Income Lab Expands Full Life-Cycle Financial Planning
Income Lab, a provider of financial planning and retirement income software for financial advisors, announced an expansion of its full life-cycle planning capabilities, adding tools for college funding, student financial aid, pension decisions, early retirement and tax return analysis.
Justin Fitzpatrick, president and co-founder of Income Lab, said the expansion builds on the company’s roots in retirement-income planning by allowing advisors to address clients’ financial questions within the context of one ongoing plan.
“We became known for helping advisors answer a key question: How much can I spend in retirement?” Fitzpatrick said. “But clients have important questions long before they retire, and those decisions affect one another. Our expansion is about bringing rigorous analysis and clear, practical answers to more of those decisions—not just adding more features to a checklist.”
He said that decisions made during working years and pre-retirement have grown increasingly important as more people choose to retire earlier.
Advisors can use the platform’s “Life Hub” plan mapping view and Insights Dashboard to understand a household’s financial picture, including savings, debt, emergency reserves and projected retirement income.
The plan also models employer retirement contributions, taxes, cash value life insurance and business sales, according to Income Lab.
Penny, the company’s digital paraplanner, now includes a College Funding Planner that considers school costs, existing savings, projected grants and borrowing to show funding gaps, according to the company. The Preretirement Planner in Decision Lab compares 25 combinations of retirement dates and savings levels, drawing on the company’s modeling of investment, inflation, longevity and cash-flow risk.
Penny’s new FIRE Lab compares up to seven financial-independence approaches, while the new Pension Option Analyzer compares lump sums and pension income across longevity scenarios. The Social Security Optimizer analyzes more than 9,000 claiming combinations for couples, according to Income Lab.
The Preretirement Planner, Life Hub, Tax Lab, the Social Security Optimizer, and cash value life insurance modeling are available in Income Lab Core and Pro. The College Funding Planner, Student Aid Index tool, FIRE Lab, Pension Option Analyzer, Penny’s tax return analysis, Medicare and estate tools are included with Income Lab Pro.
In September, XYPN, the popular network and business support platform for fee-only financial planners, announced access to Income Lab as a new member benefit and as a partner at its 12th annual conference, held in San Diego.
Advisors interested in more information can visit the Income Lab’s website to view a recording of the company’s recent webinar on the new tools.
Income Lab’s expansion adds to an industry trend, largely driven by artificial intelligence-related development throughout the year, of planning providers, all-in-one platforms and custodians developing their own tools or partnering. These include developments at Advyzon, Conquest Planning, eMoney’s CoPlanner and Apex’s partnership with Wavvest, among others.
