Being Rich Takes More Than Money

Or Quicken. But Financial Navigator will help do the job, for a price

Reviewed By Theresa W. Carey

Edited by Randall W. Forsyth

The rich really are different. It takes a substantial portfolio to qualify as truly affluent, which last week's Barron's cover story defined as being able to walk away from your job and live comfortably on the return from your investments. If you're fortunate enough to fall into that category, however, personal finance programs such as Intuit's Quicken and Microsoft's Money might not be up to the task of helping you manage your wealth.

Financial Navigator International, a 10-year-old (ancient for this business) company, publishes a suite of programs that might fill the bill of dealing with complex finances, if you're willing to deal with its corresponding complexities. Financial Navigator is the sport-utility vehicle of this software category -- big and rugged with numerous add-ons, but occasionally difficult to drive. Indeed, if your finances are complex enough to need Financial Navigator, you may well want to leave the driving to a financial chauffeur, who might make better use of the program's capabilities.

Financial Navigator can keep track of complex finances, but the program and such portfolios are both best handled by a professional.

Financial Navigator 6.7, the cornerstone of the product line, currently available for $299 (for a single user), doesn't yet have the online connections of Quicken or Money. But the upcoming version 7.0 will use Internet connections to bank accounts though those capabilities are not yet fully implemented. Navigator Access, an add-on program ($199), provides online securities price updates. Version 6.7 can track a wide range of investments and assets, from typical IRA, Keogh and 401(k) accounts to the more complex, such as executive stock options and oil and gas working interests.

Once the program is installed, you have to set up a chart of accounts, either accepting the "typical user" defined in the program, or building your own by choosing from among Financial Navigator's 500-plus choices. This exemplifies why Financial Navigator appears to be aimed at financial-management pros rather than typical individual investors. The single-user version allows you to track up to five different entities, which are defined as sets of books.

The three main areas of the program -- transaction entry, report preparation, and account maintenance -- are accessed from a pull-down menu or from a button on the icon bar. Unlike Quicken and Money, which coach you through every step, Financial Navigator assumes some familiarity with financial-management concepts, such as knowing the difference between income and assets, and double-entry bookkeeping.

The program's strength is in managing a complex financial situation, such as interests in partnerships, trusts, multiple businesses, multiple currencies and intricate investment scenarios. Financial Navigator tracks stocks, bonds, options, short sales, partial sales, multiple purchases and sales of the same security, and asset depreciation. When you define a particular item, the program automatically classifies it for tax purposes, and generates data for tax schedules such as Form 1040, Schedules A, B, C, D, E, F, Passive Activity and Working Interest. Exporting data to tax preparation programs such as TurboTax or the BNA Income Tax Spreadsheet is possible using the add-on DataBridge ($49). Separate reports can be generated based on specific asset classes, or you can choose an overall consolidated financial statement. Additional reporting capability is possible through Navigator Impressions 1.0 ($99), an add-on that provides charting and graphing in a wide variety of formats. The upcoming version 7.0 is fully compatible with Microsoft Office, however, which will facilitate generating reports.

Financial Navigator also includes small-business accounting capability, allowing you to incorporate a wholly owned business into your overall financial statements easily. You can generate payroll and invoices as well as reports that should satisfy a bank's loan officer.

Financial Navigator's investment management capabilities are what really set it apart from Quicken and Money for high-net-worth individuals. It not only tracks the usual securities and mutual funds, but can also keep tabs on real estate, collectibles, royalty interest, trusts and estate assets. Dividends can be tracked both as cash and as reinvestments, and gifts of securities are also handled well. Stock purchase plans, precious metals and the current value of executive stock-option programs can be tracked, too. Through the chart of accounts setup, you can organize your investments in a wide variety of categories. Version 6.7 includes options for reports that include mid-term capital gains to satisfy the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.

Another add-on of interest to investors is Navigator StockWeb ($99-$199 per year), an online service that updates your portfolio with current price and dividend information, sparing you the need to enter those numbers manually. StockWeb acts in many ways like the soon-to-be-defunct Investor Insight, providing automatic access to performance and volume charts for stocks and mutual funds as well as news, profiles, quotes, research data, SEC filings, market indexes and industry information. Much of the information accessible from StockWeb is available for free or for a small fee if you want to go digging for it yourself; but StockWeb makes it all tie in nicely to the data already painstakingly entered into Financial Navigator.

The publisher invites financial management experts and Financial Navigator users to an annual conference, which for 1998 was recently held in Northern California. Registered users are sent a newsletter with tips on using the program as well as financial management information, along with invitations to Financial Navigator training seminars, which are useful for new users trying to get a handle on such a complex program. There also is a lot of help available on Financial Navigator's Web site, which is updated whenever a new problem is identified and solved. Technical support is also available from live helpers for a fee after an initial free period.

One glaring omission from Financial Navigator is the ability to read Quicken or Money files, which would enable those who have outgrown the mass-market financial management programs to upgrade easily. The tedious setup process and the need for various add-ons are the downside to using Financial Navigator; once it's up and running, though, the professional-style reports are worth the work. Check out its Web site for a demo.

Update: Investor Insight, Intuit's subscription-based online financial information service, will be phased out on August 31. Intuit representatives say that most of Investor Insight's functions are now available on the Web site (www.quicken.com) for free. Portfolios with more than 50 equities in them cannot be processed there, however, which has displeased some subscribers. Financial Navigator plus StockWeb can act as a substitute for those with complicated portfolios, albeit at greater cost, both in terms of the initial expense and the time needed to set up the files.