What's new in Forecaster4 4.0.7
May 25, 2018
- Fix problem with payout from a variable insurance policy
- Set variable insurance policy's year end balance to zero after payout to beneficiary.
New in Forecaster4 4.0.6 (May 24, 2018)
- Fix problem with earnings for a variable insurance policy:
- Fix the required condition for adding investment income to variable insurance policy, it now is "insured person is alive", it was the "owner is alive".
New in Forecaster4 4.0.5 (May 24, 2018)
- Fix Some Parameter Bugs:
- Save edit changes to the initial default tax law values over a plan close and reopen. Accept 0% for a specified IRA tax rate. Allow the transfer data entry 2nd page to accept 0% tax rate. Add test of IRA transfer to non-IRA dest to flag it as an IRATaxableDistribution.
New in Forecaster4 4.0.4 (Mar 20, 2017)
- Released on May 13, 2016
- Internal Operation Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an omission of testing for the NoPenaltyTax user option when withdrawing IRA funds. Other internal bug fixes.
New in Forecaster4 4.0.3 (Mar 20, 2017)
- Released on May 10, 2016
- Final Estate Accounting:
- Fixed error calculating the residual estate value caused by not subtracting the income tax paid when bequest was withdrawn from an IRA account.
New in Forecaster4 4.0.2 (Mar 20, 2017)
- Released on May 3, 2016
- Monte Carlo Fixes:
- The usage of the randomized rates is again changed. Now when Forecaster4 runs a trial it obtains a different random Cola rate and Roi rate before each year. And those two selected rates are then used in the calculations during that year. Fixed the "Cola For Indexes" check box option in the Monte Carlo data entry page; it now works to trigger that function. The simulation was fixed to properly randomize the plan's inflation adjusted living expenses amount each year.
- Pensions and Income Fixes:
- There were problems with indexing of pensions; these have been fixed. The data entry page for beneficiaries has been redone to match the needs of the type of pension and income. Only one beneficiary is allowed. Pensions with a contingent payout option must use the spouse as beneficiary. A beneficiary of a non-contingent pension must be a person. Since a principal's pension is income which is put directly into the funds collected to fund the living expenses, it is not ever associated with an account. So the beneficiary's pension payment should continue to be associated with a living person. (Note that incomes cannot be indexed.)
- Fix For Problem With Parameter Changes Added to Assets:
- Assets in a plan created by the version 3 program may have had specific parameter data defined, such as a Roi rate or tax rates, to override the global rates. In the new version 4 program, asset parameters for these rates cannot be specified in the definition of the asset. Instead these specific values are specified by adding a Parameter Change instruction for the asset which is effective in the first plan year. This accomplishes the same result and is more in tune with the overall usage of Parameter Change instructions
- To accommodate old plan files in the new version 4 program, the old plan file's data is modified by Forcaster4 when it is first loaded. The specific parameters are deleted from the asset's definition, and a new Parameter Change instruction is created and added to the asset. This Parameter Change instruction is effective the first plan year and specifies the same parameter values that were in the asset's definition before.
- A problem was discovered after the version 4.0.1 program was released. If a user wanted to update an old plan by changing the plan's start year from say 2014 to 2016, this caused an error which blocked the update. The program was checking to make sure that a Parameter Change instruction did not have an effective start that is earlier than the plan start. In this case that would have nullified any Parameter Change instruction that was added to substitute for the deleted asset parameter.
- The fix is for the user to update any added Parameter Change instructions to the new effective start year first, then update the plan's start year. To assist the user, the version 4.0.2 program in this situation will alert the user to this problem by identifying the asset owning the Parameter Change instruction and suggesting a change there be done first.
- Also the version 4.0.1 release had a bug in that it did not recognize specific parameter rates that were set to zero, and they were not assigned a new Parameter Change instruction for the asset. This has been fixed.
- Other Fixes:
- Fixed income tax result of IRA bequest to spouse's non-ira account. This bequest causes the account's funds to be withdrawn, triggering a tax consequence. The income tax due is deducted from the funds.