What a plan takes from the profile
Hazel records a date of birth, never an age. When a client only mentioned an age, Hazel works out an approximate birth year from the date of that conversation and marks it approximate. Retirement ages, claiming ages and required distributions all hang off that date, so put the real one in on the household’s Data tab.
Confirmed and unconfirmed facts
Some facts count as settled the moment they arrive: anything a document said, anything you typed in or corrected yourself, and everything about the people and what they want, from who is in the household to their goals, concerns, preferences and life events. What waits to be confirmed is mostly money: a balance someone mentioned in a meeting, an income figure in an email, the name of an executor. On screen, Hazel labels the two states verified and unverified. The most recent source holds the figure. An older document saying the same thing confirms the newer figure rather than displacing it, and the fact reads verified from then on. When Hazel has the wrong figure, correct that fact on the household’s Data tab: your correction carries today’s date and arrives confirmed. A consequential unconfirmed figure earns a question. The build pauses to ask you to confirm the figures that would move the outcome most; small ones get used without a question. See Getting started.What the profile does not carry
The profile records what was stated, never what can be worked out from it. It holds “about two million across the IRAs, as of the March meeting” because a client said so, but never a total net worth or a probability of success. Where numbers come from shows how to follow a figure back to the fact or assumption behind it.Keeping the profile current
1
Record the meetings where goals come up
Goals, constraints and family context reach the profile from conversation. When a meeting goes unrecorded, write up what was said as a note on the household’s Notes tab: the goals and preferences in it land settled, and any figures wait to be confirmed.
2
Upload the documents once
A statement or a tax return uploaded to the household’s Documents tab becomes profile facts, available to every plan for that household. Scans and photos are fine.
3
Tell Hazel what changed, in plain words
In an Ask Hazel chat, name the household and say what happened: “The Hendersons paid off the HELOC and opened a 529 for Maya.” Hazel comes back with the exact changes, you approve them, and they land as confirmed facts. Do this in an ordinary chat, not in a plan’s own conversation: a plan chat reads the profile and never writes to it.
A thin profile does not stop you building. On a household’s Financial Planning tab, the card headed Begin right away names what is missing and still offers Draft financial plan, with a line saying that parts of the plan will use labeled assumptions.
Where to go next
- Documents and CRM data: where the profile’s facts come from.
- Front-loading the brief: what to tell Hazel that the profile cannot know.
- Where numbers come from: how to check a figure before you present it.
- Reviewing and verifying profile data: the Review list in full.