Upgrade from Advisor Version 04.2003b, c, or d to Advisor Version 2005.01

Purchase instructions will be emailed to current customers.

Summary of enhancements:        View a PDF file of the newest Advisor Version

1.The look and feel of all worksheets has been modified to include more trim line graphics with muted colors.  All graphic bars are unlocked allowing the user to resize, change the color, or eliminate them.

2. Education planner  - made more date specific. Can save money through any specified date rather than up to the beginning of school as in previous versions. Three education planners have been included…one worksheet for an individual child, and two worksheets that will illustrate up to four children each.

3. Another accumulation goal worksheet has been added, for a total of two.

4. Life Insurance models:  The worksheet calculates the the total amount of coverage needed, then it allows you to indicate any death benefit currently in place, and the worksheet shows coverage needed over and above the existing coverage.

5. Allocation rebalancing tools – The target portfolio graph has been eliminated. That graph was not essential.

6. Mortgage Calculator: The payment record section has been reworked.  It is now based on a per payment basis rather than on a yearly basis.  

7. Modified the FV calculation for the target income in the distribution phase of Retirement # 1 worksheet.

8. Retirement # 4 Enhancements:

A.     Separated single portfolio into qualified and non-qualified portfolios.

B.     Added tax treatment – the user now can indicate tax brackets pre and post retirement and indicate the percentage of earnings in the non-qualified portfolio attributable to each tax category. When you indicate the assumed gross earnings assumption for each portfolio, the worksheet calculates the net of tax earnings for the non-qualified portfolio and uses that number in that portfolio's growth.  The qualified portfolio grows at the gross rate entered.

C.     The ability to gradually step down the portfolio earnings assumptions over time has been added to reflect an assumed increasingly conservative portfolio allocation. The worksheet allows you to indicate the amount of the periodic drop in the earnings rate as well as the frequency of the drop. It also allows you to set an earnings rate floor (do not go below number).

D.     The user can indicate the tax treatment of all income sources in the retirement income phase. The worksheet then uses this information to calculate and display the average amount of income that is expected to be lost to taxes in the retirement phase. The user then, armed with that information, enters a similar number (for percentage of income lost to taxes) to solve for the gross income needed to achieve the net of tax income goal entered by the user. If this manual entry cell value varies from the calculated value, either up 5% or down by 5%, the background of the manual entry cell will be yellow – indicating that you need to adjust the value you entered.

E.      On the distribution or retirement side of the worksheet you indicate expected dollar amount of all fixed income sources on the worksheet as before.  In a similar fashion, you will indicate the qualified portfolio withdrawals, in that you manually specify what the withdrawal level should be and when it occurs. The model then seeks to satisfy the gross target gross income need by first considering the fixed income sources, along with the qualified withdrawals you entered, and then it calculates the non-qualified portfolio withdrawal as a residual amount needed to bring the income level up to the gross income target.

F.      There is a column just to the right of the qualified withdrawals that places a "y" when it is likely that minimum distributions from the qualified accounts are necessary, by virtue of the fact that one of the clients is age 70 or above.  (The model does not calculate minimum distributions it merely indicates when they are likely needed).

G.     Also, to the extent that the "actual" income (column AI) generated by your entries exceeds the "target" gross income needed (column AK) the numbers in the actual income column turn blue and a "surplus" label shows up to the right of the worksheet.  If the actual income generated by your entries is too low to meet the target gross income needed the numbers turn green and a "shortfall" label shows up to the right of the worksheet.  If this happens, you must evaluate what adjustments can be made in your data entry to correct the problem.  The most likely adjustment needed is in the manual entry in the qualified portfolio withdrawal column...