Q - Our client gave us joint expenses figures. How can I reduce this figure, for example, after the husband dies using the steps function? As the plan is currently, the joint expenses continues even after the husband dies.
A - There are two ways you might reduce expenses following the death of the first client in a plan.
Option 1
Have his expenses, her expenses, and their shared expenses entered separately into the plan. Shared expenses and his or hers would continue in the plan following death of the spouse but any expenses owned solely by the spouse would end upon that person's death.
Option 2
Alternatively, if you want to decrease (step down) a given expense or set of expenses upon a co-owners death, select the expense, and use the Steps function to decrease the expense on that person's Mortality event.
Note that stepped amounts are entered in today's values and inflated forward from the beginning of the plan, thereby working out the inflationary difference for you; that is, unless you have the Inflation settings for the account set to Future Value. For example, if an co-owned expense that is today £2,000 needs to be reduced by half in the future, upon a person's death, simply enter £1,000 as the stepped amount on the Steps section of the expense and the software will work out the inflation on that stepped amount between now and then.