What does an optimizer do?

In plain terms: an optimizer searches for the best plan under rules you care about, instead of following a single rule of thumb. For retirement and tax-aware planning, that usually means looking across years and across accounts (taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth-style) and proposing where holdings should sit, where new savings should go, and where money should come from when you spend. It has to respect real limits at the same time: contribution caps, account eligibility, tax treatment, your chosen goal (paycheck, wealth, taxes, or legacy), and the mix of investments you already want to keep. Think of it as putting those constraints on a scale and finding a balance that fits the whole picture: not optimizing one shelf while ignoring the rest. The output is a optimized plan of moves over time under those assumptions; it is still a recommendation to discuss with a professional, not a guarantee.

What is asset location, and how does the optimizer use it?

Asset location is which account holds each part of your mix. A common rule of thumb fills retirement accounts first and worries about what’s inside later; an optimizer can match each holding to a better-fit account even when contributions arrive in the same order. Asset location is one important piece of what the optimizer does (alongside contribution and withdrawal sequencing, multi-year moves, and optimizing toward your chosen objective), not the whole engine.

What is Tax efficiency preference?

Tax efficiency preference controls how freely the optimizer can place assets across accounts for tax efficiency while keeping your overall portfolio mix the same. At Target allocation only, every account stays locked to the mix. At Maximum tax efficiency, individual accounts may look very different (for example bonds concentrated in brokerage and equities in retirement accounts) as long as the Total Portfolio still hits the target mix (here, a 60/40 example). The other preferences sit between those poles. The green band marks the portfolio mix; bar colors match equities and fixed income elsewhere in the product.

Do you pick my investments or sell me funds?

No. Your asset mix and investment choices stay yours. We don’t second-guess your strategy, replace your portfolio, or sell you products. The focus is placement and sequencing of moves across the accounts you already use.

What do I actually get from a scenario?

A full results workspace for the objective you chose: typically including an Overview of headline outcomes, a concrete Action plan of optimized moves, Tax analysis versus a baseline, Historical backtests, Cash flow views of how money moves through the portfolio, and Multi-run Compare so you can weigh scenarios side by side. Same idea throughout: your mix stays yours; the plan shows where money sits and how moves can unfold over time.

What are the four planning objectives?

Each scenario optimizes toward one primary goal: Retirement Paycheck (sustainable spending), Build After-Tax Wealth (maximize spendable wealth), Minimize Taxes (reduce lifetime tax drag), or Legacy (maximize what you leave after taxes). Run different objectives to compare tradeoffs.

Does asset location really change what I leave behind?

For the Legacy objective specifically: yes. Smart placement doesn’t just shave a little off your tax bill each year; over a full retirement it can meaningfully change the size of what your beneficiaries actually receive, without asking you to spend less along the way.

Are you using AI for this?

The scenario results themselves are produced the proven, old-fashioned way: with math. An optimizer solves placement, sequencing, and tradeoffs under your assumptions and constraints. We do take advantage of large language models (LLMs) for what they do best: helping summarize, interpret, and extract insights from those results so the numbers are easier to read. The plan is calculated; the commentary is assistive.

Claude and ChatGPT already do this for me

They are genuinely helpful for educating consumers: explaining concepts, walking through examples, and helping you think about planning in plain language. That is valuable. What they typically do not do is run your full household picture as a multi-year optimization: projecting contributions and withdrawals across time toward a stated goal, while balancing contribution limits, account rules, tax treatment, and the other constraints an optimizer is built to respect. A chat answer is a great starting point. Like our scenario output, it is a recommendation for learning and discussion (not a substitute for a qualified professional’s second opinion. And if you are choosing among recommendations, would you rather they be grounded in math under explicit constraints) or inferred from a conversation?

Is this investment, tax, or legal advice?

No. Scenarios are hypothetical models for learning and exploration. Results depend on the assumptions you provide and can differ from real outcomes. Consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions.