Release Notes

March 10, 2024

  • We made several improvements to the Full Risk Investing reports intended to simplify and clarify the results, conceptually connect the results to the base plan, and provide better guidance for acting on the results.

February 20, 2024

  • Base Profile investment strategies could not be overridden in alternative profiles when setting up a Full Risk report. This issue has been fixed.
  • A help item for the question about which parent or parents a child could receive benefits from is now displaying properly.

February 18, 2024

  • For children, you can now indicate on which adult's record the child is eligible for Social Security benefits. We default to assuming the child is eligible for benefits from both parents (except when there is only one adult in the family).
  • You can also identify when a child is a dependent for tax purposes of one spouse or the other (or neither) in cases where the family is not married, filing jointly.
  • Fixed an issue preventing display of detail tables on some phones. Our minimum supported screen width for tables, to ensure quality of user experience, remains 768 pixels. Most phones support this width in landscape mode.

February 11, 2024

  • We now support inherited retirement accounts! When you add or edit a retirement account you can now indicate that it's an inherited account, answer a few questions and the unique rules will be applied. In particular, we handle Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) properly whether the original owner of the account died before 2020 (and you can stretch out RMDs) or, if you inherited recently and fall under the "10 Year Rule."
  • Updated plan detail reports to better organize and display the information, including removing the chart/table toggle and hiding columns and sub-reports when no data.
  • Added an expand/collapse all option in the Year-at-a-Glance report.
  • Improved usability of the Full Risk Reporting configuration screen.
  • Fixed a bug with column header display in the alternative profile comparison tab.
  • Updated common and DFA assets with 2023 historical return data.

February 4, 2023

  • Changed names of common strategies for Full Risk Investing to clearly communicate the stock/bond percentages
  • Changed name of Base Strategy to "Current Strategy" in Full Risk Investing to clarify intent.

January 21, 2024

  • Improved table display in reports, providing a better experience on smaller screens, down to 768 pixels wide
  • Improved transaction entry experience in Budget Tracker when entering several transactions in a row
  • Updated inflation rate for 2023, custom assets can now be updated with 2023 rates
  • Fixed issue where budget update notice was displayed in reports other than Base Plan
  • Fixed issue causing flash of drop down menu for Real Estate expenses and receipts
  • Fixed rounding error preventing save of certain custom investment strategies

January 7, 2024

  • Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates.

January 1, 2024

Annual Federal Update

General

  • 2023 CPI-U and chained CPI-U

Federal Tax

  • 2024 Income Tax Brackets
  • 2024 Standard Deduction
  • 2024 Taxable Income Limits for incorporating Capital Gains taxes
  • 2024 AMT Thresholds
  • 2024 Child Tax Credit
  • 2024 Earned Income Credit
  • 2024 Medicare B premium and income brackets

Social Security

  • 2024 Contribution and Benefit Base
  • 2024 Earnings required for a quarter of coverage
  • 2023 COLA
  • 2023 Retirement Earnings Test Annual Exempt Amounts
  • 2023 WEP Substantial Earnings
  • 2023 Real wage Differential
  • 2022 Average Wage Index

December 30, 2023

  • Fixed issue with yellow warning numbers not showing up in Budget Tracker
  • Fixed issue with CSV earnings files with some file extensions not importing properly

December 20, 2023

  • We made a large number of design, usability, and accessibility enhancements.

December 3, 2023

  • Changed most charts from stacked area to stacked column
  • Clarified the annual spending reduction limit option in the Maximized Plan and defaulted all maximization options to No
  • Fixed an issue with an unsaved changes alert showing up when first saving disability benefit information
  • Improved general usability, accessibility, and design throughout app

November 12, 2023

  • Fixed display of Lifetime Balance Sheet comparison in the PDF report

November 11, 2023

  • Social Security - In partnered cases, the reported child benefit(s) may be based on the earnings record of either adult roles. If only one role has started retirement benefits, then it will be based on that role. If both have started retirement benefits, then the larger of the two available benefits in a given month is used.. Previously, any available child benefits from each role was reported simultaneously.

October 29, 2023

  • Improved report choices screen for alternative profiles, including ability to sort comparison profiles by name and date

October 22, 2023

  • Improved behavior of back button when in detailed reports.
  • Fixed issue that prevented duplicating some alternative profiles.

October 19, 2023

  • Fixed an issue occasionally causing timeout errors when generating PDF reports, particularly for comparison plans

October 15, 2023

  • Improved accessibility of charts in Dashboard report
  • Fixed alignment of numbers in tables
  • Improved usability of drop-down selections
  • Removed chart legend labels for categories that had no data in the chart
  • Added "Leaves Home Age" to setup for children in the initial family setup

October 9, 2023

We introduced a new Dashboard that highlights and focuses on MaxiFi's findings and actionable items, such as your discretionary spending level, retirement account withdrawals or contributions, regular asset saving or withdrawals, and life insurance. The report was developed in response to (and with input from) many customers who expressed being overwhelmed or confused by the detail in MaxiFi's results. The new dashboard introduces key areas and concepts in your plan, encouraging you to learn more and explore deeper.

September 24, 2023

  • A bug in Safari/webkit was causing a blank screen on older Macs and iOS devices. This is now fixed.
  • Fixed an issue in the Maximized Plan PDF report where ages would show as "N/A" in the list of Social Security benefit filing dates.
  • A bug in MA state tax was not assessing the full "Millionaires Tax" if a portion of the taxable income was long term capital gains.

September 17, 2023

  • Improved the maximization report to better summarize retirement account setting optimizations and highlight Social Security benefit increases.
  • We now support direct entry of past lump-sum pensions for employment not taxed by Social Security.
  • Enhanced the client menu for PRO users to show more clients, improve sorting, and allow for bulk delete of clients.

September 10, 2023

  • Fixed an issue where negative numbers would not show up as red in alternating rows in tables.
  • Fixed an issue where the age a child leaves home would not save unless changed.
  • Fixed an issue where the comparison Annual Discretionary Spending chart would not display the full lifespan in cases where maximum ages of life were set later in the alternate profile than in the base.

September 3, 2023

  • Fixed an issue that was preventing display of navigation items for customers who imported data from Maximize My Social Security. The items should display properly now.
  • Restored the display of asterisks on Settings & Assumptions tabs when data is changed from default. This was previously working, but the asterisks were accidentally hidden. Also, the "bookmark" icons for items in alternative profiles that had been overridden were black. They've been restored to their previous green color. Yay!
  • Prevent switching from married to partnered if special expenses or receipts have contingency changes, rather than showing an error.
  • Improved overall styling as well as responsiveness of Lifetime Balance Sheet which had line breaks at narrower widths.
  • Clicking on the "Report" menu item from the family overview screen after selecting an alternative profile would load reports for the Base profile instead. This has been fixed.
  • Clicking "Cancel" after editing a current/future earnings amount would result in an error. This has been fixed.

August 23, 2023

  • Federal Tax - The Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) may be overstated when state and local taxes are high and capped to $10,000 by the TCJA.

August 13, 2023

  • The number of trajectory failures was not displaying properly in case of Monte Carlo failure. We've fixed this.
  • We now scroll to the top of the tab when switching tabs in the report.

July 30, 2023

  • All states with income tax updated through 2022 tax year.
  • AZ state tax - Updated brackets to 2.5% flat tax effective 2023.
  • MA state tax - Added new tax for high earners effective 2023.
  • PA state tax - All retirement income at age 60 or later is assumed to be non-taxable.
  • 2022 returns added to Dimensional Funds and Core Asset Classes for Monte Carlo.

June 18, 2023

  • Added screen guides for ex and deceased spouse Social Security data entry.
  • Fixed an issue with spending behavior for spousal retirement accounts on Upside Investing setup.
  • Fixed an issue with display of selected investment strategy on Full Risk investing setup.
  • Fixed an issue where the CSV export of the Retirement Account report table would sometimes not work.
  • Return rate precision display for assets in PDF has been corrected.

June 6, 2023

  • Fixed a bug that could cause Roth conversions to be applied inconsistently between an alternate profile run as a comparison report and the same profile run stand-alone.

May 28, 2023

  • Upside Investing - Fixed a bug that caused trajectories to be below floor prior to start of conversion in some cases.
  • Improved accuracy of Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). The Single and Joint Life Expectancy tables will now be used if appropriate.

May 20, 2023

  • Fixed a bug that was disallowing entry of employer contributions and Roth conversions on alternate profiles in some cases.
  • Fixed a bug that was causing an error when attempting to add Retirement Accounts after having dismissed or skipped entry during initial family set up.

May 14, 2023

  • Fixed a problem where the PDF report would not display properly in recent versions of Safari.
  • Fixed some problems closing the panel or adding new activity when adding contributions, earnings, etc.

May 7, 2023

  • We introduced "Screen Guides" for every data input screen. These guides offer a helpful overview of key concepts, tips, and common questions along with links to further learning resources for each area of the app.
  • We now require entry of an ex spouse's expected or actual Social Security retirement benefit file date, rather than defaulting to full retirement age.
  • Fixed a couple minor bugs that crept into Budget Tracker: transaction columns are now sortable again, and when you save the first set of transactions for a new year's budget tracker, the transactions show up without needing to refresh the screen.
  • Retirement date was incorrectly labelled in the adult edit screen, this has been fixed.

February 19, 2023

  • PRO edition: We've enhanced the client menu for customers who are part of Organizations. Your families that are shared with others are clearly marked, and you can now select from a list of members of your Organization to see the list of families they have shared with you.
  • We now make a usage report available for enterprise Single Sign On administrators.
  • Fixed an issue where Roth first/last changes from a maximization report would not be automatically applied to an alternative profile if there were no Roth accounts in the profile.
  • Fixed an issue where the view of Nominal Safe Rate of Return for Regular Assets was not rounding properly in some cases.

February 14, 2023

  • Fixed a problem in Budget Tracker where discretionary spending targets could not be changed once created.

February 12, 2023

  • For PRO users: Implemented a new client list that includes the ability to sort based on the date clients were created or last updated.
  • Progress Tracker is now called Budget Tracker so it is clearer that this is our built-in tool for creating and maintaining an annual budget based on your plan.
  • Fixed an error that could occur if clearing all transactions while setting up Budget Tracker for a new year.
  • We now show pension start year when displaying pension summary information.

January 29, 2023

  • For enterprise Single Sign On users, based on data from your directory we can now automatically create Organizations and assign members to those organizations upon login.
  • You can now jump to any year easily in the Year-at-a-Glance report by selecting the year dropdown.
  • Added precision to the Y-axis of the Return Rates chart to distinguish values in smaller ranges.
  • Fixed an issue where a Social Security past earnings record derived from benefit information could be understated if already receiving Retirement benefits and also set to suspend Retirement benefits in the future.
  • Fixed an issue where the maximized Social Security solution could vary slightly depending on how the what-if Retirement benefit file date was set.
  • Fixed some missing wording for Land Value rollover check in Real Estate.
  • Fixed some confusing footnote and header wording for Lifetime Balance Sheets in the PDF report.

January 22, 2023

  • For PRO users: Organizations can now be set to either "user-to-user" sharing (the default, where you specifically choose which clients to share with which other members of the organization) and our new setting "share all" where all members of the organization can automatically view and edit other members' clients.
  • We no longer collect or store child names.
  • New Jersey taxes - Total income used to determine pension exclusion now excludes Social Security benefits and military pensions.

January 15, 2023

  • Fixed an error when creating a new alternate profile from a maximized alternate profile where only one spouse's dates were changed

January 8, 2023

  • Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates.
  • Error message for "standard of living below limit" has been improved to provide guidance in these situations.
  • We now detect, and prevent reports from running, when a Retirement Year is in the past and is not consistent with entered earnings because earnings extend beyond that year.
  • New Jersey taxes - add support for pension exclusion when total income exceeds $100K.
  • Comparison Reports with differing inflation rates - Social Security benefits in the compared profile may be adjusted into the base profile's dollars depending on the timing of the person's indexing year (age 60).

January 1, 2023

Annual Federal Update

General

  • 2022 CPI-U and chained CPI-U

Federal Tax

  • 2023 Income Tax Brackets
  • 2023 Standard Deduction
  • 2023 Taxable Income Limits for incorporating Capital Gains taxes
  • 2023 AMT Thresholds
  • 2023 Child Tax Credit
  • 2023 Earned Income Credit
  • 2023 Medicare B premium and income brackets

Social Security

  • 2023 Contribution and Benefit Base
  • 2023 Earnings required for a quarter of coverage
  • 2022 COLA
  • 2022 Retirement Earnings Test Annual Exempt Amounts
  • 2022 WEP Substantial Earnings
  • 2022 Real wage Differential
  • 2021 Average Wage Index

Secure Act 2.0 RMD age changes

  • 2023 RMD start age changes to 73
  • 2033 RMD start age changes to 75

December 11, 2022

  • Fixed an issue with display of military or non-military pension type in the PDF report

November 27, 2022

  • Tax Updates/Fixes:
    • General - Step-up basis is now calculated on regular asset capital gains in survivor reports
    • Pensions - Military pensions may now be identified using the new Type field allowing improved handling in state taxes
    • Rhode Island - Added retirement income exclusion including the revision for 2023 and beyond
  • Reserve Fund first year income and balance now handled in line with general regular assets

October 28, 2022

The following issues have been fixed:

  • Social Security WIB dates affected calculated life insurance in some case. WIB date will now be fixed at role's FRA for insurance purposes.
  • The Qualified Business Income federal deduction now follows the TCJA tax policy setting. By default, it will expire in 2025.

October 18, 2022

The following issues have been fixed:

  • The Lifetime Balance Sheet could be out of balance if real estate was purchased in the current year.
  • A series of special withdrawals from Roth accounts could delay the start of smooth withdrawals from the non-Roth accounts.
  • Full Risk Investing and Upside Investing Reports:
    • Settings for relative or survivor change in standard of living were not always reflected in the living standard results.
    • The percentage of non-annuitized assets to be spent was not respected in all years in some cases.
  • Year-end Reserve Fund balance is now included in the Net Worth reports.

September 26, 2022

  • State Tax Updates/Fixes:
    • General - All states updated to 2021 forms and tax brackets
    • Connecticut - Added 2022 retirement income reform
    • Iowa- Added 2022 tax reform (new brackets and retirement income changes)
    • Maryland - Fixed poverty tax calculation
    • Michigan - Fixed retirement income exclusion calculation
    • Nebraska - Added Social Security income subtraction
    • North Dakota - Added Social Security income subtraction
    • Oregon - Added 529 account contribution credit
    • Utah - Added Social Security tax credit
    • West Virginia - Added Social Security income subtraction
    • Wisconsin - Fixed property tax credit calculation
  • Fixed an issue where the Lifetime Balance Sheet could be out of balance when annuitizing retirement assets.

September 18, 2022

  • Importing past earnings from CSV would also import current/future earnings if there were any in the CSV file. This is now fixed.

September 5, 2022

  • Fixed an issue with Social Security benefit dates in rare cases being forced into the past due to Social Security's deeming rules.
  • Made the overriding of Upside Investing conversion settings in alternate profiles consistent with how other base profile settings and assumptions are overridden.
  • Added toggle so the Lifetime Balance Sheet can be displayed as percentages or dollars.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing periodic gateway timeout errors when running reports.

August 11, 2022

  • Fixed issues with rounding and bolding of data in the Lifetime Balance Sheet
  • Improved clarity of the interface when Upside Investing settings in an alternative profile override settings in the base profile, and fixed an issue with some Upside Investing settings when base profile account information was also overridden in the alternative profile.

August 7, 2022

  • To permit comparisons of alternative profiles with different inflation rates, we now report alternate profile numbers in base profile dollars.
  • To help with comparisons between profiles, we've added a view of the Lifetime Balance Sheet that shows the percentage each line item represents in overall lifetime resources or spending.
  • We fixed an issue where the Upside Investing floor results could be inconsistent in alternative profiles if run several times.
  • We fixed an issue where some numbers in the Lifetime Balance Sheet would be hidden when all sections were expanded.

July 26, 2022

  • Home capital gain calculation for survivors now uses higher step up basis if home is in a community property state. Also the married filing jointly exclusion limit ($500K) is used if sale is within 2 years of spouses death.
  • Fixed issues where the Lifetime Balance Sheet could be out of balance if a home was purchased in the current year or when Reserve Fund return rate differed from Regular Asset return rate.

July 24, 2022

  • We've simplified the Full-Risk Investing reports to make them more understandable, removing unimportant detail.
  • Added more detail to the Lifetime Balance Sheet, which can be found by clicking any of the top-level categories that has an indicator by it.
  • Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates.
  • Fixed a display issue with Lifetime Balance Sheet not always adding up.
  • Clarified message about rates used to calculate present values for the Lifetime Balance Sheet.

June 19, 2022

New

Check out our new Upside Investing analysis for Premium and PRO customers!

Upside Investing is a new version of Living Standard Monte Carlo® that finds your living standard floor and potential upside opportunity. Our previous Monte Carlo analysis, which shows both upside and downside risk, is now called "Full Risk Investing."

May 25, 2022

  • Fixed an error that could occur when planning to sell a real estate property in the current year.

May 22, 2022

  • We updated the Lifetime Balance Sheet report to include your household’s trapped equity––how much housing plus real estate equity will be left for bequests––and your housing holding costs, that is, how much income you sacrifice in not selling these assets and investing the proceeds. Other changes to the balance sheet include:
    • Retirement Assets - Initial retirement-account assets are now displayed instead of retirement-account contributions and withdrawals.
    • Excess Asset Income - We now display income amassed when you specify a return rate on retirement accounts different from the return rate specified for regular assets.
  • Improved accessibility of comparison charts
  • Fixed an error that would occur when pressing back button from some report screens

May 8, 2022

  • Fixed PDF language that referred to Full Retirement Age benefit estimates rather than age 70 benefit estimates
  • Fixed error when setting benefit end age for child with future birthdate

April 24, 2022

Improved

  • Allow entry of “end benefits age” for permanently disabled children expected to leave care at a certain age or predecease both parents
  • Improved usability of drill-down Year-at-a-Glance entries
  • Disallowed editing of family name if the family is shared with you
  • Updated return history for all Core Asset Classes and Dimensional Funds with final 2021 numbers

Fixed

  • When running a standalone alternative plan, if you had not hit "skip to details" for Base Plan, you would receive an error
  • Message stating lifetime present values cannot be compared would be displayed even when real returns were the same
  • Changing death year of deceased spouse would not update validation rules for surviving spouse's widow(er) benefit dates
  • When creating a covered earnings history from a Social Security benefit estimate, the resulting benefit shown was too low in some cases

February 27, 2022

  • For real estate properties, we now allow separate entries for land vs buildings so non-depreciable land is correctly accounted for without needing to use special expenses and receipts.
  • We now collect the full date of a divorce, when applicable, rather than just month and year. Date of divorce is used to calculate the date of entitlement to divorced spousal Social Security benefits when an ex-spouse has not filed for retirement benefits.

February 6, 2022

Improved

  • Added drill-down detail for Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) breakdown within the Federal Tax area of the Year at a Glance report
  • Separated Bequest and Funeral Expenses from Special Expenses in the Lifetime Balance Sheet, also separated Pensions and Annuities
  • Clarified several error messages related to using Social Security benefits in place of earnings records

Fixed

  • Fixed an error where tax rates showed up as "NaN" in the tax detail report for partnered families when one partner died before the other
  • The year-end rollover alert flag for Social Security Records was not appearing in left hand navigation, this is now fixed

January 30, 2022

Improved

  • In the Settings & Assumptions area we've added an asterisk (*) to tabs that have one or more settings that have been changed in that profile, making it much easier to find settings that have been changed.

January 29, 2022

Improved

  • Social Security - We improved the rounding of the PIA to better align our benefits with the Social Security Administration.

January 23, 2022

Improved

  • We now provide drill down detail for federal taxes in the Year at a Glance report.
  • We've added a "frequency" field to most areas where you enter money, from income to special expenses to retirement contributions. This allows you to specify, for instance, “contribute $500 every 3 years until retirement” or “spend $1,000 every 5 years until death” or “spend $500 every 2 years for 10 years."
  • Comparison reports for alternative profiles have been greatly improved, with color coding and bar chart showing changes to discretionary spending, in addition to other recent usability improvements to the reports.

Fixed

  • In unusual cases, some Monte Carlo reports would appear to never finish running. We've fixed this issue so these reports now complete properly.

January 10, 2022

Updated

  • Uniform Lifetime Table updated to 2022 revision. This affects Required Minimum Distributions from retirement accounts for 2022 and beyond.

Improved

  • The model used to estimate future Medicare B premium was updated to index income bracket thresholds to inflation except for the top bracket. The top bracket will be held at the current value. This extends the pattern of updates to the Medicare B income thresholds in recent years. This can mean the lower brackets may collapse into the top bracket over time depending on the inflation setting. At the point a lower bracket rises to meet the top bracket, the top premium level is used if the AGI is at or above the current top bracket.

January 9, 2022

Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates

January 5, 2022

Fixed

Fixed an issue causing errors when updating retirement account balances when the accounts were overridden in more than one alternative profile.

January 4, 2020

Fixed

Oregon State Tax - Retirement income credit overstated in some cases.

January 2, 2022

Improved

  • You can now create a lifetime financial plan for an Alternative Profile "standalone" without comparing to Base or other profiles.
  • Marginal tax bracket and effective tax rate are now shown in the Federal Tax Details report.

January 1, 2022

Annual Federal Update

General

  • 2021 CPI-U and chained CPI-U

Federal Tax

  • 2022 Income Tax Brackets
  • 2022 Standard Deduction
  • 2022 Taxable Income Limits for incorporating Capital Gains taxes
  • 2022 AMT Thresholds
  • 2022 Child Tax Credit
  • 2022 Earned Income Credit
  • 2022 Medicare B premium and income brackets

Social Security

  • 2022 Contribution and Benefit Base
  • 2022 Earnings required for a quarter of coverage
  • 2021 COLA
  • 2021 Retirement Earnings Test Annual Exempt Amounts
  • 2021 WEP Substantial Earnings
  • 2021 Real wage Differential
  • 2020 Average Wage Index

December 5, 2021

Improved

  • PRO users can now set default values for nearly all Settings and Assumptions. The defaults automatically apply to all families unless overridden.
  • You can now enter age 70 Social Security benefit estimates when using estimates in place of an earnings record. This eliminates the need to do manual adjustments to the benefit estimates if past Full Retirement Age.
  • Rent can now be set to increase or decrease beyond inflation. Rent used to always match inflation.
  • We've made a number of additional usability, validation, and wording improvements.

November 14, 2021

New

  • Our new Lifetime Changes report zeros in on differences in lifetime present values between profiles when running Comparison Reports
  • We've added a new "Cost of Debt" setting for more realistic planning when debt is allowed in a plan

Improved

  • Future Social Security benefit changes can now be entered with up to one digit precision
  • We now check the status of reports more frequently to improve responsiveness
  • Links are now provided to the last report run for each type of report

Fixed

  • Fixed an error when running Monte Carlo for alternative profile with different max ages than Base Profile, display explanation and detail reports
  • Fixed an error encountered if disagreeing to user licence

September 19, 2021

Fixed

  • Creating a new alternate profile from the results of a Maximized Plan was only working when performed from the report details screen. This now works on the "slideshow" flow as well.

September 4, 2021

Fixed

  • Real Estate expenses and receipts could continue beyond the sale date of a property if the property was sold in the future and the end was set to "Last Death of Spouse/Partner." They now end at the sale date in these cases.
  • Social Security Key Filing Dates did not appear to be updated if a person's birthdate was changed, requiring a screen reload. They now refresh correctly.

August 15, 2021

Fixed

  • Entering invalid characters into grids would cause an error, but now will just revert to the default value for the grid.
  • Clearing amounts from lump sum or annual amounts when editing a pension would cause an error but now default to $0.
  • The starting amount entered in "Project growth" panel for the annual living standard index was being ignored, this is now fixed.

July 11, 2021

Improved

  • The Child Tax Credit has been updated based on the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), including
    • Fully refundable
    • Credit amount changed to 3,000 (3,600 for child under 6)
    • Max age of child is 18
  • The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has been updated based on ARPA, including
    • Increase amounts and thresholds with no kids
    • Increase of investment income limit
  • Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates

Fixed

  • When creating a new profile from a maximized alternative profile, retirement accounts that had been modified from the Base profile would be duplicated. This has been fixed.
  • Autocomplete of category names in Progress Tracker was inadvertently broken in our last release, the problem has been corrected.

June 14, 2021

New

  • Professional customers can now create Organizations. With Organizations, you can share client data between different PRO users and can reassign ownership of family data to other PRO users, for example in situations where an advisor has left the firm or is on vacation. Sharing family data can be useful in many situations, such as to allow a senior advisor to review the work of junior advisors, or when an assistant updates financial data for a family before the advisor runs a report. Note that all members of an organization must have an active PRO license for our software.
  • You can now export a Social Security earnings record as a comma-separated values (CSV) file and re-import it. This is helpful in cases where for any reason you need to delete and re-enter family data. You can now save and re-import the earnings without having to download from the Social Security Administration site.

May 23, 2021

Improved

  • You can now create an Alternative Profile from the results of a Maximized Plan
  • We've clarified wording related to tax settings and assumptions
  • All Core Asset Classes and Dimensional Funds have been updated with return rates for 2020

March 28, 2021

Improved

  • Added new setting to allow differentiation between long term capital gains and qualified dividends
  • Increased maximum allowed number of retirement accounts

Fixed

  • Asset balances could be calculated incorrectly in widow(er) cases with large bequests. This has been fixed.
  • Fixed issue with Montana capital gains credit.
  • Fixed problem where it was not possible to select retirement account optimization options in the Maximized Plan setup for an alternative profile if there were no retirement accounts in the Base profile.
  • Fixed problem where it was not possible to select Roth-related optimization options in the Maximized Plan setup if there were only Roth conversions and no actual Roth accounts.

January 20, 2021

Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates

December 31, 2020

Annual Updates

  • Federal tax rates and brackets
  • Medicare B
  • Social Security

December 20, 2020

Improved

  • Increased the maximum inflation indexing percentage allowed for pensions
  • Removed report buttons from profile dashboards to improve usability
  • Added more guidance for entering earnings on the Current/Future Earnings screen

Fixed

  • Changing asset amount in an account in one tab, then changing data in an alternate profile in another tab could lead to an error. This has been fixed.
  • Some tutorial videos were not working when viewed in the help widget, these have been fixed.

December 15, 2020

Fixed

  • Medicare B - Use latest expanded income brackets to determine premium
  • Social Security - Child benefit from lower PIA parent may be assigned to disabled adult child during survivor years if child receives DIB on own record

November 25, 2020

Fixed

  • Federal Tax - Real estate capital gains may be too high depending on timing of sale
  • State Tax - Support special standard deduction in MI for people born in years 1946 thru 1952

November 1, 2020

Fixed

  • Fixed issues with downloading PDFs in certain browser and plugin configurations

October 25, 2020

Fixed

  • Fixed an issue that would cause the screen to lock up if deleting an investment strategy when viewing it through the "view details" link
  • Regular Assets with $0 balance were inaccurately showing "sync pending"
  • Contributions and other data were no longer displaying in retirement account view panels, this has been fixed

October 11, 2020

Improved

  • We now display a warning and confirmation if you try to navigate away from a screen without saving changed data
  • Simplified the Base Profile progress gauge and provided direct links to items that need attention
  • Restructured the setup flow and navigation to group all financial assets together
  • We no longer display a warning message when you navigate to a second screen before the first has finished loading
  • Added an idle timer to log out after period of inactivity

Fixed

  • Eliminated an inaccurate concurrent modification exception that occurred periodically when running Risk Analysis
  • Reserve Fund Contributions were not included in the Year at a Glance report in Excel, this is now fixed
  • Comparison report buttons were sometimes partially hidden when alternative profile name was long, they now display properly

September 25, 2020

Improved

  • We now allow the ability to turn off all future taxes by setting Federal, FICA, and/or State taxes to -100%. This can aid in analyzing alternative profiles to see what is causing differences, or for users not subject to U.S. taxation.

Fixed

  • Some videos and images were not displaying in popups and the help widget, this has been corrected.

August 30, 2020

Improved

  • Allow inflation and mortgage rates to be set up to 25%
  • Improve validation and labeling for changes of home to reduce erroneously entered data

Fixed

  • Change of home not saved properly if no purchase price is entered

August 26, 2020

Improved

  • 2019 State tax Updates:
    • Arizona
    • California
    • Kansas
    • Kentucky
    • Michigan
    • Minnesota
    • Mississippi
    • Missouri
    • Nebraska
    • New Hampshire
    • New Jersey
    • North Dakota
    • Oklahoma
    • Oregon
    • Pennsylvania
    • Rhode Island
    • South Carolina
    • Tennessee
    • Utah
    • Vermont
    • Virginia
    • Wisconsin

Fixed

  • State taxes - New Jersey retirement income treatment
  • Estate Report may show negative assets in final year if large bequest is present
  • Housing Contingency may produce unexpected results in survivor reports when no current home
  • Survivor Reports may show negative asset balance when the bequest is larger than the incoming asset balance

August 16, 2020

Improved

  • Adjust help widget so it doesn't interfere with clicking on elements next to it
  • Change minimum allowed Economies of Shared Living setting to 1.0
  • Add link to User Manual from family dashboard

Fixed

  • Retirement account assets missing from online Year-at-a-Glance report
  • Occasional "gateway timeout" errors when waiting for long-running report

July 26, 2020

Improved

  • 2019 State tax Updates:
    • Alabama
    • Arkansas
    • Colorado
    • Connecticut
    • Delaware
    • District of Columbia
    • Georgia
    • Hawaii
    • Idaho
    • Illinois
    • Indiana
    • Iowa
    • Louisiana
    • Maine
    • Maryland
    • Massachusetts

July 12, 2020

  • Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates, which are now all set at 1.5%
  • Fixed an issue with text size in charts

June 28, 2020

Improved

  • Roth and Non-Roth withdrawals and assets are now separated in retirement account reports.
  • The Life Insurance Suggestions report has always shown insurance amounts in today's (real) dollars, consistent with all other amounts in the reports. We've now added a "Face Value" column that presents insurance coverage in nominal dollars, which is useful when comparing future amounts shown in the report to the coverage amounts for policies you currently hold or are considering.
  • We've upgraded our customer support capabilities with a new fully searchable knowledge base easily accessible as a popup in the bottom right corner of any screen. You can also now submit a question directly from that help popup and interact with customer support via email instead of needing to log in to access support tickets.
  • We've improved the reporting of bequests and funeral expenses in the estate and spending reports for consistency.
  • We now use the Social Security widow(er) benefit date from the base profile when calculating benefits available for life insurance purposes. Previously, taking widow(er) benefits at the earliest eligible date was assumed.

Fixed

  • Standard of Living index wasn't rolling over at beginning of year in alternate profiles in some unusual cases, resulting in current year not being 100%, and an error when running reports. The rollover code has been fixed so this won't happen next year. If you run into this problem before the end of the year, simply reset the standard of living index setting.
  • After "applying to base" from an Alternative Profile in a Comparison Report, there was an option to "Run Base Plan" that would result in error. The option has been removed.
  • In cases where the Base Profile allowed debt, the setting was being ignored in some areas of Survivor Report calculations so Survivor Report standard of living could be different from the Base Profile. This has been corrected.
  • In some cases, MaxiFi might return a different maximized solution depending on the Social Security widow(er) benefit filing date set in the Base Profile. This has been corrected.
  • Social Security widow(er) benefits were overstated after retirement benefits started when widow(er) benefits were reduced for age, GPO applied, and work deductions applied to the widow(er) benefit. This has been fixed.
  • In some cases, property taxes were incorrectly applied to Maine state taxes. This has been fixed.
  • "Unknown error" would occur with inflation set higher than 10% or so. This issue has been fixed. Setting very high inflation rates may still result in plans that are not feasible, but a more informative message will be displayed.

June 7, 2020

Improved

  • The Family Overview screen has been rearranged to allow quicker access to Alternative Profiles and we added the ability to delete Alternative Profiles to that screen

Fixed

  • A person's setting for percentage of retirement assets to spend was not being respected in cases where the person had no retirement accounts of their own but inherited retirement assets from their spouse dying earlier in the plan. This has been fixed.
  • Depending on time of day, an error could occur when first trying to run reports after adding deceased spouse. This has been corrected.
  • Entries in the "Cost of Children" grid now display correctly in the PDF report.

May 31, 2020

Improved

  • Several changes were made to improve system performance and stability under heavy load

May 21, 2020

Fixed

  • Monte Carlo (Premium/PRO Only)
    Consistently handle asset income when maximum indebtedness is set. Better handle custom assets with large variances in their return history.

May 10, 2020

Improved

  • Default Rate Updates
    As you know, the economy has been dramatically altered by the Coronavirus. In particular, long-term interest rates as well as the projected inflation rate have dropped substantially. In light of this, we've decided to reduce MaxiFi Planner's default nominal rate of return and inflation rate assumptions, which control the assumed real return on regular assets, retirement accounts, 529 accounts, and reserve accounts. These assumptions are also used to calculate what you'll earn from annuitizing all or some of your retirement account holdings. Our default values had been 2.5% for inflation and 3.5% for the interest rates, giving a real interest rate close to 1%. We have now changed all values to 1.25% for a real interest rate of 0%. You will find more detailed information and help regarding these settings on the "Safe Returns/Inflation" tab. Briefly, we base the safe return rates on the 30-year nominal Treasury bond yield. To determine long-term inflation expectations we now subtract the 30-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) yield from the Treasury bond yield.
  • Housing Contingency (Premium/PRO Only)
    Contingency settings are now available for Primary and Vacation homes, allowing you to adjust your housing situation in case of unexpected death of a spouse or partner.
  • Improved some error messages related to past and future dates in Social Security filing date entry.

May 4, 2020

Fixed

  • In certain cases with contingency changes, life insurance within Maximized Plans was calculated differently than Base Plans, this is now fixed.
  • An issue was fixed where, in certain cases, during years when Required Minimum Distributions for non-Roth accounts was greater than the smooth withdrawal for the year, a Roth withdrawal was also included.
  • Calculation of Arizona adjusted income has been changed to ensure the threshold for filing is being correctly determined.

May 3, 2020

Improved

  • Regular Assets are now treated like "accounts," similar to Retirement Accounts.
    Now you can create a regular asset record for a Checking account and a separate one for a Savings account or Brokerage account. You can create as many as needed to represent all your accounts and assets. This allows you to more easily track and update account balances. Before this change, all regular assets were grouped into categories. Note that if you had previously entered regular assets, each entry has been converted to the new account or asset type that most closely matches. For example, if you had previously entered $10,000 in the "Mutual Funds" category, you will now see a Brokerage account with the description "Converted: Mutual Funds" and a balance of $10,000.
  • Any Regular Asset can be a Reserve Fund.
    Previously, we handled reserve funds separately. Now you can indicate that any given regular asset should be treated as an emergency reserve fund. All existing Reserve Funds have been converted to regular assets and marked as reserve funds.
  • Regular Assets can now be excluded from or added to an Alternative Profile.
  • Regular Assets balance has been added to the Compare tab of the comparison report.
  • We improved the layout of comparison report selection buttons.
  • We now allow up to 24 Alternative Profiles.

April 12, 2020

Improved

  • You can now run a Comparison Plan of two alternative profiles!
  • We now provide more specific detail of the problem(s) and steps to correct if Disability Benefit entry is blocked.
  • You can now set extremely low safe return rates in order to model significant economic downturn.
  • We've removed "Match inflation" as an option for annuity Growth Rate as these types of annuities are now difficult or impossible to buy.

Fixed

  • Applying maximized Social Security dates to an alternative profile resulted in an "override" flag in the navigation bar even if no dates had changed.
  • An error would sometimes occur while trying to to add Social Security benefits for a deceased spouse.
  • An error would sometimes occur when editing a Retirement Account that had different contributions in a past maximization report.

March 22, 2020

Improved

  • You can now maximize an Alternative Profile!

Fixed

  • We now avoid error messages when entering disability benefit date for someone whose retirement benefit date is not set to full retirement age.
  • Contingent retirement dates would not update to current year during year end rollover process if user logged in on January 1. This has been fixed.

March 8, 2020

Improved

  • Display age by birthdate on detailed data entry screens
  • Clarify text in the Social Security What-If Filing Dates guide related to entering past dates

Fixed

  • Housing validation was failing if Rent/Own not specified resulting in ugly error message upon saving data. This validation has been fixed.
  • Certain login situations could result in redirect loop if using cached code. This has been fixed.

March 1, 2020

Improved

  • We now allow more than 5 Real Estate properties.
  • Added Year at a Glance (cash flow) data to the Excel export.
  • Clarified where to enter existing Social Security Spousal and Widow(er)'s benefit dates.
  • Improved accessibility by increasing contrast between text and background colors.
  • Added a link to Release Notes from the Help Center.
  • Added message about not being able to add or remove children from alternative profiles to reduce confusion.
  • Clarified help text related to steps to take when needing to add high school graduation date to child.
  • Improved log out process so if there is more than one tab open, all tabs are logged out if one logs out.
  • New tabs opened up by Control- or Command-clicking a link will now automatically log in on the new tab.
  • Implemented new terms of service.

Fixed

  • Fixed certain situations where a "Transition error: cannot transition to abstract state" error was shown.
  • Prevented unnecessary display of report errors when navigating off of the report screen when a report is running.
  • Fixed grammatical errors in Social Security deeming messages when no names are present for spouses.
  • Benefit information provided in lieu of past earnings would sometimes continue displaying even after cleared. This is fixed.
  • Logging in on two tabs was resulting in Access Denied on first tab, this is fixed.
  • Could not be logged in to MaxiFi in one tab and Maximize My Social Security in another. This is now fixed.
  • Widow(er) benefit dates were always appearing as "N/A" in the Inputs section of the PDF report.

February 13, 2020

Fixed

  • In an unusual case where there were no Spousal Social Security benefits other than Child-in-Care Spousal Benefits, and yet the Spousal benefit filing date if set too early could impact the amount of Spousal benefits, the Maximized plan was not properly being applied to the Base plan. This issue has been addressed.

February 4, 2020

Fixed

  • California State Tax now limits annual property tax increases per Prop 13.
  • California State Tax now includes medical expenses in itemized deductions.

January 21, 2020

Fixed

  • Cost of points entered for future Real Estate purchases were being based on value of property instead of mortgage amount. This is now fixed.
  • Points entered for change of Housing were having no impact on the report. Now fixed.
  • Year at a Glance report was not including closing costs on purchase of new home, now does.

January 19, 2020

Improved

  • Dimensional Funds and most Core Asset Classes within Monte Carlo assets have been updated with 2019 return values.

Fixed

  • Reports were periodically resulting in "Gateway timeout" errors, these have been resolved.
  • Setting "child leaves home" date beyond death of both parents caused report errors, this is now fixed.
  • Survivor reports were not displaying Roth Conversions correctly.
  • Survivor reports were not displaying annuitized retirement asset income correctly.
  • Overriding child fields on alternative profiles did not properly display a marker so it was difficult to tell which child had overridden data.

January 1, 2020

Happy New Year! Here are some updates to start the year:

  • Updated all Federal Income Tax, Social Security, and Medicare Part B parameters.
  • Updated the annual CPI-U and the Chained CPI-U with estimated values for December.
  • SECURE Act: Start retirement account RMDs at age 72 if applicable.

December 29, 2019

New and Improved

We've made several important improvements to our handling of Social Security benefits for children:

  • We now consider each child’s own disability benefit (DIB) and/or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) when determining their Childhood Disability Benefit (CDB) and the maximized family strategy.
  • We allow you to specify if a child is in care and if you want to be entitled to child-in-care spouse's benefits.
  • Each child's full birthday and/or Month/Year of High School graduation is used to determine the end of their child benefits (before, just the year of birth was used).
  • Each child's full birthday is used to determine end of child-in-care spouse's benefits (before, just the year of birth was used).

Fixed

The following items are now fixed and working as expected:

  • Child Earnings Reduction not appearing in report
  • Future rate changes not displaying in inputs section of PDF report
  • Link to maximize plan in alternative profile comparison report causes error
  • Provide better feedback when a person has reached the maximum number of retirement accounts we allow
  • Occasional errors when running survivor reports
  • Save and Add Another button appears when modifying data in alternative profile

November 3, 2019

Improved

  • Added creation date to cover page of PDF report
  • Allow entry of up to 1 million dollars per month for extra monthly mortgage payments to allow for modeling lump sum payoffs

Fixed

  • Divide by zero error would happen occasionally when maximizing. This is fixed.
  • Error when creating base plan with more than 10 children in family. This is fixed, though we have a limit of 15 children per family.

October 2, 2019

New

  • Roth Conversions: You can now easily try out different timing and amounts to convert from non-Roth to Roth accounts to see how your living standard is impacted.

Improved

  • Added "leaves home age" for children
  • Added link to overview video in Help popup and Help Center

Fixed

  • Error when clicking on "View Slide Show Intro Again" link in Risk Analysis is now fixed
  • Error when creating survivor report with no earnings is now fixed

September 15, 2019

New

  • Survivor Reports - Run a report to see the impact of one spouse/partner dying unexpectedly.
  • Reserve Funds - You can now set money aside so it isn't included in your spending plan.

Improved

  • Added Dimensional Fund Assets so you can create investment strategies using historical returns information from these funds.
  • Earnings, retirement account withdrawals, special expenses and receipts can now be set to continue until death date
  • Added a setting for future change to Medicare Part B premium growth rate
  • Improved guidance for correcting Social Security benefit information that is out of date when using benefit information in place of full earnings record
  • Added reports under Net Worth section detailing household and individual Estate
  • Allow Economies of Shared Living setting down to 1.4
  • Added income from existing annuities to Progress Tracker
  • Special expenses/receipts in PDF now appear in the same order as they do online
  • Added warning about automatic enrollment in Medicare Part A and impact on tax deductibility of HSA contributions when applying for Social Security
  • Added growth % and today's/nominal information to the summary view when showing monetary activity
  • Added table/chart toggle to Risk Analysis overview charts
  • Added Retirement Assets to the metrics you can choose from in the Compare tab of report
  • Increased number of assets that can be assigned to investment strategy
  • Allow roth first/last optimization even if a specific adult in family doesn't have both types of accounts

Fixed

  • If entering data in a specific order you could bypass warnings and add a non-covered pension when using Social Security benefit information in place of earnings history. This can cause inaccurate calculations and is no longer allowed.
  • Going to Help Center from within initial family setup and then clicking Back would return to the very beginning of setup. Now it resumes setup where you left off.
  • Survivor percentage fields for pensions were not appearing in PDF, they now are.
  • Social Security benefits were not showing father/mother benefits for widowed situation. This is now fixed.
  • Emerging Markets asset and others could cause errors in some situations during Monte Carlo runs. This has been fixed.
  • Earnings prior to 1951 were causing errors with contingent planning enabled. They are now handled correctly.

August 18, 2019

New

We've added the ability to enter an additional monthly payment amount for primary and vacation home mortgages so you can see the impact of paying off your mortgage early!

June 9, 2019

New

MaxiFi Premium and PRO versions now include Contingency Planning, allowing you to plan for changes that should occur in your family's financial plan upon death of a spouse (or partner). For example, reduce or eliminate an expense or receipt, or perhaps retire at a later or earlier date.

Contingency settings are available for retirement date, future earnings, retirement account contributions, special expenses and special receipts. We will be making contingency settings for primary and vacation home available soon.

For more details about this change, see the User Manual.

Improved

  • Increase upper limit on pass-thru deductions
  • Allow users to project earnings growth more than 5%
  • Provide more prominent help for explaining Social Security restricted applications
  • Clarify that the behavior for "grow" an expense/receipt, etc., refers to multi-year items, not rollover behavior
  • Add video explanation of lifetime utility maximization index
  • Improve guidance around non-covered pensions
  • Add FAQ about how MaxiFi derives adult equivalence for adults and children
  • Improve visibility of dismissed items in MaxiFi adult/household overview screens

Fixed

  • Duration of Special Expenses could not be set to end at last year of life. This is now fixed.
  • Real Estate could have "hidden" current mortgage data even if not yet owned. This is now fixed and any existing invalid data removed.
  • Points entered in future housing changes were displaying improperly.
  • Points entered in future real estate purchases were not converted from percent decimal to percent.

June 4, 2019

Improved

  • State taxes have been updated to 2018 tables and rules.

Fixed

  • If Municipal Bonds Percentage was set at 100%, Base Plan would produce an error. This is now fixed.

May 24, 2019

Improved

The May 24, 2019 update to MaxiFi implemented a major redesign of how we handle capital gains on taxable assets in the regular asset account and capital gains on bequests. In the past, we realized future capital gains as they were accrued, i.e. in the year they were earned and assessed capital gains on bequests. With that update, we now realize capital gains on a pro-rata basis when they are withdrawn from the regular asset account and we exempt death bequests from capital gains.

For more details about this change, see this page in the User Manual

April 14, 2019

New

  • 529 Education Savings Plans are now supported
  • Added Index of Expected Lifetime Utility report to Living Standard Monte Carlo Risk Analysis

Improved

  • Added detail about total number of trajectories in Risk Analysis failure messages
  • Added Per-Adult Living Standard to drop down in report Compare tabs
  • Changed maximized plan to default to no spending reduction limit
  • Added tax settings for partnered families to indicate share of regular assets owned by each partner and share of
    tax-deductible housing expenses paid by each partner
  • Added Downside Analysis section on Risk Analysis overview report

Fixed

  • Override flag did not appear in left-hand navigation of alternative profile for overridden Social Security dates
  • Tax Detail report was not showing data after year first spouse died

March 10, 2019

New

  • Tax Detail Report - See additional detail about the numbers underlying our tax calculations in each year of the plan.

Improved

  • Improve navigation within family data area to highlight adult and household overview pages and reduce visual clutter
  • Add FAQ about how to model paying off mortgage early
  • Add time-based distribution comparison chart to Risk Analysis overview report

Fixed

  • Alternative profiles end up in wrong order when duplicating client data (PRO)
  • Spousal benefit filing date is shown even though there are no actual spousal benefits when there are mother/father benefits
  • Unrealized capital gains handling in Monte Carlo incorrect
  • Logic for displaying whether Social Security was maximized is flipped in PDF

February 17, 2019

Improved

  • Update common assets with 2018 return rates
  • Update PDF generation libraries for better scalability and maintainability
  • Provide more sensible error message when Retirement Benefit date must be FRA if collecting Disability Benefit
  • In Compare tab of MaxiFi Comparison report reword "Withdrawals" to "Retirement Account Withdrawals"
  • Improve ease of users finding how to renew within the app
  • Add FAQ about how to deal with unrealized long term capital gains
  • Add FAQ about how to model moving into home you rent
  • Add FAQ about small budgeted expenses

Fixed

  • Cost of selling homes in alternative profile does not override base
  • Monte Carlo Failing with IEEE error
  • Setting all charts to same scale in Risk Analysis results no longer works

January 6, 2019

Improved

  • Update cash and inflation return rates for 2018, allowing custom assets with 2018 return history

Fixed

  • Error message not displayed when report fails due to secondary role having out of date benefit information
  • Periodic out-of-memory errors when processing risk analysis results

January 1, 2019

Federal tax, Social Security, and Medicare updated for 2019

December 23, 2018

Improved

  • We now allow for multiple annuities per person
  • Increased number of allowed alternative profiles to 12
  • Status/override flags in left-hand navigation now update immediately as data changes
  • Provide better guidance for users who attempt to import to MaxiFi from MMSS but already have family data

Fixed

  • Base Profile should always be listed at top of profiles drop-down list but is not when family duplicated

December 16, 2018

Improved

  • Auto-dismiss side menu when on small width
  • Ask about import from Maximize My Social Security as first step of MaxiFi family setup
  • Provide useful error message when a base item can't be deleted due to dependent items in alternative profiles
  • Add Real Estate Income and Spending to the Progress Tracker
  • Allow Social Security Widow(er) Benefits to start month individual turns 60
  • Combine parent/child earnings deductions in reports for non-married/partnered family
  • Allow more than 5 changes of expectations in items such as future earnings, retirement contributions and withdrawals, special expenses and receipts
  • Default Annuity Survivor field to 50%
  • Improve error message for unsustainable consumption
  • Provide chart view of Standard of Living and Life Insurance tabs in plan report
  • Add mortgage detail to housing summary cards
  • Provide spinner to indicate Excel is loading when downloading
  • Strengthen confirmation message when deleting family data
  • Change default rate of return for retirement accounts to 3.5%

Fixed

  • Retirement Annuity Income for second adult in Comparison report is missing "income" in label
  • Entering existing retirement benefit displays validation errors in "Modify Planned Dates" panel
  • Entering anything other than 0 or 1 in growth field results in inaccurate browser validation message
  • Real Estate Property future purchase value of 0 causes long run then error
  • Imbalance in lifetime Present Values due to bequest in excess of housing equity
  • "Data Binding Failed" error when housing Condo Fees blanked out
  • Focus jumps to bottom of table when entering data in Living Standard grid
  • Setting change not reflected after leaving settings screen and returning
  • Mortgage interest rate for future home sales does not handle thousandths of percents
  • Second home shows in PDF as "not owned/rented" even though it is
  • "Two people live as cheaply as" should not be labeled with %
  • Real Estate Sale Type key shown in PDF
  • Error on Maximization report where progress says complete, but the report is not done
  • Compare tab reports don't work properly when maximum ages in alternate profile are different from Base profile
  • Social Security screen messages do not update if a pension is changed from non-covered to covered
  • Clearing existing retirement or disability benefit does not appear to clear benefit used in place of earnings
  • Real interest rate not displaying under Account > Default Assumptions

February 18, 2018

Improved

  • Allow users to duplicate an Alternative Profile
  • Add Per Adult Living Standard to reports
  • Add Standard of Living Index setting
  • Add Cost of Children setting
  • Add setting for "two can live as cheaply as"
  • Implement Percent Change in Survivors' Living Standard setting

Fixed

  • Ex spouse's Social Security dates could potentially be deleted when Social Security dates in an Alternate Profile were restored to Base settings. This has been fixed.

February 4, 2018

New

MaxiFi Planner now incorporates changes brought about by the new tax law, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). See our feature highlight for more information on these important changes.

Improved

  • We now provide an alternative way of importing your Social Security earnings -- using the XML-formatted file available from your Social Security Administration account.
  • Allow sale of primary residence and vacation home.
  • TCJA: Ask whether mortgages are grandfathered into $1M deduction limit.
  • TCJA: Allow users to provide deduction amount for pass-thru income
  • TCJA: Allow comparisons of pre-TCJA, TCJA expiring as written, and permanent TCJA.
  • Add Condo Fees to list of real estate expenses
  • Add Back/Previous buttons to initial setup and results screens for improved navigation
  • Reduce user confusion during setup by scrolling to top of page when "save and add another" is clicked
  • Always show 'Reports' navigation item
  • Improved stability and reliability of our infrastructure for running plans and producing reports.

Fixed

  • If you dismissed a category during setup as "Not Applicable" but then added an item to that category in an Alternate Profile, the item would be hidden from view if you merged the Alternate Profile to Base. This is now fixed.
  • A divide by 0 error could occur in certain rare situations, resulting in a cryptic error message. The error has been fixed.
  • After resetting all Settings and Assumptions, it would still appear as if they were overriding default settings. This has been fixed so the view refreshes and you can see that all settings have indeed been reset to default.
  • Future Tax Change settings were not working correctly but have been fixed. In addition, we now allow setting state tax increase or decrease of 100% to allow for modeling of doubling or elimination of state taxes.

January 1, 2018

Updates for Taxes and Social Security:

  • Estimated the 2017 CPI-U. The 2017 annual CPI-U will be available in late Jan 2018.
  • Standard annual update for Federal taxes under the existing law without the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017.
  • Updated 2018 federal tax brackets, deductions, exemptions, and AMT.
  • 2017 Form 1040 and 1040 Instructions are not yet available. Qual Div & Cap Gns WS and EITC will be updated later.
  • Federal Tax Form 8582 - Updated bracket data to 2017.
  • Social Security Annual Update - 2018 Substantial Earnings for the WEP are not available at this time.
  • Annual Update of Medicare Part B parameters for 2018.

December 16, 2017

New

The new Real Estate module allows you to enter information about multiple properties, including mortgages, expenses, and receipts.

The Vacation Home feature allows you to specify a current or planned vacation home along with changes to that home.

We've also added support for annuities that don't use retirement account assets.

Improved

  • Allow descriptions for pensions.
  • Hide or downplay rollover alerts for unmodified base events displayed in Alternative Profiles
  • Display alert indicators next to items needing review in profile left hand navigation
  • Add indicator in left hand navigation on Alternative Profiles for changed items so it is easy to zero in on changes in a profile

Fixed

  • Preview of unmodified Base Plan money activity from an Alternative Profile can be inaccurate. It is now accurate.
  • Maximum and minimum validation on mortgage loan balance not working. This is fixed.
  • Sort order of items in MaxiFi Base Profile multi-item screens is not stable. These now always sort in order they were added.
  • After changing person's death year, the old death year still shows up in activity panels such as Future Earnings and Retirement Contributions. This has been corrected so the death year updates immediately.
  • Maximized Social Security dates can cause error when applied to base plan if base has suspend/reinstate dates and Maximized Plan does not. This is fixed so all dates are applied correctly.
  • Can create an Alternative Profile from top menu even if no base plan yet. This is fixed so you can only create an Alternative Profile if you have run the Base Plan.
  • Importing family from Maximize My Social Security to MaxiFi results in Base Profile called "Your Plan" instead of "Base Profile". The profile is now named properly.
  • Clicking on Comparison Report icon from Base Profile dashboard results in error and no comparison. We now no longer allow clicking on the icon.
  • In divorced cases, Social Security Widow(er) benefits sometimes not shown or show incorrect date. This has been fixed.
  • RMDs for retirement accounts were not calculated if no current retirement assets. This now works even if no current assets in the accounts.
  • Benefit dates associated with past earnings do not display after saving in MaxiFi Social Security screen. This has been fixed.

November 25, 2017

Fixed

  • "Could not find profile object" error when attempting to import Maximize My Social Security data into MaxiFi. The import works correctly now.

November 14, 2017

Improved

  • Provide 'Add Profile' button in profiles menu so easier/clearer creation of Alternative Profile.

Fixed

  • Future inflation rate changes entered in settings and assumptions were not being applied to earnings. This is fixed.
  • The PDF report would show Yes when should say No for Pension covered by social security. The correct text is now displayed.
  • Bequest and Funeral Expense settings were always from Base Profile. They will now be set from Alternative Profile if overridden there.

November 4, 2017

New

Alternative Profiles allows you to create multiple "what-if" scenarios to refine your plan.

Considering a change in jobs, moving to a different state, or early retirement? Want to see how different inflation or return rates impact your finances? It's easy to see the impact over your lifetime.

Just run different scenarios and compare results side-by-side with your Base Plan.

Alternative Profiles lets you:

  • Build from your Base Plan––change only the data you choose
  • Run a side-by-side comparison report––see how discretionary spending changes
  • View side-by-side comparisons for dozens of other elements in your plan
  • Download detailed PDFs or Excel spreadsheets of the Base and Alternative Profile Plans
  • Save up to 6 Alternative Profiles

Look for the "Add What-If Profile" button on your family overview screen.

Improved

  • Implement logic for flagging or automatically updating date-sensitive data after change in year.
  • Allow entry of negative Real Appreciation Rate for housing.
  • Add future rate of return setting for Regular assets.
  • Add retirement account future rate of return settings.
  • Add Future Tax Change settings to MaxiFi.
  • Add setting for future change to rate of Inflation.
  • Show explanatory note in profile Inputs section of MaxiFi PDF if there are no inputs.

Fixed

  • Child and Mother/Father Benefits were showing up when max age is the same even if no benefits. This is corrected.
  • Annual Income and Spending Table was missing from PDF. This has been added.
  • Error when clicking 'Client List' menu from Help or Account. This now works properly.
  • Employer contributions should not be displayed in the Year-at-a-Glance report, only Employee contributions. This is implemented.
  • Cancelling during the add process for ex or deceased spouse takes you to wrong overview screen. This now goes correctly to family overview.

September 23, 2017

New

Estate Planning: You can now specify special bequest amounts and expected funeral expenses to aid in estate planning.

Improved

  • Collect date of divorce when necessary to ensure accurate Social Security maximization.
  • Improve Usability of Social Security Widow(er) benefit dates by only requiring entry for survivor.
  • Show clear warning in report if life insurance is limited by age.
  • Change Excel download method to avoid false threat detection by McAfee.
  • Show real rate of return on MaxiFi Lifetime Balance Sheet report.
  • Add section headers/footers to MaxiFi PDF report to indicate current plan.
  • Move Account subtabs to Account submenu.
  • Allow deceased spouse's year of death to be changed.
  • MaxiFi should say "last year of earnings" instead of "retirement age" on deceased spouse's detail screen.

Fixed

  • Scrollbars in earnings grids do not display on iOS if there is overflow. This was fixed by removing scrolling and always showing full grids on narrow-width devices.
  • Errors when changing family name are not displayed to user. They are now.
  • Horizontal progress indicators do not collapse properly on small screen widths. This was fixed by removing labels on narrow-width devices.
  • Entry of long family names causes unexpected errors or inaction. Validation was fixed and messages display correct now.
  • Child Social Security benefits were not included in Year at a Glance report. They are now.
  • Numbers in progress indicators misaligned in IE 11. This is fixed.
  • Negative Consumption error message not displaying, instead cryptic "ENOENT". We now display a better error message.
  • "Value is not a decimal" error when setting Annuity Growth Rate to zero. We now allow zero.
  • Annuity Income not included in Income breakdown in Year at a Glance report. It is now.
  • Cannot add category to Progress Tracker if none already on overview screen. This is fixed.
  • "IEEE_INVALID is signaling" warning causing failure of Base Plan run. This is fixed
  • Annual Increase/Decrease in money activity widgets affects number from current year even if start is future. Growth is calculated correctly now, starting in start year.
  • Incorrect mortgage data causes segfault - shows 'Unknown error' to user. Data validation was improved and we display a friendly error message now.

August 12, 2017

New

Progress Tracker: When you're happy with your plan, set up your Progress Tracker for the year with a few clicks. This tool helps you visualize and stay on track with your income, spending, and saving targets for the year. You can review and update your progress at any time from any device, or export your targets and transactions to Excel.

Improved

  • Allow decimal in Monthly Mortgage Payment for greater accuracy.
  • Increase length of time for a user to react to a session refresh dialog before logging the user out.
  • Do not display Social Security Spousal and Widow(er) benefit columns in report for Partnered cases.
  • Implement "Cost of Selling homes" setting.
  • Make chart/table toggle more obvious in MaxiFi detail reports.
  • Change default spending reduction limit on Maximization report to 25%.

Fixed

  • Life insurance needs could cause Base Plan to be better than Maximized Plan. This is now corrected.

July 16, 2017

Improved

  • Added ability to constrain Maximization Plan to only plans that meet or exceed Base Plan in all years.
  • Do not display Social Security Spousal Benefit and Widow(er) Benefit dates in what-if panel for partnered cases, they are not necessary.
  • Add Year-at-a-Glance Report to provide summary of all activity for a year.
  • Allow user to indicate age at which they will no longer purchase life insurance.

Fixed

  • Purchase price value for change of home missing. This is fixed.
  • When spouse indicates a monthly Social Security disability benefit, annual amount was subtracted from regular assets. This is fixed.
  • Unrealized Cap Gains changes were not impacting report. The data is now being reported correctly.
  • Incorrect assets were being shown in some cases after spouse death. This is now working correctly.
  • Progress in maximized report could sometimes exceed 100% and fluctuate at end of reporting period. The percentage progress is now functioning properly.