r/adviice

Hello,

I am trying to figure out what I have done wrong. In all my scenarios the platform is reflecting a shortfall in spending in the year following retirement even though there is money to draw on from our unregistered accounts. I have put in overrides on the employment income and defined benefit pension in the year of retirement to reflect the actual month it might take place (i.e. October 1). I am sure I am missing something obvious so your help would be appreciated!

Thank you!

One thing I’m struggling with when comparing various withdrawal strategies is understanding the ‘real life’ pros and cons beyond the final numbers.

Many strategies end up fairly close in terms of lifetime spending, taxes, or estate value, but I’m wondering if there are practical advantages or disadvantages that don’t show up directly in the projections.

For example, one thing I’ve been thinking about is flexibility and liquidity during unexpected spending events.

If TFSA and non-registered accounts are depleted earlier, then a large unexpected expense later in life could force larger RRSP withdrawals and trigger higher taxes. On the other hand, if RRSPs are heavily withdrawn earlier, maybe too much taxable income is being created unnecessarily, especially if some of that money ends up unspent and could have remained sheltered in the RRSP while withdrawals instead came from TFSA/non-registered accounts.

So I guess my broader question is:

How should people think about the real-world tradeoffs between withdrawal strategies beyond just maximizing ending estate value or minimizing lifetime tax? Are there frameworks or ways to evaluate flexibility, liquidity, and resilience to unexpected expenses when comparing plans?

I'm sorry for asking so many questions today, but I'm a new user and I'm trying to get everything set up as best I can. I'm hoping this question isn't too technical for this forum, but I have encountered a problem when trying to login to Adviice using my employer-provided laptop. I don't have this problem when I use other devices to access your website, so I'm not "stuck". I would just prefer to use my work laptop, if possible, because I've got it driving a large monitor (which is very helpful when viewing those massive tables in the "Projections" section).

I am able to view the https://www.adviice.ca website just fine from my work laptop, but when I click on "Client Sign In", the website takes me to https://app.adviice.com/signin?blahblah and my employer's "IT Security Policy" blocks that webpage, due to being a "Parked Domain" (apparently).

I looked up what a "Parked Domain" is, and it sounds like that term can mean a few different things, but one of them (the one that I think is happening in this case) is when a website domain is "silently redirecting" you to a different domain behind the scenes. In this case, I believe (although I may be wrong) that app.adviice.com is redirecting content from platform.adviice.ca. I tried navigating to https://platform.adviice.ca/signin?blahblah on my work laptop and it wasn't blocked by the security policy (this is a good thing), but the website forwarded me to a 404 (page not found) error page (this is a bad thing). I, apparently, either did something wrong in my "sleuthing" or your website is doing some IT magic that's beyond my detective skills.

So... Are you guys aware that the "Client Sign In" page is being blocked by some corporate firewalls/security policies? Is there a different URL/domain that I could use to sign in instead of https://app.adviice.com/signin?blahblah ? If not, then I'll see if I can get my employer to allow me an exception for your website (though I doubt they will, since it's for personal reasons) and, if not, I guess I'll have to continue using a different device to access your website.

Hey all,

Recently completed a financial plan with Objective Financial Planners to assess retirement readiness (I'm 49) and wanted to use a self-managed tool to track changes from there. After some time reviewing options, decided to use Adviice.

Have re-constructed essentially the same outcome as OFP completed for me in their tool (Planworth) but there is a significant difference between their estimate of success (90-95% depending on a few minor tweaks to plan) and Adviice (51%). I get both use a Monte Carlo analysis and the range of variables may differ but also expected these would be much closer to each other.

This has me a bit deflated tbh as I was ready to go scorched earth at work in anticipation of retiring next year (kidding).

Anyone else find this using different tools for planning? Thoughts on what might be the main driver(s)?

Thanks!

I have searched for an answer to this question, but haven't yet found one. Forgive me if I've overlooked it.

In the "Profile" settings, I have a "Spousal-RRSP or RRIF" set up under my spouse's name (I am the contributor, they are the beneficiary) to try to even out our registered assets. I have a Contribution amount entered in the "Discovery"->"Expenses"->"Monthly Savings/Debt Payments"->"Spousal-RRSP Contributions" box and the current balance entered in the "Discovery"->"Assets"->"Financial Assets"->"Spousal-RRSP or RRIF Balance" box.

I am still in my accumulation phase. In the "Planning"->"Summary" table, I don't see any contributions being made to either my RRSP, or to the Spousal-RRSP by default. If I enable the AI strategy "Enable Spousal-RRSP to better split income", I see no difference in the table. If I enable the AI strategy "Reduce taxable income to $X using RRSP contributions", then I see contributions being made to my own RRSP, but not to the Spousal-RRSP.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get the platform to make Spousal-RRSP contributions to better balance our registered assets (my registered assets are more than double)? Do I have to manually override them in the "Planning"->"Projections" table?

How can I make the metrics bar in projections horizontal. Mine is vertical and to compare I have to scroll way up or down. I notice in all your demos your metrics bar is horizontal and fits nicely in the screen

Not sure how to resolve this spike. Seems she is pulling more RRSP's than necessary the year she retires.

https://preview.redd.it/byw06rdwpc2h1.png?width=267&format=png&auto=webp&s=9ffbc6633a9e6a73ec883f11ebfc9e69d793f4f1

I have searched for an answer to this question, but haven't yet found one. Forgive me if I've overlooked it.

I have a Group-RRSP through my employer where I contribute 6% of my salary. I have this set up in "Discovery"->"Tax & Benefits"->"Group-RRSP" (6% Employee Contribution + 0% Employer Contribution).

My employer matches 75% of my Group-RRSP contributions, but they put their matched amount into a different account (a DPSP). I have this set up in "Discovery"->"Tax & Benefits"->"Deferred Profit Sharing Plan" (4.5% Employer Contribution).

When I look at the "Planning"->"Summary" chart, I can see that my Group-RRSP contributions are being made throughout the remainder of my accumulation phase, but I don't see any DPSP contributions being made. Why not? How can I fix that? I believe that the platform's retirement estimates will be incorrect, since my DPSP isn't increasing as quickly as it should.

Hi there,

After the recent update it's very slow (approx 15 seconds) to update the scenario names when picking between scenarios. There was no noticeable delay previously.

For example, here's what I see initially when trying to select another scenario

https://preview.redd.it/4s1jg1d4qa2h1.png?width=930&format=png&auto=webp&s=73a03e7176152b2d8c937004cccd897c8846197f

And then after 15 seconds the rest of the scenario names are displayed as shown below

https://preview.redd.it/1jmswr3kqa2h1.png?width=967&format=png&auto=webp&s=224e946cc12b45029fbca3236c872469308b5dc5

I have checked this forum and found a similar complaint from 6 months ago at https://www.reddit.com/r/adviice/comments/1oz93b7/is_it_possible_to_adjust_discoverylevel_info_by/

In my case I am exploring my daughter selling her house now and living with me until my demise. My house must then be sold and I need to know is it better for her to rent or buy with her assets at that time (she will be 68+ then I hope - me 90+!).

I first modelled her Renting by overriding previous scenarios (CPP@65 or 70 with maxGIS/ISP) for rent plus other costs then setting up Sell House option. This enabled me to easily go back and delete the Sell House option and overrides should she stay in her house for now (as previously modelled and Locked).

BUT the buying scenario required more Discovery snapshots and would be difficult to construct correctly due to requiring a lot of overrides. So I Locked all the Rental scenarios and constructed a Buying Scenario almost from scratch. This worked well, but now I have no easy way to unlock the Rental or any previous scenarios without Locking the Buying Scenario and then destroying the related snapshots.

The previous post linked above noted this problem and suggested that when locking a scenario the matching Discovery section (and Foundation?) be saved and returned when unlocked (overriding any existing Discovery section). Otherwise there is a fair amount of work required to redo the whole Discovery section to return to the earlier scenarios correctly (assuming you wrote down all the entries before changing).

Has any further consideration been given to this idea in the ensuing 6 months? I find this has been my most frustrating limitation with the existing platform, which is otherwise a wonderful resource. I will be renewing my annual subscription when due in July.

Hi Everyone!

Some of you may have already noticed that we've updated the rate of return assumptions to align with the new FP Canada guidelines. This happens every year around April/May.

The new rates for 2026 and beyond are slightly lower than in 2025. There are two main changes...

• Equity/Stock Return: The blended Canada/US/Global return assumption is going to 6.56% from 6.71%
• Fixed-Income/Bond Return: The fixed-income/bond return assumption is going to 3.20% from 3.40%

For more details on why FP Canada changes the rate of return guidelines we recommend reading their updated report, there are a number of factors mentioned including recent returns and valuation metrics...

https://www.fpcanada.ca/projection-assumption-guidelines

From our testing we noticed that this will affect both After-Tax Estate and Success Rate. The typical decline in Success Rate was between 0% and 3%. The decline in After-Tax Estate Value depended on the length of projection, existing assets, contribution rate, and drawdown rate.

For example...

On a $1,000,000 portfolio the decrease in equity returns from 6.71% to 6.56% meant a decline in After-Tax Estate Value of $155,440 in Today's Dollars over a 30-year period.

However, if the portfolio was $1,050,000 (perhaps due to strong returns in 2025 there was an increase of $50,000 versus the previous year's plan) then the decline in the rate of return assumption was entirely offset.

You can see more details in the help article here...

https://help.adviice.ca/article/547-faq-understanding-the-updated-rate-of-return-assumptions

FP Canada also released revised guidance for Real Estate growth rates. These have not been implemented yet. We will be releasing new functionality next month that will allow you to adjust the Real Estate growth rates within the model.

Thank you!

Adviice Support Team

Edit: A user pointed out that the Discovery > Investment Plan and Corp. Discovery > Investment Plan will visually show the saved Net Return value until you type in the field. This does not affect the Projection at all, which automatically recalculates year-by-year. We're looking at how we can force the Investment Plan to show the updated net return automatically.

Curious to know if the AI strategies consider stopping employer pension savings when trying to optimize a plan? (i.e. the inputs for automatic savings entered in under 'Tax & Benefits' section)

I'm wondering if I have too much registered and curious if directing into non-reg/TFSA is more optimal, even with foregoing the employer match.

In my plan retiring at 55, even with meltdown options selected, I'm seeing my registered NW continue to climb until my mid-70s.

Hi there

Say there are two children 14 and 10. Both only became residents of Canada 8 years ago and we have receive $500 CESG every year for each child.

Based on my understanding of the CESG rules, the older child will not be able to receive the maximum CESG of $7200 but the younger child still could.

I think in the adviice platform, I have to select No to maximize CESG grant and simply enter the planned RESP contributions year after year and but how do I override CESG ? I do not believe in this case there is any unused CESG grant to catch up on.

Thanks

Jason

We have some OAS clawback projected in the future.

I used AI maximizing after tax state, and the clawback is still there.

I know that if withdraw less the clawback will be reduced, but in other hand i will left money in the table.

Other option would be to use TFSA .

Now my question: is Adviice AI trying to do that? or it just follow assets withdraw orders? (like registered then non-reg and finally TFSA)?

It seems like I have to update these numbers under advanced | misc for every scenario I create. Am I missing where to update this? Since this is prior year information, it isn't going to change.

Is the only option to set a base scenario and then copy it?

Hi. Is it advisable to increase by inflation on my yearly vacation budget when using override?

setup:

• 30-year retirement projection
• Net worth displayed in today's dollars

What I did:

1. Added a one-time $100k expense (car replacement) in 2027
2. Added a -$100k withdrawal override on my Non-Registered Savings account in 2027 to force funding from non-registered (rather than letting Adviice default to TFSA or RRSP)

Result: Net worth dropped by only ~$55k, not the expected $100k.

What I tested for comparison:

• Removing the non-reg override (letting Adviice auto-select the source): net worth dropped by ~$173k — a much larger impact.
• My questions:

1. Why does a $100k withdrawal only reduce today's-dollar net worth by ~$55k ?
2. Is combining the expense entry + non-reg withdrawal override the correct way to force funding from a specific account for a one-time spend?

Thanks in advance!

Hi guys. Sorry, I feel like we had a version of this conversation and I'm making you repeat.

I had significant changes in my account (couple to solo being one of them) and need to do a cleanup. How do I enter the following:
- income and expenses (remaining after today or from Jan 1st?)

- Assets: I don't have my assets allocation from Jan 1st and thing changed a lot. Do I just enter my current assets and pro-rate the growth to what's remained of the year? for sake of example: 2/3 (ish) of the growth I would expect in one year?

Thanks

At the start of this year, my wife (turning 65 years old this year) had a LIRA. A couple months ago, she unlocked it, converted it to a LIF, and transferred 50% in-kind to her RRSP. She also created a RRIF, and did a partial transfer of a small amount of investments to it from her RRSP. I would imagine this affects the projections going forward (the LIF is now half as big, the RRIF now allows income from that to be tax-split with me, etc); how do we put this into the plan properly now, so we can see the effects on our plan, rather than waiting for next year to update the Discovery inputs?