Skip to main content
Wealth Recon
METHODOLOGY · TRUST IS A PRODUCT REQUIREMENT

How public records become a planning band and a confidence score.

This page explains the advisor-facing method. It is not meant to make the dossier feel more precise than the public record allows. It is meant to show how Wealth Recon handles uncertainty before an advisor uses the research in a conversation.

STEP ZERO · DISAMBIGUATION

Finding the right John Smith before any agent runs.

The most common name on the United States internet is John Smith. Eighty-four candidates emerge from the first pass. Wealth Recon spends compute on disambiguation before it spends a credit on research, because a wrong-subject dossier is the most dangerous failure mode: every claim verifies against a real source, just the wrong person.

Pass 1 · Name + state
84 candidates

Broad federation across LinkedIn, deed filings, FEC contributions, and SEC officer disclosures using the bare name and the state of record.

Pass 2 · Industry + role
11 candidates

Filters on the supplied employer or role descriptor. Drops candidates whose verified professional history does not overlap the descriptor's industry.

Pass 3 · Age band + degree
3 candidates

Adds age-band evidence pulled from voter rolls, alumni directories, and trade-press bios. Requires two independent confirmations before a candidate stays in the pool.

Pass 4 · Confirming detail
1 candidate · conf 0.96

Resolves on the single supplied confirming detail: a LinkedIn URL fragment, a recent press mention, or a transaction date. Below 0.85 the dossier returns a disambiguation failure with the top three candidates listed for the advisor to choose from.

THE 0.85 FLOOR
If pass four cannot push confidence above 0.85, the run stops, no credit is consumed, and the advisor sees the top three remaining candidates with the distinguishing facts that separate them. Picking the wrong John Smith costs nothing.
THE NET WORTH BAND

A band, never a point.

Every dossier produces a single line on the At a Glance page in the form low-end to high-end, confidence percent. The advisor should read the band as a working range. Enough to understand whether the prospect fits the service model, not enough to replace the subject's own disclosure.

EXAMPLE · AT A GLANCE
Estimated net worth band
$38,000,000 to $52,000,000
CONFIDENCE 91 PERCENT

A point estimate would imply precision the public record does not support. The band is planning context, not a balance-sheet entry.

WHY A BAND
Any conversation that turns on a precise figure (lending qualification, estate planning, gift tax) requires documentation from the subject. A wrong-direction band is more dangerous than no band at all.
THE EIGHT SIGNAL CATEGORIES

The same taxonomy across every subject.

Every dossier runs each category to completion or records a verified gap. A category that returns nothing is recorded as a verified gap, not skipped silently. Comparability is the point.

real-estate

Real estate equity

READS
County assessor records, deed transfers, building permits, mortgage filings
CAPTURES
Owner-of-record holdings, transfer history, encumbrance presence
public-equity

Public-company equity

READS
SEC Forms 3, 4, 5, DEF 14A, Schedule 13G and 13F, 10-K and 10-Q officer disclosures
CAPTURES
Insider holdings, executive equity grants, trading-plan flow, lockup terms
private-equity

Private-company equity

READS
SEC Form D, state Secretary of State filings, Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notifications, Crunchbase, AngelList, county DBA filings
CAPTURES
Ownership stakes, board roles, fund commitments, recent formations
liquidity

Liquidity events

READS
M and A press, SEC 8-K filings, Form 4 dispositions, IPO prospectuses, news
CAPTURES
Realized cash, stock-rollover terms, lockup periods, escrow holdbacks
inherited

Inherited wealth signals

READS
Probate filings, dynasty trust state registries, family foundation 990-PF filings, named endowments, obituaries
CAPTURES
Trust structures, foundation flows, family-line wealth attribution
retirement

Retirement plan participation

READS
Department of Labor Form 5500
CAPTURES
Plan assets and trustee roles for partnership and small-firm retirement plans
lifestyle

Lifestyle high-value assets

READS
FAA aircraft and pilot registries, USCG vessel documentation, auction provenance, regatta results
CAPTURES
Confirmed ownership of high-value movable assets
counter

Counter-signals

READS
Federal and state tax lien filings, court judgments, bankruptcy filings, SEC enforcement actions
CAPTURES
Subtractive evidence. Financial distress, encumbrance, litigation exposure
CONSERVATIVE BAND CONSTRUCTION

Where the public record is incomplete, we widen the band.

The band is computed signal by signal. Each category contributes a low end and a high end; the band sums the contributions and applies any counter-signal deduction.

Restricted stock under a lockup discounts the low end based on how much time remains until the lockup releases.

Real estate at county-assessor value lifts to a market estimate, then deducts a verified or presumed mortgage encumbrance.

Inherited-wealth signals produce wider ranges when the underlying trust structure is opaque.

Donor-advised fund and family foundation gifts are floor signals, not additive proof of total wealth.

Lifestyle assets corroborate the wealth tier rather than adding to the band as if they were liquid assets.

EDGE CASES THAT SUPPRESS THE BAND

Three patterns produce no band at all.

A wrong-direction band is more dangerous than no band. The rule errs on the side of suppression.

S·1
Bankruptcy within the past 7 years

The dossier surfaces the filing. The At a Glance line reads "Range not estimable due to recent bankruptcy."

S·2
Active federal tax liens above $1M

Suppression is total. No low end, no high end, no midpoint.

S·3
Non-United States subjects

Excluded from the band by default. Current source coverage is United States-centric.

HOW WE SCORE CONFIDENCE

One number, four signals, one operational decision.

Every dossier ships with a single confidence number from 0 to 100. The number drives one operational decision: at or above 80, the credit consumes and the dossier ships normally; below 80, the credit refunds, the dossier still ships, and a Low Signal banner names the gap.

WeightSignalWhat it captures
35%CoverageWhat fraction of the 15 dossier sections carry substantive verified content
25%Citation densityAverage number of distinct verified sources per section
25%Identification certaintyHow strong the disambiguation outcome was, plus contradiction checks across foundational facts
15%Net worth band tightnessHow precise the band is relative to its midpoint
THE WRONG-SUBJECT FLOOR
A wrong-subject dossier scores at 50 or below regardless of every other signal, because every claim may verify against a real source on a real person, just the wrong one. The weighting refuses to let that case slip past the eighty threshold.
80 to 100SHIPS NORMALLY

Credit consumes. Score shows at the top of At a Glance in plain text, exactly Confidence: 87. No banner.

0 to 79LOW SIGNAL

The dossier still ships. The credit refunds automatically within the hour. A Low Signal banner appears immediately under the score and names the gap.

RUN A DRAFT IN YOUR OWN AI

Open-source prompt. Verify the output yourself.

Use the prompt below to produce a Wealth-Recon-style dossier draft in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, or any other general-purpose AI. The output gives you the structure and the source-cited posture. It does not give you the verification layer that catches AI's tendency to fabricate sources, which is the whole reason Wealth Recon exists.

PROMPTWealth Recon dossier (open-source version)
Download .md
You are a deep-research analyst preparing a one-page prospect dossier for
a financial advisor's first meeting with a high-net-worth individual.
Your goal is a verified, source-cited brief that helps the advisor walk
into the meeting prepared; the brief is not a substitute for the
subject's own disclosure or for documented financial records.

SUBJECT
- Full name: [NAME]
- City and state: [LOCATION]
- One identifying detail (employer, role, recent news, life event):
  [DETAIL]

YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Produce a fifteen-section dossier with the structure below. For each
section, write a two-to-three sentence narrative paragraph followed by
two-to-five bulleted source citations. EVERY claim must cite a real
public URL. If you cannot find a verifiable URL for a claim, omit the
claim entirely. Do NOT fabricate URLs, do NOT cite URLs you have not
actually verified contain the claim, and do NOT cite a URL you only
inferred from context.

SECTIONS
1.  At a Glance: one-paragraph summary plus a net-worth band
    (low to high) with a confidence percent.
2.  Why Now: what changed in the last twelve months that brings this
    person to a planner's attention today.
3.  Connection Pathways: warm-path candidates only (civic boards,
    deal counsel, professional networks, alumni overlaps). No
    celebrity-style hooks.
4.  Contact Intelligence: publicly supportable contact only (work
    address, public-facing email, public-facing office phone).
    Personal phone, personal email, and home address are off-limits.
5.  Household: spouse, children, dependents, governance roles.
6.  Professional History: degree, prior firms, transitions, founder
    versus operator history.
7.  Trusted Circle, visible advisors and gatekeepers: deal counsel,
    foundation administrators, board chairs. Note open seats.
8.  Wealth and Assets, capital stack expressed in ranges: cash,
    equity, real estate, family fund, other.
9.  Risk and Headwinds: concentration, regulatory, litigation,
    public-relations exposure.
10. Planning Signals, first-meeting queue: liquidity, estate,
    insurance, governance, charitable intent.
11. Philanthropy: given vehicles, board roles, cause concentration.
12. Political Activity: public Federal Election Commission filings
    only.
13. Public Recognition: awards, press, speaking, board honors.
14. Social Media: visible accounts, posting cadence, tone.
15. Source Manifest: the complete list of every URL cited in
    sections 1 through 14, grouped by section.

BANDING RULES (apply to section 1)
- The net-worth band is a range, never a point estimate.
- Restricted stock under a lockup discounts the low end based on time
  remaining until release.
- Real estate uses county-assessor value lifted to a market estimate,
  then deducts any verified or presumed mortgage encumbrance.
- Donor-advised fund and family foundation gifts are floor signals,
  not additive proof of total wealth.
- Lifestyle assets (boats, aircraft, art) corroborate the tier
  rather than adding to the band as if liquid.
- If the subject has a bankruptcy in the past seven years, an active
  federal tax lien above one million dollars, or is outside the
  United States, suppress the band entirely and state why on the
  first line of section 1.

SOURCE TYPES YOU MAY USE
- County assessor records, deed transfers, building permits, mortgage
  filings.
- SEC filings: Forms 3, 4, 5, DEF 14A, Schedule 13G or 13F, 10-K,
  10-Q, 8-K.
- SEC Form D, state Secretary of State filings, Hart-Scott-Rodino
  premerger notifications.
- Probate filings, dynasty-trust state registries, family-foundation
  990-PF filings.
- Department of Labor Form 5500.
- Federal Aviation Administration aircraft and pilot registries,
  United States Coast Guard vessel documentation.
- Federal and state tax-lien filings, court judgments, SEC
  enforcement actions, bankruptcy filings.
- Verified news, conference programs, named-endowment listings.

WHAT YOU MUST NOT INCLUDE
- Personal home address, personal phone, personal email.
- Family members' birthdays, children's school information, or other
  details about minor children.
- Anything that is not publicly disclosable.
- Lifestyle inference as wealth proof.
- A sentence without a citation.

CONFIDENCE LINE
After section 15, print one line in this exact format:

  Confidence: NN
  Notes: [one sentence on what would lift the score]

NN is an integer from 0 to 100 reflecting how complete the dossier is
relative to the fifteen-section spec. If the dossier scores below
eighty, also print a Low Signal banner above section 1 that names the
specific gap (for example, "Low Signal: wealth section relies on a
single source; section 7 returned no verified gatekeepers").

OUTPUT FORMAT
Plain text. No tables. No emoji. Inline links in standard Markdown form
[anchor text](https://url) so the advisor can click through.
WHAT THIS PROMPT DOES NOT GIVE YOU
The Wealth Recon pipeline runs a 60-80 percent source-verification pass that fetches each cited URL and confirms the page actually supports the claim, plus a confidence model that bands down thin citations and a wrong-subject floor that caps misidentified dossiers at 50. None of those mitigations carry over when a general AI runs this prompt. A general AI will gladly produce a confident-looking dossier with fabricated citations. You are the verification layer. Click every link.
WHAT THIS IS NOT

A research artifact. Not financial advice.

The methodology supports a research artifact. It is not financial advice. It is not a substitute for the subject's own documentation. It is not a regulatory filing. It is not a fairness opinion or a valuation report. The advisor remains responsible for the conversation the dossier supports. Wealth Recon provides the sourced research; the advisor provides the relationship, judgment, and recommendation.

Read a real one.

The John Smith sample dossier walks through fifteen sections and twenty-five sources. No signup.

Open the sampleSee how it works