Getting Started

NaviPlan is one of the most powerful financial planning tools. From quick assessments to ultra-high net worth cases, NaviPlan can model any client situation. This page is curated with the most pertinent information for new NaviPlan users.

Explore the links below to get started.

Click to view video transcript:
The industry-leading calculation engine in NaviPlan makes it the most scalable and robust financial planning solution across North America.

NaviPlan presents each client with a financial picture of their financial goals.

Through simple data entry, goal creation, results driven analysis, and report generation, NaviPlan gives your clients a clear understanding of their financial health.

Explore the Getting Started page in the Learning Center for additional information.

Familiarizing yourself with the Client List

The Client List page serves as the homepage to NaviPlan where all client creation and management is done.

Client List

Read the below sections for descriptions of each button available:

Create New Client...: Opens the Create New Client pop-up, used for new client creation.
Paper Fact Finders: Grants access to the various paper fact finders available for data collections.
Morningstar Rate Disclosure: Grants access to the current disclaimer and list of asset allocation rates used in NaviPlan.
Reassign Multiple Clients...: Used for granting other advisors in your firm access to clients. Useful for granting access for many clients at a time.
Open: Opens the client's Plan List page.
Link/Relink: Used for synchronizing 3rd party integrations with an existing client. For more information on integration setup, refer to the Settings & Assumptions page.
Grant/Revoke: Used for granting other advisors in your firm access to a client.
Reassign: Used for reassigning clients to other advisors in your firm.
Data Scrub: In instances of technical support, NaviPlan's Client Support team might request a data scrub (a copy of a plan minus any client information). This button creates a downloadable version that can be sent to them.
Notes: Used for adding personal advisor facing notes about a client for personal reference.
- View All Notes: Opens a list of all notes for the specific client.
Delete: Deletes the client from the Client List page.

Note: All plan data must be deleted within a client before it can be deleted from the Client List page.

Creating new client files (Traditional Planning) manually

To create a new client file without imported information, follow these steps:

Go to the Active Client – Client List – Clients page.
Click the Create New Client... button, select Client and plan creation and click Get Started.
On the Client Information page, enter basic client information such as name, date of birth, and city. Click Next.

Client & Plan Creation dialog box – Client Information stage
On the Family Members page, enter the required family member information. Click Next.
- Click Add Family Member to add a new data-entry row.
  Client & Plan Creation dialog box – Family Members container
- To enter additional information for each family member, select the applicable button.
- Family members entered here are automatically included as beneficiaries in the clients' estate.
On the Beneficiaries page, enter the required beneficiary information. Click Next.
- NaviPlan automatically creates a beneficiary named Other that is neither an heir nor a charity, but accounts for the annual gift tax exclusion. You cannot delete or edit the Other beneficiary.
- Enter additional beneficiaries who are not family members using the Add Beneficiary button.
  Client & Plan Creation dialog box – Beneficiaries stage
On the Advisor Information page, enter the required advisor information. Click Next.
- Click Add Advisor to create a new data entry row.
  Note: The information entered in the User Preferences - Advisor Details dialog box automatically appears here.
  Client & Plan Creation dialog box – Advisor Information stage
On the Planning Type page, select either Guided Retirement or Traditional Planning. The remaining steps will be for Traditional Planning; refer below for steps on creating a Guided Retirement plan.

Client & Plan Creation dialog box – Planning Type stage
On the Plan Selection, select an analysis type. Click Next.
- If you select Asset Allocation, the Client & Plan Creation dialog box opens to the Assessment Setup stage.
- If you select Forecaster Assessment, Level 1, or Level 2 the Client & Plan Creation dialog box opens to the Income Tax Method stage, where you can select an income tax method for the plan.
- A description of the selected method appears on the right side of the dialog box.
  Client & Plan Creation dialog box – Plan Selection stage
On the Income Tax Method page, select an income tax method. Click Next.

Client & Plan Creation dialog box – Income Tax Method stage
On the Asset Allocation Model page, select the asset allocation model you wish to use for the plan. If you are unsure which model is best for you, a description of each model can be found immediately to the right of the option in the Information section, click Next.

Client & Plan Creation dialog box –Asset Allocation Model stage

On the Modules page, select which modules to include in the plan. The following modules are available when creating a Forecaster Assessment, Level 1 Plan, or Level 2 Plan:

Module	Forecaster Assessment	Level 1 Plan	Level 2 Plan
Asset Allocation
Retirement
Education
Major Purchase
Emergency Fund
Survivor Income
Human Life Value
Disability Income
Long-term Care
Estate Planning
Monte Carlo Analysis
Detailed Cash Flow*
Equity Compensation*
Business Planning*
Advanced Estate*

*The Detailed Cash Flow module is automatically selected when you are using the Detailed Income Tax method. The Equity Compensation, Business Planning, and Advanced Estate modules are only available when you are using the Detailed Income Tax method.

Click Next. The Client & Plan Creation dialog box opens to the Summary stage. A summary of the client file and selected analysis appears.
Click Finish. NaviPlan creates the client file and an engagement containing a new analysis.

Entering accounts

You can enter separate accounts for each of your clients’ investment holdings, or you can group holdings together within one account.

You cannot combine qualified and non-qualified holdings within the same account or have different ownerships within the same account.

To enter an investment account, follow these steps:

Go to the Enter Financial Data – Net Worth – Accounts page.

Enter Financial Data - Net Worth page - Accounts tab
Under Qualified and Non-Qualified Accounts, click Add Account. NaviPlan creates a simple account without holdings.
OR
Click Add Account, and then select an account type from the menu. If you select Simple Account, NaviPlan creates an account without holdings. If you select Investment Portfolio, Mutual Fund, or Cash Account, NaviPlan creates an account with holdings and the Account Details dialog box opens.
Enter a unique Description, such as name or account number to identify this account/holding.
From the Account Type menu, select the tax category of the account (for example, Non-Qualified or IRA).
Select the Owner of the account.
Enter the current Market Value and Basis of the account.
If the account is fully weighted in one asset class, select the class from the Asset Class Weightings menu.
OR
If the account is weighted in multiple asset classes, select Manual Classification from the Asset Class Weightings menu. Assign percentages to various asset classes to equal 100%, and then click OK.

From the Account Details dialog box (accessed by clicking ), you can:

Assign the account to a specific goal or multiple goals by making a selection from the Goal Funding menu.
Stop a portion of an account from being included in asset reallocation by entering either the percentage or the dollar value of the amount to be excluded from reallocation in the Hold %/$ field.
Create a new account by clicking Add Account, and then selecting either an account type or Copy of Current; if you select Copy of Current, NaviPlan creates a copy of the existing account.
View or edit another account by clicking Next Entry or Previous Entry.

Defining retirement goals

To define your clients’ retirement goals, follow these steps:

Go to the Set Goals – Retirement page.

Set Goals - Retirement page
Under Objectives, enter your clients’ retirement ages or the years at which your clients want to retire, and then enter your clients’ life expectancies.
To change the clients’ investor profile for retirement:

If the Asset Allocation module is selected on the Plan Management – Modules – Modules page, click Asset Allocation.

Note: If you are using user-defined asset allocation, default asset classes and investment profiles must first be created for all future plans in Settings, or for the individual plan in the Plan Management – Asset Allocation category.

To model retirement expenses, follow these steps:

Under Calculate Retirement Expenses, do one of the following:

To calculate the retirement expense on...	Do this...
Total annual after-tax salaries	Select the percentage of the current estimated after-tax income option, and then enter the percentage of the current estimated after-tax income the clients will want to receive during retirement.
Current annual lifestyle expenses	Select the percentage of the current lifestyle expenses option, and then enter the percentage of current lifestyle expenses you expect the clients to have during retirement.
A specific annual amount	Select the specific amount option, and then enter the annual expense amount during retirement.

To add a calculated retirement expense to the plan, click Add to Retirement Expenses.
Under Retirement Expenses, enter details for the listed expenses. If necessary, click Add Retirement Expense to create an additional expense that will occur during retirement.

Expenses can be entered for the entire retirement period, or they can be entered in a staged format. The second option is best used when the clients’ needs change during the retirement period. For example, a client may expect to need $65,000 annually from age 65 to age 75, but then expect to reduce or increase spending from age 76 to 80; or the clients may expect to have one-time or time-limited additional expenses that are over and above the amounts specified on an annual basis.

In joint plans, NaviPlan makes the following assumptions for retirement expenses when the keyword retirement is entered in the Start Age field and the keyword death is entered in the End Age field.

If the retirement expense is...	The expense begins on...	The expense ends on...
Singly owned	The date at which the owner is set to retire	December 31 of the year the owner dies, unless the Tfr to Survivor option is selected
Jointly owned	The date at which the first client is set to retire	December 31 of the year of the last client’s death

Retirement expenses previously entered on the Enter Financial Data – Cash Flow page that continue into retirement appear on the Retirement page. Changes made on either page automatically appear on the other page.

To indicate the retirement expense is fixed (cannot be eliminated), select the Fixed Exp. option. If the option is not selected, NaviPlan assumes the expense is discretionary.
If applicable, under Retirement Incomes, modify retirement incomes that have been entered on the Enter Financial Data – Cash Flow page.
OR
Click Add Retirement Income to enter additional income that will be earned during retirement.

Note: Incomes entered on the Retirement page also appear on the Enter Financial Data – Cash Flow page under Incomes.

Creating a new report

Follow these steps to create a new report:

From the Select Report page, select Start a New Report.
Use the Select a Category menu to display a list of report pages for each category.
For multiple education and major purchase goals, use the Select a goal menu to navigate between goals.
Report pages are displayed as tiles. Select Add for each tile you want to include in your report. To remove a tile, select Remove.

Note: You may preview the page by either clicking the thumbnail of the page, or click the icon, found to the right of the page name within the Selected Pages section.
- Report tiles are categorized by the following sections:
  - Content: Data-less pages that provide an overview of the financial topic at hand. These provide context to reports and relate plans in a way that clients can understand.
  - Summary: Pages that cover clients' progress toward achieving their goal based on their current situation. These contain easy to follow graphs and images.
  - Current Plan: Pages that summarize data for each goal in the current plan. These pages are numbers-oriented and often contain projection tables.
  - Proposed Plan: Pages that summarize data for the proposed plan. These pages are numbers-oriented and often contain projection tables.
  - Alternative Plan: Pages that summarize data for the alternative plans. These pages are numbers-oriented and often contain projection tables. These pages will appear after including additional alternative plans in the Select Plan Data for Reports... section found on the top of the report builder.
- Report pages display data for their section. For example, the Cash Flow Surplus/Deficit report page will display different data when selected for the Current Plan section than when selected for the Proposed Plan.
Review the order of report pages in the Selected Pages panel. The order displayed here matches the order in which reports will appear when generated.
- To better organize your pages, you can add sections to your report with the Add Sections button. This will add a new sub-section in your report to which you can combine similar pages to become a grouped section. A corresponding section page with the section name will be printed in the report.
- To edit the position of report pages, drag and drop the page titles into the order you would like.
  Results - Client Reports page
  Note: You can quickly select all report pages on the Selected Pages panel by clicking the Select All link.
Click Select Plan Data for Reports..., to select which alternative plans, education goals and major purchase goals to include in the report.
When you are satisfied with these options, select Build Report.

Note: If you run out of space on the Select Pages panel, you can select Expand to enlarge the panel.