Stafford Consulting · Capital
Wound once. Runs on its own.
The same systems-first approach applied to capital instead of casework — automated arbitrage engines, the models to track them, the sequencing and tax structure to keep more of it, and the basis planning that decides what your heirs actually receive. Work becomes optional, not required. What’s left transfers on purpose.
Not financial advice. Options, laid out from your own numbers — the decision stays with you and your CPA.
Three-year outlook · sampleBase case
$168,456from $126,000
Nominal, three years, option 1 — invented household, invented figures.
| Outcome | Opt 1 | Opt 2 | Opt 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bear (nominal) | $128,602 | $116,575 | $106,741 |
| Base (nominal) | $168,456 | $174,182 | $178,618 |
| Bull (nominal) | $197,033 | $218,912 | $239,306 |
| Base (real 2026$) | $154,161 | $159,403 | $163,460 |
| Yr-1 yield income | $8,190 | $6,930 | $5,985 |
Purchasing power +22–30% in the base case · break-even $137,684
The engine · four parts
Each part is built to run hands-off by design. Together they compound in parallel — and the last one is the point of the other three. Every one of them is presented as an option with its floor and ceiling shown, never as advice.
01
Arbitrage engines
Software that finds and executes on pricing inefficiencies — spread capture and signal-driven execution logic that runs on its own schedule, not yours.
02
Modeling & data
Forecasting models and real-time dashboards that turn raw transaction data into a number you can actually manage — yield, drawdown, and runway, always current.
03
Sequencing & structure
Withdrawal sequencing and entity structuring built into the model from day one — tax-advantaged wrappers designed in, not bolted on after the fact.
04.
The outcome
Multiple systems compounding in parallel, each hands-off by design. When the infrastructure carries the income, retirement stops being a deadline and becomes a choice.
Capital velocity · the multiplier
Most planning asks one question about a dollar: where do I put it. One place, one job, one horizon, and you find out how it did in thirty years. Velocity asks a different question — how many jobs can this same dollar hold at once without any of them undermining the others. That is the whole idea behind Mainspring, and it is not an estate exercise. It applies the day you build it.
Two dollars earning the same return are not the same dollar. One of them is also collateral, also a tax shield, also liquid inside a week. The second job does not double the return — it makes the cost of that second job close to nothing, because the capital was already committed. Stack enough of those and the compounding is on the structure, not just the rate.
The same dollar behaves differently at three years than at thirty. We sequence the deployment against your horizon — what has to stay reachable, what can be locked, what should not be touched until a basis event — so nothing is stranded in the wrong decade.
Some owners want control and will accept complexity. Some want it hands‑off and will accept a lower ceiling for it. Some will not hold an illiquid position at any return. There is no correct answer — there is your answer, and the structure gets built around it rather than around a model portfolio.
Velocity cuts both ways: a dollar doing three jobs carries the risk of all three. Every structure here is presented as an option with its assumptions, its downside and its unwind cost written out, modeled against your own numbers — bear, base and bull. Options laid out for you to choose from. Not advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything.
Transfer & basis · passing it on
This part is optional — plenty of people build Mainspring purely to make work optional in their own lifetime, and stop there. But if passing something on matters to you, how assets are held, titled and timed decides what an heir actually receives after tax, and those decisions are cheapest to make early. So it is built in from the start and left dormant if you never need it.
Most appreciated assets included in a decedent’s gross estate receive a basis adjustment to fair market value as of the date of death. Capital gain that accrued during the owner’s lifetime is eliminated rather than inherited — heirs take the asset at the adjusted basis and may sell with little or no capital gains tax.
Assets transferred during life generally carry the donor’s original basis. The embedded gain travels with the asset to the recipient. The planning question is therefore which positions to gift, which to hold for the step-up, and which to donate outright — highly appreciated holdings usually favor the last two.
How property is titled governs what actually steps up. Community property regimes can produce a full double step-up on the first spouse’s death, where separate property adjusts only the decedent’s share. Portability of the deceased spousal unused exclusion must be elected on a timely filed Form 706.
Basis rules, exemption amounts, and portability elections are set by statute and change with legislation. Every structure is confirmed with your CPA and estate attorney before anything is titled or transferred.
Sample pages · client deliverable
Two pages from a capital deployment plan built for a private client — the toolkit page and the three-year outlook, showing how the modeling gets presented.
Investment vehicles & client details redacted
How it works
Mainspring is a build, not a product you buy off a shelf. It starts from your actual position and ends with infrastructure you own and can read.
What you have, where it sits, what it earns and what it costs you in tax today. A one-page statement of position before anything is proposed.
Bear, base and bull — nominal and real — for each option on the table. You see the floor and the ceiling before you choose.
Engines deployed, dashboards live, structure titled. Every piece in your name, in your accounts, with your CPA and attorney signing off on the wrapper.
Builder’s tools
Plumbline records what a household is worth and where each figure came from. Trellis holds up the business that produces it. Mainspring puts the capital to work and keeps it running toward the people it’s for.
FAQ
No. Mainspring is findings and options based on your numbers — bear, base and bull for each — with a firm opinion you can act on or not. Every structure is confirmed with your CPA and estate attorney before anything is titled or transferred.
No. Everything sits in your accounts, in your name. Mainspring builds the engines, the models and the structure; you and your custodian hold the assets.
Software that watches for a pricing gap between two places the same thing trades, and acts on it by rule — on a schedule, without you watching a screen. It is one engine among several, sized to your risk tolerance, never the whole plan.
Good. Mainspring gives them a cleaner position to work from and a model they can argue with. Most of the transfer planning is a conversation between you, your CPA and your attorney — Mainspring makes sure that conversation starts with the right numbers.
The sample pages are from a real client deliverable with vehicles and details redacted. The outlook tile in the header is an invented household with invented figures, shown to illustrate the format.
Wound once. Runs on its own.
