> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hazel.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Assumptions reference > Hazel's shipped value for every planning assumption, what it drives, and which layer can change it. You are setting up Planning settings, so you need to know what Hazel already assumes and which layer can change each value. Every default below is what a firm gets before configuring anything. **Scope** names the layers that can change a value. **Firm** is the Solver assumptions and Market assumptions screens in Planning settings, a firm owner's surface. **Persona** is a Client persona's own value, replacing the firm's for matching households. **Plan** is one plan only. Each plan's Appendix records the winning layer in its **Applied settings** block: **Firm**, **Persona** with its name, or **This plan**. ## Probability and simulation | Setting | Default | What it drives | Scope | | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------- | | Success threshold | 90% | Lowest probability of success that counts as on track; below it the plan is flagged. | Firm, Persona, Plan | | Monte Carlo simulations | 1,000 | Market paths each projection runs. More paths, more precision, slower. | Firm | | Success-figure display ceiling | 99%, unless your firm has a different ceiling in place | Highest probability of success a plan will print. | Firm-wide, no slider | Ranges: Success threshold 50% to 100% in steps of 1. Monte Carlo simulations 100 to 5,000 in steps of 100. Where a projection models a figure above the ceiling, the plan prints `>99%` with a short note under the figure saying a cap applied. ## Fees and taxes | Setting | Default | What it drives | Scope | | ---------------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----- | | Advisory fee | 1.00% | Annual fee drag on assets under management, in every projection. | Firm | | Terminal heir tax rate | 24% | Rate heirs are assumed to pay on inherited pre-tax balances, valuing the after-tax estate. | Firm | Ranges: Advisory fee 0% to 3% in steps of 0.05. Terminal heir tax rate 0% to 50% in steps of 1. ## Decumulation strategy | Setting | Default | What it drives | Scope | | -------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | | Default reserve length | 3 yrs | Years of retirement spending held in safe assets, so the client never sells equities into a down market. | Firm, Persona, Plan | | Reserve refill policy, under the Default reserve length slider | Ships with wording in it | How the reserve is held and replenished. | Firm, Persona | | Retirement withdrawal guardrails, the one box with a heading | Ships with Guyton-Klinger wording | How spending flexes as markets move. | Firm, Persona | | Default Roth conversion strategy | Stop under first IRMAA tier | The ceiling Hazel uses when recommending annual Roth conversions. | Firm, Persona, Plan | | Conversion elaboration, under the Roth strategy choices | Ships with wording in it | Plain-language nuance refining the chosen strategy. | Firm, Persona | Range: Default reserve length 0 to 10 years in steps of 1. The three free-text boxes ship filled rather than empty, and [Solver assumptions](/guides/financial-planning/assumptions/solver-assumptions) quotes each word for word. ## What an advisor can change on one plan **Plan settings** in the plan's top bar stages values for one plan, and **Apply and replan** in its footer rebuilds the plan with them. The panel belongs to the chat plan view, so from the household Financial Planning tab use **Open chat** in the top bar first. Editable there: Success threshold, Reserve length, Roth conversion strategy (six choices), and one row for each market row the firm has hand-edited, so a firm that has hand-edited nothing gets no market rows. Withdrawal guardrails is displayed for reading, and changes at the firm or persona layer instead. A read-only row names the assumption set the plan drew on, and it reads as Hazel's default set rather than the name anyone typed on the Market assumptions screen, which is not a sign your firm's edits were ignored. ## Market assumptions | Setting | Default | | ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Assumption set | One live set, its name field pre-filled with "Name this assumption" until you replace it | | Returns detail | Simple: Equity, Fixed income, Cash & equivalents | | Volatility detail | By sub-asset class | | Inflation detail | Simple | | Taxes detail | Simple: one Effective tax rates row | | Monte Carlo | On | | Hand-edited rows | None | All firm settings, though an advisor can change hand-edited rows for one plan. The set arrives fully populated, with nothing hand-edited yet. At the shipped granularity: | Row | Shipped value | | --------------------------- | ------------- | | Returns, Equity | 7.2% | | Returns, Fixed income | 4.8% | | Returns, Cash & equivalents | 3.1% | | Inflation | 2.4% | | Taxes, Effective tax rates | 24.0% | Switch Returns to by-sub-asset-class and nine rows appear instead: four equity classes, four fixed-income classes and cash. Rows are edited on their own, so changing one leaves the Simple figure where it was. Volatility opens at by-sub-asset-class detail, listing all nine rows, from cash at 0.7% up to US small cap at 21.1%. Switch Taxes to by-sub-asset-class and the blended row splits into Ordinary income at 24%, Long-term capital gains at 15% and Qualified dividends at 15%. Statutory brackets are applied as written, not a firm setting, and the card is badged with the bracket year. Row ranges: returns 0% to 15%, volatility 0% to 30%, inflation 0% to 10%, tax rates 0% to 50%. ## Guardrails Two hard rules ship, in the card for things Hazel must never do: * "Never recommend a specific named security or ticker." * "Never propose a Roth conversion that pushes the client into the next IRMAA tier." A persona can add guardrails on top, and no persona, plan or chat request can lift one. A firm owner can remove either shipped rule from the base template. ## Layout and shape | Setting | Default | | ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Plan sections | Summary, Today, Goals, Getting there, Decisions, plus an Appendix reached from the bottom of the plan's nav | | Tabs inside Getting there | Your priorities, then Cash flow, Retirement, Insurance | | Enabled modules | Eight: Net worth & balance sheet, Emergency fund, Goal funding, Insurance, Cash flow, Debt paydown, Retirement, Monte Carlo success | | Strictness | Flexible | | Allow additions | On | Every module outside those eight is off until you add it, meaning the topic gets no dedicated treatment. **Exact** locks **Allow additions**, the switch beside the mode, off. [Strictness](/guides/financial-planning/settings/personas/strictness) covers what each of the three modes does. ## Client disclaimer Nothing ships. The **Client disclaimer** card opens with a paragraph Hazel drafted as a preview: until you edit it, plans and PDFs carry no footer at all. Type your own wording, or edit the draft, and it renders word for word under every plan and in the exported PDF. A **Restore Hazel default** button brings the drafted paragraph back. ## Persona overrides The three pre-installed Client personas differ from the firm defaults above: | Persona | What it changes | | ---------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | HENRY, ages 28 to 44 | Success threshold 85% | | Pre-Retiree, ages 55 to 67 | Reserve length 5 yrs; Roth strategy Fill to top of 24% bracket, with an elaboration naming the 22% bracket for ages 60 through 72 | | Retiree / Decumulator, 65 and over | Strictness Guided; Reserve length 7 yrs; its own Guyton-Klinger wording, with a ceiling in goal years | They are yours to review, rename, edit or delete. Anything a persona leaves alone inherits the firm value. ## Also shipping empty The base template carries no **Hazel instructions** until you add one, and no **Planning assumptions** until you add a label and value row. ## Where to go next * [Solver assumptions](/guides/financial-planning/assumptions/solver-assumptions) * [Market assumptions](/guides/financial-planning/assumptions/market-assumptions) * [Guardrails](/guides/financial-planning/assumptions/guardrails) * [Default templates](/guides/financial-planning/settings/personas/default-templates) * [Planning settings](/guides/financial-planning/settings/overview) * [Sharing and delivering](/guides/financial-planning/the-plan/sharing-and-delivering): where the disclaimer shows up.