How to sanity-check a financial plan — yours or an advisor's

A financial plan is only as trustworthy as what's underneath the headline number. Whether the plan in front of you came from an advisor, a spreadsheet, or a tool like this one, the same questions apply.

Are the assumptions visible?

Every projection rests on assumptions — rate of return, inflation, when you'll retire, how long the money needs to last. A plan worth trusting states these explicitly, somewhere you can actually find them, not buried in a footnote or omitted entirely. If you can't find the assumed rate of return anywhere in the document, that's worth asking about directly.

Can you follow the math?

"You'll have $2.1 million at 65" is a conclusion, not an explanation. A plan that shows its work — how contributions, growth, and withdrawals combine year over year — lets you check whether the conclusion actually follows from the inputs. One that only shows the ending number is asking you to trust it on faith.

Does anything sound like a guarantee?

Markets don't promise a fixed rate of growth, and a plan that implies otherwise — a market return stated as a sure thing, or a retirement age stated as a certainty — is overstating its own precision. Look for language about tradeoffs, ranges, and projections rather than promises. A plan that shows a range of outcomes (a Monte Carlo–style projection, or at minimum a "what if returns are lower" scenario) is being more honest about uncertainty than one that shows a single confident line.

Is it complete, or is it one piece?

A plan focused entirely on investment returns while ignoring insurance coverage, tax sequencing, or estate basics is only addressing one of the six FP Canada planning areas. That's not necessarily wrong for a specific question, but it's worth knowing you're looking at a slice, not the whole picture.

Are fees disclosed?

If the plan recommends specific products or accounts, are the fees or costs of those products stated anywhere? A recommendation that doesn't disclose what it costs is harder to evaluate on its merits.

What this checklist is not

This is a literacy checklist, not a verdict on any particular advisor, firm, or tool — a plan that's missing one of these things isn't automatically bad, and one that has all of them isn't automatically right for you. The point is to be able to ask informed questions about a document that affects real decisions.

Mensari is an educational decision-support tool, not licensed financial, tax, or legal advice. It illustrates tradeoffs based on the assumptions you provide — always confirm decisions with a qualified professional before acting.