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ESPlannerBasic does indeed, do detailed tax calculations, but the calculations are based on simplified inputs so there is a limit to what it possible to do. If more detailed tax planning is desired, ESPlanner should be the product of choice (since the inputs are more complex) although ESPlannerBasic gives you a detailed breakdown of taxes, both federal and state. The whole point of ESPlanner is NOT to have the user specify anything other than assets, income, pensions, etc. and have the software tell them what they can expect to spend. Additional non-discretionary spending can be specified to any given level of detail. The way to treat ESPlanner's recommendations as an upper bound on discretionary spending. If you spend less, you're being conservative and less subject to having made overly optimistic assumptions, if you spend more you're heading for a crash. While ESPlanner does not have a free trial program, ESP, Inc. has a policy of refunding purchases within 10 days although they have yet to refuse any request for a refund.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm one of the developers of ESP, Inc.'s products.

Richard Munroe of MA 12:34PM April 10, 2010

I am a CFP who has worked for the past 15 years for the makers of ExecPlan and Execplan Express financial planning software. I have seen "new" appraoches to doing what ESplanner tries to do, predict the future. Some software have tried this with rates of returns (Monte Carlos Simulations), ESPlanner's approach is cash flow. And they are right, our cash flow like our investment returns are will not grow linearly. However, this totally misses the point, creating variations in future cash flow could be just as wrong as asuming straight line growth, while at the same time losing focus that a financial plan is nothing more than setting guidelines and goals for you to follow. If you are going to use financial software to help guide you it should focus on the things you can control, ensuring you have proper investment diversification, liquity and invetment and liquidation strategies that minimize tax liabilities. An though they offer a free version, almost all professional financial planning software including ours, Execplan Express, provide unrestricted trial versions that allow consumers plenty of time to run their own plans without having to buy the product. My only bias in this is that consumers should look for software that allows the user to adjust their expenses to their needs on a year by year basis and one that does an actual income tax analysis, neither are avaliable in the ESBasic program. This can be crucial for example, when evaluating how much and from what assets you should liquidate during retiremnt, proper liquidation may reduce not only your income taxes directly, but reduce how much of your social security income may be taxable. You can google retirement planning software to see what is out there or visit our website execplanexpress.com to get a trial version or see sample reports

Robert Fourman of NJ 11:25AM December 17, 2009