Before you read our policy, please note that everyone else in the financial industry does the same thing - which is making their financial software expire annually, so they can suck more money out of you, so they can survive the bad times. Ask Microsoft Money, which went out of business in '09, why financial software vendors all do this.

The main reason is that if financial software did not expire, then all of Asia would pirate it. So having it only last one year at a time stops all of this. If it only lasts one year, then they're not going to steal it, brand it, then market and sell it.

It also has to do with not wanting customers to have old versions that are about to be changed to reflect changes in the word in general. For example, you don't want to be using tax or estate planning software any time before 2011 because the laws are totally different now, and the estate planning industry mostly died off. So over time, financial software changes to reflect new realities.

Then in general, over time, bugs and other problems are found and fixed. So newer versions have less problems (and more features, bells, and whistles).

In general, the financial world changes way too much to be using financial software that's more than a year old. This is why everyone does the same thing. So it's somewhat about "showing me the money," but there's much more to it than just that.

So because of all of this, most "code-driven" financial planning software charges 100% each year (e.g., TurboTax, Turbo Tax, Morningstar, and all of the usual BD financial plan software like NaviPlan, Profiles, and all of the MoneyWhatevers). So every year, it's the same $750 - $2,100 charge just to get the new version.

Some vendors charge 50%. We only charge 25%.

Only the Excel spreadsheets expire annually. They'll work for one year after you buy them. After that, they will "expire" and become non-functional.

Update costs are 25% of what's currently shown on the bottom of the product pages or price list.

Updating usually means you already have something, it expired, and then you renewed it right away. If too much time goes on between expiration and updating, then it's not really updating. So how much the update price is depends on the module, how much time went by, what you ordered before, then how you were input into the database.

So even if you bought everything on the site via the most expensive Bundled Deal, your annual update costs would be less than $500 with the Models and Mutual Fund Picks subscription, and only around $200 without the subscriptions (depending on which level of support you wanted).

Please note that the Model Portfolios and/or Mutual Fund Picks are a monthly-updated service. So not only do they always "expire" monthly, the subscription needs to be renewed annually, or you'll just stop getting them in your e-mail.

If you bought the Lifetime Subscription, (LTS) then you'll get free updates for "life." You can also get individual modules that don't expire. You'll still have to do one of the program updating routines as described below, but it will never cost you any more money. Unless you want to do it this way....

If you're only interested in having individual program modules never expire, then you can do that too. Just take the initial price shown on the pricing tables at the bottom of the product page, then multiply the update price (25% of the initial price) by five, then add them together. Then go to that order form here.

Here's an example using the e-mail supported Dual RWR program:

Current price: $200
Update price: $50 (25% of $200)
Multiply update price by five: $250

Dual RWR Life Time Subscription Price:

$200
+$250
$450

So for $400 you'll get Dual RWR with no expiration function, plus you'll get free updates whenever that happens (when new features are added or a bug is fixed).

If you already have Dual RWR, then it would be $250 to turn it into an LTS deal.

Please note that this LTS deal does not apply to the Models or Mutual Fund Picks, as that's a different subscription. Both of those are always the full prices shown annually.

Plus, these LTS prices only apply to programs that are Excel spreadsheet. Word docxs and other types of files do not have expiration features, so you can use them forever as they are.

Also, if you LTS any type of Kit (NSK or IBK), then you'll get all of the Word docxs and other types of files again whenever there's a change.

And... if you want to convert a module you already have into LTS, then what you paid in the past will be applied as a credit, so you won't pay for anything twice.

How to Update Old Spreadsheets with Client Data into the New Version

There is now an "automatic method." Before, you had to copy and paste inputs.

It's a separate spreadsheet. So each module has its own updater macro workbook.

All you do is rename the old version to "oldFile name.xlsx;" and then have the updater, the new version, and the renamed old version all in the same folder.

Then you just "click a button" and then a macro magically copies all of the input data from the old version (oldFile name.xlsx). Then just save it, and you've updated.

Now change inputted ages everywhere it asks for it because people are usually another year older when this happens (you would have had to do this with the old one too, even if it didn't expire).

Change the current year if needed too if there is an input cell for that (you would have had to do this with the old one too even if it didn't expire).

Here's the Old "Manual Method":

First, one of the reasons why this is based on Excel, is because there's only a couple-minute copying and pasting process from old to new version to update and you're good.

Excels allows you to permanently keep your inputted client data. With code-driven software, you could lose everything when it goes away, there's a new version, or it expires, or you just don't pay more money in one way or another. For example, in 2006, Financial Profiles just stranded all of its users when it came out with a new version that didn't talk to the old version. So years of inputting client data into the old database was permanently lost with no way to recover it (the old version completely stopped working, because it went to a cloud to check status, then it was told it was an old version, then it was completely kaput). They did this to force users to pay to upgrade because EISI really needed the money. Then users that did pay to upgrade found that the old version still didn't talk to the new version, so they were still permanently stranded (because they never fixed that). That can't happen with Excel, because you'll always have all of your client data in the input cells (even if the program expires).

It only takes a minute or two to update an old client's program to the new one using the old manual method. Here's how to do that:

A program expiring did not do anything to harm the input data of the old workbook. Only the calculations are non-functional (which make the presentation sheets and graphs not work).

Next, another method is to just put screen prints of your input into a Wood docx. Just get input on your screen, like the image below, then press the Print Screen key. This copies what's on your monitor onto the Windows clipboard. Then open a new Word docx; paste, and the image is there. Then do a Page Break, and continue until all of your input is in the docx. Then use it to duplicate input into the new program. You can then do it via another open Window, or by printing the screen prints (or by printing just the input areas via Excel, but screen prints are easier than that). Then you won't have to do any of the following steps.

Now open both the old and new workbooks.

If you want to have both old and new workbooks open at the same time, you may have to rename the old version to be something different first, because you can't have two files with the same name open at once.

Go to the main input sheet on both. A tip to switch between open workbooks in Excel is to press Control Tab.

The goal of all of this is to copy and then use the Paste Special feature to get the old input data into the new workbook.

Here is Dual RWR's Master Input sheet as an example:

Image of retirement planning software.

The range A11:A27 was highlighted. When input cells are all together like this, it's much faster to copy and paste them in chunks.

If you would have tried to copy A10:A27, then you'd get an error because then you'd be pasting to cell D10, which is a protected non-input cell.

Only copy and paste into green or gray input cells. On input and calculation sheets, if you try to paste to a protected cell, you'll get an error (and nothing will paste).

Now go to Window and switch to the new program (or press Control Tab).

Go to cell A11. Do not just paste! The reason is that the input validations may be discombobulated. This gives you meaningful error messages and tells you what you did wrong and how to fix it, when you make a mistake.

Right click and choose Paste Special, then choose Values. This will paste just the values of the cells, and won't overwrite any of the formats or validations. Another Excel design flaw is that the validations should not paste into protected sheets, even though the cell is unprotected, but they do.

When input cells are not together, like in the image below, then you'll have to do it one cell at a time. Here just cell AZ17 was copied.

Image of a retirement plan software reports.

Be sure to copy and paste ALL input cells into the new program, everywhere, including all of the manual overrides.

If you didn't modify any of the presentation sheets, then this is all you'll have to do. The old workbook now is useless and can be deleted as long as you saved the new one.

Now change inputted ages everywhere it asks for it because people are usually another year older when this happens (you would have had to do this with the old one too, even if it didn't expire).

Change the current year if needed too if there is an input cell for that (you would have had to do this with the old one too even if it didn't expire).

If you try to paste into cells that are not green (or gray) then you will get the protection error.

Next, how to get the custom modifications you made on presentation sheets from the old program to the new one (this is only if you made custom changes that you want to import into the new version):

The biggest error here is that people forget to unprotect the sheet first. The presentation sheets may be protected, but there is no password, so you can just go to Review, Protection, Unprotect sheet. So first, make sure both the old and new versions are not protected.

Go to cell A1 the new version. Press Control A to select everything (that sometimes doesn't work in Excel '07, so click the gray square before cell A and 1 to select all cells), and press the delete key. This will delete everything, but some graphs you don't want, or have modified, may stick around. If you want them, then don't delete them. If you don't, then click on each graph to select it and then press the delete key as many times as it takes until it's gone. Repeat until everything is gone.

Go back to cell A1 on the new version.

Go to cell A1 of the old version. Press Control A to select everything. Then press Control C to copy.

Go to the new version, and press Control V to paste. Ensure you're still on cell A1.

You may want to manually copy and paste each modified graph into the new version one at a time. If you do, then there is a major Excel design flaw: It's still going to reference the data on the old workbook. It's a flaw because it should ask you which workbook you want the data to come from beforehand.

The images below first show the old version, then the new. When the top left graph was copied into the new workbook, the formulas still reference the old one (too small to see).

Information about financial planning software updates.

You'll need to change them to reference the new version. Here's how to do that if it's just one graph:

If it's more than one, then the best thing to do is to edit the links. How to do that:

First make sure the sheet and workbook are not protected. Go to Edit, Links (this is under the Data tab in Excel 2007).

Click on the external link that points to the old workbook. Click Change Source. Now browse until you find the new workbook, and then choose that. Now all of the external links will point to the new workbook instead of the old one.

How to do it one graph at a time:

First regular left click on the graph. Then press the up or down arrow key until you see the formula like in the image above. For the old version, it looks like this:

=SERIES('Annual Summary Numbers'!$F$6,('Annual Summary Numbers'!$A$8: $A$40,'Annual Summary Numbers'!$A$47: $A$70),('Annual Summary Numbers'!$F$8: $F$40,'Annual Summary Numbers'!$F$47: $F$70),1)

The formulas in the new version look like this:

=SERIES('[Dual RWR with demo data.xls]Annual Summary Numbers'!$F$6,('[Dual RWR with demo data.xls]Annual Summary Numbers'!$A$8: $A$40,'[Dual RWR with demo data.xls]Annual Summary Numbers'!$A$47: $A$70),('[Dual RWR with demo data.xls]Annual Summary Numbers'!$F$8: $F$40,'[Dual RWR with demo data.xls]Annual Summary Numbers'!$F$47: $F$70),1)

All you'll need to do is copy and paste them from the old one into the new one (assuming you didn't change the sheet names of the sheet where it's getting its data from). So highlight the whole formula, then copy, go to the new one, delete, then paste.

The thing to keep in mind is that you'll need to do this for each series in the chart. A series is data that makes up something in the cart. In the images above, there are two series, one for the purple and one for the blue areas of data. You scroll through the series by pressing the up or down arrow when you're inside a chart.

Be sure that you copy and paste the correct old version's series into the new version. The way to tell is the very last number in the formula, in this case this is Series 1.

Keep in mind that you only have to do this when you've modified a chart and want to use it in the new version. If you didn't delete the new charts, then they should work just like the old ones (probably better as things always improve).

If your modification was simple to an existing chart, then you can probably get away with just copying and pasting the chart formulas from the old one to the new one.

If you need to print something on a password protected sheet, and you need to tinker with column and row sizes, and you bought support, and it's in Excel 2007 format, then you can get a version sent to you that does that.

We hope this helps. Please comment if you don't understand, something is missing in this section that needs to be covered, something needs to be clarified, etc.

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