When reviewing a plan, you may notice that cash and savings accounts are depleted before retirement accounts or other accounts listed earlier in your liquidation order. This behavior is expected and relates to how Voyant treats cash accounts within the plan.
Why This Happens
Cash and savings accounts are excluded from the liquidation order because they are already considered liquid assets. Since these accounts do not need to be “liquidated,” the software will use available cash balances before drawing from investment or retirement accounts.
This includes:
- Default Cash Sweep accounts created by the software (for example, John’s Cash or Julia’s Cash)
- Current accounts
- Savings accounts entered under the Savings account type
Because of this, adjusting the liquidation order alone will not change the order in which these cash accounts are used.
How Expenses Are Fulfilled in Voyant
Expenses are met in the following stages:
1. Income and Credits
The software first uses available income and credits to meet expenses.
2. Default Cash Accounts
If expenses remain, funds are drawn from the default cash accounts created for each person in the plan.
3. Other Cash and Savings Accounts
If additional funds are needed, the software will then draw from other current and savings accounts, as long as their withdrawal limit is set to As Needed.
4. Liquidation Order Applies
Only after available cash has been exhausted will the liquidation order apply to liquid assets such as:
- Retirement or Qualified accounts
- Taxable accounts
- Tax-deferred accounts
- Tax-free accounts
The exact account categories available may vary depending on your region and product configuration.
Why Changing the Liquidation Order May Not Affect the Result
For example, changing the liquidation order to prioritize retirement accounts before taxable or tax-free accounts will not cause those accounts to be used before cash accounts if cash is still available in the plan.
The liquidation order only applies once available cash balances have been exhausted.
How to Prioritize Retirement or Investment Accounts Before Cash Accounts
If you would prefer retirement or investment accounts to be used before savings accounts, you can adjust the withdrawal limits on the cash accounts.
To do this:
- Open the cash or savings account
- Navigate to the withdrawal settings
- Change the withdrawal limit from As Needed to either:
- Do Not Allow, or
- Scheduled Only
This prevents the software from automatically using those accounts to cover expenses, allowing the liquidation order to take effect sooner.
Additional Notes
Please note that the following settings can also affect withdrawal behavior:
- Preferred payment sources on goals or expenses
- Account withdrawal limits
- Scheduled withdrawals or contributions
These settings can override the standard liquidation flow in certain scenarios.