How to Change the Retirement Age Setting

When you create a new scenario, one of the settings is the Retirement Age of the Client and the Spouse (if applicable). The initial retirement age is used to indicate the years for which employment income is displayed in the projections and to determine the start age for government benefits and LIF withdrawals.

1

Change the Retirement Age

Note: Before changing the Retirement Age, consider if you want to first copy the scenario so you don't override your current plan.

You can change the Client or Spouse's retirement age on the Scenario Setup -> General page. 

The first four boxes are checked by default the first time that you use the Retirement Age Checklist.

Selecting Update base expenses will adjust the assumed spending in your plan based on your current pre and post-retirement spending levels. If the client retires later, then Snap will copy down the pre-retirement Base Expenses value for the additional period that they're now working. If the client retires earlier, then Snap will set the Base Expenses to the value of their post-retirement spending level. 

Selecting Clear asset contribution overrides will remove any overrides (e.g., RRSP contributions or withdrawals) in the years between the original and the new CFM Start Age.

Selecting Update employment income and ages will ensure that the employment income is automatically extended for additional years if the client is retiring later, or removed from the years after their new retirement age if the client is retiring earlier.

Selecting Clear employment income overrides will ensure that any custom changes made to the Employment Income on the Planning Page will be removed for the period between the original and new To Age.

You can choose to deselect any of these defaults, or you can check additional boxes to update CPP Start Age, OAS Start Age, DBPP Start Age (the Clear DBPP pension overrides box is checked by default to remove any overrides between the original and new Start Age), RRIF withdrawals Start Age, and LIF withdrawals Start Age. If you check any of these values, they'll be updated to the new Retirement Age (or the earliest allowable age after retirement). To illustrate, if your client has a Retirement Age of 65, then when you change your client's retirement age to 67 and check the boxes for CPP and OAS, the start age for both of these government benefits will be changed to 67 automatically.

If you check the box to update the RRIF withdrawals start age or LIF withdrawals start age, when you change the Retirement Age Snap will update the settings so the first year of income from these accounts occurs at retirement.

In all cases, additional logic is checked to avoid unintended outcomes (e.g., OAS won't be set before 65, CPP and OAS won't be set higher than 70, RRIF and LIF withdrawals won't be set any later than 72).

Your selected adjustments will be saved automatically for future Retirement Age changes. You'll always have the option to change these settings before applying them.


2

Review the Planning page and make updates where required

This review should consider:


Employment Income 

Check to ensure the Employment Income lines up with the Retirement Age and it finishes the year before the intended retirement.

If you previously adjusted the Employment Income (for example, pro-rated the final year's income) using an override, then you may need to make adjustments on the Planning page for the years set by the automated Retirement Age tool.

Capital Assets

Ensure any contributions or withdrawals that were manually added to Capital Assets are cleared if they're no longer relevant.  This may involve stopping savings contributions earlier or extending them longer. If you selected to clear asset contribution overrides in the checklist then this will help automate the process. It's always advised to review the Planning page to ensure the outcome is as desired.

Base Expenses 

Ensure that the Base Expenses column aligns with your client's goals both before and after their new Retirement Age.

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