Lifetime Planner Bug and Idea List - Make Yourself Heard!

Lifetime Planner (LTP) seems to be a well neglected feature in Quicken - for years - not updated, not improved, not modernized. I’m not quite sure why so little attention is paid on such an important tool. So many development cycles expended on seemingly “rearranging the deck chairs”, misunderstood or misinterpreted market demands, not to mention fixing the newly created bugs at the expense of improving important features like LTP.
In Quicken today, so much effort is expended on spending and
investment management features, and rightfully so.
A third leg of this stool, however, is retirement planning via Lifetime Planner.
“How are my spending and investment performances, coupled with important
economic and life factors such as taxation, longevity and inflation, impact my
plan and show my readiness for retirement”? Not an easy question to answer, but LTP ties this all together.
I took the time to compile as many Lifetime Planner bug and
idea posts as I could find that had a reasonable amount of discussion and
detail. I’m sure I didn’t get everything
that has been contributed over the last several years. And shockingly, some of these issues do impact plan results
and have stayed broken for years.
Please have a look at the categories and links, below. Like them, vote on them, add to them and make
them better. Feel free to use this thread to add your own ideas and bugs. As you know and expect, if your include very
few details and are vague as to the problem and its solution – how big, how
broken, how widespread, how it helps, et
al – Quicken will not likely take note...Illustrations are always helpful. You may know your pet issue well, but make
it easier for the person who will read and potentially act on it, to understand
it easily.
The time is well overdue to have a concerted effort to fix
bugs, ensure future maintenance
releases as tax law changes, and make small improvements toward an overall
modern and integrated planner. There are
a lot of retirement planning tools that are as good or better than Lifetime
Planner. Often times, when looking at online reviews from mainstream financial sites, Quicken is not even mentioned as a viable retirement solution.
A change is needed in this area of Quicken. Please vote and contribute.
Make your voice heard!
Scott
2018 QW HBR r7.5
The Lifetime Planner bug and idea list:
Tax advantaged accounts
(401k, IRA et al) contribution levels / limits are incorrect since circ. 2007
or 2008:
Social Security various
calculation issues related to SS taxation, spouse planning assumptions and spouse
survivorship benefits:
- BUG: Lifetime Planner - Social Security Reduction Assumption
Incorrect | Quicken Customer Community - BUG: Lifetime Planner - does not reflect spouse's Social
Security estimate changes | Quicken Customer Community - BUG: How do I get my spouse's Social Security income to
calculate correctly in the Lifetime Planner? | Quicken Customer Community
related to above link. - BUG: Lifetime Planner - Social Security Estimates in What-if Tool
are all $0 | Quicken Customer Community - BUG: Social Security after I die Premier 2016 Life Time Planner |
Quicken Customer Community
Required Minimum Deposit
(RMD) calculation issue with divisor that overstate the withdrawal – all links point
to same general issue of RMD modeling going back 3+ years.
- BUG: Lifetime Planner RMD tables in Quicken 2017 | Quicken
Customer Community - BUG: 2015 lifetime planner RMD percentages wrong | Quicken
Customer Community - BUG: Does anyone know how the Lifetime Planner calculates the
RMD? | Quicken Customer Community - BUG: How does the Planning feature treat the Required Minimum
Distribution (RMD) | Quicken Customer Community
Debt Reduction Plan Issue –
Not recognized:
Expense Adjustments started
and tied to a person after they die:
Scaling issues related to
text and labels in Assumptions and What-If dialog boxes, when using large
fonts:
Reporting, Printing and Exporting
Data
- BUG: Printing out the results of the lifetime planner | Quicken
Customer Community - IDEA: Printing out the results of the lifetime planner | Quicken
Customer Community - IDEA: How can I print each page of the Lifetime Planner with all
data inserted? | Quicken Customer Community - IDEA: can you do a report from lifetime planner of all the years
vs just the one | Quicken Customer Community - IDEA: How to export the Lifetime Planner's plan. |
Quicken Customer Community
Reset of Lifetime Planner
(Start Over) and ability to save one or more planning scenarios:
- IDEA: How to reset lifetime planner | Quicken Customer Community
- IDEA: Delete Existing Lifetime Planner | Quicken Customer
Community - IDEA: How do I save variations of the Lifetime Planner? | Quicken
Customer Community
Adding Lifetime Planner to
MAC
Modernization of Lifetime
Planner
Comments
Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list
What is your apprehension about LTP development (such as introducing a monte carlo approach, mentioned here)? https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/life-time-planner-monte-carlo-simulations
Scott
I really like the LTP. I don't want to lose any of its current functionality.
Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list
By modernization, I mean introducing a stochastic model that leverages existing functionality and "bolts-on" with the ability to switch on or off monte carlo simulation. That is, ability to use LTP as a deterministic planner as it is today, but give an option to further run monte carlo simulations - to "supercharge" the "what if" feature, so to say.
I can see a path where I believe there could be no changes to current LTP features & functionality while introducing the monte carlo option. But of course, that is just me...
Not saying its easy, it never is, but to your well-taken point, past performance IS AN indication of future results, which is the obvious concern regarding any sort of change effort like this.
Scott
2018 QW HBR r7.5
Link to monte carlo thread:
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/life-time-planner-monte-carlo-simulations
Social Security various
calculation issues related to SS taxation, spouse planning assumptions and spouse
survivorship benefits:
Scott
2018 QW HBR r7.5
Scaling issues related to
text and labels in Assumptions and What-If dialog boxes, when using large
fonts:
- BUG: https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/can-the-planning-assumptions-window-be-enlarged-...
Scott2018QW HBR r7.5
Graph behavior issues, mouse overs or hover data missing from graph, an intermittent issue:
BUG: https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/mouseovers-missing-from-graphs
Please consider voting on this thread and on the individual "ideas" links, above. For "Bugs", click on the "me-too" link. Voting helps Quicken gauge interest to updates and improvements to LTP.
Regards,
Scott
I believe the first efforts must be to address those bugs, prior bad design assumptions and/or lack of maintenance or updates (re: tax related) to the current feature set.
Shore up the fundamentals first. Stuff like this takes a step-wise approach and plan vs. introducing a "big bang" change. Only then, IMO, can they base any future fundamental enhancements (ie modernization) in LTP.
The point of this list is to help Quicken understand the nature of the demand (impact and users affected), issue details and offer some building blocks to an overall plan or strategy for LTP, from which to execute...
Scott2018 QW HBR R9.34
A user shouldn't have to translate a pension projection back to the equivalent amount in today's dollars. Quicken should accept the pension amount in dollars of the specified year, because that is the amount the person will receive in that year.
But when looking at that same Roth account in "account details" there is only a option to selection "tax deferred", "yes or no". Further, when reviewing the "income and expense" table for any given year, there is just a line item for "tax deferred".
I looked a bit further to see, im my LTP test accounts, if I could set the various account values and retirement dates such that I could discern if Quicken was considering Roth account in the order of withdrawals. No dice....
So, the potential impact for those that have sizeable Roth balances v. TIRA balances could see a significant improvement of forecasted balances in LTP.
So, IMO, a good idea for Quicken to consider in context of some of these other bugs and ideas!
Scott
2018 QW HBR R12.15
It’s bothered me for years that the Roth IRA money has been lumped in with the Tax Deferred money in the Lifetime Planner.
In my opinion there should not be a Tax Deferred or Taxable selection option for Roth IRA account types, or at least add a third option Tax Exempt. Then in the Lifetime planner add another color to the bar graph to indicate the Tax Exempt portion and separate the amounts in the yearly report summary.
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickenco...
Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list
https://getsatisfaction.com/quickenco...
Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list
Improve Transparency of and Adjust Order of Withdrawals for ROTH IRA Tax-Exempt Accounts in LTP:
IDEA: https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/roth-ira-why-tax-deferred-selection-in-account-d... The original idea post for separation of Tax - Exempt accounts (Roth IRA) from Tax Deferred Accounts (T-IRA) in LTP appears to be no longer available. Including link above that describes the separation (transparency) idea, more or less.
IDEA: https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/tax-savvy-withdrawals Adjust Order of Withdrawals in LTP to be inline with common practices: 1. RMD (if over 70.5), 2. Taxable, 3. Tax-Deferred, 4 Tax-Exempt.
The bottom line, background and details....
So, I read this first link which Chris (QPW) provides insight around tax treatment of Roth IRAs. And, Marcus1957, above thread, who asks the question regarding order of withdrawal for Roth IRAs. From this, I went back to my LTP test accounts and tried a few things differently....I hope you can follow and someone can confirm my conclusions...
The bottom line, from what I can see....is:
1. Order of Withdrawals: Roth IRA accounts are tapped before Traditional IRA Accounts. In other words, Taxable, then Roth IRAs, then Traditional IRAs.
2. Roth IRAs in QW are treated correctly as Tax Exempt: Tax treatment of Roth IRA's in Quicken show them, in my testing as well, as being treated as Tax-Exempt. Even though, as Chris (QPW) et al point out (in the first link) that they are shown as Tax-Deferred in Quicken. So, no taxes are taken from Roth IRA as they are withdrawn. Need better transparency between Tax Deferred and Tax Exempt in Q.
3. RMDs are Correctly Taken solely from R_IRAs: As an added bonus, I see that the RMDs are taken from the T_IRA as opposed to the Roth IRA. So RMDs also seem to be calculated and withdrawn correctly from the T_IRA only, despite the Roth IRA being shown in Quicken as a tax-deferred account.
If you want to set this up and test for yourself (I hope you can) , here are the LTP parameters I used in my test file, for each of the 3 conclusions....
1. Order of Withdrawals >>>Use IRA - Low Balance and IRA Roth Accounts and exclude IRA - Traditional Account
2. Roth IRA Tax Treatment >>>>Use IRA - Roth Account Only, Exclude all others
3. RMD Treatment >>>> Use IRA Low Balance and IRA Roth Accounts and exclude IRA - Traditional Account
4. With each test case >>>> inspect each year's details window from pre-retirement to retirement to RMD event year...
Image 1
Image 2
Scott
2018 QW HBR R12.15
IRA Account Owner Selected During Account Creation is not the Same Owner Shown in LTP > Planning Assumptions > Investments dialog - ie Ownership Changes and it should not!
If you want to see this change made in LTP, please click into the above link and click on the vote button at the top of that thread!
If you want to see overall improvements made to LTP, please click on the vote button at the top of this thread!
Scott
2018 QW HBR R12.15