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Protection Planning in Voyant: Using Special Events to Model Risk Scenarios

This guide explains how to use Voyant to support protection planning conversations with clients. You’ll learn how to model scenarios such as critical illness, disability (income stopping), recovery, and early death, and how to use special events and Insights to illustrate plan impact.

Important: Voyant does not provide advice. These tools are designed to illustrate potential outcomes and support client discussions.

Scenario Overview (Example Client Plan)

In this webinar example, we’re modeling a family plan for David and Jenny, who have two children:

• Gracie (age 9)
• Joseph (age 7)

Key assumptions:

• David is the main wage earner, and the family is currently reliant on his income.
• The family has goals including helping fund their children’s university costs.
• They are committed to saving and are not high spenders.

Current Savings and Contributions

In Year View → Investments, you may see contributions such as:

• Monthly contributions into a joint General Investment Account (GIA / unwrapped investment)
• Annual transfers into ISAs
• Pension contributions, including employer matching (if applicable)

Expenses

In Year View → Expenses, expenses can be modeled as:

• Joint household expenses
• Children’s expenses
• Individual discretionary spending (e.g., David vs Jenny)

Adding Protection Policies in the Base Plan

Protection policies entered in the base plan help show affordability of premiums, but typically do not illustrate benefit payouts until you model an event scenario (e.g., illness, disability, death) using special events or What-If plans.

Examples of protection types discussed:

• Death in Service (often entered as a term/endowment policy and linked to employment)
• Life Cover (joint or individual)
• Sick Pay / Income Protection (linked to employment if provided through work)
• Critical Illness (individual policies for David and/or Jenny)

Why Special Events Matter

Protection planning is often about answering questions like:

• What happens if the main earner becomes seriously ill?
• What happens if income stops?
• Could the family still meet goals (e.g., university funding)?
• Would additional cover be needed?

To model these situations, use Timeline special events.

Special Events Used in Protection Planning

From the Timeline, click the Plus (+) button → Events to access special events such as:

Critical Illness Event

• Triggers critical illness policy payouts
• Does not automatically stop employment income
  (because a critical illness does not always mean income stops)

Disability Event

• Used to model income stopping due to illness/disability
• Triggers income protection / sick pay benefits (where applicable)

Illness Recovery (Disability End) Event

• Used to model income restarting after a recovery period
• Often used in combination with Disability for “stop income / restart income” scenarios

In many cases, you use a combination of:

• Critical Illness (to bring in lump sum payout)
• Disability (to stop income + trigger sick pay/income protection)
• Illness Recovery (to restart income later)

Scenario Walkthroughs

Scenario 1: Critical Illness — Client Continues Working (Reduced Income)

Goal: Show how a critical illness payout helps when employment continues but income is reduced.

Steps:

1. Go to Timeline → Plus (+) → Events
2. Add Critical Illness Event
3. Set the event timing (e.g., David age 50)
4. Go to Dashboard → Income → Employment
5. Use a Step to reduce income (e.g., from £200,000 to £100,000) starting at the Critical Illness event

Results to review:

• In Let’s See (Details on) or Year View, confirm:
  • Employment income reduces at the event timing
  • Critical illness payout appears in cash flow
  • Any unspent portion of the lump sum is saved into a cash account (e.g., David’s cash) and can be used later if needed

Optional:

• Use Let’s See → Compare Plans to compare the base plan vs the critical illness scenario, including cash flow and asset/net worth impact.

Scenario 2: Critical Illness — Client Stops Work Completely

Goal: Model a scenario where David stops working, triggering benefits and showing reliance on assets.

Steps:

1. In Timeline → Events, add:
   • Critical Illness Event (payout)
   • Disability Event (stops income + triggers sick pay / income protection)
2. If you want income to remain stopped long-term, place Illness Recovery (Disability End) later (e.g., at retirement age) so income does not resume before that point.

Results to review:

• In Let’s See (Details on) and Year View:
  • Critical illness payout appears in the event year
  • Employer sick pay/income protection appears as income (often for a limited period)
  • When sick pay ends, the plan begins drawing on investments/assets to meet needs
  • Contributions to pensions/investments typically stop when employment stops, impacting long-term wealth

Estimating Additional Cover Needed (Conversation Starter)

To estimate how much additional lump sum may be needed:

1. Go to Insights
2. Use the Lump Sum Savings Insight
3. Set the lump sum timing to the Critical Illness event
4. Review the estimated lump sum needed for plan success

This is not advice. It provides a discussion starting point for the impact of insufficient cover.

Scenario 3: Short-Term Disability — Client Returns to Work Later (Recovery Modeled)

Goal: Model a temporary period off work and income returning later (possibly at a reduced level).

Steps:

1. Add these events in the Timeline:
   • Critical Illness
   • Disability (income stops)
   • Illness Recovery / Disability End (income restarts)
2. Optional: In Income → Employment, apply a Step so that when income returns it restarts at a reduced level (e.g., returning at £100,000 rather than £200,000).

Results to review:

• In Year View, you may see:
  • Critical illness payout in year 1 of the event
  • Sick pay/income protection for one or two years (depending on setup)
  • A gap year if benefits end before recovery
  • Employment income resuming at the recovery event timing

Quick Stress Test: How Long Can the Client Stay Off Work?

You can test different recovery dates without repeatedly opening the Timeline:

• Drag the event marker (e.g., Disability End / Recovery) along the timeline to shift the recovery year.
• Click Done to recalculate.
• Watch the chart update to identify when shortfalls begin.

This helps answer questions like:

• “What if David is off work for 5 years instead of 3?”
• “At what point do we start seeing a plan failure?”

Early Death Modeling (Life Cover and Death in Service)

Using the Life Needs Insight (High-Level Illustration)

The Life Needs Insight forces early mortality (typically in year 2 of the plan) and estimates a ballpark coverage need.

Steps:

1. Go to Insights
2. Select Life Needs
3. Run the insight (view results for David and/or Jenny)

What it shows:

• Whether there is likely to be a shortfall if one party dies early
• A rough estimate of additional cover required
• The insight typically keeps expenses unchanged (so it’s intentionally simplified)

Viewing Under-the-Hood Details

Use Year View within the Insight to see:

• Death in service payouts
• Life cover payouts
• Where surplus funds flow (often into the surviving partner’s cash account)

Modeling Early Death More Realistically Using a What-If Plan

For a more realistic scenario (recommended), create a What-If plan and adjust timing and assumptions.

Steps (Guided Plan Creation):

1. From the base plan, click What If
2. Choose Guided Plan Creation
3. Select Change Life Expectancy
4. Reduce David’s mortality age (e.g., to age 49)
5. Save the What-If plan

Then review:

• Cash flow impact
• Payouts (life cover, death in service)
• Long-term plan sustainability

In practice, advisers often also adjust expenses, savings behavior, and survivor assumptions (e.g., returning to work), which can significantly change results.

Estimating Additional Life Cover in a What-If Plan

You can estimate additional cover required using:

1. Insights → Lump Sum Savings
2. Set the lump sum timing to the replacement mortality event
3. Review the estimated lump sum needed

Note: This approach may place the lump sum into a “need analysis” investment account rather than cash, which can affect results compared to the Life Needs Insight.

Finding the “Break-Even” Year for Cover Sufficiency

To explore when life cover might become sufficient:

• Move the mortality event later (one year at a time)
• Recalculate and observe when the shortfall disappears
• Use this to discuss how long cover may need to remain in place

Requesting Support

If you need help modeling protection scenarios:

1. Open the plan
2. Click the client name in the top-right
3. Select Request Support
4. Enter your question and share client access if appropriate