Financial planning software is only as good as the advisor who uses it. However, it is an indispensible tool to a successful boomer retirement. The first thing good financial planning software – and the advisors who use it – should recognize is that retirement isn't a single phase. Retirement is a series of phases, and a client's needs are different in each phase. Activities change, expenses shift, grandchildren are added to the litter. What a person wants and needs at 65 years old is different than what that same person wants and needs at 80.
"Good software has to be able to handle a phased retirement," says Gregg Janes, vice president, product management-planning, Emerging Information Systems Inc., www.eisi.com, Carlsbad, Calif. "Retirement needs are different for someone who is 65 to 75, 75 to 85, and 85 or older."
Janes, who runs the planning side of the Profiles product line for EISI, breaks retirement into three phases based on the age groups he highlights above, affectionately called the go-go years, the slow-go years and the no-go years. As a person advances in retirement, he will travel less, spend more money on health care and begin thinking about what kind of legacy he wants to leave. That requires flexibility in planning from the advisor and the software he chooses.
