Lifetime Planner IDEA: Spouse Social Security Assumption Does Not Change as User Input Changes

Scooterlam

Lifetime Planner IDEA:  Spouse Social Security (SS) Assumption Does Not Change as User Input Changes

If you're affected by this issue or otherwise wish to see it addressed, please consider voting, below!

SUMMARY:

In LTP, when the user changes the spouse Social Security amount in the underlying dialogs, the change is not reflected in the higher level Assumptions: Retirement Benefits dialog.  See images 1 and 2.   Please investigate and correct this behavior.

The current assumption for spouse Social Security appears to be a value used a couple of years ago making me wonder if this is a data file corruption issue.  I noted that my relatively new LTP test file did not  exhibit this behavior.   Data validation, copy and reinstall of the application did not fix the issue, in my existing production file.

Despite the wrong spouse SS assumption being displayed, it does not appear to affect the plan results.   That is, the correct and expected spouse SS assumption is shown in the Plan Summary tables as well as in the Quicken APPDATA income.txt and fdtoqfp.txt (Assumptions) files.  See images 3, 4 and 5 - reflective of the example used in image 2...

So why is the spouse Social Security assumption populated with an incorrect figure when everything that seems to underpin that assumption is correct - images 3,4,5?

SO WHY FIX THIS?

While it appears that starting a new data file is a potential work-around for this issue (not a fix), starting over is not an option for many users.  A growing list of tribal knowledge required to efficiently and confidently use a feature is not, IMO a wanted position.   New and experienced user confusion, frustration, loss of confidence results in slow or no uptake or worse, abandoned use, of a valuable, underleveraged Quicken feature.  

Granted, there is an unknown number of users that are affected, which is one reason this idea was created...If you're affected by this issue or otherwise wish to see it addressed, please consider voting, below!

Image 1  - Changed Spouse SS Does is Not Reflected in Assumption Benefit Dialog

Image 2 - Changed Spouse SS Does is Not Reflected in Assumption Benefit Dialog

Image 3 - Plan Summary Table Showing Expected SS Amount

Image 4 - APPDATA Income File Showing Expected SS Amount

Image 5 - APPDATA Assumptions File Showing Expected SS Amount

If you're affected by this issue or otherwise wish to see it addressed, please consider voting, below!