Planning for retirement is becoming more and more complicated as retirement comes earlier for many people and our life expectancies get longer. These facts add an additional layer of difficulty to the planning process and require a more serious look into the future.

Golden Years, the Cash-flow Retirement Component in TOTAL Planning System, is an entirely new and unique method of planning and managing your client's resources during their retirement years.

Golden Years combines a unique level of flexibility, detailed analysis, and graphic presentation with an easy to use operation and quick learning curve. Entering assets and personal expenses can be simple and brief. Or you may enter an unlimited number of assets. The "Audit Trail" feature is especially popular, allowing you to trace all calculations and sources through the carefully constructed detail reports.

Some of the questions your clients should be asking include:

• How many years of retirement income will I need to plan for?
• Will my money run out?
• What effect will my retirement plan withdrawals have on my income taxes?
• If I sell my home and purchase a smaller one, how much will that really impact my retirement?
• What effect will inflation have on my income needs?

Golden Years provides the flexibility to perform nearly unlimited scenarios. Change inflation rates or expenses as often as you like. Modify earnings and pension proceeds as often as needed to model changing needs or special plan options. In years when the client has surplus income, specify what percent is reinvested in each of four different savings and investment categories. Change the mix after retirement or at another specified age. Run reports either with or without IRS tax rate bracket indexing. Finally enjoy the freedom of true planning flexibility.

Some popular Golden Years reports include:

• Cash Flow: Illustrates the client's annual income and expenses, including personal living expenses, life insurance and other premiums, mortgage and debt repayment, taxes, planned deposits to investments and retirement accounts, other miscellaneous expense items. Calculates earned income (wages and self-employment), pension plans, Social Security, and other miscellaneous sources. Includes the graph shown below.

• Retirement Projection: Provides a snapshot of the client's capital and how long it will last over the client's life expectancy. The graph below displays at what point the client has run out of money and experiences a capital shortage.

• Sources of Funds: Each year a client's spendable money comes from several different sources. The Sources of Funds report and graph display for the client what specifically is making up their future cash flow and at what age each source will begin and end.

• Other Reports: In addition to the above reports, Golden Years will print and display on-screen dozens of additional reports that will help your clients visualize potential problems and solutions in their retirement planning.

Unless you have the tools to provide a clear and accurate picture of your client's present and future needs and resources, your ability to provide investment and financial advice will be based on too much guess work. The Golden Years Retirement Resource Manager is a new breed of planning and analysis capability, allowing the planner and client to see the effects of strategies, reflecting changes each year into the future.   Through a combination of summary pages and graphs, combined with detailed support pages, the client can gain a new level of comfort with your recommendations and planning solutions.