Practice Specific

The program collects three different types of information: client information, such as names, addresses and dates of birth; estate details, which includes important information about beneficiaries, assets, liabilities and insurance; and estate plan information, which includes plan description and timing of deaths. The program makes collecting and entering this information relatively easy, and I was pleased to see that the program permits various levels of complexity in information gathering.

The heart of the data collection lies within the estate details dialogs. Interestingly, a great deal of planning goes on here as well. The information collected comprises seven categories:

• Beneficiaries (where you can choose among various types including children, stepchildren, siblings, parents and grandparents, unrelated persons, nieces, nephews and charities)
• Client preferences (where you set up data such as state and federal tax rates for the client and the spouse, trust names, gift splitting history and other relevant tax data)
• Assets and liabilities (which includes nine more categories for cash, securities, real estate, business interests, notes and accounts receivable, life insurance, retirement, family limited partnership, other assets and general liabilities)
• Expenses, losses and probate (which directly affect estate liquidity and are important for planning for a surviving spouse’s cash needs or for the cash needs of an estate with one primary asset)
• Prior gifts, credits and generation skipping
• Tax and insurance planning
• Distribution options.

Each of these categories contains an opportunity for further detailed entry resulting in a careful and complete estate plan. For example, in entering assets, I selected to enter securities. This opened a dialog with nine additional tabs. On the opening screen, I was prompted to enter a description of the security, its asset value, its basis, whether or not it’s a family treasure, and the owner of the security. Other tabs include growth, liquidity, distribution of liquid proceeds, liabilities, income, additions, withdrawals, expenses and gifts. Each of these impacts the final plan.

The purpose of the program is to produce an estate plan for review and discussion with the client. First, you select what to display to the client from the detailed and previously entered information; you also select the order in which it appears in the report. Then, you select or create your client’s estate plan. The program automatically prepares three planning scenarios — all to spouse, the optimum marital scenario and no marital scenario. You also can create a unique plan as well, and you can select any number of plans to display and present to the client.

In addition to the standard information displayed in each of the plans, you can add or subtract other information. One attractive feature is the ability to specifically tailor an estate plan’s written explanation with custom notes for each client. You also can permanently modify the standard report language to better suit your client’s needs.

At one point while using the program it brought up a flashing warning. After clicking on the button, I learned that my estate plan had a cash flow and liquidity problem that my clients should address as part of their comprehensive plan. It’s that kind of intuitive, interactive feature that reflects the program’s enhanced usability and its utility for the estate planner.

One drawback I found was I could not always pick and choose among beneficiaries in a unique pattern. In the era of constantly changing family groups, I think an estate planning program needs a great deal of flexibility in distribution options. This is particularly true of a program such as ViewPlan, which contemplates use by more complex estates, which sometimes necessitate enhanced, creative planning. I was pleased to learn that the CCH was acknowledging changing family structures and implementing a change in the program’s design to permit less common distribution patterns.

I found ViewPlan to be a useful tool for the creative estate planner. It can create plans for presentation to the client in an attractive, understandable format. In addition, I thought it also was a helpful program. It’s multiple levels of data entry make exploring alternative estate planning scenarios a much easier task.

Price: $925 per user

Windows 95/98/2000/Me/NT 4.0 SP3 or higher, Novell Netware 3.1.2 or higher, or 4.11 or higher

Reviewed by Denise P. Ward, Esq., Grean & Ward, Port Chester, N.Y.

Feb/Mar '02 Issue

PROS
Excellent printed materials.

CONS
Needs to be more adaptable to unusual family configurations.

VERDICT
It’s a mature product and provides for good data collection.

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Updated 01/29/02
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