> ## 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.

# How planning uses the client profile

> Which household facts a plan reads, how confirmed and unconfirmed facts are treated, and what to check before you build.

Before you draft a plan, you want to know what Hazel is drafting it from: the household's [Intelligent Client Profile](/guides/intelligent-client-profiles/overview/introduction), the lasting facts captured from recorded meetings, client emails, uploaded documents and your notes. Whatever the profile holds on the day you build is what the plan rests on.

## What a plan takes from the profile

| From the profile                                    | What it does in the plan                                                                           |
| --------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Household members, dates of birth, dependents       | Who the plan covers, whose retirement and claiming ages get modeled, who is named as a beneficiary |
| Income, employment, business ownership              | Cash flow, savings capacity, and whether a business needs its own treatment                        |
| Spending, by category                               | What the household lives on, which every retirement figure gets measured against                   |
| Accounts, balances, and ownership                   | The balance sheet, and which accounts fund which spending                                          |
| Property, debts, and terms                          | Net worth, the order debts get paid down in, and the housing picture                               |
| Insurance coverage in force                         | Whether the coverage holds up, and which gaps to name                                              |
| Wills, directives, trusts, beneficiary designations | The estate picture, and whether the titling matches the intent                                     |
| Stated goals, in the household's own words          | The Goals section, and what every trade-off gets measured against                                  |
| Constraints and preferences                         | The lines a plan should not cross, and the tone it takes                                           |

<Note>
  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.
</Note>

## 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](/guides/financial-planning/overview/getting-started).

<Tip>
  Before you build, open the household, select the **Data** tab and choose **Review** in the left list. The badge counts the records with something still to confirm, and each record carries a **Verify** button that settles all of its waiting items at once.
</Tip>

## 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](/guides/financial-planning/your-data/where-numbers-come-from) shows how to follow a figure back to the fact or assumption behind it.

## Keeping the profile current

<Steps>
  <Step title="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.
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  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.
</Note>

## Where to go next

* [Documents and CRM data](/guides/financial-planning/your-data/documents-and-crm): where the profile's facts come from.
* [Front-loading the brief](/guides/financial-planning/your-data/front-loading-the-brief): what to tell Hazel that the profile cannot know.
* [Where numbers come from](/guides/financial-planning/your-data/where-numbers-come-from): how to check a figure before you present it.
* [Reviewing and verifying profile data](/guides/intelligent-client-profiles/managing-client-data/reviewing-and-verifying): the Review list in full.