How to enter defined benefit pension amounts

Question: I have entered defined benefit company plans for me and my spouse. My report is showing much higher pension amounts. It seems accurate for current 2016, but much too high starting next year 2017: ($105,620 for 2016, and $178,211 for 2017 combined). Here is my input: For...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 5:09 PM

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Using RetireWare for fee-only practice

Question: I'm in the process of trying to scale my fee-only/advice-only planning practice. With enough clients that I'm reaching significant overload, I'm looking into Canadian planning software that I can use for my clients - but not necessarily with my clients. Answer: If you use the professional version,...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 5:06 PM

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Update Wizard

Question: One question on the “Update” feature.  I haven’t used it yet but just trying to figure out what happens when you use it.  So say you update all the financial information and any changes that might need to be done with assumptions, etc.,  does the program then...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 5:03 PM

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Purchasing an annuity with RRSP

Question: How do I purchase an annuity in 2020 with my my RRSP? Answer: There is a section in 'Registered Investments' on the 'Financial Information' page where you can select to purchase an annuity with the proceeds of your RRSP. ...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 5:01 PM

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Asset allocation and sources of income

Questions: Looking at the Report I have a few questions: Under Asset Allocation it states “The Investor Profile Questionnaire established that the following portfolio: Security might be the most …”  Do I assume that the RetireWare used a “Security” mix for my investments listed under Finances or will...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 4:59 PM

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Cash Flow Forecast

Question: In the Cash Flow Forecast Detailed Data Table, there is a column of data called "Retirement Objective Net". From what I can see it includes the Post retirement expenses that I setup along with special expenses according to the parameters on the "retirement income target" tab. However...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 4:58 PM

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MonteCarlo calculations

Questions: I have a dilemma. Hopefully you can help. My investment adviser recently provided me with a retirement plan using another product. Income, future assets etc. were comparable to what I calculate using RetireWare. However, for the same scenario, RetireWare is indicating a 100% probability of success. The...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 4:57 PM

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A few product questions

Question: I have a few questions about some inputs that I cannot resolve on my own. I am a new subscriber but I think I have everything figured out now except the below. Is there a way to model a spousal loan? for example, if I have lent...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 4:55 PM

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Functionality of RetireWare

Question: I am interested in a subscription but before doing so wanted to know the extent of your program - is there a 30 day trial version. I tried another product but the program was not detailed enough. Does your software allow you to enter your lifestyle needs...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 4:51 PM

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Retirement income goal and rates of returns

Question: As I am new to this program, I just have a couple of questions before I start rolling it out to  my clients. When it asks for Annual retirement objective (total dollar amount), will this include all sources such as CPP , OAS , and then net...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 4:48 PM

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Saving in a holding company

Question: You can include the value of a business from which you can pay dividends. You will find this on the 'Other Assets' tab on the Financial Information page. I'm not sure if this addresses what you want to do with a holding company. I do have a...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 4:45 PM

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Pre-retirement Planning

Question: I do not plan to retire for another 10 years. So does the software allow me to input my current income details (indexed for inflation) and asset (residence, RRSPs, investment portfolio) and liability balances as well as current expense budget (indexed for inflation) to see how I...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:59 AM

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Survivor pension benefits

Question: I have a 57 year old receiving roughly $10,000 of QPP survivor benefits and roughly $1,200 annually of private pension survivor benefits. Keep in mind the client will begin receiving regular reduced QPP retirement benefits sometime after age 60. How do I enter these amounts? Answer: I've...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 7:21 PM

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Asset mix profiles

Question: What are the asset mixes used in the historical returns application for conservative, moderate, balanced, growth and aggressive. I an an investment advisor and results are difficult to explain without some specific parameters. I've also found that the more I get into the program, the more questions...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:53 AM

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Defined Benefit Accruals

Question: I tried to input my husband's pension, which starts collecting on Jan 1, 2022. I am entering the lifetime amount and the bridge benefit from his pension statement, which are $32,484 and $10,218, respectively. However, when I put this into the input page, the output I get...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:46 AM

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RESP

Question: I have a client who would like to input their RESP assets and also build into their plan the expense they will incur to put their two children through university so that the financial impact of this is built into their retirement plan. Answer: First, on the...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:45 AM

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Asset Mix Changing Over Time

Question: I would like to have more detail about the change in Asset mix when I select 'Move gradually to conservative portfolio until 80'. Answer: The amount held in fixed income will increase gradually each year until it reaches the amount of the conservative profile. Thereafter it will...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:43 AM

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Increase in Retirement Expenses

Question: My client is considering selling her home in a few years (let's say 6 years from now when age 75) and we're projecting till age 90. How do we reflect a increase in her cash needs for the remaining 15 years of her life (75 to 90)....

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:42 AM

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Viewing Detailed Cash Flows

Question: On the future assets table in the report, the registered assets at age 94 (year 2054) for the surviving client are $240,979. At that age the client is required to withdraw a minimum 20% which would be $48,200. The investment return is a net 5% or about...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:41 AM

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RRIF Withdrawals

Question: How do I delay RRIF withdrawals to age 71 in the program? Answer: On the Options page, select "Start Withdrawals of Registered Investments" and the program will defer the RRIF withdrawals as long as possible. Please note that if funds are not sufficient to meet the retirement...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:39 AM

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Future Income Tax

Question: I ran the model and the level of income taxes seem low for the amount of income each year in the future. With a  gross incomes of around $80,000, it shows about $10,000 in taxes for example. Answer: Income taxes may seem low but remember these are...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:38 AM

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Expected Investment Income

Question: How are investment income calculated for the projection? Answer: Registered funds are projected in the future based on the rates selected in the Economic Forecast on the Forecast page, and the asset allocation selected on the Options page. If you base your projection on the current asset...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:37 AM

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RRIF Withdrawals Based on Younger Spouse's Age

Question: Is it possible to use my spouse's DOB for my RRIF payments? Also, can I  control how much income comes from a RRIF, subject to the minimum? Finally, how can I see the annual RRIF income coming out of my plan? Answer: You can use the spouse's...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:36 AM

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Tax Brackets and Marginal Tax

Question: How do you determine the tax bracket/marginal tax many years in the future? Answer: The program assumes brackets, credits and other amounts will grow each year by the rate of inflation. Most provinces automatically index these amounts each year. We assume brackets are indexed for provinces who...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:34 AM

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Spending Projections in Retirement

Question: When doing long term income projections, is it possible to drop spending by say 25% at age 75 and then continue adjusting that revised spending by inflation rather than having spending continue along the same rate? Answer: Yes, go to the 'Forecast' page and on the 'Retirement...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:32 AM

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RRSP Savings and Pension Adjustment

Question: Why are allowable RRSP contributions so low if the earnings are high enough to contribute the maximum amount? Answer: Low RRSP contributions for persons earning substantial money. may occur if there is an ongoing defined benefit pension plan. Note that you entered a defined benefit pension for...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:31 AM

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Income Coverage

Question: Can you explain the concept of "income coverage" in the risk analysis results? Answer: For the income coverage, it is defined as lifetime sources of income over total average income. It is a useful measure for lower wealth individuals that require the peace of mind of knowing...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:29 AM

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Collaborative Version

Question: I recently purchased your software and understand I could share it with my clients ( I bought the professional collaborative version with up to 200 files). How can I do this and how does the client login? Answer: When you create a new file on the first...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:28 AM

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Rental Properties

Question: We have several rental properties.  I have entered this amount in Other Assets - Investment in Other Properties.  Is there a way to enter these properties separately, so that properties could be sold individually when needed? Answer: No, there is allowance for only one property other than...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:26 AM

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Eliminating a Retirement Shortfall

Question: I ran a plan which advised me that assets were not sufficient and that clients needed $19,500 more in savings each year until retirement. I input $20,000 more into savings and revised plan came back with: Current annual savings: $20,000 Total required savings: $32,500 Additional required savings:...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:25 AM

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If You Are Retired

Question: What use is RetireWare for those people already retired? Answer: As a retired person, you use RetireWare to set and monitor your spending levels such that it will last a lifetime. Also, if you have poor or excellent investment returns can impact future expenses, and when unforeseen...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:23 AM

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Printing a Report

Question: Where do we generate a PDF report of the results of the analysis? Answer: Click the 'Review' button on the toolbar, and go to the 'Report' tab. You will see an icon that you can click to generate a PDF report. ...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:22 AM

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Multiple Rental Properties

Question: I own several rental properties, each with a market value, purchase price, and mortgage. Is it possible to control the timing of sale of each property? Answer: There are two things you can do. Combine the value of the properties into one and enter the average year...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:20 AM

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Asset Projections

Question: Why is the amount shown on the summary for poor returns is less than that shown for normal returns? Answer: If you use a custom forecast that's very conservative, it may result in the main projection having lower values than the poor returns. ...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:19 AM

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Investor Profiles

Question: Where can I view the asset mixes for the various Profile portfolios? Answer: it's in the help files under 'Investor Profile': https://secure.retireware.com/web/mc_help.aspx?language=en-CA&node=102&id=view_asset.htm  ...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:18 AM

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Use of Various Sources of Income

Question: Does RetireWare optimize the various streams of income in retirement, i.e. non-registered, registered, etc. for each year to provide the most tax efficient outflows? Does the software provide cash flow results in after-tax dollars? Answer: The program does not do a year-by year optimization. Rather, the procedure...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:17 AM

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Data linking

Question: Will your product read data from Quicken Home & Business? I have RRSPs from many sources, stock options from my work, and have to open many different websites to look at all the investments. Answer: No, there is no fetching of data from other sites, such as...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:16 AM

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Files

Question: The description of RetireWare refers to limits on the number of "files" each subscription level is entitled to, but I don't see any explanation of what a file is. I'm guessing it's a comprehensive report based on a single scenario or set of input data. Answer: A...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:15 AM

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Custom Rates of Return

Question: Why can't the custom rates of return be set to negative values to match some current YTD performances? Answer: You can see the effect of negative returns that will occur in some years with the Monte Carlo simulation. We don't allow negative rates since making such an...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:14 AM

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RRSP withdrawals and withholding tax

Question: My tax advisor suggested withdrawing income funds from my RRSP account before my non RRSP account now during times of layoffs. This would be to reduce possible clawbacks in OAS at a later time. Is there a way for the software to pull from RRSP before non...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:13 AM

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Use of Funds

Question: Does the application look at the original amount in non-registered and as soon as that amount is used it switches to registered withdrawals? Does it consider deposits after the original date? Answer: If at one point you don't have any other sources of funds, and non-registered and...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:11 AM

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Post retirement budget

Question: When I create the post retirement budget selecting one budget for both spouses, it doubles the budget requirements. Our expenses are around $47,000 per year. when I finish the plan, its has our budget at over $90,000. I've played around quite a bit with this and can't...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 7:11 AM

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Functionality

Questions: 1. Will the product allow me to prepare retirement income projections for my wife and me combined? 2. Assuming yes, will it allow different start times for her and my CPP and OAS? 3. Will it provide any optimization regarding when we should start drawing from RRSPs...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:10 AM

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Risk Analysis

Question: Is there an explanation to what changes in metrics are used for the longevity, market, sequence of events and inflation risk analysis? Answer: You will find information in the help files under 'View Menu' | 'Risk Analysis'. Here's a link that provides more background on the approach...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:10 AM

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Demo Account

Question: Do you have a demo account that I can test drive? Answer: No, but you can purchase the version you want to try it and we will refund your payment in full within 30 days if you don't like it or find it not to be a...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:10 AM

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Detailed Cash Flow Tables

Question: When I try to view the detailed table for both income and accumulations, nothing comes up. Any suggestions on how to fix? Answer: Please ensure your browser doesn't block "pop-up" windows. Or try another browser, such as Google Chrome. ...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:10 AM

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Types of Assets Supported by RetireWare

Question: My spouse and I have salary income. We are contemplating early retirement (5 years early). We will both earn small pensions from our employers. We have the following 6 registered plans. TFSA x 2, RRSP x 2, Locked-In registered plan (LIRA) x 2, plus Investment accounts x...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:09 AM

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How to input annual TFSA contributions

Question: How do I input annual TFSA contributions of $5,500 till I retire? Answer: 1. On the Forecast page, on the 'Savings Plan' tab, enter $5,500 and under Advanced select the last savings options (TFSA first). 2. Enter you TFSA room and contributions this year on the Financial...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:09 AM

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Rates of Return

Question: In the economic outlook when I enter my own custom rates of return and in advanced you include investment management fees does that reduce the rates of return by the investment fee? Answer: Yes it does, whether you select the standard forecast or enter your own custom...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:09 AM

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Life Income Funds

Question: Is there a way to specify whether a DC pension in converted to a LRIF or LIF. It looks like it is defaulting to LIF. Answer: You can specify the plan type and jurisdiction on the Finances page under Locked-in Retirement Account on the 'Registered' tab. ...

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 11:09 AM

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