In this training, we walk through Voyant’s new tax features and how advisers can use them to create more accurate, client-specific plans. You’ll learn how to:
Set up the state of residence from the start of a plan to ensure correct tax treatment
Review federal and state income tax brackets and thresholds applied in the software
Adjust threshold escalation in Plan Settings
Model different state residencies for spouses
Incorporate future moves, such as clients retiring in a different state, directly into a plan
By the end of this session, you’ll see how Voyant automatically applies federal and state tax rules and how you can tailor these settings for real-life client scenarios, like couples moving from one state to another at retirement.
Transcript
The first thing I want to do is show you how to set these up from the beginning of a plan. I’ll start by clicking the plus button in the bottom right-hand corner to create a new client.
Let’s set up James Miller with a date of birth and a state of residence. This step is important because it ensures the correct state taxes are applied to his plan. For this example, I’ll select Oregon. Once I’ve entered his details, I’ll click Done to save.
Next, I’ll open a plan in his name and add a spouse. We’ll add Maggie Miller with her date of birth, and click Done. I’ll also add a couple of incomes, $150,000 for James, and the same for Maggie, and save.
Now, let’s look at the Taxes and Other Financial Information screen. You’ll notice James’s state of residence, Oregon, is automatically applied.
If your clients are married but live in different states, you can model that here by selecting a different state of residence for each person. Otherwise, you’ll simply select the same state for both, and the software will model their state taxes accordingly.
Moving on to Plan Settings, you’ll see the federal tax brackets automatically applied. These marginal tax brackets are kept up to date annually. You can review what’s being applied to federal income taxes here.
For state income taxes, since we applied to Oregon, those state taxes will also be applied. If the client lived in a state without income tax, this section would be blank, and no state income tax would be applied.
Let’s quickly review what this looks like. In the Expenses view, you’ll see federal income tax and withholdings, as well as state income tax applied to their income. You can also go to the Taxes view to see a breakdown of both federal and state rates, along with thresholds.
These thresholds are clickable. When you open them up, you’ll see the threshold escalation setting. By default, thresholds escalate at 4% annually, but you can adjust this in your Plan Settings.
Now, here’s another helpful feature: if your clients currently live in one state but plan to move later — for example, when they retire — you can model that change.
Let’s say the Millers currently live in Oregon but plan to move to Florida when Maggie retires. On the Taxes and Other Financial Information screen, I’ll add a step to change the state of residence. I’ll set the timing for Maggie’s retirement event and save.
I’ll do the same for Maggie, changing her state of residence to Florida upon her retirement. Now the plan reflects that the Millers will live in Oregon until Maggie retires, and then relocate to Florida.
What you’ll see in the results: Oregon state taxes are applied until the retirement year, and then those state taxes drop off once they move to Florida. Federal taxes continue, but no state taxes are applied going forward.
This feature allows you to easily incorporate client relocation plans into your modeling.
I hope this walkthrough was helpful. If you have any questions or need assistance setting this up, please reach out to us at support@planningwithvoyant.com, or click on your client’s name in the top right corner and request support.