The Estate analysis screen visualizes how assets flow to a surviving spouse and clients' heirs in a dynamic environment. To access the estate analysis tools select open client next to the desired client, then select Estate from the top navigation once the client's portal loads.
The Checklist is a simple way to keep track of important estate planning tasks. If an item is checked off the list, RightCapital will display additional fields that can be entered.
For example: If a client has created a Power of Attorney document, they see additional options to:
Indicate the Power of Attorney's name
Indicate when the document was last updated.
The action items at the bottom of the checklist screen allow advisors to make client-facing notes related to the objectives above. The edit button allows users to select which checklist items will display on the screen and report.
This screen allows users to track beneficiaries for bank, investment, and life insurance accounts. The beneficiary can be another member of the family, ‘Trust’, ‘Charity’, ‘All children’, ‘All grandchildren’, or ‘Custom’, allowing any freeform text to be added. Use the "Edit" button within the action items to adjust the accounts listed in the beneficiary review.
Note – Any beneficiary entered is only stored for tracking purposes only; the entry of a beneficiary does not impact the Estate analysis section or any other portion of the system.
The Analysis tab defaults to the Flow sub-tab. The Flow tab provides comprehensive modeling tools and an accessible visualization of assets flowing from the client to their heirs. Click on the individual boxes to see expanded data that culminates into the value shown. You can open all boxes except Inheritance, Total tax & fees, Estate to heirs, Total to heir, and Total to charity.
This powerful visual tool allows clients to see with clarity through the sometimes murky waters of estate planning — continuing to elevate your services as a critical component to your client's retirement success!
Use the Estate Analysis > Action Items to enter basic information affecting asset flow from clients to their heirs. The action items include planning horizon, funeral expense, cumulative gift, gift tax paid, and any deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE) a client may have from a previous marriage. To adjust which details are visible in the Action Items, use the edit button on the bottom right side of the screen.
Pro-tip: If a client were to divide the asset between a surviving spouse and other beneficiaries outside the plan, we could do so in the Gear Icon > Settings > Account Assumptions sub-tab:
After updating the account assumptions, we will see the money given to beneficiaries outside of the plan in the 'Estate to Heirs' portion of the flow chart:
Client & Co-client's Planning horizon: Adjust the planning horizon to illustrate what changes occur in the estate if clients pass away at different times. Changing the planning horizon in the Flow chart > Action Items will not impact any other modules within the software.
Funeral Expense: Funeral expenses are input in today's dollars within the basic information area. These expenses will be automatically added to the taxes and fees area within the analysis flow chart.
Probate Expense: Probate expenses are added as a percentage of the gross estate and will automatically factor into the taxes and fees area within the analysis flow chart.
Cumulative Gift: Generally, no estate taxes are due if the estate value is less than the lifetime gift/estate exemption of $13,610,000 (for 2024). However, that exemption may be reduced throughout the client's life if they make gifts that exceed an annual gift exclusion ($18,000 in 2024). If a client has made gifts in excess of the annual exclusion, the total value can be entered in the cumulative gift field. The value entered in this field will reduce the gift/estate exemption when calculating estate taxes.
Gift Tax Paid: This field addresses a scenario where clients make gifts in excess of the annual gift exclusion but choose to pay the taxes in the year that the gift is made. The estate tax calculated will be reduced by the total “gift tax paid”.
RightCapital will automatically calculate federal estate tax if the gross estate exceeds $13,610,000 (for 2024) in today's dollars. Click into the Estate > Analysis > Flow > Taxes and Fees tile(s) to view estate taxes.
State-level estate taxes may also be calculated based on state-specific rules for clients within the following resident states:
Use the Estate > Analysis > Action Items to illustrate moving assets from taxable investments into a trust type of your choosing. This area allows you to simulate multiple trust strategies within a client's estate analysis.
Use the steps below to enable multiple trust strategies:
1
Click Edit under the Action Items section:
2
Within the drawer that opens on the right side of your screen, click Add New Trust in the lower left to open the menu of available trust options:
3
Choose your desired trust type, and then use the data fields to identify the parameters for that trust. The available data fields will adapt to fit your chosen trust type.
After filling out each field, click Save in the lower right:
4
After clicking Save, your trust proposal will be added to the Estate Analysis. Use the Action Items to include or exclude the trust strategies you've built here:
Looking for more on Trust types?
For more detailed information on each type of trust within RightCapital, please see the article below:
When including a trust strategy, all of the figures within the Estate Analysis flowchart will be updated to reflect the impact of that trust on the client's Estate plan. This will allow you to see:
How much is held outside of the taxable estate
How much more the client's heirs will receive
How much more will go to charity
How much less the clients will pay in taxes
When including a trust strategy in the Estate analysis, the Comparison tab can be used to directly compare the current strategy (without the trust) to the proposed strategy (with the trust). The Trust subtab will allow you to track the income distributions and year-to-year balances and returns for your proposed trust. Please see below for more details on these sub-tabs.
The Comparison tab illustrates the impact of any changes made under the 'Action Items' to the specific parameters or trust strategies. There are two charts available here- the Estate Planning Summary chart, and the Retirement Income chart:
The Estate Planning Summary is where you can see the impact of the strategies indicated in the Action Items section. Here, you can directly compare the value passed to heirs, any amount given to charity, as well as the impact on the total taxes and fees. You can hover your mouse over the bar chart to see specific dollar amounts.
If the Retirement Income chart is selected, you will see a chart showing the client's income, similar to the Retirement Analysis Income Sources chart. This will factor in the impact of any trust income specified.
Trust income will be categorized as Other Income, represented in green within the Retirement Income chart.
The Trust tab allows you to see the annual asset breakdown for each trust entered into the financial plan. The trust tab will only appear if an irrevocable trust is entered in the Profile > Net Worth, or proposed in the Estate > Analysis > Action Items. Use this tab to discuss annual trust balances, returns, taxes, fees, and distributions:
For assistance leveraging the Estate module, please contact RightCapital Support.
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