David Chen — an inherited IRA with a ten-year clock, a brokerage full of embedded gains, his mother’s house, and advice from everyone.
Age
39
Came to us
2025
Under care
$2.8M
Folio
Vol. I
· The arrival
A windfall arrives with a countdown and a crowd. The first rule was written on the first day: nothing fast for ninety days except what the law requires. Then the clock work — the ten-year drawdown composed against his own tax curve, not a generic schedule.
· The plan, composed
·The estate inventoried and reconciled to the penny before any decision.
·The inherited-IRA drawdown composed year-by-year against his bracket — signed as a schedule, not improvised annually.
·The step-up audited on every inherited lot; the embedded-gain map drawn.
·The house sold; proceeds staged into the portfolio over nine months.
· The portfolio, composed ·Allocation · not performance
On arrival
As composed
Equities · 80%Fixed income · 15%Cash · 5%
BAFAOS · PORTFOLIO COMPOSERSPECIMEN
RISK · CAPACITY
56/58
COMPOSED · IN RANGE
SLEEVES · AS COMPOSED
Equities80%
Fixed income15%
Cash5%
· COMPOSED AGAINST THE PLAN · SIGNED BEFORE IT TRADES ·· EVERY CHANGE A LEDGER LINE ·
· Inside the portal · this household, signed in
· Specimen · illustrative only ·
BAFAOS · CLIENT PORTALSPECIMEN · FICTIONAL · AUG MMXXVI
The ten-year clock,composed.
DRAWDOWN
YEAR 2 OF 10
STEP-UP AUDIT
EVERY LOT · VERIFIED
NEXT WINDOW
JANUARY
Bonus season is watched — the window moves if the bracket does.
2025The ninety days.The do-nothing-fast rule, signed. It held against every hot tip at every family dinner.
2025The schedule.Ten years of distributions mapped against salary, bonus years, and a possible sabbatical.
2025The house.Sold at the appraisal, step-up applied, proceeds staged — each tranche recorded as it moved.
2026Year-one distribution.Executed on schedule, in the window the tax map chose.
2026Folio Vol. I bound.His mother’s estate, closed with a record she would have recognized as careful.
· The watching
Household health score · desk-initiated
78
STEADY
→
71 ▾
THE DIP
→
84 ▴
RECOVERED
One day, between meetings —
We noticed a larger-than-planned bonus was about to stack on top of a scheduled distribution.
The answer The distribution resequenced into January — same schedule, kinder bracket. The reasoning is one line in the ledger.
It surfaced at a desk reading — as Planning Journey, one line in the record. That is BAFAos at work: when the advisor identifies a material change, the affected chapter is reopened for review.
The score is desk-initiated — recomputed when your advisor runs the review, not by an autonomous schedule; its verification lives in the Claims Register.
An inheritance keeps its shape when the decisions are written down.
· Example households · fictional composites, illustrative only · not clients · allocations shown for illustration — no investment performance shown or implied · options strategies, where shown, carry their own risks and costs ·
