Getting Started: Summary

The Summary section is a condensed, high-level view of your retirement or accumulation plan. It offers a simplified version of the full Projections Table, giving advisors and clients a “road map” of key activity for the next 5–10 years.

What You’ll Find in the Summary Table

The Summary Table mirrors the structure of the full projection data but strips it down to the essentials. It’s organized by year and includes:

✅ Income

  • Shows expected income sources by type:
    • Employment and self-employment
    • Government benefits (e.g., CPP, OAS)
    • Defined benefit pensions
    • RRSP/RRIF and other investment withdrawals (post-retirement)
  • Helps validate assumptions like start dates, indexation, and income timing.

✅ Contributions & Withdrawals

  • Displays platform-generated contributions to:
    • TFSAs
    • RRSPs
    • Non-registered accounts
  • In retirement years, shows withdrawals from various accounts.
  • Useful for understanding the “net movement” of funds between accounts and across time.

✅ Debt Payments

  • Any active debt (e.g., mortgages or lines of credit) will show annual repayment amounts.
  • Easy to monitor when debts are projected to be fully paid off.

✅ Spending & Taxes

  • Breaks out:
    • CPP and EI contributions (pre-retirement)
    • Total income taxes
    • Spending in both future dollars and today’s dollars
  • “Today’s dollars” helps understand purchasing power adjusted for inflation.

✅ Year-End Account Balances

  • Shows estimated balances for each account at year-end.

    A helpful metric to:

    • Track if you're generally on course.
    • Reassess spending or saving strategies.
  • Not expected to be exact — within ±10% is considered normal due to market fluctuations.

💡 Tip: Focus on the First 5–10 Years

Assumptions become less reliable further out in the plan due to changing economic conditions. The Summary is most useful for understanding the short- to medium-term.

📊 Visual Summary: Sankey Diagram

For a visual representation of how money moves through the plan:

  • The Cash Flow Sankey Diagram shows:
    • Income sources flowing into total cash flow
    • Outflows such as taxes, spending, and savings
  • Excellent for seeing how all the moving parts (income, contributions, deductions) connect in a given year.