The Wealth Operating Manual.

A report is read once and filed. This is the other thing, the record a report becomes. Every decision, its reason, and what it touched, kept in one place and never deleted, so the plan is something that accumulates rather than something that resets each year.

Confidential

Prepared for the Harris household

Household: The Harris household
Adviser of record: Driftwood
Established: February 2026
Revision: rev. 06 · current
Status: Current · append-only
Authority: Operational guidance
As of: 9 July 2026
Next standing review: September 2026

How to read this book: § A records what was decided and why; § B holds what is still open and whom it waits on; § C is the revision history of the plan itself.

§ AHousehold Decision Ledger

Every decision, dated, with the reason it was made and the parts of the system it touched. Nothing is removed; the ledger only grows. This is the thing a family office keeps, and the thing an annual statement is not.

DateDecision & reasonAffectedReferenceStatus

Jul 2026 Sequenced the first Roth conversion rung to fill the 24% bracket.A low-income year before RMDs begin, bracket space that will not return. Taxes · Estate § After-Tax Lab → Implemented

Jun 2026 Established a 529 for the first grandchild.Five years of the annual exclusion, front-loaded, funded from the taxable book. Liquidity · Estate rev. 05 → Implemented

May 2026 Opened the Texas residency sequence, residency before the business sale.Retire the 4.95% Illinois tax on the coming sale before it is realized; the order, not the components, decides the outcome. Taxes · Liquidity · Estate State Tax Atlas → In progress

Apr 2026 Moved the life policy into an ILIT.Remove the death benefit from the taxable estate; let it fund the tax it once inflated. Estate § Estate → Implemented

Mar 2026 Relocated municipal bonds to the taxable account.Tax-exempt coupons are wasted inside a tax-deferred account; the taxable book is their right home. Portfolio · Taxes The evidence → Implemented

Mar 2026 Began a three-year exit from the concentrated position.Reduce single-stock risk on a schedule, at a tax cost agreed in advance. Portfolio · Taxes Concentrated Position Lab → In progress

Feb 2026 Set the household asset-location map.Place each asset class in the account where it is taxed least. Portfolio · Taxes The evidence → Implemented

Feb 2026 Opened the household book.Inventoried the accounts, the return, and the estate documents, one coordinated starting point. Portfolio · Taxes · Estate · Liquidity None Baseline

§ BOpen matters

The matters currently in motion, what is open, whom it waits on, and who owns the next move. A dependency is closed only when its professional has signed off. These are the working entries of the Opportunity Register.

MatterDependenciesOwnerStatus

Sale of the operating businessOpened Jan 2026

CPA Attorney Insurance Portfolio

Driftwood Awaiting valuation

2026 Roth conversionOpened Feb 2026

CPA Portfolio

Driftwood Modeling bracket

Second-home purchaseOpened Jun 2026

Attorney Portfolio

You Funding source open

Year-end giftingOpened Jun 2026

CPA Attorney

Driftwood Scheduled December

§ CHousehold Change Log

The revision history of the plan itself, what changed at each version, and by whose hand. The manual is a versioned instrument, not a live dashboard that forgets its own past.

Rev.DateChangeBy

rev. 06Jul 2026Roth conversion recorded; estimated tax adjusted.Driftwood

rev. 05Jun 2026529 established; annual gift logged.Driftwood

rev. 04May 2026Texas residency sequence opened; estate plan review scheduled.Driftwood · Attorney

rev. 03Apr 2026Trust amended; life policy assigned to the ILIT.Attorney

rev. 02Mar 2026Concentration transition begun.Driftwood

rev. 01Feb 2026Book opened; beneficiaries updated; municipal bonds relocated to taxable.Driftwood

Draws on

The Constitution (amend. 3), the instrument this book operates under.

The Capital Allocation Policy (Rev. 2), the bands the ledger deploys against.

The Decision Register, the upstream record; each ledger entry above carries its rationale there.

The Opportunity Register, the open matters this book tracks as dependencies.

Referenced by

The Annual Review, the year’s reading of this book.

The point

A report is read once. A record is kept.

Polish is easy to copy; continuity is not. The manual’s advantage is that it remembers, across decades, decisions, and the people who made them. That is the difference between a firm that reports to you and one that keeps your household’s book.

§ Operating Manual · rev. 06 · fol. 1The Harris household · est. 2026

Illustrative and educational, not investment, tax, or legal advice. The household, decisions, and figures above are hypothetical, drawn to show the form of the record. Driftwood coordinates with your CPA and attorney; it does not provide tax or legal advice. Driftwood Wealth is the private-wealth practice of Alec Messino. Securities products and advisory services offered through Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS), member FINRA, SIPC. Alec Messino is a Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of PAS. Driftwood Wealth is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS. All figures are illustrative models for educational purposes, not investment, tax, or legal advice, and not a recommendation. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use.