Voyant vs US planning software: what cross-border families need

GuideEdale Financial PlanningLast reviewed 18 min read

This guide is for US–UK families, and the advisers who work with them, who want to know whether the planning software behind their plan can hold both sides of their financial life. In brief, Voyant and the main US adviser platforms (eMoney, RightCapital and MoneyGuide) are each built around a defined set of national rules or, in Voyant’s Global edition, rules the adviser configures. None of the vendor pages we read says it calculates UK and US tax on the same household at once, with foreign tax credits and the treaty between them. Which tool suits a household depends on which questions its plan has to answer.

What is the difference between Voyant and US planning software?

The main difference is which tax rules each product has built in. Voyant sells separate editions for the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and Australia, plus a Global edition.[1] RightCapital and MoneyGuide describe their tax, retirement and Social Security features in US terms.[5][10] This is a difference of design scope, not of quality: each product is designed for a defined job. Our guide to financial planning tools for US expats covers the wider landscape; this one looks at adviser software.

For a family whose income, accounts and heirs are all in one country, that scope is exactly right. A US–UK household is different because its questions cross the border: a US citizen in London pays UK tax and files a US return, and a Briton back from a US career may draw a 401(k) and a SIPP in sterling. This guide does not rank the products or say which any adviser should use. Every statement about a product comes from the vendor’s own website, help centre or release notes, accessed in October 2026. Where a vendor’s pages do not mention a capability we say “Not stated”, which means we could not find it described, not that the product cannot do it.

Which countries and tax systems is Voyant built for?

Voyant’s country editions have national tax rules built in, and its Global edition uses a tax regime the adviser configures.[1][11] AssetMark, which completed its acquisition of Voyant on 1 July 2021, described it then as serving more than 20,000 advisers in the UK, Canada, Ireland and the United States, with operations also in Australia.[12]

The UK edition tracks UK legislation: its release notes record that “Starting in 2027, Pensions are included in the Estate” (March 2025) and apply the band freeze to April 2031 and higher dividend rates from April 2026 (January 2026).[13] Its inheritance tax features cover the nil-rate band and residence nil-rate band, the £3,000 annual exemption, potentially exempt transfers and the seven-year rule, gifts out of income, and bare and discretionary trusts.[14] The US edition’s release notes do the same for IRS tables, state brackets, estate tax, Social Security and Roth 401(k) distributions.[15]

The Global edition, which Voyant’s help centre describes as a “non-jurisdictional, global release”,[11] works differently. The adviser builds the tax rules: “In the Global version of the software you can create a Tax Regime with a specific currency and Tax brackets”, with optional separate rates for dividends, interest and capital gains.[3] Voyant’s worked help article loads a New Zealand regime for a client, after which the client is using “The New Zealand Tax Regime” and “New Zealand Dollars as the plan currency”.[16] That article does not say whether a plan can apply two tax regimes to one household at the same time.

On currency, the help centre says the multi-currency capability sits in the Global edition, “separately from our UK software”.[2] That answer dates from 2021, and we found no later Voyant page that changes it.

Voyant also has client-facing tools. ClientGo is “an onboarding and review tool” for gathering goals and finances, and through VoyantGo clients “can view their plan, create What If scenarios and run Insights” between meetings.[17]

What do eMoney, RightCapital and MoneyGuide model?

All three are aimed at financial advisers; where their pages name specific tax or retirement features, they are US ones.

eMoney, which says it was acquired by Fidelity Investments in 2015,[18] describes eMoney Pro as a way to “build comprehensive cash flow plans that turn complex financial lives into clear, actionable strategies” and “solve clients’ more complex planning needs”.[8] Its planning page refers to “comprehensive and collaborative cash flow planning tools” covering areas including estate planning and tax strategies, and the product includes a client portal and account aggregation.[19][8]

RightCapital says advisers can “choose between cash flow, goals-based, or a third ‘modified cash flow’ option”.[4] Its feature list includes “Model dynamic Roth conversions”, a tool to “compare Social Security filing options within each client plan”, estate planning, a client portal and mobile app, and account aggregation.[5] Its help centre describes a “Federal tax paid” chart, a slider to “fill up” a chosen tax bracket with conversions, and a chart of household income against the Medicare (IRMAA) thresholds.[6] Its tax page offers mock-ups of the Form 1040 and its schedules “for each year and across each proposal”.[20]

MoneyGuide, from Envestnet, is described by Envestnet as “an interactive goals-based planning solution”[21] and as offering “both cash flow-based and goals-based planning”.[7] Its spring 2026 release lets advisers compare “end-of-plan assets, estimated federal taxes, Medicare premiums, Social Security benefits, and lifetime income gaps”, adds US estate settings for Crummey provisions and state QTIP elections, and lets advisers share a plan snapshot with clients.[10]

Specialist US tax tools sit alongside these: Holistiplan, for example, says it projects “tax impacts and liabilities down to the dollar” from a client’s tax documents.[22] We found no reference to foreign tax or UK income on any of these vendors’ pages.

How do they compare for a US–UK household?

Each covers its home system in depth; none describes UK and US tax for the same household, the foreign tax credit or the treaty. The table records only what the vendors’ pages say.

What vendors’ own pages say about features that matter to a US–UK household (October 2026; “Not stated” means not found on the vendor’s pages, not that the feature is absent; no ranking is implied)
QuestionVoyant (country editions)Voyant (Global edition)eMoneyRightCapitalMoneyGuide
Tax rules describedUK edition: UK income tax bands, dividends, IHT; US edition: federal and state brackets, estate tax[13][15]Adviser-built regime with its own brackets and currency[3]“Tax strategies” within cash-flow planning[19]Federal tax projections, Roth conversions, IRMAA[6]Estimated federal taxes, Medicare premiums[10]
UK and US tax on one household at onceNot statedNot stated; help example shows one regime per client[16]Not statedNot statedNot stated
Foreign tax credit or treatyNot statedNot statedNot statedNot statedNot stated
Multiple currencies in one planUK edition: 2021 help article points to the separate Global edition[2]Yes: “multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional”[2]Not statedNot statedNot stated
Social SecurityUS edition: yes[15]Not statedNot statedFiling-age comparison[5]Benefits compared across strategies[10]
Estate or inheritance taxUK edition: IHT bands, gifts, trusts, pensions from 2027; US edition: estate tax[14][13][15]Not statedEstate planning[19]Estate planning[5]US estate settings (Crummey, QTIP)[10]
Client-facing accessClientGo and VoyantGo[17]ClientGo invitations[11]Client portal[8]Portal and mobile app[5]Shareable plan snapshot[10]
Owner (vendor’s statement)AssetMark Financial Holdings[1]Acquired by Fidelity Investments, 2015[18]Independent, founder-owned[23]Envestnet[7]

Read the table as a map of where each product was built to go, not as a scorecard; an adviser may also work around a gap by entering figures by hand. What a cross-border household needs to know is whether the interaction between the two systems is calculated or approximated, and who checks it.

What does it mean that a plan is built “around” one country?

It means the plan’s tax code, account types, currency and default assumptions all come from one country, and anything from the other country has to be translated into that country’s terms. The translation is where cross-border errors start.

In practice that has four consequences. Foreign income is ignored, taxed as if it were domestic, or entered as a figure worked out elsewhere. A SIPP becomes a generic “tax-deferred” pot and an ISA a “tax-free” one, which is how the UK sees it but not the IRS. Assets and spending in the other currency are converted at a fixed rate. And the other country’s estate tax, with the treaty credit between them, sits outside the model. None of this makes the software wrong for its intended users; it means the cross-border parts of the plan rest on the adviser’s own adjustments.

Can planning software model UK and US tax for the same household?

Not on anything the vendors we looked at publish. None of their pages mentions computing UK and US tax on the same income in the same year, with the foreign tax credit and treaty rules connecting the two, and the Voyant Global example shows one tax regime chosen per client.[16] For an American in Britain this interaction often decides the result.

The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, and relieves double tax mainly through the foreign tax credit, which credits foreign income tax actually paid against the US tax on the same income.[24] When UK tax on a salary exceeds the US tax on it, the credit usually wipes out the US bill, and the household pays what a British household would. When UK tax is low, the US charge can become real: in years with tax-free pension cash, ISA income, a large dollar-measured gain or early retirement. The treaty adds rules a one-country model cannot see. Its saving clause lets each country tax its own citizens as if the treaty did not exist, except for listed articles, and Article 17(3) on social security is one of the exceptions.[9] Our guide to how both tax systems apply to Americans in the UK sets this out in full.

So the practical question is not whether the software does UK tax or US tax, but whether it calculates what the household keeps after both. If the adviser adjusts for that by hand, ask how.

Can one plan hold a SIPP, a 401(k), the State Pension and Social Security?

Any planning tool can hold them as balances. The harder part is giving each its own rules on both sides of the border: when it can be drawn, how each country taxes the withdrawal, and in which currency it pays out.

A UK pension has a minimum access age, which rises from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028,[25] and a tax-free lump sum limited by the £268,275 lump sum allowance.[26] A 401(k) or IRA has US access ages and required minimum distributions from 73, or 75 for those born in 1960 or later.[27] The two systems also treat each other’s pensions differently. The UK taxes a UK resident’s foreign pension income under section 575 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003.[28] The US taxes a citizen’s UK pension withdrawals unless a treaty exception to the saving clause applies.[29] Social Security paid to a UK resident is taxable only in the UK under Article 17(3), while a US resident may have up to 85% of benefits taxed under US rules.[9][30]

A software menu built around one country will usually hold the other country’s accounts in a generic slot. The guides on UK pensions for US persons, US retirement accounts when you live in the UK and building a plan with a 401(k), IRA and UK pension cover the rules behind each slot.

How should a plan handle spending in pounds and assets in dollars?

It should hold each asset and each spending need in its own currency and show what happens when the exchange rate moves. A plan with a single currency can only show the household’s position at one assumed rate.

The risk runs in a direction people often get backwards. A family that spends in sterling and holds dollar assets is hurt when sterling strengthens, because each dollar then buys fewer pounds. Voyant’s Global edition is the only product here whose pages describe more than one currency in a plan.[2] None of the pages we read mentions modelling a historical currency episode or a sustained shift in the exchange rate. Our guide to GBP/USD currency risk in retirement shows how much this can move a retirement plan.

Does the software model UK inheritance tax and US estate tax together?

Each product describes its home country’s estate rules: UK inheritance tax in Voyant’s UK edition and US estate tax in its US edition and in the US platforms.[14][15][10] None of the pages we read describes calculating both for one family under the 1978 US–UK estate and gift tax treaty.[31]

For a mixed couple the differences are concrete. In 2026 the US basic exclusion is $15,000,000 per person and a US citizen can give a non-citizen spouse up to $194,000 a year free of gift tax.[32] Assets left to a non-citizen spouse at death qualify for the US marital deduction only through a qualified domestic trust.[33] UK inheritance tax is now based on long-term residence rather than domicile,[34] and unused pensions come into the estate from 6 April 2027.[35] The treaty decides which country has the first right to tax and how credits work. See UK inheritance tax and US estate tax.

What should I ask my adviser about the software behind my plan?

Ask what the software calculates and what the adviser enters by hand, especially where the two countries meet. The answers show how much of the plan rests on judgement rather than calculation.

  1. Which country’s tax rules does the plan apply, and to whom? Does it compute UK and US tax for each person every year, or one and an estimate of the other?
  2. How are foreign tax credits handled? Is US tax after credits calculated, including in low-UK-tax years, or assumed to be nil?
  3. How are my accounts classified? Is my ISA treated as tax-free for the UK only? Are UK funds held by a US person flagged as possible PFICs? Is my SIPP’s tax-free cash treated as taxable in the US?
  4. Which currency is the plan in? Are dollar assets and sterling spending held separately, and can I see the effect of sterling rising or falling for several years?
  5. Are Social Security and the State Pension taxed in the right country? Is Article 17(3) applied?
  6. Does the estate projection cover both countries? UK inheritance tax, US estate and gift tax, a non-citizen spouse, and pensions in the estate from April 2027.
  7. Which rule years are used? Today’s thresholds held flat, or changes already legislated and announced?
  8. What can I see between meetings? Can I explore scenarios myself, and are the assumptions written down?
  9. Who checks the tax output? Planning software is not a tax return; ask how its figures are reconciled with your US preparer and UK accountant.

Worked example: what a one-country model would miss (our own arithmetic, not a planner output)

Fictional household, illustrative only. Dan, 62, is a US citizen and Claire, 60, a UK national with no US status. Both are long-term UK residents, spend about £60,000 a year in sterling, and are in UK tax year 2026/27 and US tax year 2026. Dan plans to take £80,000 of tax-free cash from his SIPP, draws $24,000 a year of Social Security, holds £60,000 in a UK equity fund inside a Stocks and Shares ISA, and has a $700,000 IRA from which the couple will fund spending. Assumed exchange rate £1 = $1.35. The US figure on the lump sum uses a single illustrative rate of 24%, as in our tax-free cash guide; real US tax is progressive and depends on the whole return. These are our own calculations on stated assumptions, not a planner output, a forecast or personal advice. Results are not guaranteed and tax rules change.

The same household seen through one country’s rules and through both (illustrative arithmetic on the assumptions above)
ItemA model built on one country’s rules would showWith both systems and both currencies
£80,000 SIPP tax-free cashUK rules: no taxNo UK tax. On the reading both the IRS and HMRC take, the saving clause overrides Article 17(2), so the US can tax it, and there is no UK tax to credit. At an illustrative 24%, about £19,200. The point is unsettled.[36][37][24]
$24,000 Social SecurityUS rules: up to 85% ($20,400) included in US income[30]Taxable only in the UK under Article 17(3), which survives the saving clause; about £17,780 of UK income at $1.35[9]
£60,000 UK fund in an ISAUK rules: tax-freeThe US does not recognise the ISA; a UK fund is likely a passive foreign investment company (PFIC), with Form 8621 and punitive default rules[38][39]
$81,000 a year from the IRA to fund £60,000 of spendingOne-currency plan: a fixed conversionIf sterling rises 10% to $1.485, the same $81,000 buys about £54,545, £5,455 short a year, and the IRA’s sterling value falls from about £518,500 to £471,400

Each row is a different kind of gap. A UK-only model shows the tax-free cash as tax-free, but on the revenue authorities’ reading Dan’s US return could show about £19,200 with nothing to set against it. Social Security is the reverse: US rules alone would put $20,400 into his US income, while the treaty gives the UK the only right to tax it. The ISA row is a classification gap: the same wrapper is tax-free in one system and a reporting and tax problem in the other, which is why our ISAs and PFIC guide treats fund choice for US persons separately. The currency row is a gap in risk: a single-currency plan cannot show that a stronger pound reduces this couple’s spending power.

None of these is exotic, and the arithmetic is simple once the plan uses both countries’ rules and currencies. A household facing these questions should take advice, including from a US tax preparer, before acting.

How the Edale Wealth Hub helps

Edale’s planner models a family across the US and UK at once, in any mix of currencies, year by year to age 100 and beyond. For each person it calculates UK income tax, National Insurance and capital gains tax alongside US federal income tax, payroll taxes, the net investment income tax and long-term capital gains rates. For US persons it calculates how the two systems interact, including foreign tax credits and treaty treatment, so the plan shows what the household actually keeps after both.

Accounts keep their own identity: SIPPs, workplace and defined benefit pensions, the State Pension and ISAs on one side; 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth accounts, inherited IRAs and Social Security on the other; and cross-border items such as treaty pension elections and Roth conversions. The planner flags non-US funds that may be PFICs for US persons. Assets and spending can each be held in their own currency, and twelve named GBP/USD and GBP/EUR currency episodes since 1980 can be moved along the timeline to test what happens if sterling strengthens or weakens.

On estates, the planner models UK inheritance tax to the second death, including pensions in the estate from April 2027 and gifts out of surplus income. Since 1 October 2026 it also models US federal gift and estate tax for US citizens in the UK, UK nationals with US assets and mixed couples. This covers the annual and non-citizen-spouse exclusions, the lifetime exemption, qualified domestic trusts, portability and the US–UK estate tax treaty credits. It does not model US state estate taxes or the generation-skipping transfer tax.

The Hub has limits. It is not a budgeting app and does not connect to bank accounts. Its tax figures are planning summaries to share with an accountant or US tax preparer, not tax returns. Edale does not prepare US returns and is not a US-registered investment adviser. Where a question needs deeper specialist calculation, Edale’s advisers may also use other professional software alongside the Hub. Whether any tool suits you depends on your circumstances. See the cashflow planner or arrange a conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Is Voyant or eMoney better for a US expat in the UK?

Neither is better in general; they are built for different jobs. Voyant sells country editions, including the UK and US, and a Global edition with adviser-built tax regimes. eMoney describes cash-flow planning software for financial advisers. Neither vendor’s pages describe calculating UK and US tax together for one household, so the question to ask is how your adviser handles the interaction.

Does Voyant support multiple currencies?

Asked whether incomes and investments can be entered in multiple currencies, Voyant’s help centre points to a multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional Global edition offered separately from its UK software. That help article dates from 2021 and we found no later statement changing it. Check the current position with Voyant or with the adviser who uses it.

Can RightCapital or MoneyGuide model UK pensions or UK tax?

Their own pages describe US features: federal tax projections, Roth conversions, Social Security and Medicare thresholds. We found no mention of UK income tax, UK pensions or foreign tax credits. An adviser can usually enter a UK pension as a generic account, but its UK tax treatment would then be an adviser’s estimate rather than a calculation.

Why does it matter which country a financial plan is built around?

Because the plan’s tax code, account types and currency come from that country. Items from the other country are translated into those terms, and that is where errors arise. Examples include ISAs treated as tax-free for a US citizen, Social Security taxed in the wrong country, and dollar assets valued at one fixed exchange rate.

Is Social Security taxed in the UK or the US if I live in Britain?

Under Article 17(3) of the US–UK treaty, Social Security paid to a UK resident is taxable only in the UK, and this applies to US citizens too, because the article is an exception to the saving clause. A plan that applies US rules alone would include up to 85% of the benefit in US income instead.

Do any planning tools model UK inheritance tax and US estate tax together?

The vendor pages we read describe one country’s estate rules each: UK inheritance tax in Voyant’s UK edition and US estate tax in the US products. Edale’s planner models both for the same family, including non-citizen-spouse rules and treaty credits, but not US state estate taxes or the generation-skipping transfer tax.

What should I ask an adviser about their planning software?

Ask which country’s tax rules it applies to each person, how foreign tax credits are calculated, how ISAs, UK funds and tax-free cash are treated for US tax, which currency the plan uses, and whether the estate projection covers both countries. Also ask which figures the software calculates and which the adviser enters by hand.

Sources

  1. Voyant — Homepage (regional editions US, UK, IE, CA, AU and Global; ownership) (accessed October 2026)
  2. Voyant help centre — FAQ: Multi-currency – can incomes and investments be entered in multiple currencies? (accessed October 2026)
  3. Voyant help centre — Global Tax Regimes (accessed October 2026)
  4. RightCapital — The difference between cash flow and goals-based planning (21 November 2025) (accessed October 2026)
  5. RightCapital — Features (accessed October 2026)
  6. RightCapital Help Center — Distribution and conversion tool (accessed October 2026)
  7. Envestnet — Goals-based and cash-flow planning approaches (MoneyGuide) (accessed October 2026)
  8. eMoney Advisor — eMoney Pro (accessed October 2026)
  9. US Treasury — Convention between the United States and the United Kingdom for the avoidance of double taxation (2001), Articles 1 and 17 (accessed October 2026)
  10. Envestnet — Our spring 2026 MoneyGuide release (accessed October 2026)
  11. Voyant help centre — Global (non-jurisdictional, global release): article index (accessed October 2026)
  12. AssetMark (GlobeNewswire) — AssetMark closes on the acquisition of Voyant, 1 July 2021 (accessed October 2026)
  13. Voyant — UK Adviser release notes (accessed October 2026)
  14. Voyant help centre — IHT planning features in AdviserGo (accessed October 2026)
  15. Voyant — US Adviser previous release notes (accessed October 2026)
  16. Voyant help centre — Custom Tax Regimes and People – Global (accessed October 2026)
  17. Voyant help centre — The difference between ClientGo and VoyantGo (UK and Ireland) (accessed October 2026)
  18. eMoney Advisor — eMoney Advisor celebrates 25 years of financial planning innovation (3 June 2025) (accessed October 2026)
  19. eMoney Advisor — Planning (accessed October 2026)
  20. RightCapital — Tax planning (accessed October 2026)
  21. Envestnet — MoneyGuide: a goals-based planning solution (accessed October 2026)
  22. Holistiplan — Homepage (accessed October 2026)
  23. RightCapital — RightCapital vs MoneyGuide (19 March 2026), statement on RightCapital’s ownership (accessed October 2026)
  24. IRS — Publication 514, Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals (accessed October 2026)
  25. HM Revenue & Customs and HM Treasury — Increasing Normal Minimum Pension Age (policy paper) (accessed October 2026)
  26. GOV.UK — Rates and allowances: pension schemes (accessed October 2026)
  27. Federal Register — Required minimum distributions, final regulations (TD 10001), 19 July 2024 (accessed October 2026)
  28. legislation.gov.uk — Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 575 (foreign pensions: taxable pension income) (accessed October 2026)
  29. IRS — The taxation of foreign pension and annuity distributions (accessed October 2026)
  30. IRS — Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits (accessed October 2026)
  31. legislation.gov.uk — Double Taxation Relief (Taxes on Estates of Deceased Persons and on Gifts) (United States of America) Order 1979, scheduling the 1978 Convention (accessed October 2026)
  32. IRS — Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 inflation adjustments) (accessed October 2026)
  33. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School — 26 U.S. Code section 2056 (marital deduction; qualified domestic trust) (accessed October 2026)
  34. HMRC — Inheritance Tax Manual IHTM47020: long-term UK residence test (accessed October 2026)
  35. HMRC — Technical note: Inheritance Tax on pensions (accessed October 2026)
  36. IRS Office of Chief Counsel — Memorandum AM2008-009: rollover of distributions from UK pension schemes (accessed October 2026)
  37. HMRC — International Manual INTM163160: double taxation relief, pensions – lump sums (accessed October 2026)
  38. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School — 26 U.S. Code section 1297 (passive foreign investment company) (accessed October 2026)
  39. IRS — Instructions for Form 8621 (accessed October 2026)