Transcript:
In this video, we’re going to talk about the Voyant charts.
I think it’s important to understand which charts are available to you so that you know how to navigate them and discuss different aspects of your client’s plan during meetings.
We’re going to start on the Timeline.
Be aware that your client goals are featured directly on the Timeline so that you can discuss whether or not clients are on track to meet those goals.
In this example plan, we have:
- The client’s retirement goal prominently displayed
- As well as a large family vacation goal
You can hover over goals on the Timeline and they will highlight so that you can clearly see when they are scheduled to occur.
You can also hover over any events on the Timeline to review what they represent.
If you ever need to add additional items to the Timeline while meeting with a client, you can simply click the plus button in the bottom-right corner and add:
- Goals, which are trackable expenses
- Events, which serve as timeline markers
- Or additional stages, which help break the plan into different phases of life for better customization
Next, let’s move over to Let’s See, which is where the charting section of Voyant is located.
We’ll start with the Single Chart view.
Voyant’s charts are intentionally simple by design.
Each bar in the chart represents a single year within the plan.
You can click on any bar to see:
- The specific year
- The clients’ ages during that year
- And detailed information about the plan in that period
You’ll notice the Total Need value displayed.
Total Need represents the client’s:
- Expenses
- Goals
- Estimated taxes
- And basic needs for that year
The Basic Need value specifically represents essential living expenses and does not include contributions or luxury expenses.
You may also see a section labeled To Savings.
This represents:
- Contributions being made within the plan
- Or surplus income being redirected into the clients’ surplus cash accounts
It’s also important to understand the color coding.
In Voyant:
- Blue generally represents success, meaning expenses are being met
- Red represents a shortfall
If the client were unable to meet expenses during a specific year, you would see red displayed within the chart.
If we turn on Details, we can see more information about how expenses are being fulfilled.
For example:
- Other Income is coming from rental income
- Blue inflows are coming from employment income
Later in retirement, you’ll see expenses being fulfilled from multiple sources, including:
- Brokerage accounts
- Planned 401(k) withdrawals
- Rental income
- Social Security
- Retirement accounts
- And other assets
Next, you can switch between charts using either:
- The arrow on the right-hand side
- Or the dropdown menu to select a different chart type
Let’s move next to the Assets Chart.
My legend is already turned on, but if you don’t see yours, you can click the three dots on the right-hand side and select Legend.
The legend allows you to see which accounts correspond to each color shown in the chart.
You can hover over any section of the chart to review the balance of the various accounts in that specific year.
For example, in the year 2041, we can see:
- The value of the Main Residence
- The Rental Property
- Judy’s 401(k)
- And the total asset value of approximately $3.8 million
If I only wanted to look at liquid assets, I could deselect the property values from the legend.
You can toggle individual assets on and off as needed.
You can also use Hide All and isolate a single account if you want to review the projected value of just that account at a specific point in the plan.
As you continue exploring the various charts, you can ask different planning questions and facilitate different conversations with clients.
For example, you may want to review the client’s Cumulative Taxes throughout the lifetime of the plan.
You can do this by hovering over the final year of the plan and reviewing the cumulative tax amount displayed at the bottom of the chart.
That may naturally lead into planning discussions such as:
- Whether Roth conversions might make sense
- Ways to reduce lifetime taxation
- Or other tax-efficient planning strategies
Voyant’s charts are designed to help support those types of planning conversations.
You also have the ability to zoom into specific sections of the plan.
To do that:
- Click the three dots again
- Turn on Zoom
- Use the slider bar to focus on specific periods of time within the plan
This allows you to drill into important stages and review those years in more detail with clients.
We’ll now zoom back out, turn off the legend, and return to the standard chart view.
I hope this has been helpful.
If you have any questions or would like assistance with any plans you’re working on, please feel free to reach out to your Voyant support team.
You can do that by clicking the name of your client in the top-right corner, selecting Request Support, entering your question into the text box, and sharing client access.
Thank you for listening.