picked up and answered the phone. Of those, ONLY one was even willing to have a conversation. We spoke on the phone a couple of times and that was pretty much it. He is a federal employee enrolled in the TSP who has done extremely well for himself and decided he didn't really need my services. While it would have been nice to actually get a client out of this, I'm not going to fault him because he really didn't need my services if I'm going to be totally honest about it. Could I have helped him some? Sure, but it's not like he was clueless. As a DIYer, he had amassed a net worth of eight figures. Regardless, at least the one and only person of nearly 200 prospects I reached out to was pleasant.
I contacted my account executive several times, and I also had several people from the company call me to check in, but none of them were able to find a solution to overcome the obvious problem, which again was that no one was answering their phones! For 16 months I tried varying the cadence on different days and times as suggested. I even got a different phone number based upon a recommendation from Planswell because they were concerned that maybe my mobile number had somehow been flagged as a "Potential Spam" number or something like that. Still no luck.
I followed the To Dos and activity updates, and even made the extra effort to reach out again whenever I saw that Planswell had sent out automated emails to old leads. I hoped that maybe an email would spark some interest again and I might get someone to answer the phone. Still, no such luck.
Finally, a little over two months ago, I reached out to submit a request to Support again conveying my frustration and to inform them that I was planning to finally cancel my subscription. I got a phone call and email back within the next day.
Planswell had started using the AI caller to try to book appointments several months before. I even had someone call me and demo it for me when it first went live. At that time, I had expressed interest in getting on board, but I was told I wasn't eligible because I didn't have a Premium account. I was already paying $550/month, with absolutely $0.00 ROI after more than a year, and was told that, in order to get access to this technology, I was going to have to upgrade! Seriously?! Yes, seriously! I said no thanks and kept dialing myself. After I reached out to let them know I was planning to cancel, though, they actually offered it to me for free for Q4 of 2025. Well, not entirely "free." I still had to pay my $550/month fee for my current subscription, but at least I didn't have to pay more for the AI caller.
I was hopeful that there would be some difference, that I might finally add some new clients, and I might finally be able to justify the effort and expense. NOPE, of course I couldn't be that fortunate!
By default, the AI caller would reach out to each newly assigned household, but I was also able to go back into the dashboard and create a new Status tag so the AI would circle back and try to once again call all the households that I was never able to connect with. To Planswell's credit, the AI caller really worked the phones, placing calls to nearly 200 households over the past several weeks! It didn't make any difference, though. I've been following the status updates regularly and nearly every household has the same notes: either "Voicemail detected" or "No live conversation." Two households even went so far as to request to be placed on the DNC list and stated any further calls would be deemed harassment! So, it's not just me.
I don't know what the actual issue is, but I really have to suspect it must just be a regional culture issue. I'm from Indiana and we're all pretty friendly people, but we're also pretty cynical and private. I don't often answer my phone if I don't recognize the number, but I thought that maybe these people would answer if they had just gone through the process of completing a rudimentary financial plan online. I guess not, so today I actually called and cancelled.
20 november 2025
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