Retirement planning software comparison
WealthTrace vs. ProjectionLab: Go Beyond Retirement Projections
ProjectionLab is an excellent visual planning tool. WealthTrace goes further into the investments behind your plan: connected accounts, security-level holdings, portfolio concentration, historical performance, and investment-aware Monte Carlo analysis—all alongside detailed taxes, cash flows, and retirement scenarios.
Try WealthTrace Deluxe features for seven days. No credit card required.
Why WealthTrace stands apart
Your retirement plan should know what you own.
ProjectionLab allows you to visualize life decisions and compare different futures. WealthTrace combines that long-term planning perspective with tools for understanding, monitoring, and modeling your real investment portfolio.
Model the investments you actually own
WealthTrace uses holdings-level asset-class information to model returns, volatility, and correlations in Monte Carlo—not just a single return assumption for each account.
Know what's happening in your accounts
Link investment accounts for nightly balance and holdings updates, or enter tickers and shares manually for price-based updates. Review investment performance, transactions, and portfolio concentrations.
Explore the numbers behind every year
Drill into exceptionally detailed retirement cash flows, filter and save your preferred columns, and export a report ranging from a short summary to a comprehensive financial plan.
Side-by-side
WealthTrace vs. ProjectionLab features
Both offer sophisticated retirement simulations. The biggest differences show up when you move from modeling your future to analyzing and maintaining the investment portfolio that funds it.
| What matters | WealthTrace | ProjectionLab |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Hands-on retirement planners who want detailed investments, taxes, and projections in one place | Visual-first DIY planners modeling major life decisions and financial independence |
| Direct financial account linking Major WealthTrace advantage | Connect investment and bank accounts with supported providers for automatic balances and holdings updates | No native financial-account linking; optional plugins can import balances from third-party finance tools |
| Investment holdings and ticker pricing | Track individual tickers and shares, with refreshed security prices—even when positions are manually entered | Models investment accounts primarily by balances and assumptions; manual security-level price updates are not documented |
| Look-through asset allocation Major WealthTrace advantage | See underlying holdings of supported ETFs and mutual funds to uncover overlapping stock and bond exposure | Models portfolio stock/bond allocations and account-level allocation targets; comparable ETF/fund holdings look-through is not documented |
| Position concentration analysis | Drill into allocation charts and see positions concentrated across multiple accounts and underlying fund holdings | Portfolio and account stock/bond allocation views; security-level concentration rollups not documented |
| Historical investment tracking | Track linked account balances, transactions, investment performance, and fees (Deluxe) | Tracks net worth and account-balance progress against projections; not a documented individual-holdings performance and transaction tracker |
| Investment-informed Monte Carlo Major WealthTrace advantage | Uses mapped holding asset classes, historical volatility, and correlations to model portfolio behavior across simulations | Offers randomized and historical simulations using growth assumptions and portfolio stock/bond settings; not based on a synced inventory of actual securities |
| Monte Carlo and historical tests | 1,000 simulations with asset-class assumptions; dedicated historical bear-market scenarios | Monte Carlo, historical backtesting, block-bootstrap sampling, and black-swan scenario modeling |
| Flexible spending / guardrails | Set investment-value thresholds and automatically adjust living expenses within Monte Carlo simulations (Deluxe) | Also supports dynamic spending rules based on market performance relative to prior highs |
| Quick Monte Carlo scenarios | Change retirement age, life expectancy, spending, contributions, and other assumptions directly alongside Monte Carlo results | Adjust plan assumptions, run Chance of Success simulations, and test optimized spending rules |
| Future investment reallocations | Schedule up to two investment reallocations at chosen future dates and model their impact | Supports stock/bond allocation settings and time-varying planning inputs; the same two-reallocation workflow is not documented |
| Asset allocation scenarios | Dedicated allocation scenarios to test the long-term impact of different mixes (Deluxe) | Can model stock/bond mixes, custom growth assumptions, and compare multiple plans |
| Detailed projected retirement cash flow WealthTrace standout | Extensive year-by-year details for income, expenses, taxes, growth, withdrawals, and individual accounts. Filter the fields, save custom views, and export projected data in Excel, CSV, or PDF. | Visual cash flow, Sankey diagrams, year-by-year summaries, report tables, and PDF/CSV/JSON exports; the same saved, customizable projection-column views are not documented |
| Customize and export reports | Choose simple, detailed, or comprehensive reports; customize content and export a finished financial plan | Downloadable reports and tables with PDF, CSV, and JSON export |
| Choose account destinations and funding | Direct specific cash inflows to selected accounts and choose the funding source for expenses | Detailed cash-flow priorities, drawdown ordering, and custom account-transfer techniques |
| Roth conversion optimization | Multi-year conversion modeling and objectives including lifetime tax and beneficiary value (Deluxe) | Roth conversion and tax optimization, including target brackets and thresholds (Premium) |
| Taxes and Medicare | Federal/state tax analysis, RMDs, Social Security taxes, Medicare and IRMAA modeling | Tax estimates and analytics, Roth optimization, Medicare/IRMAA, and ACA modeling |
| What-if planning and plan comparisons | Save and compare retirement choices, market stress tests, and investment alternatives | Interactive life-event modeling, Compare mode, and multiple plans (Premium) |
| AI assistance | Trace AI helps explore questions about the plan (Deluxe) | No equivalent integrated, plan-aware AI assistant found in current public feature documentation |
| International planning | Focused on U.S. retirement and tax planning | Supports international currency, tax presets, and account types |
| Pricing at publication | Standard $229/year; Deluxe $289/year; seven-day free trial | Free Basic; Premium $129/year; seven-day free trial |
Comparison reviewed October 29, 2026 using public product documentation. Some WealthTrace capabilities require Deluxe, and some ProjectionLab capabilities require Premium. Prices, access, and features can change. “Not documented” means we could not verify the equivalent capability in published materials, not proof of absence. Sources: ProjectionLab pricing, account-linking documentation, flexible spending, release notes, and WealthTrace features and pricing.
How to choose
Which planner is right for you?
Choose WealthTrace if…
You want the planning engine and the portfolio detail.
- You want connected, refreshed investment accounts—not only manually maintained account balances.
- You want to identify overlapping holdings and concentrated positions inside ETFs and mutual funds.
- You want Monte Carlo analysis tied to the asset-class composition of what you actually own.
- You want to track historical performance, test future reallocations, and run bear-market scenarios.
- You want granular, filterable retirement cash flows and customizable reports from short to comprehensive.
Choose ProjectionLab if…
You prefer visual-first lifetime planning.
- You enjoy interactive life-event timelines, charts, and Sankey cash-flow diagrams.
- You want a free Basic version or a lower-priced Premium subscription.
- You want to model financial independence, lifestyle changes, and international planning.
- You do not need native investment-account linking or fund look-through analysis.
Frequently asked questions
Answers before you decide
Is WealthTrace a good alternative to ProjectionLab?
Yes—particularly if your retirement planning depends on understanding your actual investments. WealthTrace combines detailed financial projections with connected accounts, security-level analysis, portfolio look-through, historical investment tracking, and investment-aware Monte Carlo modeling.
Does ProjectionLab link directly to brokerage and bank accounts?
ProjectionLab says it does not currently support native financial-account linking. It offers plugins that can bring in balances from third-party tools such as YNAB, Lunch Money, and Monarch Money. WealthTrace offers direct links through supported account-data providers.
Does ProjectionLab offer Monte Carlo and spending guardrails?
Yes. ProjectionLab offers randomized and historical simulations, along with flexible spending rules that react to market performance. WealthTrace's distinction is modeling the asset-class composition of actual holdings and providing investment-value guardrails and quick scenario controls within Monte Carlo.
Can ProjectionLab optimize Roth conversions?
Yes. ProjectionLab Premium has a capable tax optimizer with Roth conversion strategies. WealthTrace Deluxe also supports advanced Roth optimization. Choose based on how you prefer to analyze conversions in the context of your broader plan.
Can WealthTrace update investments without linking accounts?
Yes. Enter ticker symbols and shares manually, and WealthTrace can refresh holding values using recent security prices when you return. You update the number of shares whenever your positions change.
Can I export my retirement plan and projected cash flows?
Yes. WealthTrace provides detailed projected cash-flow exports and customizable planning reports, from concise summaries to comprehensive reports. ProjectionLab also provides exportable reports, so the key difference is the depth and configuration of the underlying data and the reporting workflow.
Can I try WealthTrace before subscribing?
Yes. Start a seven-day trial with Deluxe capabilities. No credit card is required.
See the numbers behind your retirement plan
Get the retirement planning depth you've been looking for.
Go beyond basic projections with investment-level analysis, detailed retirement cash flows, advanced tax planning, and powerful what-if scenarios. WealthTrace gives you the tools to understand every number behind your retirement plan.
7 days of Deluxe access · No credit card required