If you hold embedded gains spread across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts, this gap is yours. Two identical portfolios. Same markets, same pre-tax return. The only difference is how the tax is managed — where each holding sits, how losses are used, how gains and withdrawals are timed. Over a lifetime, that difference compounds into what a household actually keeps.
Nothing about the investments changed. Only the coordination did.
Identical holdings and identical pre-tax return; the paths differ only in implementation — asset location, lot selection, harvesting cadence, and withdrawal order — modeled as an illustrative +3.7–4.7%/yr kept after tax, federal to a high-tax state. Values compound from $1,000,000 of realized gains.
Source: Driftwood After-Tax Review — modeled, hypothetical, illustrative. Not a forecast and not advice; your figure depends on bracket, basis, and holdings.
The figure above is the argument. The After-Tax Review is that argument, computed on your own balance sheet — your holdings, basis, bracket, and state — estimating the after-tax return, the asset-location benefit, the value of harvesting, and the order in which accounts should be drawn. It is prepared privately and reviewed with you; it is not a form to fill out.
The difference between the two lines is not a market call. It is a set of decisions made deliberately, held for decades. See it on your own numbers.