Fact Status System
The Fact Status system separates Sterling from historical financial planning tools. Understanding this system is essential to getting accurate AI recommendations.
What is a Fact Status?
Every fact in the system has one of three statuses: Confirmed, Assumed, or Incomplete.
Confirmed
A Confirmed fact is known to be accurate and up to date. Sterling treats this as reliable data and generates advice assuming the fact to be true.
Confirmed facts create the best advice
When analyzing a specific opportunity, if all the key facts are Confirmed, Sterling is able to accurately assess if the household is eligible for the opportunity. Sterling will mark the advice as an Opportunity or Dismissed, depending on if the household meets eligibility criteria.
Example: If a household is Confirmed to have an HDHP health insurance plan, an HSA Contribution may be marked as an Opportunity. In contrast, if a household is Confirmed to not have an HDHP plan, an HSA Contribution will be marked as Dismissed.
Assumed
An Assumed fact is one that has been entered into the system, but the accuracy is unknown. This is extremely common when working with clients. For example, they provide information about their mortgage, but the origination date was 'maybe 5 years ago'. In this case the origination date would have a Fact Status of Assumed.
Assumed facts still generate advice
When analyzing a specific opportunity, if any of the key facts are Assumed, Sterling will evaluate the opportunity and quantify the benefits, but mark the advice as Facts Required. This would signal to the advisor there are facts that must be confirmed before implementing the advice.
Incomplete
An Incomplete fact is either blank or marked incomplete. This is the default for all facts in Sterling.
Incomplete facts do not generate advice
When analyzing a specific opportunity, if any of the key facts are Incomplete, Sterling will not evaluate the opportunity and simply mark it as Facts Required.
Generating advice for a household with Incomplete facts is quite common. For example, you may not want to ask a prospect if they have any disabled family members. This information is required to determine ABLE Account eligibility, but might not be the most appropriate question in an early meeting.