Risk Profiles Settings

The Risk Profiles Settings section of Midwinter shows you the current risk profile and asset allocation settings, the Risk Profile questionnaire that can be provided to your clients and default assumptions for key financial indicators such as different loan types, asset class assumed returns, and index rates.

These settings are by default set at the Midwinter level, however clients have the ability to customise these settings at both the Licensee and Practice level.

In the image above you can see that these settings are based on the Practice level.

Based on your permission level you may have the authority to make changes to some of these sections, while others must be done by Midwinter on your behalf. If you do not have the ability to make these changes please speak to your Office Manager or reach out to Midwinter directly.

This article will go further into details of how to manage and modify these sections and is broken down by Details, Questionnaire & Default Settings.

Depending on your permission levels, all assumptions within Details and Default Settings can be customised.
Risk Profile Questionnaries within the Questionnaire page must be updated by the Midwinter team. Please reach out to us at info@midwinter.com.au for further guidance.

Please review each of the sections below for further information on these pages.

Details

The Details page includes three key areas

Risk Profile details
Risk profile asset allocation
Asset class returns

For all Users, the Midwinter default settings are applied here unless you have specifically set up different assumptions at either the Licensee or Practice level.

In the screenshot below you can see that the fields can be modified, indicating this User is set at the Practice level with permissions to make changes to these profiles. You can choose to add additional Risk Profiles here using the button in the top right corner, and add additional detail for each of these.

Depending on your User settings & permissions, you may also be able to modify the asset allocation for each of these risk profiles and the asset class returns for each individual asset class from this section.

Questionnaire

The risk profile questionnaire shows the questions asked within the questionnaire and the score given for each of these answers.

The questionnaire can be completed with your clients from the Client > Fact Find > Personal details section.

If you wish to change the risk profile questions or scores, this must be done by the Midwinter team. Ideally we request an excel document that clearly states the list of questions, the answers to each of these questions (in the order you want) and the score for each of the answers.

If you need further assistance, please reach out to the team either via email at info@midwinter.com.au or phone on 1300 882 938.

Default Settings

AdviceOS provides default assumptions for any platforms, products or loans as well as relevant financial indicators. These assumptions are intended for long-term projections (10+ years) and are rates that have been provided to Midwinter by an external, third party actuarial firm based on long term data and analysis.

Again, while Midwinter offers default figures, these can all be modified to suit a Users needs/preference either at the Licensee or Practice level.

The information from this section impacts any products created within Client Fact Find & any Strategy modules and is used to populate modelling data in Cashflow and Capital.

There is functionality to override any of these assumptions after the product/platform has been created both with Fact Find or Strategy modules. Changes should be made only within Default Settings if you wish all newly created products to include these changes. If you wish to change only one clients assumptions, this should be done at the individual client level either in Fact Find or Strategy.

As with the Details section, if you have the correct permissions set up you will be able to configure these settings.

In the below screenshot you can see that the User can override the assumptions for Loans & Investment types, as well as changing assumed financial indicators such as inflation (CPI), AWOTE, & threshold, pension and tax index rates.

Default liability details are used when a loan is created in Fact Find or C&C.

Note that:

When a loan is merged or updated from Fact Find, the assumptions on this page will override the current details
The monthly repayment amount will be updated to at least the minimum based on the current balance, interest rate, term remaining and repayment type.

It is particularly important to understand the Investment Projection defaults as these will directly impact your modelling if you create products using these rates.

Note that:

The income rate and growth rate will directly determine how each of these investment types perform in the modelling
You can also set up whether these investment types redirect dividends (if there are any) and the average fee rates
All of these assumptions can be overridden within a clients individual C&C as required

Understanding Franking and Super Tax Rate Calculations

The default values shown under the Risk Profile Details section are calculated based on data provided by Midwinter’s Actuarial Team. These values are used to support long-term modelling assumptions and can be customised depending on the adviser’s own expected returns.

Franking Rate Calculation

The franking rate is calculated by multiplying the Australian shares allocation within a specific risk profile by the franking percentage. For example, in the High Growth risk profile:

Australian Shares Allocation: 39.30%

Franking Percentage: 70%

Franking Rate = 39.30 × 70% = 27.51

This value represents the portion of the portfolio that is expected to benefit from franking credits.

Super Tax Rate Calculation

The super tax rate shown in the Risk Profile Details is a weighted average based on the tax rate assigned to each asset class and its corresponding allocation within the selected risk profile.

For example, the High Growth profile calculation is as follows:

(39.30 × 0.05) + (37.80 × 0.10) + (4.30 × 0.10) + (1.40 × 0.14) + (2.00 × 0.13) + (2.60 × 0.15) + (0.96 × 0.11) + (11.64 × 0.11)

Breaking this down:

Australian Shares: 1.965
International Shares: 3.78
Property: 0.43
Alternatives: 0.196
Fixed Interest: 0.26
Cash: 0.1056
Other: 1.2804
Total: 8.407

This weighted average is used to estimate the overall tax impact on superannuation investments for that risk profile.

Advisers using their own expected returns may choose to calculate these values differently, depending on their modelling preferences.