What Makes RetireWare Different from Other Products

Question:

I am looking at getting a planning software that helps calculate retirement but also shows clients their net worth. Why would I use RetireWare rather than other products? Which version would you suggest I use?

Answer:

RetireWare is unique in the following ways:

1. Focus on long-term planning: this product is to plan the financial aspect of retirement.
2. Sophisticated mathematics: detailed projections of assets and income, accurate income tax calculations, Monte Carlo simulation, odds of success, risk management (assessment of post-retirement risks such as longevity, inflation, market returns, sequence of returns, long-term care needs, etc.).
3. Five components: detailed retirement, quick retirement calculation, investor profile, budget and net worth.
4. Data entry: easy and quick data entry, organized logically using a clean tab interface.
5. SaaS: web-based software as-a-service.
6. Collaborative: you can provide account access to your clients. They get a simplified version and can view their plan online and enter their own data.
7. Engagement: although you can generate reports with RetireWare, it's more engaging for users to access their account and see their plan online. 
8. Easy to update: by regularly updating (using a quick update wizard), you can keep the plan fresh and provide a road map to retirement to your clients.
9. Social media: links to allow users to "spread the word" about you on their social networks.
10. News: you can broadcast messages or news to your user group (such as market commentary, current events, upcoming seminar, reminders, etc.) that they'll see when they login to their account.
11. Customization: when your users login, they'll view your profile that can be customized with your logo and colour scheme.
12. Design: clean design and user interface (see our tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/retireware).
13. Results: detailed results with numerous charts and tables.
14. Dashboard: once you do a plan, you get a dashboard view of the results.
15. Other tools: over a dozen other stand-alone calculators.
16. Help: comprehensive help and product support blog.
17. Canadian-based: federal and provincial income tax, RRSP, TFSA, jurisdiction-specific LIF, pensions, etc.
18. Data security: no possibility of data loss or breach on local PC; the data is stored securely in our encrypted database.

If the collaborative features are something you would use, then I would recommend the Professional Collaborative version, otherwise the Professional version that gives you 50 files, but no collaborative features.

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 8:45 PM

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If You Want to Learn About Products from Competitors

There are very few retirement planning software products for individuals, but there are a few for financial advisors.

AdvisorTek maintains a comprehensive directory for the latter. The directory lists software and technology providers for corporations and advisors in the financial services industry.

Note that some products are for Canadians and others for US users.

Here's the link:

http://www.advisortek.com/advisor-solution-directory/software-directory/financial-planning/

RetireWare is under our company name: Apeiron Software Limited.

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 8:22 PM

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Activity Report for Professional Collaborative Version

Question:

Just curious if there is any way to see if a client has logged into their file or are using it at all ?

Answer:

After logging in, click 'Network' on the left toolbar, then click 'My Network'. At the bottom there is a user list with some basic information.

Then click 'Activity' on the same toolbar. On the 'Activity' tab, toward the bottom of that page there is a section called 'Recent Activity' that shows a list of new users and recent visitors.

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 8:19 PM

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Canada Pension Plan Estimate

Question:

I am getting a CPP payout of $0 in my detailed cash flow forecast. I suspect it may be because I am already (early) retired (my spouse is still working) and I have not entered any employment income in the setup data. But I have paid in at the maximum level for 27 years.

Answer:

If you check Already Retired in Financial Information, you can enter annual earnings and it will only be used to estimate the CPP.

Your other option is to enter the actual CPP you expect to receive and the age of commencement in Government Pensions on the Pensions page.

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 8:19 PM

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Assets and Future Income

Question:

I do not plan to retire for another 10 years. 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 am trending to reach my retirement goals?

Answer:

Yes you enter your income before retirement and it will increase each year in line with a wage increase assumption. You can also enter all assets and liabilities (in particular mortgage balances on properties and remaining term).

For the budget, you can complete a pre-retirement budget and a post-retirement budget separately. Your post-retirement budget will be used for setting your retirement income goals (and is indexed as well to retirement and each year thereafter).

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 8:17 PM

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Lifestyle Needs

Questions:

Does RetireWare allow you to enter your lifestyle needs item by item. e.g. housing expenses, living expenses Including food, entertainment etc etc), travel expenses, transportation expenses.

Then does it allow you to enter RRSP and TFSA balances and unregistered investment accounts separately for myself and my spouse and then set different returns for different investment products i.e. cash (1%), bonds (2%), Canadian equities (5%), foreign equities (7%).

Does it allow you to set annual contributions to the RRSP an TFSA and then set dates when withdrawals may or may not take place.

What about personal residence and recreational property?

Answers:

1. You can base your income goal on a detailed post-retirement budget that includes nearly 50 different items.

2. balances are separate by type of account and include RRSP, TFSA, non-registered and locked-in, also separated for each spouse.

3. You can customize expected investment returns for the following asset classes: cash, fixed income, Canadian equity, US equity and international equity. The program suggests defaults as well.
The expected return will depend on the asset mix selected for the calculations.

4. You formulate an annual savings goal and select one of several savings rules, such as maximizing the RRSP, then contributing to the TFSA. RRSP and TFSA limits are applied and carried forward.

5.  Withdrawals are driven by the retirement income goals. After taking into account annual income from public and private pensions, shortfalls are funded from non-registered assets, TFSAs, locked-in assets and the RRIF.

6. You can also include the disposition of the personal residence, other property, business or other future assets in your plan.

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 8:16 PM

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Income Goals and Rates of Returns

Questions:

I just have a couple of questions before I start rolling it out to  my clients.

1. When it asks for Annual retirement objective … choice # 2 – total dollar amount:   Will this include all sources such as CPP , OAS , and then net of tax if indicated below? Or, is this just going to draw from one’s own savings ?

2. Standard forecast on rate of return: what rates are used? How does that work?

Answers:

1. The retirement income objective is how much you want to have each year during retirement. The income forecast tries to meet the goal with CPP, OAS, other income or company pensions, and make up any gap from invested assets.

Note that the retirement objective is in terms of "today's dollars". So if you enter say $50,000, and retirement takes place in 10 years, and inflation is 2%, the actual retirement objective in the year of retirement will be 50,000 x 1.02 ^ 10 or $60,949.

2. The standard are the default values shown in the Custom Forecast.

• Cash and equivalents: 2.25%
• Fixed income: 6%
• Canadian equity: 7%
• US equity: 8%
• International equity: 8%

The above are exclusive of investment management fees.

The standard also has values for inflation, real estate and wage increase, also shown in the default values.

By: RetireWare / Equisoft On 8:15 PM

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