Using a custom stencil allows you to quickly create a case based on the financial conversations you like having the most. A custom stencil applies the financial tiles that you have defined as being relevant instead of using our application stencils. Having a custom stencil is an easy way for you to applie financials based on a demographic, household situation, age-related situation, or professional situation that you have defined instead of using our application stencils.
You may create a custom stencil from scratch, manually. You can create a custom stencil by customizing our application stencils. You can create a custom stencil from a client's Asset-Map.
Create a Custom Stencil Manually
If you haven't watch the video clip "How to Manually Create a Household", now is a good time. The steps are almost the same for building a custom stencil.
Here are the steps:
Step 1. Add Household manually
Click "Add Household", select "Manually - Get Started", Click "Stencil" from the drop-down menu.
Step 2. Complete the household creation form
Here are some of our recommendations for completing the fields:
Household Name (*required) | "[audience] Stencil " |
First Name and Last Name (*required) | Does not really matter. You will be applying Financials, not member names. |
Date of birth (DOB) or Age (*required) | Does not matter but must be greater than 10. |
Gender (*required) | Does not matter for a stencil |
Role (*required) | Important. Your stencil tiles will be placed on the corresponding roles in the Households you will be using this stencil on. If you have multiple client members on your household with the same role, the stencil will only apply to one of those client members and ignore the others. |
Step 3. Add Financials
After clicking the "Add Household" button, use the Actions menu on the blank map to add financials that define your demographic or financial situation.
4. You are finished!
Your stencil is now available in your My Stencils library and can be applied to households. To remind yourself of what it looks like you can click the preview icon next to the stencil.
Create a Custom Stencil using a Current Client or Sample Household
If a client's Asset-Map already reflects a fine example of a custom stencil you'd like to have at the ready, follow these steps to create a custom stencil.
Temporarily switch the status of the household from "client" or "sample" household to "stencil" household.
This is done from the client household's summary page. Click "edit" next to the household's name and click the "stencil" option. Press "Save Household". That household will then appear in the Apply Stencil tool.
Create a new stencil household manually. Ensure you select "stencil" from the menu when you start the process. Also ensure the Members have the same "Roles" applied to them as your temporarily "stencilized" household. Primary financial tiles will be applied to the Primary, Spouse financial tiles will be applied to the Spouse, Dependent financial tiles will be applied to the Dependent, etc.
Open the Apply Stencil tool, select the first client/stencil household and apply it to your manually created household.
The tiles on the original will be applied to the new household. They will appear as gray stencil tiles but with the same information. Each financial instrument must be saved to colorize the tile.
Now, you've made a stencil that you will remain in your Stencil manager and can be edited from your Household Index. One more step: Return to the original client household by searching for them in the household search field. Click "edit" next to their name. Change their status back to "client" or "sample" from "stencil".
You've used an original client to make a new custom stencil that you'll use over and over again.
Create a Custom Stencil using a Public Library Stencil
It's easy to create a customized stencil for yourself by starting with one of the platform stencils provided for no cost.
Quick Steps
Copy a public library stencil over to your My Stencils library using the plus icon.
Edit the copied library stencil.
Close the Stencil application tool.
Seek the copied stencil in your Household Index.
Click the desired stencil to begin editing it as you would a normal household.
This modified stencil is applied using the My Stencils library and can be modified from your own Household Index. The original system stencil is still present in the Public Library.
Detailed Steps
Open the stencil application tool's Public Library tab. Right click (Alt click) on the map. Select "Stencils" from the drop menu.
Preview the potential stencil by clicking the image icon to the left of the stencil.
Click the copy icon, the "+" to the right to the desired stencil. This will copy it into your Household Index.
The word "copy" is applied to the stencil household name to make it easily searchable in your Household Index.
To make changes to the stencil search and open it from your Household Index to make your desired customizations. Customizations might include change dollar values, refine the financial descroption, change the name of the stencil itself to something more appropriate so that you can find it in your Stencil Library tool.
How to Delete a Custom Stencil
A custom stencil is a type of household managed from your Household Index. Therefore, you can delete them in the same way as Client and Sample households.
Click here to see how to delete a household
How to Apply Part of a Stencil to One Member of a Household
Your custom stencil can apply one stencil member's financials to any client household member using the Apply Stencil tool.
Select the desired stencil.
Select "No" option for "Apply stencil to entire household?"
Choose a desired stencil member in the "Select Member from Stencil" menu.
Choose a desired client member in the "Select Household Member" menu.
Click "Apply Stencil"
Things to Know About any Stencil
(a) Target-Maps™ and Comprehensive Reports are not available for households created as Stencils.
(b) Clear the stencil placeholders with a click of a mouse on the "Clear Stencil" option on the toggle menu (very convenient!).
(c) Stencil financials with a value will be present and calculate on Target-Maps.
(d) Stencils listed in the Stencil Public Library are provided by Asset-Map Platform and cannot be directly changed or edited. Should you wish to edit one of our stencil, copy it to your My Stencils library using the + icon.
(e) A Custom Stencil can have many members with many relationships. To apply stencil financials from each stencil member to a client map all the relationships must match. In the example below the Child stencil member and associated financials, and the Corporation LLC's financials will not be applied to the Client household.
A Common Use Example
If we know that Widget's, Inc. provides basic and voluntary benefits for their employees, then we can create a custom Stencil for later use on the maps of Widget's employee prospects.
We searched and found the benefits of the company online.
We created tiles representing those benefits.
We have included other common financials like savings accounts and social security.
We've added the financials one at a time using the Actions menu. We used the appropriate corporate terminology and input the company's name in the Location field where it made sense. We also placed a "$1" value into the value fields.
Now....
You are preparing to visit with someone who works at Widget's, Inc. Simply apply the stencil (Actions menu / Apply Stencil) to the real prospect's household, which you have started manually, or that they have made themselves using our Discovery Interview. You are well on the way to quickly making their Asset-Map Report for your great conversation.
You can reuse the Widget stencil to apply the same financials to the next employee household you'll create.
11/2025