Allocation drift
Market movement can pull the mix away from its targets. Crossing a plan-defined threshold prompts rebalancing review, including tax and transaction considerations.
The WG Plan planning process
Your household is the starting point.
Not a model portfolio.
First, understand what could put your plan under pressure. Then decide which risks to manage, which to transfer, and which you are willing to carry.
The guide explains the architecture. Your household's diagnosis supplies the blueprint.
Diagnose the household
Measure what matters.
Make the gaps visible.
How you feel about a decline and what your household can afford are different questions. We look at structural needs alongside your goals and preferences.
Essential income coverage
Compare required spending with income that does not depend on markets. Identify the portion still exposed to withdrawals and market timing.
Survivor needs
Measure the income and benefits that could disappear at a death, then consider the cost of replacing the resulting gap.
Planning horizon
Consider how long the plan must last and how much recovery time is available after a difficult market period.
Liquidity needs
Identify emergency reserves, planned purchases, and upcoming spending before considering surrender periods or long lockups.
Care exposure and insurability
Examine the cost the household could carry, the coverage available, and the effect of medical underwriting.
Eligibility and tax constraints
Establish which strategies and account types can be used. A preference cannot override a restriction or funding requirement.
Decide with the facts in view
The diagnosis informs.
You decide.
We explain what addressing a risk would cost—in fees, potential growth, access, and flexibility. Choosing to retain a risk can be a legitimate decision when it is understood and recorded.
| What the diagnosis finds | What the plan considers | What remains your choice |
|---|---|---|
| Essential income is not fully covered | Evaluate a role for lifetime-income transfer and how the remaining portfolio funds spending. | Compare the cost of contractual income with retaining the shortfall risk. |
| Cash may be needed in the near term | Cap or exclude long lockups and test surrender restrictions against actual spending. | Choose among suitable options that preserve needed access. |
| A restricted strategy is unavailable | Exclude it. Eligibility is a boundary, not a preference. | Consider eligible approaches rather than stretching the household to fit a product. |
| Survivor or care costs are concentrated | Compare self-funding with available insurance coverage and its limitations. | Accept, partially transfer, or transfer a defined risk where suitable. |
THE WRITTEN RECORD
Understand the four tools available ↗A risk you accept is not a risk the plan has solved.
The plan records the tradeoff in plain language, so you and your advisor can revisit the decision with the same understanding.
Coordinate the implementation
What you own.
Where you own it.
How it works together.
The lever mix and the account map are related decisions, not separate silos.
Tax considerations—including recognition timing and potential conversions—are part of design. After the mix is established, strategies are mapped to appropriate accounts with attention to tax treatment, funding rules, and access.
Account placement depends on the household and current rules; it is not a universal instruction to put one type of asset in one type of account. Tax and legal decisions should be coordinated with your qualified professionals.
A role can change without a new product.
A contract doing hedged-growth work is tracked in Market Hedged. When its lifetime-income feature is activated, its paycheck role moves to Risk Transfer. The plan follows the job the asset is doing.
See the contract's change in role ↗Four levers are the full toolbox—not four mandatory allocations. Suitability, access, cost, and eligibility can leave a category unused.
Maintain the design
A plan should respond
when life changes.
The framework calls for defined review triggers. The thresholds and responses belong in the individual plan—not in a generic promise on a website.
Life events
A change in health, a death, a material spending change, or a shift in eligibility can reopen the affected parts of the plan.
Document the response
Review which assumptions changed, which levers are affected, and whether previously accepted risks still make sense to carry.
Your plan, made understandable
Know what each
decision is doing.
The purpose is not to make risk disappear. It is to connect each significant risk to a considered response and make the remaining exposure visible.
Does every household use all four levers?
No. The guide describes the available categories, not a quota. A lever can be reduced to zero when cost, eligibility, liquidity, underwriting, or suitability rules it out.
Does a diagnosis commit me to a product?
No. It makes the risk and the tradeoffs visible. A household can decide not to pay to address a risk and have that accepted risk documented.
Is the guide my financial plan?
No. It is a general description of the framework. A household-specific design follows an individual diagnostic and suitability process.
Are the outcomes guaranteed?
No. Investments can lose value. Contractual benefits have costs and conditions and depend on the issuing insurer's claims-paying ability. The framework itself is not a guarantee.
The source behind this approach
The Four Lever Framework
Jeff Reddick, CFP® · WG Plan · August 2026
An 11-page explanation of the roles, costs, diagnostics, account placement, and ongoing maintenance.
Start with your questions
What does your
household need?
Begin a conversation about your income, commitments, and the risks you want to understand more clearly. Please do not send account numbers or sensitive documents by ordinary email.
Request a planning conversation ↗