Advanced Planning – Scenarios vs. What-Ifs

What happens once you’ve entered your client’s data into the Fact Finder and discover that the client is outliving their assets in their cash flow report? It’s time to develop a plan and make recommendations to improve their financial future.

But what’s the best way to show your clients the impact your recommendations (and their dreams) have on their plan? And what happens if an unexpected health event occurs–are they financially prepared?

Today, we’ll review the key differences between our advanced planning tools—Scenarios and What-ifs—and when you should use one rather than the other.

What is a Scenario?

A Scenario is a carbon copy of the client’s base facts that you can change to create an alternative plan. It’s important to note that changes made within a Scenario will never impact your base case in the Facts section.

Within a Scenario, you’ll use the planning techniques Add a New, Make Changes To, and Remove to alter the client’s current situation. For example, you can add a part-time salary, model the sale of a rental property in the future, delay retirement, or eliminate an expense.

A Scenario can be used to illustrate:

• Your recommendations for a client’s financial plan
• A client’s objectives, needs, and priorities; any suggestions they make to achieve an ideal financial future
• A comparison between base facts and the recommended or alternative plan

A Scenario can be applied:

• In reports, to show a side-by-side comparison to base facts or another scenario
• In presentations, applied to the selected reports, to share and save in the client’s Vault
• In Interactive Tools; Goal Planner and Decision Center to present a clear, visual plan and plan changes to the client

What is a What-If?

A What-if is a planning tool used to illustrate an uncontrollable life or market event that could negatively impact your client’s financial plan. What-ifs are a way to stress test your client’s base case or a scenario.

eMoney offers common, pre-built What-ifs including premature death, unexpected health events such as disability, and unexpected market events such as a bear market.

A What-if can be used:

• To illustrate an occurrence out of the client’s control
• To show a single item that may derail a plan
• To trigger an insurance, disability, or long-term policy

A What-if can be applied:

• In reports, to layer on top of your base case or scenario to stress test the situation
• In presentations, to layer into selected reports to share and save in the client’s Vault
• In the solving reports, Life Insurance (apply Premature Death), Long-Term Care Insurance (apply LTC is Needed), Disability Insurance (apply Disability Occurs)
• What-ifs cannot be applied in the interactive planning tools

Developing recommendations, stress testing your alternative plan, and presenting comparisons in reports and the interactive tools will enable you and your clients to make the most informed decision regarding their financial plan.

Interested in learning more? Check out our Scenarios and What-ifs interactive user guide in the Help menu of your homepage.