When you first create a plan, the planning timeline will consist of two stages, Pre-Retirement and Retirement, or if your primary client was already retired at the beginning of the plan, a single stage, Retirement.
Additional stages can be added to the timeline and existing ones deleted or edited to change the name, color, or the start and end events that bookend a stage.
What is a stage?
Stages are subsections of the planning timeline. They are normally used to highlight distinct phases of life as one’s needs and goals tend to change over time. Together with events, stages can be used to personalize the planning timeline and underpin the charts above them.
Note - Whether you use stages in planning is strictly optional, considering events are primarily used to time items in plans. But stages can be very a effective in calling visual attention to likely changes over the course of the planning horizon.
Several rules govern the behavior of stages on the timeline in AdviserGo.
• A stage is a distinct span of time consisting of two or more years. A stage cannot be only one year long.
• Adjacent stages cannot overlap, they must be defined as distinct periods of time within a plan.
• A timeline divided into multiple stages must have contiguous sections. The software does not allow for gaps to be left between the stages in the timeline.
• A stage must always have as its boundaries a start event and an end event. These events will serve as bookends to the stage.
• An event cannot be deleted while it is being used as a stage boundary. To delete a stage boundary event, you must first disassociate it from the stage. This can be done by either editing the stage to use a different event as its boundary or by deleting the stage itself.
• An event that serves as the boundary between two stages will end the stage to its left and will begin the stage to its right.
How many stages can I add to the timeline?
Apart from the restriction that stages cannot be less than two years long, the number of stages that could be added to the timeline is limited only by the number of years in the plan.
A general word of advice, however. Stages tend to lose their visual impact if the timeline has an overabundance of them. Keep your stages broad. Most users who choose to subdivide the stages in their timelines divide them into no more than four to six stages. Remember that events, not stages, are ultimately used for timing. Stages are intended instead to show broad periods of time that have associated with them planning needs and goals.
Using stages to set the timing of items in a plan
Stages can be used to set the timing of items with a single click. Recurring expenses, goals, contributions, or even periods of ownership for properties can be set by simply clicking a stage in the timeline.
Clicking a stage when viewing a Timing tab, tells the software to use that stage’s start and end events to time the item you are viewing. This can be a quick and convenient way to set the timing of an item if its timing coincides with a particular stage in the timeline.
For example, recurring multi-year expenses are normally assumed to continue through the duration plan. Alternative start and end events are what one would normally use to set the timing of the expense differently.
However, if you have a recurring expense that needs only to be active from the start of the plan until retirement, you could select the Timing tab and simply click the Pre-Retirement stage.
The software will populate the start event and end event of the expense with the events that start and end the stage you clicked – Pre-Retirement.
How to add a new stage to the Timeline
To add a new stage to the timeline:
1. Go to either the Timeline or the Dashboard screen and click the plus (+) button, bottom right.
2. Select Stage.
3. Stage Name: Enter a unique name for the new stage.
4. Stage Colour: Select a colour for the stage.
Under Timing in the lower half of the screen:
5. Stage Starts: In the timeline below, either drag and drop and drop a start event for the stage into the Stage Starts box above or simply click the event icon and select Set as Start Event.
6. Stage Ends: Next, do the same to set the stage’s end event. Either drag and drop and drop a start event for the stage into the Stage Ends box above or simply click the event icon and select Set as End Event.
Tip – If there isn’t already an event in the timeline appropriate for use, timing wise, as the stage’s beginning or end, just double-click any bar above the timeline to add a new event to the timeline on the fly. Give the new event a name, select an icon for it, and select either the Set as Start Event or Set as End Event option to specify whether the new event is to be used as the beginning or end of the stage.
Note – A stage must have at least a two-year range. The software will prevent you from saving a stage or inadvertently creating a new stage that is only one year long.
7. Click Done (top right) once you are finished.
Tip – If you need to add more stages to the timeline, click the down arrow adjacent to the Done button and select Save + Add Another to continue adding stages to the timeline.
Edit a Stage – Change the name, colour, or timing of a stage
Stages can be edited from the Timeline, Dashboard or Let’s See screens. They can even be edited on any Insight that presents the charts.
To edit a stage:
1. Click the stage on the Timeline, Dashboard, or Let’s See screen.
2. Enter a new name for the stage, select a new colour for the stage, or select different start and/or end events to change the timing of the stage.
3. Click Done (top-right) once you have finished making your changes to the stage.
Split up a single stage into multiple stages
Most plans have one to two default stages – Pre-Retirement and Retirement. Advisers often like to subdivide these large, often monolithic swaths of time into multiple, smaller stages that better reflect future changes in their clients’ lifestyles and needs.
For example, the Pre-Retirement stage could be split into “Early Career” and “Late Career” stages or perhaps “Children at Home” and “Empty Nest”. The Retirement stage is even more commonly subdivided into stages such as “Active Retirement”, “Late Retirement”, and possibly “Long Term Care”.
Whether you choose to customize the stages on the planning timeline or not is strictly up to you, but if you do subdivide stages, the language and timing is all your own.
For example, let’s divide the default Retirement stage into two stages called “Active Retirement” and “Slowing Down”.
1. Go to either the Timeline or the Dashboard screen and click the plus (+) button, bottom right.
2. Select Stage.
3. Stage Name: Enter a unique name for the new stage, in this case “Active Retirement”.
4. Stage Colour: Select a unique colour for the stage.
Under Timing in the lower half of the screen:
5. Stage Starts: In the timeline below, either drag and drop and drop the Retirement event into the Stage Starts box above or simply click this event icon and select Set as Start Event.
Stage Ends: In this example, there isn’t already an event in the timeline appropriate for use to end Active Retirement and to start their next stage. Slowing Down.
6. Double-click any bar above the timeline to add a new event to the timeline on the fly.
7. Give the new event a name, “Slowing Down” and select an icon for it.
8. Select Set as End Event option to specify that this new event is to be used as the end of the Active Retirement stage.
9. Click Done (top right) now that you are finished adding the Active Retirement stage.
Next, let’s edit the name of the adjacent stage to the right. This stage will still show the name of the former “Retirement” stage.
10. Click this stage.
11. Enter a new name for the stage, “Slowing Down”, and if desired, select a new colour for the stage.
12. Click Done (top-right) once you have finished making your changes to the stage.
What was formerly the “Retirement” stage should now be divided into two distinct stages, “Active Retirement” and “Slowing Down”, as pictured below.
How to delete a stage
To delete a stage from the timeline:
1. Click the stage on the Timeline, Dashboard, or Let’s See screen.
2. Click the trashcan (wastebasket) icon beside the stage name, top left.
3. When prompted, click the Delete button to confirm deletion of the stage.
When a stage is deleted, usually the stage to its left will expand to fill the space it once held along the timeline. Stages must be contiguous. Gaps are not allowed and will be filled automatically by the software.
Note - Stages can also be deleted indirectly, by expanding the timing of another stage on the timeline. If by editing the timing of a stage the timespan it now occupies consumes what were formerly separate stages on the timeline, you will receive a prompt asking you to confirm that the change in timing will overwrite these stages with the newly expanded one.
Events used as stage boundaries cannot be deleted
Events serve as bookends for a stage, defining the stage’s beginning and end. When you add a stage to the timeline, you must select a start and an end event that will serve as the stage’s boundaries. Once used as a stage boundary, these events cannot be deleted until either you:
a) Delete the stage itself, or
b) Change the stage boundary to use a different event.
When an event is being used as a stage boundary, the trash can (delete) icon will not appear as an option when the event is selected. Rather, a message will appear stating that the event is linked to a stage, among possibly other things in the plan.
