Advisors using the popular financial planning tool MoneyGuidePro will have access to a slew of new tools, including a much-needed health insurance estimate tool, according to a company announcement. This version of the tool, G5, will also have life insurance planning capabilities, a cash reserve strategy and improved composite portfolio analysis (G4 came out in the first quarter of 2016).
With G5, the tool's health insurance estimator will provide predicted private insurance costs prior to Medicare, based on a client's age and state of residence, according to a statement. Advisors can then analyze how health status might impact their clients’ medical expenditures and provide more granularity in cost differences between supplemental healthcare plans like Medigap and Medicare Advantage.
The application’s life insurance analyzer will provide more nuance to scenarios involving the product, allowing advisors to adjust the survivor’s retirement age, a client’s planning age and alter the amount of funds clients would leave to survivors. Providing a more comprehensive overview, G5 has the ability to calculate a client’s remaining mortgage balance and other liabilities while inputing the cost of a new policy.
With the application’s cash reserve bucket strategy, advisors can fund goals from a client’s reserve in down years, while replenishing reserves when the market is up. Advisors can customize reserve allocations from existing portfolios.
The composite tool allows advisors to lock allocations on assets that are not under advisement or that clients and advisors have chosen not to reallocate, providing a separate rate of return on segregated assets. The figure is blended with a target allocation to provide more accurate risk and return outputs.
New features have been added as a response to the manner in which financial advisors are using the tool, according to Kevin Hughes, EVP of sales at the parent company, PIEtech. “Our customers view MoneyGuidePro less as a financial planning tool and more as an integral part of their business model.” G5 will help advisors “position their advice and motivate their clients to implement their recommendations,” added Hughes.