Running an analysis

Introduction

This page walks through running a needs analysis: starting one, working the list of needs, building solutions, and what to do when the client file changes. For a higher-level picture of what the analysis uses and produces, see What a needs analysis covers.

Getting to the Needs Analysis page

Open any client file and select Needs Analysis in the sidebar. If the client has no analysis yet, click Start the analysis. Otherwise the page opens on the latest analysis, headed Based on the profile as of the date its snapshot was taken.

From the top of the page you can:

• Click New analysis to start another one.
• Click Preview report to open the report (see Reading the report).
• Click Delete to remove the analysis. Deleting is permanent.
• Click Previous runs (shown once the client has more than one analysis) to open an earlier one. A banner tells you when you are looking at an older analysis, with a Go to latest link.

Starting an analysis

Click Start the analysis or New analysis. DNA may first ask you to acknowledge, once, that its figures are suggestions and that reviewing them with the client remains your responsibility.

A Before we start dialog then lists anything the client file is missing. It has one setting:

• Include living benefits: critical illness and disability income are always worked out. Turn this on to show them on the page and have Helix plan for them.

Click Run analysis. If details are blank, DNA warns that those risks will not be sized or included. Click Go back to fill them in, or Run anyway and add them later.

DNA takes a snapshot of the client file, reads the profile and your notes, and runs every calculation. This usually takes a few seconds.

Working the list of needs

The analysis page opens with a summary: Coverage needed, Existing coverage, and the Estimated underwriting max (the most life cover carriers would likely approve for the household).

Below it, needs are grouped as:

• Risks: what the household loses if someone dies, such as income, debts, final expenses and estate tax.
• Additional needs: goals the family wants met either way, such as education funding, an estate to pass on or a gift to charity.
• Living benefits: what an illness or injury costs while someone is still here.

Each need shows the amount DNA sized for it. Click one to see how the figure was calculated and to change it. From the list you can also:

• Use Add a risk, Add a need or Add a living benefit to include one DNA did not surface.
• Switch a need on or off.
• Fill in any value shown under Needs input. Needs with blank details are not sized until you do.

Building solutions

A solution is one way the client could cover their needs: a set of policies, each matched to the needs it pays out on.

• Click Ask Helix to build one to have Helix recommend a solution. Its reasons appear on each policy.
• Click Add a solution to build one yourself, product by product. Build a leaner and a fuller option to compare side by side.
• On a policy, click Get quote to price it with carriers. Quotes are directional, never a carrier quote.

When the client file changes

An analysis runs on a snapshot of the client file. If the profile changes afterwards, an This analysis is out of date banner appears. Click Refresh with current information to run it again on today’s profile. The refresh keeps:

• Values you entered, amounts you changed, and risks you switched on or off.
• Solutions you built. Any policy whose figure moves is flagged for you to review.
• Helix’s recommendation, if you changed it. It is marked out of date instead. An untouched one is rebuilt from the new figures.

The analysis cannot be edited while it refreshes, which usually takes under a minute.

Locked analyses

An analysis is read-only in two cases. One made on an earlier version of DNA can still be read and its report downloaded. One used in a document that has been sent or completed can no longer change. In both cases, click New analysis to make changes.