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:
Click "Add Household", select "Manually - Get Started", Click "Stencil" from the drop-down menu.
Complete the household form. Here are some of our recommendations for completing the fields:
Household Name | "[audience] Stencil " |
First Name and Last Name | Does not really matter. You will be applying Financials, not member names. |
Date of birth (DOB) or Age | Does not matter but must be greater than 10. |
Gender | Does not matter for a stencil |
Role | Important. Your stencil tiles will be placed on the corresponding roles in the Households you will be using this stencil on. |
After clicking the "Add Household" button, use the Actions menu within the Pages menu to add Assets and Liabilities that define your demographic or financial situation.
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.
From 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.
From the Public Stencil Library
It's easy to create a customized stencil for yourself by starting with one of the platform stencils provided for no cost.
Open the Stencil Library, Public Library tab.
Preview the potential stencil by clicking the image icon to the left of the stencil.
Click the copy icon. "+" to the right to the desired stencil to copy it into your Household Index.
Once copied, we'll append the word "copy" to the stencil household name to make it easily searchable in your Household Index.
To make changes to the stencil, from your Household Index, open the stencil and make your desired changes. For example: change dollar values, refine the financials, even change the name of the stencil to something more appropriate so that you can find it in your Stencil Library tool.
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.
The benefits (which we found online at their website) are on the left. We have rounded out the stencil with a few extra common assets like savings account and social security. The Stencil Asset-Map could look like what you see on the right.
We've added the financials one at a time using the Pages/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 (Pages / Actions / Apply Stencil) onto 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 on the next employee household you'll create.
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
Things to Know About a 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 areprovided by Asset-Map Platform and cannot be directly changed or edited. Should you wish to edit a stencil, copy it it your My Stencils library.
12/2023