Forum Discussion
AMA: I'm Katrina Yung, Xplan WealthSolver expert, Ask Me Anything!
Hi Katrina, thank you for taking the time to run us through Wealth Solver.
I have a couple of queries that I'd appreciate your guidance and expertise on:
Copying customised Portfolios into a Like for Like scenario.
- when we look at new platforms for clients, we sometimes need to customise the underlying portfolio beyond the target set functionality, which we normally use.
- given the customisation, we need to make manual adjustments, where we may start with a target set but may alter some of the weightings for various reasons.
- is there any possible way to ditto a customised portfolio that you build within one WealthSolver 'Recommend and Acquire' scenario across to another Platform (say a 'Like for Like' scenario) without having to do the same manual customisation all over again?
- of course, it's a given that both platforms need to house the same underlying holdings.
- this was an excellent little feature that was offered on the old COIN CRM technology and would love to see something similar in Xplan.
Modelling External assets like ASX shares and including in-specie functionality
- this question is an extension to the above scenario as we run into the same issue when modelling external assets like a client's direct share portfolio for reinvestment/super contributions but ned to space across multiples years for tax management purposes.
- for example, a client may hold 20 ASX shares (either issuer sponsored or via Commsec/Ausiex etc).
- these shares may have been held for a long period of time with major tax consequences if they are sold short term.
- as such, selling all and transferring into a platform/super for reinvestment may not be ideal short term.
- therefore, we may look to transfer all across to an IDPS platform in upfront (no CGT by doing this), then either incrementally selldown and reinvest/make NCCs to super over 3-4 financial years to minimise the tax impact.
- this all requires some complex modelling on Wealthsolver. As far as I can see, the shares upon rebalance need to be manually input each scenario (including proposed and like for like), which takes a lot of time.
- there also doesn't seem to be an 'in-specie' option for the existing shares to be retained, which would be handy so existing shares can automatically appear in the proposed IDPS/super platform we are recommending and not having to do another manual input of 20 entries of stock.
- as in my first query, being able to build a repeatable modelling scenario which can be ported across different platforms for like for like purposes, would be a very efficient and time saving tool.
- of course, there may be a solution already in place, so if you can point me in that direction, that would be appreciated.
Thank you for your feedback! While the function you mentioned isn't available at the moment, we truly appreciate your input and will include it in our product feedback registry. We review this regularly, and we'll be sure to let you know if there are any updates in the future.
- tomm26 days agoVirtual Explorer
Hi Katrina,
Thanks for your response. I look forward to the future consideration of this function as it appears to be a popular option.
One more question. I see that WealthSolver has a 'Super to Pension' proposal. Is there any way to pull the existing investments from the current super account to the proposed pension? When I select this proposal, It appears to only allow for rollover as the funds in pension start from a fully unallocated position, which isn't usually the case in reality.
When we implement super to pension transfers within the same provider, the super investments are always in-specie transferred across to the same pension account, allowing any subsequent rebalances to occur tax free (or credit of retirement bonus offered by some industry super funds).
From a modelling perspective it would be useful to show the existing super fund investment options being rebalanced into the new pension account via the single proposal, rather than sold down and reinvested. As a workaround, we usually have to run two wealth solver Scenarios to show the pre-and post-portfolio position once it moves into pension phase.
Again, this feature matches what I'm enquiring re my OP on external assets being in-specie transferred into super and non-super platforms. So, if this can be added into the Super to Pension feedback register, that will also greatly improve efficiencies. Thanks.
- katrina.yung25 days agoIress Team
Hi Tomm,
Thank you for your question and feedback.
For 'Super to Pension', we previously assume client's risk profile would change when transiting to pension from super. For example, 'Growth' to 'Defensive. Hence, we believe the investment option would change when rolling to super to pension.
However, I do acknowledge there are valid cases that client may hold the same investment options in their super to pension proposal. We will make sure we will consider the 'super to pension' proposal when reviewing the feedback.
From modelling perspective, yes. It is more ideal to have investment options being rebalanced into the new pension. Nevertheless, user needs to manual re-add all the investment options to their pension plan at the moment. In this case, I just want to mention here we have the waive transfer fees via transfer fees within the proposal. With waving the transfer fee, all transaction fees can be waived. Hopefully, it can help in cases that there are no actual sell down and reinvest.
Meanwhile, I have added all your feedbacks in our feedback registry.
Best regards,
Katrina
- tomm25 days agoVirtual Explorer
Hi Katrina,
thanks again for your response and clarity here on my question.
I also appreciate the fact Xplan team have an assumption the clients risk profile changes upon pension commencement.
I agree that can be a common feature of commencing a pension, being the change of risk profile. However, even when this occurs, an adviser would never sell down their client's assets (ie change investment option) before commencing pension phase within the same super provider. Sell down occurs post pension commencement, hence current assets should pull through in the super to pension proposal.
This is an important principle that should be well understood by the WS dev team. Investment sales within a retirement pension are tax-free, whereas tax can apply to the sale of investments within super phase. This is the reason why we want to model the rebalance of existing super investments (including Growth to Defensive) within the pension part of the WS Model.
As an aside it is also reflected in some Industry Super Funds, where they offer a 'Retirement Bonus' to reflect the tax saved by the client upon transferring to pension phase. This is another feature worth considering. Including a Retirement Bonus estimate to be credited into the client's retirement pension account, where offered by the provider (like AustralianSuper, HESTA and ART).