Last updated on: Dec. 7, 2020, 4:15 a.m.

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In the real world, we have some knowledge of the past, hold some reasonably grounded assumptions about the present, but very often can guess very little about the future. Our job at Old Lloyd is to help you to tame this uncertainty as much as possible.

At times you find yourself at a threshold of an important decision. Can I afford to buy this house? Will I have enough money for my children’s education? What happens if my work’s pension scheme collapses? These different scenarios play out in everyone’s head from time to time. A prudent person should ask these “what if” question often.

You might also wonder whether your financial backbone is strong enough to withstand future storms. What if you have a medical condition, which will require a live-in help for the last 5 years of your life? 10 years? Both you and your spouse? What if you will need a knee replacement? What if pound of sterling depreciates by another 30%? Or one of your tenants stops paying and it takes you a year to resolve the situation? Somewhat scary and not that pleasant to think about when you are in your 30-ies or 40-ies, but as we keep saying, better safe than sorry. The last thing you want is to find yourself broke when you are 78 and bedridden.

We provide a convenient tool to help you to answer these questions. You can have multiple scenarios for your assets and cashflows. Each scenario is essentially a completely independent set of both, so you can play around with them by adding, removing and adjusting entries as you see fit. And then use forecasting to see where the current scenarios get you.

How to use scenarios

When you are logged in, you can see in the upper right corner of the toolbar the drop-down menu with the list of available scenarios. Initially each new user has only one, the “Default scenario”. When you have more than one, you can switch to it, i.e. make it the current, by simply clicking on its title in the menu.

In the same menu you can see the option to manage scenarios. This is where you can add a new scenario. A brand new scenario will have no assets or cashflows associated with it. You can also clone an existing scenario, in which case it will, as the action implies, have a complete copy of all of the other’s data. It is a good way to start a new scenario which differs only a little bit from an already populated one.

Scenarios as a tool for IFAs

Scenarios can be a powerful tool for an independent financial adviser or a financial planner. It is in the nature of the business to try and forecast outcomes of different types of investments, and most of the clients will be especially interested to see how theirs will help them to retire and what sort of lifestyle they will be able to afford. A financial adviser can have a scenario, or multiple scenarios, created for each client, and can provide them with the necessary projections. We might add extra tools to this web site in the future to make this even more usable for advisers and their clients. If you have any further enquiries, please contact us using the link below.