Transcript:
In this training, we’re going to review the Timeline feature in Voyant.
The Timeline can be accessed from the top-left side of your dashboard by selecting the Timeline section.
The Timeline is where advisers can have conversations with clients about how their goals and aspirations intersect with their time and money.
This is a great visual tool for annual review meetings, allowing you to discuss new goals that may need to be added, along with any goals or assumptions that should be adjusted over time.
First, let’s look at how to adjust the stages within the Timeline.
Stages are fully customizable.
If you’d like to rename an existing stage, simply click on the stage, update the name, and click Done to save.
You can also add additional stages to the Timeline.
For example, you may want to break retirement into multiple phases.
To do this, click the plus button in the bottom-right corner and select Stage.
Next, create a new event by clicking directly in the gray area of the timeline. In this example, we’ll create an event at age 75.
We’ll name this event “Slowing Down.”
You can choose any icon you’d like and then set this as the End Event for the stage.
Next, assign a Start Event for the stage.
You can either drag and drop the stage boundaries directly on the timeline or use the controls on the right-hand side.
Now we have a new stage added to the plan.
We’ll name this stage “Early Retirement” and assign it a color. In this example, we’ll use green.
Click Done to save.
Next, we’ll rename the later stage to “Later Retirement.”
You can also review and adjust the start and end dates for each stage if needed.
After saving, we now have three stages in the timeline:
- Pre-Retirement
- Early Retirement
- Later Retirement
Next, let’s add a few goals to the plan.
To do this, click the plus button again and select Goals.
First, we’ll create a Milestone Goal.
This goal will represent a large family vacation planned a few years from now.
Enter the budget amount for the goal.
You can also use the Priority slider to determine how the software prioritizes this expense.
For this example, we’ll classify the vacation as a Leisure expense.
This means the software will fulfill basic expenses first, such as general living expenses, before moving on to leisure and luxury goals.
We’ll leave the inflation rate set to 2.5%, although this can be adjusted if needed.
Next, we’ll enter the goal in Present Value and allow the software to inflate the cost into the future.
Now go to the Timing section and select when the family vacation should occur.
Again, you can double-click in the gray area of the timeline to create an event, assign an icon, rename the event if desired, and set it as the Start Event for the goal.
One important thing to remember is that goals in Voyant are treated as trackable expenses.
Now that we’ve added the family vacation goal, we can return to the Dashboard or the Let’s See Single Chart view and see the expense reflected in the plan.
In this example, we can see an expense of $26,922 occurring at ages 49 and 47. This reflects the original goal amount inflated at 2.5% over time.
If we go to Year View and open the Expenses section, we can use the slider bar to move to that year and see the Big Family Vacation listed directly as an expense in the plan.
Because goals are already treated as expenses, you do not need to create a separate expense entry for the same item.
Next, let’s add a Retirement Goal.
Go back to the plus button, select Goals, and choose Retirement Goal.
This goal represents the amount the clients would like to spend annually during retirement.
In this example, we’ll enter $100,000 in today’s dollars.
We’ll leave this classified as a Basic Expense because it represents core retirement living expenses.
Under Timing, we’ll confirm that the goal begins when Johnny retires and continues through the final mortality event.
Click Done to save.
Another helpful feature within goals is the ability to create Steps.
Steps allow you to adjust goal amounts over time.
For example, we may want retirement spending to begin at $100,000 annually during the early retirement years and then reduce during the “Slowing Down” stage later in retirement.
To do this, go to the Steps section and select Add Step.
Adjust the amount in the step section, then go to Timing and select when the change should occur.
In this example, we’ll set the step to occur at age 75.
After saving, we now have a retirement spending goal that decreases from $100,000 to $90,000 beginning at age 75.
Click Done to save.
Now, when we return to the Dashboard, we can visually see that reduction reflected in the retirement phase.
For example, you’ll notice a slight decrease in the black Total Need line from age 74 to age 75, dropping from approximately $199,650 to $184,000.
This provides a visual representation of the spending step-down.
You can also review this in Year View.
Go to the Expenses section and move into the retirement years.
There, you’ll see the retirement goal amount in each year of the plan, and when you reach age 75, you can confirm that the adjusted amount is being applied correctly.
I hope this has been helpful.
If you have any questions about the Timeline or anything else you’re entering into the plan, you can click the client’s name in the top-right corner, select Request Support, enter your message into the text box, and share client access.
Thanks for listening.