# Client-Track Deck — Storyline Architecture & Segment Variants > **Status:** v1 (2026-10-09). The storyline design for the client-track deck (C1): one spine, segment-tuned. Written per marketing-synthesis rules (10–12 slides, one idea/slide, candor-first, protagonist = client) and the user's interactive-development requirement (this is a design to react to, not a final artifact). > Companion files: `research-forecast-scorecard-and-2020-2022.md` (exhibit numbers), `rm-participation-walkthrough.md`, `marketing-synthesis.md`. --- ## 1. The core design problem, stated A fixed 10–12 slide deck cannot serve a 30-year-old self-directed accumulator and a 68-year-old widow living off her portfolio with the same emotional sequence. But the research is equally clear that the deck must NOT fork into many bespoke decks (maintenance, consistency, compliance sign-off). **Resolution: one spine, three dials.** The deck is a template with fixed structure and three variable dials: - **Dial A — which beat carries the emotional load** (the tension beat that makes them lean in). Different lives fear different losses. - **Dial B — which exhibits fire** (of the locked set: riddle / 113k-vs-3.3M / scorecard / 2020-2022 discovery / letter-with-mistake / machinery). - **Dial C — the small step** (the call to action must match their risk-capacity and readiness: pilot mandate ≠ estate simplification ≠ full move). The discovery (Q&A) section of the meeting is what sets the dials — 4–5 questions before any slide is shown. The RM (or we, in RM-introduced meetings) runs the dials from a one-page decision card, not from memory. ## 2. The fixed spine (all segments) The beats never change order — only their weight and exhibits vary: 1. **Open — earned insight** (the riddle or discovery question; engineered to be won) 2. **Tension — their life's specific risk** (Dial A: what THIS person's situation actually threatens) 3. **Hard evidence** (Dial B: the numbers that make the tension undeniable) 4. **The turn** — rules beat intentions (our process as consequence: what a disciplined rule set did in 2020/2022, honestly including the flat-March-2020 caveat) 5. **The path** — what they receive (the machinery: report pack, letters, drift dashboard — demonstrated, not claimed) 6. **The letter** — the sample with a named mistake + correction (candor exhibited) 7. **Candor slide** — new firm, what it means and doesn't (custodian stays theirs; no lock-up philosophy; founders' names and faces) 8. **The small step** (Dial C) Three design constants across every segment: *slides ask, the meeting answers*; *never ask a question the client can fail*; *the industry is the patient, never the incumbent manager*. ## 2b. The story as heard in the room — where the emotion comes from (added 2026-10-09) The matrix chooses the ammunition; the arc supplies the emotion. Written for the standard segment (bank-managed, mid-life) — same grammar applies to all segments with dial-swapped content. **Narrative spine (invariant across segments):** *"You were right to feel that — here's the proof — here's the only fix that works — here's the machinery — here's our weakness stated plainly — here's a small step that's yours to take."* Every beat puts the client in the right and gives them agency; every exhibit proves something they already felt. The story is theirs; we're the first person who wrote it down with numbers. **Beat anatomy (emotion source):** 1. **Riddle opener — curiosity + small win.** Client answers, gets it right, is told they're in the smart 10%. Status raised before anything asked. Emotion: playful, competitive, warm — the "I like this meeting" moment that buys permission for everything after. 2. **Tension (discovery payoff) — the emotional core.** The tension is THEIR OWN MEMORY, not our exhibit: we ask about their 2022 experience, they narrate their own fear and their manager's inaction. The cortisol spike comes from reliving; our slides only dignify what they felt ("you were right to feel it — here's the data"). **Validation is the single most important emotional move in the meeting**: the person who validates becomes the ally. This is also why incumbent-bashing is banned — their memory does the indictment, we hand them the evidence. 3. **Hard evidence (113k vs 3.3M) — fear made specific, then made personal.** Drawdown translated from percentages into consequence ("not 16% — two extra years of work; not a bad quarter — the flat your daughter rents"). Within the same beat: resolution visible — recovery math shows what depth-of-loss rules prevent. Fear → agency in one motion (both-biomarker rule). 4. **The turn (rules beat intentions) — relief + respect.** The honest caveat (rules were flat in March 2020) is the trust turnstile: we show our own tools' weakness before they find it. Converts "another manager selling safety" into "someone whose claims I can verify." 5. **The path (machinery) — anticipation, the disciplined version of greed.** Report pack, drift dashboard, the letter — concrete, beautiful, *theirs already in their mind's eye*. Emotion: want, not push. 6. **The letter (the mistake) — the deepest beat, and the quiet one.** A losing position named, "we were wrong, here's what we changed." No competitor can show this without fabricating. Emotion: trust as relief — the thing they've silently wanted for years, in their hands. Works precisely because it's calm. 7. **Candor (new firm) — vulnerability as strength.** Our weakness stated before they discover it. Emotion: fairness — an even deal, theirs to judge. 8. **Small step — agency.** We ask for almost nothing: a slice, a test, a date. Control returns to the client — a decision they feel capable of making, not a close they must resist. **Segment-robustness:** dials change WHAT the tension is (their own trading record / their manager's inaction / platform thinness / sequence risk / time); the emotional grammar is invariant: validation → stakes → resolution → anticipation → trust-as-relief → agency. ### Dimension 1: how their money is managed today | Segment | Dial A (tension) | Dial B (exhibits) | Dial C (small step) | Meeting notes | |---|---|---|---|---| | **Self-managed** | Their OWN 2020/2022 moves (guided discovery of their decisions, not their manager's) | Discovery script + scorecard + rule-of-72 arithmetic if young | Pilot mandate on a slice; keep self-managed portion if they wish | Don't attack DIY — respect it, then show what they were missing: the machinery. The letter-with-mistake is powerful here (they've never seen anyone do it) | | **Bank-managed** | Manager inaction in stress: "what did your manager do in March 2022?" | 2020/2022 exhibit + the letter sample | Second-opinion offer / pilot mandate (low threat: we ask for a slice, not the relationship) | The incumbent is never named. The discovery questions do the work: they remember the inaction memo themselves. Strongest move: the machinery demo — they've never seen alignment reports | | **EAM-managed** | "Your structure is right. What's missing is the platform underneath it" | Machinery demo + letter + report pack | Move the mandate (they're pre-sold on independence; we're selling a better run version of what they have) | Shortest pitch. EAM clients already left a bank; don't re-argue independence — show institutional-grade systems they suspect small EAMs lack. Candor slide matters less here (the EAM layer is between us and them) | ### Dimension 2: life stage | Segment | Dial A (tension) | Dial B | Dial C | Key adjustment | |---|---|---|---|---| | **Young accumulator (25–40, growing wealth)** | Time: compounding arithmetic (rule-of-72 riddle variant: "what does 30 years of discipline do?") | Compounding math; behavior gap (their own trading record, gently) | Start the mandate NOW (early start is the whole advantage; delay = the tension) | Lowest fear level → the tension must be *aspiration-gap* ("your money could be working at market rates, not savings rates"), not loss. Risk language stays abstract; growth language concrete | | **Mid-life family (40–60, dependents, peak complexity)** | Sequence risk + timeline: "the first decade decides the plan" (Kitces 0.9) | 113k-vs-3.3M exhibit + drawdown rules | Pilot mandate + (if relevant) estate/simplification conversation | Highest complexity = highest value of simplification. The "what your money actually owns" decomposition (cross-bank aggregation) lands here. Dependents make the de-risking rules emotional: "the rules protect THEM from your worst week" | | **Retiree decumulator (60+, drawing income)** | Sequence risk DOMINANT — this is their #1 financial fear, stated plainly | 113k-vs-3.3M + the cash-buffer/drawdown rule mechanics + the honest March-2020-flat caveat | Mandate with explicit de-risk rules; income-mapping conversation | The one segment where loss-arithmetic (#1) is dangerous alone — it can trigger anxiety without resolution. MUST pair immediately with the turn (rules) and the buffer mechanics. Tone: calm, protective, zero adrenaline. Both-biomarker rule: fear introduced → resolved within the same meeting | ### Dimension 3: wealth level & knowledge | Segment | Adjustment | |---|---| | **High wealth (10M+)** | Skip all arithmetic riddles (insulting at this level). Tension = governance/complexity: many banks, many structures, nobody measures the whole. Exhibit = the decomposition demo. CTA = consolidate measurement first (we produce a consolidated picture; mandate later) | | **Qualified-but-modest (500k–5M)** | The full standard spine. This is the pitch as designed | | **Low financial knowledge** | Riddle stays (it's designed to be won); scorecard simplified to the 2008/2023 rows only; machinery demo becomes a single printed report pack handed over; no jargon; story-per-concept rule enforced strictly | | **High knowledge (finance-adjacent professional)** | Riddle becomes optional (they'll know it); lead with scorecard + the honest-caveat slide (they respect the falsifiability); machinery demo goes deeper (they'll ask about the DB architecture); letter-with-mistake is the differentiator (they know nobody does this) | ## 4. How the meeting runs (the dial-setting script) **Before slides (5 min, 4–5 questions — this is where personalization happens):** 1. "How is your wealth managed today — and how much of it do you personally decide?" → sets Dimension-1 branch. 2. "Roughly what stage are you in — building, peak-responsibility years, or drawing on it?" (asked gently, never "how old are you") → sets Dimension-2 branch. 3. "When did you last have a losing stretch in your portfolio — what did you or your manager do?" → the discovery seed; their answer becomes the Tension beat's raw material. 4. "What would need to be true for you to change anything?" → tests readiness; sets Dial C. **Then the deck runs with the dials set — 30–40 min. The deck NEVER runs front-to-back mechanically; slides are chosen from the template per the segment card.** **After (5 min):** the small step, dated. "Send me your current statements before the pilot meeting" — the holdings handoff happens HERE, at step-C, after trust exists (per the user's friction point — never as a first-meeting request). ## 5. What stays fixed everywhere (the brand constants) - The riddle opener in the won-form (client ends up in the smart 10%). - The letter-with-mistake (it is the single most differentiating artifact — no competitor can show one without fabricating). - The candor slide (new firm: no track record, two named founders, custodian stays client's choice, no lock-up). - The honest caveat slide (trend/rules were flat in March 2020 — shown, not hidden; falsifiability as the trust device). - Names, faces, philosophy — never firm-as-hero, never stock photos, never scale claims. ## 6. The small-step menu (Dial C candidates, 2026-10-09) **Design principles (locked):** (a) the step always produces something the client KEEPS (written assessment, letter archive, shadow-portfolio record, pilot report pack) — a deliverable, never "a next meeting"; (b) the step is dated and named in the meeting ("statements by Friday, assessment by the 25th") — we propose and calendar, client may adjust; (c) holdings/statements handoff happens AT the step, after trust exists — never as a first-meeting request; (d) **limited-time validity where the step is a privilege**: fee-floor waiver, founding-client pricing, shadow-portfolio access, and similar are offered explicitly as time-limited founding-phase terms — creating honest urgency AND protecting the firm from carrying early-phase economics forever. | # | Step | What it is | Best for | Why it works | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | **Pilot mandate on a slice** (CHF 250–500k, full service) | Real mandate, small, reversible; founding-client fee-floor waiver applies (time-limited) | Bank-managed, mid-life | Real experience of machinery at minimal stakes; direct contrast to all-or-nothing bank relationship | | 2 | **Shadow portfolio** (3 months, paper) | Model mandate matching their profile, run live in our system, they watch entries/exits/de-risking/letters — no money moves | Self-managed; skeptical/knowledgeable | Being watched before being hired — nobody offers this; converts skeptics who reject pitch meetings; costs only system time (D5 demo infra doubles as the engine); **time-limited: founding-phase access only** | | 3 | **Second opinion in writing** (10-day turnaround) | Structured written assessment from statements: cost stack, exposure facts, stress history, what we'd do differently — no obligation | High wealth; bank-managed; retiree | The deliverable format itself is the product demo (candor/structure); partially automatable from AM DB later | | 4 | **Consolidated picture** (multi-bank aggregation) | Cross-institution decomposition of total holdings — "what your money actually owns" | Multi-bank; high wealth | Service gap nobody fills; positions us as the measurement layer — a role held long before any mandate | | 5 | **Letter subscription** (one quarter) | Monthly investment letter incl. the named-mistake section, pre-mandate | EAM-managed; not-ready-yet | Lowest-touch; keeps us present monthly; honesty exhibit does quiet work; letter pipeline is a launch requirement anyway | | 6 | **Quarterly client briefing attendance** (one session) | They join a real client review alongside existing clients | Trust-driven; Swiss market | Institutional gravity read from gatherings; scales cheaply once running | | 7 | **Three-way meeting** (client + RM + us) | Joint working session instead of solo pitch | RM-introduced prospects (the main channel) | Respects the client-RM bond; RM becomes co-advocate; RM track and client track reinforce each other | **Matching (step × segment):** bank-managed/mid-life → 1 (+waiver) · EAM-managed → 5 then 3 · self-managed → 2 · high wealth → 3/4 · retiree → 3 (income-mapping) · young accumulator → start real (small) now · low knowledge → 7 · RM-introduced → 7 then 1. **Limited-time framing (per user decision 2026-10-09):** steps 1 (fee-floor waiver), 2 (shadow access), and any founding-client pricing are offered **explicitly time-limited** — wording standard: "this is a founding-phase term, available to the first [N] clients / until [date]." The urgency must be TRUE (founding cohort is real — the fee schedule's founding_client_waiver and founding-RM structures exist) and stated as fact, not pressure. This also serves candor: the terms decay as the firm fills, which is exactly how a capacity-constrained boutique should behave. **The expiry terms must be defined in the fee schedule YAML** (cohort size and/or end date) so every client-facing document states them identically — added to fee-schedule-draft §4 open decisions. ## 7. Implementation notes (build order) 1. B2 brand tokens first (the deck renders from them). 2. Build the spine deck (standard segment: bank-managed, mid-life, qualified-modest) — it's the default and the template. 3. Build the one-page **segment decision card** (the dial matrix above, compressed) — this is what the RM carries into meetings. 4. Segment variants = token/exhibit swaps on the same template (Dial B swaps are content-slot changes, not new slides). 5. Demo-client data (D5) populates the machinery slides for each variant.