The goal of inStream’s planning methodology is to make sure that your clients are on track – not to be a financial ledger. To do this, inStream focuses on the larger picture of your client’s situation, and accumulation phase day-to-day living expenses generally are not part of that. This means that we generally do not recommend including accumulation phase income or living expense goals in a Goals Based Plan. What actually matters in the accumulation phase is, well, the client’s accumulation – how much they are saving. We model your client’s planned savings through contributions made to specific accounts. inStream doesn’t care how your client is able to save the money they do, just that it gets into the portfolio. To see how to set up account contributions – see here.
There are three reasons that we approach savings in this way:
- Most clients don’t actually know their expenses. Highlighting a specific savings amount cuts through the noise and provides a number for the client to focus on.
- Contributions to specific accounts allow for more control of your savings location.
- We only care what is actually going into or out of the portfolio – It doesn’t matter if your client is saving $25k from a $500k income or a $50k income, there’s still $25k going into the portfolio.
inStream provides proactive financial planning to constantly monitor your client’s situation and make sure that they are always on track. By focusing on what is truly important we eliminate the noise that is included in a lot of financial planning tools, and give a more accurate picture of a client’s financial position.
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