The architecture
Five layers, in the order they fail
Each layer rests on the one above it. An instruction is worth nothing if the structure beneath it was never funded. A structure is worth nothing if the asset it names was sold in 2019. FLOS holds all five at once so the dependency is visible instead of assumed.
Real estate, public positions, private holdings, alternatives, cash, and policies, each recorded with its cost basis, its holding entity, and how long it would take to turn into money. Liquidity is tracked as a first-class field because a settlement event asks for cash on a schedule the estate did not choose.
How this layer breaks
An asset is sold and the trust schedule still names it four years later.
What it replaces
A spreadsheet that three people maintain differently and none of them trusts.
Structures
The entities that hold it, with funding status on the face of each.
5 structures
See it in the portalRevocable and irrevocable trusts, partnerships, LLCs, and everything still titled to a person. Each structure shows what it actually holds today rather than what its formation documents contemplated, and the difference between those two is displayed rather than buried.
How this layer breaks
A trust drafted in 2007 that the family home was never retitled into.
What it replaces
A binder that records the intent and never recorded whether the intent was carried out.
Wills, powers of attorney, medical directives, distribution waterfalls, and the tax exposure each one produces. The waterfall is modelled end to end so the family can see the order of settlement and what survives each step, rather than meeting it for the first time in a conference room.
How this layer breaks
A 40% operating interest with no buy-sell agreement governing its transfer.
What it replaces
A reading. One afternoon, thirty years of intent, no chance to ask a question.
Stewardship
The professional team, their scope, and the open item sitting with each.
5 professionals · 6 named parties
See it in the portalAttorney, CPA, investment advisor, corporate trustee, risk. Every open item in the estate carries a named owner and a date, and every professional can see the items that belong to someone else. The coordination that a quarterly call was standing in for happens on the record instead.
How this layer breaks
The CPA needs a valuation the attorney has not commissioned, and neither knows.
What it replaces
Four professionals who each hold one true quarter of the picture.
Continuity
The timeline forward, and what the next generation already knows.
8 dated milestones
See it in the portalWhat comes due, who steps in, and the reasoning behind the instructions recorded while the principals are here to give it. The intent behind a restriction is worth as much as the restriction, and it is the part that never makes it into a document.
How this layer breaks
Grandchildren who have no knowledge of the trust that names them.
What it replaces
Hoping the reasoning is obvious to people who were not in the room.
Why the order matters
A failure at any layer makes every layer beneath it decorative
This is the reason estate reviews that examine one layer at a time keep missing things. The failure lives in the relationship between two layers, and nobody owns the relationship.
Assets → Structures
The asset exists and the structure that should hold it never received it.
Structures → Instructions
The instruction names a trust that holds less than the family believes it holds.
Instructions → Stewardship
The instruction is sound and no professional has been assigned to execute it.
Stewardship → Continuity
The team knows the plan and the family it was written for has never read it.