MaxiFi Planner Premium and MaxiFi Professional permit you to plan explicitly for the possibility of your early death or that of your spouse/partner. There is no contingency planning for families who are single. (The contingent planning feature is not available in MaxiFi Planner Standard, only in Premium and Professional.)

A simple example using Special Expenses: If either spouse dies in the next 5 years, a $0 cost to pay a nanny is changed to $2000 per year for the five years. 

Contingency settings are currently available for Special Receipts, Special Expenses, Retirement Account Contributions, Housing, and Future Earnings.

The main purpose of contingency planning is to get life insurance calculations correct, and, in a related way, to accurately calculate a survivor's living standard (i.e., discretionary spending). For example, in the event of a spouse or partner's death, if a survivor intends to take on extra work (or quit working), get a special receipt (or not get one), contribute more (or less) to a retirement account, or incur some special expense (or forego some special expense) in the event of his or her spouse's death, such contingencies will change the survivor's living standard needs and thus change his or her life insurance needs.

If you have entered any contingency changes, such as reducing a Special Expense upon death of a spouse, the changes will impact your plan in two ways:

  • Contingencies will take effect after the person's maximum age if the spouse/partner has not yet reached their maximum age. For example, if Jane enters a contingency to reduce a planned Special Expense of $2,000 per year to $200 per year if John dies, and their current settings have John reaching his maximum age of 100 five years before Jane reaches her maximum age, the plan will show the lower $200 expense for the last 5 years until the year Jane reaches her maximum age and the plan ends.
  • In addition, even if both adults in the family reach their maximum age of life in the same year, contingencies impact life insurance calculations. For example, in the case where they have the $2,000 per year Special Expense, without any contingency changes, life insurance will be calculated based on the survivor continuing to spend that $2,000 per year. But if they set a contingency in case either dies to reduce that expense to $200, the life insurance coverage suggested by their plan will be reduced since the survivor will only spend the reduced amount.

  • Where contingency settings are available, a link will be available to open a contingency setting panel like the one below.