Planworth allows you to configure investment assumptions at two levels:
Advisor Settings: Establishes default asset-class returns, portfolio allocations, and management fees for new Financial Insights scenarios.
Scenario Assumptions: Allows you to customize those settings for an individual scenario without changing your advisor defaults.
Understanding how these settings work together helps you maintain consistent investment assumptions while allowing flexibility for client-specific planning.
1. Understand How Investment Returns Are Calculated
Projected investment returns depend on several related settings:
Setting | Purpose |
Asset Types – Rate of Return | Defines expected returns and related assumptions for individual asset classes. |
Portfolios – Asset Allocations | Determines how investments are allocated across asset classes. |
Management Fees | Reduces the applicable gross portfolio return to determine the net return. |
Detailed Returns | Provides account-level portfolio and return settings, where available. |
For example, changing an asset-class return assumption may affect multiple portfolios that include that asset class. Similarly, changing a portfolio's allocation may affect its projected return without changing the underlying asset-class assumptions.
These settings should be reviewed together when evaluating projected investment growth.
2. Configure Investment Defaults in Advisor Settings
Advisor Settings establishes the investment assumptions used when creating new Financial Insights scenarios..
Set Default Portfolio Allocations
After configuring your asset-class return assumptions, review the portfolio allocations used as defaults for new scenarios.
Open Advisor Settings.
Select Portfolios.
Review the available portfolios and their asset-class allocations.
Update the applicable allocations and management fees.
Select Save.
Portfolio allocations determine how investments are distributed across the available asset classes. Management fees reduce the applicable gross return to determine the net portfolio return. Review both the allocations and asset-class returns to ensure the portfolio assumptions reflect your intended investment approach.
Default portfolio allocations and management fees configured in Advisor Settings.
How Defaults Apply to Scenarios
New scenarios use the applicable investment assumptions saved in Advisor Settings. Existing scenarios retain their saved assumptions, while cloned scenarios inherit the settings from the source scenario.
Changes to Advisor Settings do not automatically update existing scenarios.
To apply updated defaults to an existing scenario, refer to How to Sync a Scenario with Advisor Settings
3. Customize Investment Assumptions for a Scenario
You can modify portfolio allocations and asset-class returns directly within a scenario to reflect a client-specific investment strategy. These changes apply only to the selected scenario and do not modify your Advisor Settings.
Update Portfolio Allocations
Open the client's Financial Insights.
Confirm the intended Current Scenario.
Select Assumptions.
Open Portfolios – Asset Allocations.
Review the available portfolios, asset-class allocations, and management fees.
Adjust the applicable settings.
Select Save.
Portfolio allocations and management fees within an individual Financial Insights scenario.
Update Asset-Class Return Assumptions
If you need to change the expected returns used within the selected scenario:
Open Assumptions.
Select Asset Types – Rate of Return.
Review the expected return assumptions for the available asset classes.
Update the applicable fields.
Save your changes.
Changes to asset-class return assumptions may affect multiple portfolios that use those asset classes.
Review and Customize Account-Level Returns
Use Detailed Returns to review or customize the portfolio allocation applied to an individual investment account without changing the assumptions for other accounts.
To update an account's portfolio:
Open Financial Insights and confirm the intended Current Scenario.
Navigate to Assumptions → Detailed Returns.
Find the investment account you want to update.
Under Pre-Retire Portfolio or Post-Retire Portfolio, select Use Default Portfolio or choose an available portfolio.
Review the displayed Net RoR for the selected period.
To create an account-specific allocation, select Use custom allocation for the applicable period, enter asset-class allocations totalling 100%, review the management fee, and select Save.
Note: Cash accounts use the scenario's applicable cash-interest assumption and do not offer portfolio selectors. Detailed Returns may not be available for every account type.
4. Troubleshooting Investment Assumptions
New Scenarios Do Not Show the Expected Returns
Confirm that the intended values were saved in Advisor Settings.
Verify that you are reviewing a newly created scenario rather than an existing or cloned scenario, then review the saved assumptions under Asset Types – Rate of Return and Portfolios – Asset Allocations.
An Account's Projected Return Looks Incorrect
Review the following:
The portfolio's asset-class allocation.
Expected returns under Asset Types – Rate of Return.
Applicable management fees.
Account-level settings under Detailed Returns, where available.
Active toggles or sliders that may affect investment assumptions.
The account's net return may differ from an individual asset-class return because it reflects the applicable portfolio allocation and fees.
Key Takeaway
Advisor Settings establishes default investment assumptions for new scenarios, while Scenario Assumptions allows you to customize those values for an individual client plan. Review asset-class returns, portfolio allocations, management fees, and account-level settings together when evaluating projected investment growth.