Helmsted

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At the Helm is our weekly Monday note: one real advisor workflow, walked through start to finish. Around it live the sample interactions you can download and reuse, and news on what we are shipping. Drill into any of them below.

At the Helm · No. 03
Worried they hadn't saved for college. They already had.

A young couple who saved well but never opened a college fund. College gets covered by earmarking what they already hold, and the 529 does one job: tuition passes through, in and out the same year, capturing the state deduction without ever holding a balance.

August 10, 2026
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Sample interaction
The Calloway Education Funding Plan

A young couple who saved well but never opened a college fund: a twenty-year education bill of $950,000 on one page, college covered by earmarking investments they already held, and a 529 kept purely for state tax savings, roughly $12,000 captured by passing tuition through.

August 10, 2026
Helmsted news
Sessions move across workspaces, portal invites fixed, and PDF materials

This week's release: files and sessions move between workspaces, portal invite emails are deterministic and editable with a preview link, Helmsted learns across sessions, and materials can now be built as well-formatted PDFs.

August 10, 2026
At the Helm · No. 02
New client in July. Major prior-year deduction uncovered.

A new client, a stack of operating agreements, and $46,786 back from a tax year that had already ended: a cash balance plan design with a September 15 window.

August 3, 2026
Sample interaction
The Caldwell Plan Design Review

A 40-year-old eye surgeon, brand new to the firm, whose operating agreements were hiding a retroactive cash balance window: $46,786 of tax back on a closed year, a two-year design worth $91,064, and a CPA-verified timeline to a September 15 deadline.

August 3, 2026
Helmsted news
Helmsted v2 is rolling out

Drive with search and Ask Helmsted, memory enhancements, per-user audit logs, an account management portal, a richer client portal, and a new workspace UX.

August 3, 2026
At the Helm · No. 01
Retired this year. Priced at sixty-three. Billed at sixty-five.

A newly retired couple, a subsidy cliff, legislation still moving, and a new HSA window: the gap years to Medicare on a single report.

July 27, 2026
Sample interaction
The Sutton Retirement Roadmap

A newly retired couple in their early sixties, three years from Medicare, navigating a subsidy cliff, moving legislation, a new HSA window, and a spending rule they agreed to in advance.

July 27, 2026