Yes — include your Medicare premiums in your estimated Annual Spend. Prisma separately calculates and displays any IRMAA surcharges (income-related premium adjustments) on top of your living expenses, so only the surcharge amount appears as an additional line item. Your base Part B and Part D premiums should be part of your spending input.

No. Prisma doesn't connect to financial institutions — there is nothing to link, authorize, or sync. You simply enter the numbers you want to model, such as account balances, expected spending, and ages, and round figures or estimates work fine. We don't ask for bank or brokerage logins, account or routing numbers, or your Social Security number.

Your privacy is a top priority. Because Prisma doesn't link to your financial institutions, we hold no bank or brokerage credentials or account numbers — only the figures you choose to type in. All plan data is stored securely, is not sold or shared with third parties, and is used solely to power your retirement projections within Prisma. You can delete your plans or your entire account at any time.

Employment income applies only to people who haven't yet retired. It is added to your yearly income for every year from now until your Retirement Age, then stops automatically. If you are already retired, entering an employment income amount has no effect on the projection.

Each IRA and Roth account on the Accounts tab has an optional "Annual contribution" expander. Pretax contributions (IRA/401k) reduce your taxable income each year before federal and state tax is calculated. Roth contributions are from already-taxed dollars and don't change your taxes, but they reduce the surplus that would otherwise flow to your Taxable account. Contributions automatically stop at retirement age unless you set a different "Until age" override. If your contribution exceeds your available cash flow in a year, the simulator will still deposit the full amount and draw the gap from your other accounts using your normal withdrawal strategy.

The Longevity Risk chart uses Monte Carlo simulation to answer this. Prisma runs thousands of scenarios with randomized yearly returns based on your expected return and volatility assumptions. The result shows the probability that your portfolio survives to each age — so you can see, for example, that there is a 90% chance your money lasts to age 85, or a 50% chance it lasts to age 95. This gives a more realistic picture than a single deterministic projection.

Yes. Prisma applies the enhanced standard deduction for seniors (age 65+) as established under the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). This increased deduction reduces your taxable income in the years it applies and is reflected in your federal tax projections automatically.

Prisma starts from 2025 federal tax brackets and adjusts them forward each year using your Spending Inflation Rate (set in Preferences, defaulting to 2.54%). Both bracket thresholds and the standard deduction grow at that rate — so a 22% bracket today will have higher dollar ceilings in year 10 of retirement. This matches how the IRS has historically adjusted brackets for inflation.

You can see which bracket you land in for each year in the Annual Cash Flows chart. The bracket shown reflects your income in that specific year after applying inflation-adjusted thresholds and the applicable standard deduction (including the enhanced senior deduction for ages 65+).

Note that Prisma does not model potential future legislative changes to tax rates or bracket structure — current-law rates are assumed to hold throughout retirement.

Amount to Heirs estimates the after-tax value your estate leaves to beneficiaries at the end of your retirement horizon. It starts with your total portfolio balance (across all accounts) and subtracts the estimated federal income taxes your heirs will owe on inherited traditional IRA funds.

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries must fully distribute an inherited IRA within 10 years. Prisma models this by spreading the inherited IRA balance equally across 10 annual distributions, then computes the marginal federal tax on each distribution using your specified Heirs' Tax Rate — stacked on top of the income the heirs are assumed to already have at that bracket. The resulting 10-year tax total is subtracted from your portfolio balance.

Roth IRA and taxable brokerage accounts pass to heirs with no additional federal income tax, so only the traditional IRA portion carries a tax haircut. State taxes on inherited IRAs are not modeled. The figure is a planning estimate, not a legal or tax guarantee.