A personal financial planning system for everyday use?

摘要

Systems for financial planning exist. Many of these systems are, however, complex, expensive and designed for use by specialists. In the project described in this paper the aim was to investigate whether a knowledge-based system could be developed for "everyday" use by people engaged in financial planning. A system was developed, entitled the Retrirement and Pension system (RAP), to deal with investment planning for people who could be eligible for an Age Pension. The system deals with simplified situations and generic investments. Trials with 91 members of the general public indicated that the system was regarded favourably and could be used successfully in problem solving. Investigation of problem solving behaviour with the system showed different patterns of behaviour - a considerable amount of "what-if" analysis, and some use of the explanation facility and help functions.