One fact, two meetings

A client's life changes in a postscript.

Tom and Ellen sold the house in Lake Oswego and moved to Vancouver, Washington. They mentioned it in an email about a portal password, two weeks before their annual review. Here is what follows, in today's stack and on WilliamFrank.

An illustration. Tom and Ellen are fictional. One minute, no sound.

Tuesday, October 6

The fact arrives sideways

Ellen · Subject: Portal password
Hi, I'm locked out of the portal again. Could someone reset it for me? Thanks, Ellen

P.S. We closed on the house in Vancouver on Friday. New address below.

No system is watching for that sentence. It isn't a feed, a form or a field. And the same fact lives in at least eight places:

The next two weeks

Two ways the week goes

Today's stack

  1. Oct 6. The assistant resets the password and stars the email. The move goes on a to-do list.
  2. Oct 19, meeting prep. The planning software still says Oregon, and so does the tax projection.
  3. Oct 20, minute 22. "Did you get my note about the move?" The rest of the hour is fact-finding.
  4. After. Follow-ups go to four people: the CRM and portal, the custodian forms, a plan rerun, the attorney and the CPA. The billing address is missed until an invoice goes to Oregon.
  5. Three weeks later. A second meeting, for the decisions.

On WilliamFrank

  1. Oct 6, when the email arrives. WilliamFrank proposes one change to the household record: primary residence, Vancouver, Washington, with Ellen's email as the source. The advisor accepts it once.
  2. The same day. What it can write is done. The rest is drafted. The judgment calls go on the agenda.
  3. Oct 20. Two minutes to confirm the move, a signature on the custodian forms, then the decisions.

Nothing leaves the room as a hand-off.

Monday, October 19

The brief the advisor walks in with

Done
  • Household record, contact details, portal and billing updated
  • Each change logged with Ellen's email as its source
Drafted for approval
  • Custodian address forms, ready to sign
  • The plan rerun with Washington residency, next to the old one
  • A note to the estate attorney on the Oregon trust
  • A note to the CPA on part-year returns and the Portland rental
Needs your judgment
  • Roth conversions, which carry no state income tax in Washington today and did in Oregon
  • Future sales of appreciated stock, now that Washington's capital gains tax applies
  • The trust review: go ahead?
  • The Portland condo, which still counts for Oregon's estate tax

Tuesday, October 20

Same clients. Two different meetings.

Today's stack · the agenda

  1. Catch-up
  2. "We moved." Which accounts, since when?
  3. What does it change? Taxes, the trust, the rental. "We'll look into it."
  4. Portfolio review, in the last ten minutes
  5. Follow-ups handed to four people

Decisions wait for a second meeting.

On WilliamFrank · the agenda

  1. Confirm the move, already updated
  2. Sign the custodian forms, already drafted
  3. Decide: the Roth conversion amount this year
  4. Decide: the trust review with the attorney
  5. Decide: keep or sell the Portland condo

Decisions made in the room.

Every household’s facts kept current. Every meeting spent on decisions.

That is what we mean by simpler systems leading to better service.

Tom and Ellen are fictional. State tax rules are simplified here and change; nothing on this page is tax advice.

Stay close to the thinking

The Agentic Wealth letter.

Essays on advisor agency and what agentic rails change, by Bill Woodruff with WilliamFrank.

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