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To test a change, duplicate the plan, change the copy, and compare the copy’s forecast with the original’s on the overview chart. The copy gets its own accounts, income, spending, milestones, assumptions and every other plan setting.
To test a change that should keep up with your main plan, make a scenario instead: a linked plan that receives every change you save to the Main plan, except the values you changed in the scenario.
For a quick what-if without a copy, keep the current forecast as a baseline, edit the plan, and compare, then change it back.
- Open the plan you want to copy in the plan builder’s Active plan list.
- Choose Duplicate, then Duplicate plan.
- The copy opens as the active plan, named after the original with “(copy)” added.
- Change the one input you want to test.
| Item | In the copy |
|---|---|
| Plan details, partner, filing status, state and life expectancy | Copied; edits affect one plan |
| Income, expenses, milestones and income allocation | Copied; edits affect one plan |
| Drawdown order, assumptions, property, debts, charitable giving and residences | Copied; edits affect one plan |
| Tax, health coverage, flexible-spending and estate settings, and notes | Copied; edits affect one plan |
| Accounts: balances, types, owners, cost basis and account investment settings | Copied; edits affect one plan. Household accounts stay shared |
References inside the plan point to the copy’s own records. For example, an expense that ends at the copy’s retirement milestone moves when you move that milestone, and the original plan is unchanged.
- Open the plan you want to keep as the Main plan.
- Choose New scenario, name it, then choose Create scenario.
- The scenario opens as the active plan and is listed under its Main plan in Active plan.
- Change the values you want to test in the scenario.
| In the scenario | Result |
|---|---|
| A value you haven’t changed in the scenario | Updated to the Main plan’s value |
| A value changed in this scenario | Kept |
| An item added to the Main plan | Added to the scenario |
| An item you removed from the scenario | Stays removed |
| An item you added to the scenario | Kept; it exists only in the scenario |
| Income allocation rules, drawdown order and residences | Follow the Main plan as a whole list until you change that list in the scenario |
Saving a change to a scenario never changes its Main plan. A scenario is otherwise an ordinary plan: its forecast, comparisons, sharing and exports work the same way.
Go back to the Main plan’s values
In View changes, Use Main’s value resets one value and Use Main’s values resets a whole item; it then follows the Main plan again. Restore brings back an item you removed, with the Main plan’s current values. Use Main’s rules replaces the scenario’s income allocation rules with the Main plan’s. If the bar says some changes weren’t applied, it lists why; fix the cause, then choose Sync now.
- Open the plan you changed.
- On the overview chart, choose the other plan in Compare with another plan…. In a scenario, Compare with the Main plan’s name on the scenario bar does the same.
- Read the difference on the chart: the other plan is the dashed Baseline line, and the shading shows where this plan is ahead or behind. Hover a year for both net worths and the difference.
- Choose Stop comparing when you’re done.
Both plans are recalculated when you pick the comparison, with the same start date. The comparison covers the years both plans share. In today’s dollars, both lines are converted with the open plan’s inflation, so a different inflation assumption in the other plan doesn’t skew the display.
The same comparison appears in Tax toolsAnnual tax breakdown as the total tax change across shared years. It is the difference between the two whole plans, not the tax effect of one change alone.
Keep forecast for comparison saves the current forecast as the baseline. Edit the plan, and the chart compares the new forecast with the kept one. Update comparison forecastreplaces the baseline with the current forecast.
The overlay compares steady-return net worth only. To compare risk, run chance of success on each plan in turn, with the same trial count and seed, so both plans face the same market sequences. See Success odds. Replay the same historical period in each plan with the Historical stress test.