Track and Monitor Plans
This article will review the track and monitoring plan functionality inside Income Lab.
Last published on: October 15, 2025
What is a 'Track and Monitor' Plan?
Income Lab allows you to design and explore a range of possible income plans for a client. Once you've chosen a plan that the client will follow, you can 'monitor' the plan, and the Income Lab software will automatically update and monitor that plan over time. So, what is the difference between a monitored plan and an unmonitored plan?
Income Lab allows you to design and explore a range of possible income plans for a client. Once you've chosen a plan that the client will follow, you can 'monitor' the plan, and the Income Lab software will automatically update and monitor that plan over time. So, what is the difference between a monitored plan and an unmonitored plan?
Unmonitored plan
- Answers the question (a) 'How much can I spend?' or (b) 'How can I spend $X, net of tax?' by providing a (a) Spending Capacity/Retirement Paycheck or (b) a Budgeted Spending level.
- Answers the question, 'When would I adjust this spending and what could those adjustments look like?' by providing guardrails and estimates of what changes would look like if a guardrail is hit.
- Every time you make a change to a plan like this, the answers to these questions can change.
- If you re-calculate an unmonitored plan after some time has passed, you will get new answers to these questions.
Monitored plan (in retirement income phase)
- Answers the question 'Should I make a change?' and 'How close am I to an adjustment, and what could an adjustment look like?'
- As time goes on and plan values change, the plan 'Spending Capacity'/'Retirement Paycheck' or 'Budgeted Spending' will only change if the plan has hit a guardrail or triggered an inflation adjustment.
Note that a monitored plan that is still in the pre-retirement/savings phase will behave just like an unmonitored plan. That is, each month the software will automatically update the answer to the question 'How much will I be able to spend when I retire?' given any changes since the previous month. As the beginning of the income plan gets closer, this answer will start to zero in on the spending level that will hold from the beginning of the income plan.
How much can I spend? vs. Should I make a change?
An unmonitored plan is always looking at the full plan picture and finding a spending level that fits the desired chance of overspending and underspending. (For more on viewing retirement spending as a balance of these risks, see Kitces.com and ThinkAdvisor.) For example, a plan might target a 20% chance of overspending and an 80% chance of underspending.
If this plan had a $1 million portfolio, but you changed this to $900,000, then the spending level that has this mix of risks will be lower. In fact, any material change to the plan (changes in income, Social Security timing, plan length, capital market assumptions, etc.) will change the spending level that meets this set of risk targets.
In clear contrast to this approach, once a plan is monitored, the default is that no change to planned spending will be made month to month. A monitored plan contains a sort of 'inertia': once you advise a client to spend, say, $10,000/month, only a guardrail or an inflation adjustment will trigger a change. If a plan hasn't hit a guardrail or inflation adjustment, the plan's spending won't change. This means that the current nominal spending level ($10,000/month, for example) will simply continue forward. This spending level won't continue to have exactly the mix of overspending/underspending risk it used to have. Instead, those risks will float in one direction or another until they have moved enough that a guardrail is hit and an adjustment is called for.
Monitored plans have 'inertia' for a variety of reasons, including:
- Small changes in overspending/underspending risk aren't typically worth reacting to. Spending cuts aren't worthwhile until you are fairly sure that the client is overspending.
- Clients and advisors prefer not to be bogged down in small adjustments and administrative work.
- All else being equal, clients prefer to continue doing what they have been doing.
This means that a $10,000/month spending plan could 'start life' with a 20% chance of overspending and an 80% chance of underspending, the drift toward 40%/60%, then correct back to 0%/100% before triggering, at that point, an increase in available spending.
This 'inertia' in a monitored plan also means that, if you were to build a brand new plan ("Plan B") that is identical to a monitored plan ("Plan A"), but where Plan B is an unmonitored plan, Plan B's spending capacity could very likely be different - either higher or lower - from the otherwise identical Plan A. Why? Because Plan B is a new plan with no history. The clients following Plan B would not arrive having already been spending, say, $10,000/month and with an anchoring to that spending.
While it is possible to build a plan that keeps spending always at one risk level, this kind of plan results in extremely frequent changes (a cost) without improvement in income experience. If you did build such a plan, however, a copy of this monitored plan ("Plan B") would always produce the same spending capacity as the monitored plan ("Plan A").
Once you have tracked a plan for a household, Income Lab will update and monitor the plan on a monthly basis. This monitoring involves updating estimated longevity and plan length, investment account balances, future expected income, etc. Plans are updated around the beginning of each month as soon as all data is available.
View the tutorial below for how to track and monitor a plan.
Video: Tracking and Monitoring Plans
Video Transcript
Welcome. This video will walk you
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through how to track and monitor plans
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inside Income Lab. The track and monitor
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option is a great feature that allows
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you to track plans, have Income Lab
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automatically update them on a monthly
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basis, and then notify you, the adviser,
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when an adjustment is needed. From your
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main households page, if you do have any
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monitored plans right now, you'll see
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that the monitored plan box will
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reference how many of those uh plans are
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currently being monitored. You can click
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that button to show exactly those plans
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that are being tracked and monitored. If
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you do have a plan that does need
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attention, you'll see it right here in
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the needs attention box, you can click
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that and then that will highlight the
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specific plan here that needs attention.
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But now, how do we actually go ahead and
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start the track and monitoring process?
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So, let me open up one of my sample
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households here. So, select a household
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and then from the dashboard, it's
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important to note you do want to select
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the actual plan that you want to track
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and monitor. So if you have different
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scenarios, open up the dropown. Then
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once you have your scenario selected on
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the right side of our screen, click the
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three dot icon and then select track and
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monitor this plan. You'll see a notice
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here having you confirm that you do want
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to make this decision. It's important to
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note once you track and monitor the
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plan, the plan will not be editable
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unless you reconcile or unttrack and
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make wholesale edits. And I'll show you
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that next. But here, let's click track
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and monitor to start that process.
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Once you finalize the track and monitor
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process, you'll see that a notice on
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your top right of a screen will tell you
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the last time the plan was updated. And
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so that will be the most recent month,
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in which this case, this was uh updated
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July 2025.
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If you then click the three dot icon,
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here's where you can select reconcile
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plan values if you'd like to make a
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change to any of your manual entries.
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From here, we can see the accounts, for
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example, that we've manually entered.
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So, if I want to quickly reconcile this
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value, I could put in a new number here.
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You'll see that it'll recognize that as
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a new value. And then at the bottom
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here, you can quickly save changes.
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If you wanted to make more wholesale
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changes to the plan, you do have to then
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click this button, click stop monitoring
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this plan. That will allow you to then
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go in, make any edits like you would on
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a normal scenario, and then once you're
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done, you can quickly just track and
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monitor the plan again to keep the
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tracking going. The other area of the
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software where you can also track and
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monitor a plan is by your plan scenarios
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page. On the plan scenarios page, if
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you'd like to set a plan for track and
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monitoring, you want to find that plan,
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click the three dot icon here and then
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click track and monitor this plan. It's
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important to note when you have
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different scenarios like this, you can
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only have one plan that is being tracked
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and monitored. So, you'll want to just
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confirm that you're selecting the
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correct scenario here as your tracked
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and monitored plan. The last thing we'll
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talk about here is that when you do have
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a track and monitored plan, you'll also
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be able to see the plan history for that
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plan. Since I just set this up to track
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and monitored, we don't have any history
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here yet. But let's see if I can get us
3:03
to a household that does. So, in a
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household that does have the plan
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history, here's where you can kind of
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see when you started tracking the plan,
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as well as any adjustments that have
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been made along the way. And then you'll
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also have a table view at the bottom
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just showing you the balance guard rails
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and your income you had at each month
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that this plan was tracked. Great
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feature to go back and just see what
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types of changes have been made uh
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throughout your plan. All right, that's
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it. Thank you for watching this video.
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Please reach out to our team if you have
3:31
any questions.
Why Monitored Plans May Need Attention
If a household has a Track and Monitor plan, Income Lab automatically tracks that plan over time. On a monthly basis, we recalculate all plan parameters and let you know if the plan is calling for any changes and needs attention. In this article, we'll review the reasons that a plan might need attention.
Scenario 1: Risk has gone down for this plan, resulting in an increase in real income
Every month, Income Lab recalculates the risk profile of a household and its current nominal income level. The default is that a household will continue at the same nominal income level as they had in the past month. However, if the risk of continuing the household's current nominal income through the rest of the plan has gone down over time, it may eventually reach a risk level at which the monitored plan will call for an increase in income. After all, the goal of retirement planning isn't always to keep risk as low as possible. (That would be easy enough - just spend as little as possible!) Instead, the goal is to optimize the standard of living along with other goals, like the desire to leave a legacy.
Why might the risk of a given income level go down? There are many reasons:
- Getting older: As people get older, their remaining plan length goes down. With a shorter plan length, a household can generally afford to withdraw a higher percentage of their investment accounts. Income Lab recalculates the plan length every month, so the plan length is never out of date and clients can take advantage of this natural pattern.
- Portfolio Performance: Good portfolio performance can also let a household increase its income. It's important to understand that good portfolio performance doesn't just mean account balances going up. That is of course a good thing, but even if account balances go down, they could, with time, support higher income levels if they haven't gone down as fast as it was assumed they might.
- Lower-than-expected spending: Though a plan might include a certain level of spending, in the real world spending varies over time and can be less than was originally expected. This lower spending might mean that less was withdrawn from the portfolio than was originally planned or that additions were made to portfolios that weren't part of the plan. This will mean that portfolio balances may be higher than expected and risk has therefore gone down.
- Changes in economic context: If the overall risk of the household, based on economic factors like inflation, interest rates, stock valuations, consumer sentiment, etc., has gone down, this may eventually support an increase in income.
Scenario 2: Risk has gone up for this plan, resulting in a decrease in real income
Every month, Income Lab recalculates the risk profile of a household and its current income level. If the risk of the household's current income has gone up over time, it may eventually reach a risk level at which the monitored plan will call for a decrease in income.
Why might the risk of a given income level go up? There are many reasons:
- Deflation: If prolonged deflation were to increase the purchasing power of a given income level, the real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) withdrawal percentage of the household goes up. This increases risk. Though we have not seen prolonged periods of deflation in recent history, we have seen these scenarios historically.
- Portfolio Performance: Poor portfolio performance can also lead a household to decrease its income. It's important to understand that just because the overall portfolio balance might be going down, this may still not lead to an income decrease. Only if portfolio levels are well below what was expected would a household potentially face a portfolio-balance-related pay cut.
- Higher-than-expected spending: Though a plan might include a certain level of spending, in the real world spending varies over time and can be more than was originally expected. This higher spending might mean that more was withdrawn from the portfolio than was originally planned. This will mean that portfolio balances may be lower than expected and risk has therefore gone up.
- Changes in economic context: If the overall risk of the household, based on economic factors like inflation, interest rates, stock valuations, consumer sentiment, etc., has gone up, this may eventually support the need for a decrease in income.
Scenario 3: Cumulative inflation since the last income change is enough to warrant an income increase
Even if a household's risk has not changed (much), the cumulative effects of inflation can eventually lead to the plan needing attention. Income Lab tracks inflation monthly, but monthly changes in inflation are usually quite small. (There can even be months of inflation followed by months of deflation.) So it is seldom worthwhile for households to adjust their income every month. Instead, Income Lab plans include a specification for how much a given income change (whether due to inflation or a change in risk) would need to be for the household to make an administrative change in how much income it is receiving.
For example, if a plan's Minimum Income Change was set to 5%, the Income Lab system would only raise a Needs Attention Flag if cumulative changes in inflation since the last income change are now at or over 5%. If the plan began with $10,000/month in total income in 2010, that same nominal income will continue month after month. But if that $10,000/month in nominal income eventually reaches $9500 or less in 2010 dollars, then (all else being equal) the plan would call for an increase in nominal income.
Scenario 4: Cumulative deflation since the last income change is enough to warrant an income decrease
Even if a household's risk has not changed (much), the cumulative effects of deflation can eventually lead to the plan needing attention. Income Lab tracks inflation monthly, but monthly changes in inflation are usually quite small. (There can even be months of inflation followed by months of deflation.) So it is seldom worthwhile for households to adjust their income every month. Instead, Income Lab plans include a specification for how much a given income change would need to be for the household to make an administrative change in how much income it is receiving.
For example, if a plan's Minimum Income Change was set to 5%, the Income Lab system would only raise a Needs Attention Flag if cumulative changes in deflation since the last income change are now at or over -5%.
Considering recent history, many believe that the chances you would need to decrease your income in the future because of prolonged deflation are quite low. But if you did, this would not actually affect your purchasing power. Deflation means that a dollar can buy more than it could in the past, meaning a household would need less income to support its lifestyle. In recent history, we have not experienced prolonged periods of deflation of this sort. But if we do in the future, Income Lab will alert you to that fact.
Scenario 5: Non-portfolio cash flows have changed, leading to a need to change portfolio withdrawals in order to keep income steady
Most households derive retirement income from a variety of sources, including Social Security, pensions, annuities, withdrawals from investment accounts, etc. When income from non-portfolio sources changes, such as when a spouse begins taking Social Security, a purely administrative change is needed in order to make sure the household receives the income it had planned.
For example, let's imagine Jim and Mary have an income of $6000/month, made up of $2000 from Jim's Social Security and $4000 in portfolio withdrawals. Mary plans to start taking $1000/month in Social Security one year later. At that point, Income Lab will notify you that a change in portfolio withdrawals is planned. Those withdrawals would need to go from $4000/month to $3000/month to keep the couple's income at $6000/month total.
Of course, this sort of administrative change doesn't happen in a vacuum. If one of the scenarios above (1-4) applies at the same time as this change in non-portfolio income, we'll let you know the combined changes that the plan calls for.
Plans Needing Attention or Adjustments
If you have a monitored plan that calls for a change, we will notify you on your advisor dashboard. If the Households Needing Attention section of the dashboard is greater than zero, click the link below "Households Needing Attention" to see a list of the households whose monitored plans call for a change.
From the plan scenarios page or the plan dashboard, click the "Resolve Flag" button next to "Implemented Plan" to open up the adjustment details.
The details will include why the plan needs an adjustment and how much of an adjustment is needed. You can then choose to monitor the suggested changes or reject them.
Be sure to log in to Income Lab regularly so you can stay up to date on your households and which plans need attention. This will make sure you address any plans in a timely manner and will show the value you are providing clients with our dynamic, ongoing management approach.
Change or Update Values for Track and Monitor Plans
The "reconcile plan values" table allows for easily monitored plan changes or updates. Follow the steps below on how to reconcile plan values on monitored plans.
✋ Please note
Linked accounts on monitored plans will automatically be updated every month as part of the monthly plan tracking. Users can only reconcile plan values on investment accounts that were manually entered into the plan. To update linked accounts on a tracked and monitored plan, you will have to untrack the plan, make any updates on the Assets page, then retrack the plan.
- Select the Implemented Plan from the Households dashboard.
- Click the three-dot icon on the top right of the pag, then select Reconcile Plan Values.
- Enter the updated values in the Corrected Value column and add any notes at the bottom of the page. To finish, click Apply Changes to save.
How to stop tracking and monitoring
You may choose to temporarily pause tracking a plan to make changes or update its inputs.
⚠️ Important Note
To preserve your plan history, be sure to complete all edits and resume tracking before the next monthly update. If tracking is not restarted in time, all historical data associated with the plan will be lost.
Option 1: From the plan dashboard page, click the 3 dot icon on the main dashboard, then select Stop Monitoring this Plan.
Option 2: From the Plan Scenarios page, click the 3 dot icon on the monitored plan, then select Stop Monitoring this Plan.
