The Bennett-Cruz household — 49 and 51, two teenagers, one parent moving in, peak careers, and no margin left to think.
Ages
49 · 51
Came to us
2022
Under care
$1.6M
Folio
Vol. IV
· The arrival
The sandwich decade: college four years out, retirement fifteen, her mother’s care starting now — every dollar claimed twice. They didn’t need a product; they needed arbitration in writing. The plan of record put the competing claims on one page and made the trade-offs explicit, so every yes knew what it was saying no to.
· The plan, composed
·The three clocks on one page — college, retirement, her mother’s care — each funded deliberately, none by default.
·529s sized to a written ceiling: the college promise capped, so it cannot quietly consume the retirement.
·Insurance rebuilt around the years that matter — term sized to the mortgage and the teenagers, not to a product quota.
·Her mother’s finances brought onto the record — power of attorney filed, accounts mapped, care costs modeled before they arrived.
· The portfolio, composed ·Allocation · not performance
On arrival
As composed
Equities · 74%Fixed income · 18%Cash · 8%
BAFAOS · PORTFOLIO COMPOSERSPECIMEN
RISK · CAPACITY
64/66
COMPOSED · IN RANGE
SLEEVES · AS COMPOSED
Equities74%
Fixed income18%
Cash8%
· 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
Three clocks,one page.
529 CEILING
FUNDED · CAPPED
CARE BUDGET
MODELED · YR 2
GUARDIANSHIP
SIGNED · FILED
The college year-one drawdown is scheduled — August.
2022The arbitration.Three goals, one page — the trade-offs written down so both spouses were choosing the same things.
2022The ceiling.529 funding capped in writing; the retirement stopped being the default lender.
2023The move.Her mother’s accounts mapped, POA filed, the care budget modeled two years before it was needed.
2024The raise, routed.A promotion’s new cash flow pre-assigned by the plan before lifestyle could claim it.
2026Folio Vol. IV bound.Three clocks, still on one page — and college year one paid from the account built for it.
· The watching
Household health score · desk-initiated
77
STEADY
→
70 ▾
THE DIP
→
83 ▴
RECOVERED
One day, between meetings —
We noticed the guardianship designation for the teenagers sat unsigned for six weeks in the busiest season.
The answer A twenty-minute signing appointment, scheduled for them — the last open item closed before the school year.
It surfaced at a desk reading — as Planning Completion, 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.
Mid-life is triage. The record is how both of you agree on what wins.
· 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 ·
