Anyone tried using Fidelity's Income Strategy Evaluator Tool? Getting an error

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Dimsumkid

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I'm not sure if you can access this w/o being a Fidelity customer. I've been trying to see how this tool works, but I keep getting an error that fails trying to enter step 4: Income Strategy. I've called my private access team, talked to the customer service/technical support twice now, it's been broken since last week, but apparently I'm the first person who has contacted them. They were able to duplicate the problem too. I'm awaiting a call when/if they get it fixed. If you're a Fidelity customer, can you give this a try and see if it's works for you or not? Thanks. Here's the link:

Welcome to the Fidelity Income Strategy Evaluator(SM): Fidelity Investments
 
Everything worked for me a few weeks ago. I will try again this evening and let you know.

Have you tried the Retirement Income Planner (RIP)? What I like about it is that in the hardcopy (aka PDF) report that you can download at the end, it gives the percent withdrawal from your portfolio for every year. You can then see if you are going over 4% in some years or going below 2% in other years. I think both of these withdrawal rates are probably not good.
 
LOL,
I've used the Retirement Income Planner for years, it's a nice tool. I just noticed this Income Strategy Evaluator, just wanted to see what it offers. Let me know if it works for you. The error message I got was a red box outlining the words "!Sorry, error during submission".
 
I gave it a spin. Our IRAs are all at Fidelity so it used our current data. Fascinating that we are slightly above the goal it set. It recommends a couple annuities but frankly at current rates they aren't a good value, IMHO.
 
Brat said:
I gave it a spin. Our IRAs are all at Fidelity so it used our current data. Fascinating that we are slightly above the goal it set. It recommends a couple annuities but frankly at current rates they aren't a good value, IMHO.
Click to expand...

Brat,
You didn't get this error then? I still can't get into the Income Strategy step 4.
 
It works fine for me. Imports all investments as RIP does (via Full View, of both FIDO and non-FIDO accounts). Also uses the detail expenses from RIP.

Yes, it does show on the output report the use of both Fixed (e.g. SPIA) and variable annuities. I already have an SPIA, but that income is covered via the income report and is not shown on Full View as an asset (e.g. it's treated like a pension or SS).

For me, it's just another way to think of "possibilities" based upon another set of rules. Doesn’t say you must invest as it recommends (same thing as VG's F.E. product), but it does make you think a bit outside the box.

As for me, I still use FIDO's RIP, along with my own investments to see the results. IMHO, it's still the best "free tool" out there (assuming you are a FIDO customer). But then again, that's only my opinion :cool: ...
 
Rescueme,
Thanks for the update that this works for you. I'm not sure why mine keeps crashing with this error. Even the tech team at Fidelity was able to duplicate my problem, I assumed it was causing issues for all, but that's not the case. I wasn't doing anything special, just clicking the prompts and the tool keeps crashing on me. Guess I'll have to wait for them to fix it on my account.
 
I just gave it a spin and it worked for me. It recommended buying annuities with almost 25% of my portfolio, 2/3 going to an immediate annuity and 1/3 to a variable. I guess the variable part is suppose to give me some potential growth. I'm not writing annuities off, but I'm not sure I can make myself write a check for that amount of money.

Oh well, I'm not doing anything until I reach SS age anyway so plenty of time to think about it. As I said in other threads, they only reason I would consider going that route is to make sure I have something coming in down the road in case I go bonkers. Don't want to spend it all on wild woman as I get too old. On the other hand...............:-\
 
I got an email reply from fidelity. They don't think it affects all customers, but some. They'll let me know when they have it resolved, but nothing yet for people getting errors (like me!)
 
Worked for me a couple of weeks ago.

Did you try emptying your browser cache and rebooting?
 
Worked for me as well in the test I just now ran.
 
Dimsumkid said:
Sure wish I did, then I'd never have another financial worry...ever!
Click to expand...
Unfortunately that probably isn't the case. More money just creates different concerns - you'd be worried about growing it, not losing it, being taken advantage of, or some other pitfall.

All this is strictly hearsay of course...:)
 
Under the "Your Retirement Savings" one had to enter their Liquid Net Worth. If you entered a number below your "Total Portfolio Amount" (all of it should be liquid), then you get this error message:
"Please provide a Liquid Net Worth no less than your Total Portfolio Amount."

This error then does not allow you to continue. However, this is not your error, but might be something to look at anyways.
 
LOL! said:
Under the "Your Retirement Savings" one had to enter their Liquid Net Worth. If you entered a number below your "Total Portfolio Amount" (all of it should be liquid), then you get this error message:
"Please provide a Liquid Net Worth no less than your Total Portfolio Amount."

This error then does not allow you to continue. However, this is not your error, but might be something to look at anyways.
Click to expand...

I got that error the first time, then corrected it. The error I get now looks more like a system error not meant for customers to see. Looks like a programmer's message to flag a problem. I used to develop code, that's why I'm surprised this tool made it all the way into production use, even more surprised they haven't been able to fix it since I told them about it last Wed or Thur.
 
REWahoo said:
Unfortunately that probably isn't the case. More money just creates different concerns - you'd be worried about growing it, not losing it, being taken advantage of, or some other pitfall.

All this is strictly hearsay of course...:)
Click to expand...

One thing's for sure, with those kinds of assets, I'd never have to worry about getting health insurance and affording the premiums or future increases. If they dropped me, I would just self insure!
 
I got a call back/update on the problem. It's a pretty involved issue, affects a number of customers that used Full View, possibly had account names greater 40 characters (I don't) and may have trust accounts in their portfolio. I also mentioned that I've had errors from Full View doubling my assets from oustide companies (i.e., TD Ameritrade) and I couldn't delete them, I had to zero out the accounts and hide them. They're going to install a fix around 3/29, so they're hoping this will be fixed by end of this month.
 
Just thought I'd update this. Fidelity fixed the issue with this tool. At least it works for me now!
 
I spoke too soon, this tool only worked 1-2 times before it crashed and burned. I was told it would be fixed by 3/31. then 4/4 and today. Now it appears this tool has created a bigger problem, all I get is a top and bottom small banner but the middle is completely blank. I visited the Fidelity office last night and it gets all the way into screen 4 when I get an error. I can't get past the 1st screen from home.

If you have the time, would you mind trying to get into this tool to see if it works for you now or not? Thanks!
 
I had troubles with it also. It didn't crash but it would give me the same end of life balance whether or not I included my IRA. I worked with a rep and decided to return to other tools which yielded the right balances. I may try it again.
 
I just tried it and it ran all the way through all the screens and gave me a result with no problem.

It might be a "sequence of events" that may be causing a problem due the different FIDO servers and how the data is migrated. For example, the 401(k) account server is not part of the server group that handles commercial accounts and is input to several FIDO tools.

Here's the sequence of events I do every day with FIDO (and associated) tools. You may want to execute in the same manner (if you have not done the same sequence) to see what you get.

1. Refresh data (both FIDO & non-FIDO external accounts) using Full View.
2. Run RIP (Retirement Income Planner) and load/update the results to your current status file.
3. Then try the Income Strategy Eval tool.

BTW, I don't use this tool specifically, since I use M*'s Asset Allocator to see the projected "spend rate" from our joint portfolio, along with known other income from our SPIA/SS/pension income rather than use this tool for "guesstimation"...
 
rescueme said:
I just tried it and it ran all the way through all the screens and gave me a result with no problem.

It might be a "sequence of events" that may be causing a problem due the different FIDO servers and how the data is migrated. For example, the 401(k) account server is not part of the server group that handles commercial accounts and is input to several FIDO tools.

Here's the sequence of events I do every day with FIDO (and associated) tools. You may want to execute in the same manner (if you have not done the same sequence) to see what you get.

1. Refresh data (both FIDO & non-FIDO external accounts) using Full View.
2. Run RIP (Retirement Income Planner) and load/update the results to your current status file.
3. Then try the Income Strategy Eval tool.

BTW, I don't use this tool specifically, since I use M*'s Asset Allocator to see the projected "spend rate" from our joint portfolio, along with known other income from our SPIA/SS/pension income rather than use this tool for "guesstimation"...
Click to expand...

I ran through the steps, but still no change. It only affects certain customers, I listed previously. The only one that pertains to me is using full view and having trust accounts. Whatever fix they implemented at the end of March made it worse for me.
 
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