> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tilt.now/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How a family plan works > Understand a family plan: the family model, each fund's range, how the budget limits it, and what each account can expect. When accounts are [optimized together](https://docs.tilt.now/advisor/optimize-accounts-together.md), Tilt plans a family's accounts once, as one portfolio, and each account's proposal is its share of that plan. A **family** is the accounts Tilt plans together: a household's accounts, or all of a client's accounts when the client is in no household. This page explains what the household's **Rebalance plan** page shows and what you can rely on in a family plan. The examples are sample families in a synthetic firm. ## The Rebalance plan page compares two plans The page plans the family two ways, both within the budget left this year: | Plan | What it does | | - | - | | **Rebalance each account individually** | Plans each account toward its own model, using only that account's holdings. It follows the same rules as a family plan, so it can differ from the proposal the account's own **Optimize** would make. | | **Rebalance the household** | Plans the family as one toward the family model. **Optimize** makes this plan, and each account's proposal is its share of it. | Each account keeps its own money. No cash moves between accounts, each account keeps its minimum cash, and each account's no-trade, no-buy and no-hold restrictions stay in force. The page itself saves nothing and trades nothing. ## The family model blends the account models Each account keeps its own model, and **The family model** blends them by account value. In the Huang-Bennett Household it reads "78.5% Growth + 12.9% Balanced + 8.6% Equity = family model": Mei Huang Revocable Trust is 78.5% of the family's value, so its Growth model makes up 78.5% of the family model. VEA's family model works out at 17.0%, and the family holds 11.2% today. The household as a whole is managed to this blend, so each account's holdings can move away from its own model, as the note in **Household optimization** says. [How a family is checked](https://docs.tilt.now/advisor/monitoring-explained.md#accounts-optimized-together-are-checked-as-one-family) explains the daily check, whose family target can differ from this one. ## Each fund has an allowed range **The family model** gives each fund an **Allowed range** around its family model weight and marks where the family sits today. In the Huang-Bennett Household: | Fund | **Family model** | **Allowed range** | **Today** | Mark | | - | - | - | - | - | | SPY | 9.9% | 7.4% to 12.4% | 9.8% | **in range** | | VEA | 17.0% | 12.8% to 21.3% | 11.2% | **too little** | | QQQ | 0.0% | 0.0% to 0.0% | 3.0% | **too much** | No model holds QQQ, so any holding of it is **too much**. The line under the table names every fund outside the family's range. An account can sit off its own model while the family is in range. In the Lawson Household every fund is inside the family range, so the family plan sells nothing beyond what an account must sell, and Lawson Joint Taxable keeps its SPY. ![Two columns. Rebalance each account individually, \$166 of taxable gains, every account in its own range. Rebalance the household, \$166 of taxable gains, the family in its range; the accounts are not on their own models (Lawson Joint Taxable 41.7% SPY against 40.0%).](https://mintcdn.com/tilt/WuQt70waUXfAnqO9/images/advisor/household-plan-lawson.jpg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=WuQt70waUXfAnqO9\&q=85\&s=bcf4eab1c7298fa28ca6c70670197855) The Lawson Household's two plans. Both realize \$166, and Rebalance the household names the widest gap from an account's own model. 1. **41.7% SPY against 40.0%**: Lawson Joint Taxable's widest gap from its own model under **Rebalance the household**. ## How the budget limits a family plan A family plan never realizes more taxable gains than its accounts would on their own, under **Rebalance each account individually**, and never more than the gains budget left this year. With no household budget, only the first applies. For the Huang-Bennett Household, both figures are \$25,000. A family plan can realize less than both, as [the Hartley plan](#example-two-taxable-accounts-with-different-costs) does. Short-term and long-term gains count the same against the budget. The budget counts the gains on the lots a plan sells, and a loss doesn't make room for more gains, so if your budget is meant as a net figure, raise it before you plan. Sales in an account with no tax on sales use none of it. A sale of a fund on an account's no-hold list counts toward the budget, and if that sale needs more than the budget left, there's no plan: see [Fix a family plan that fails](https://docs.tilt.now/advisor/review-household-proposal.md#fix-a-family-plan-that-fails). **Gains budget left this year** nets this year's recorded gains and losses, so recording a run's results changes the next plan. A full rebalance brings every fund with a range inside its range, and [Check the budget](https://docs.tilt.now/advisor/optimize-accounts-together.md#3-check-the-budget) explains the message that says whether the budget allows one. [Tax-aware portfolio management](https://docs.tilt.now/advisor/tax-aware-management.md#accounts-optimized-together-share-one-budget) covers which budget applies and what happens to it after trades fill. ## Example: a budget that runs out The Huang-Bennett Household has \$25,000 of budget left, and the trust is its only taxable account. The trust holds QQQ at 3.8% against a model weight of 0.0%, and the two IRAs hold none. For the family, QQQ's range is 0.0% to 0.0%, so reaching it means selling all of it. The page reads **The budget is short of a full rebalance**: a full rebalance needs \$85,570 of gains. The \$25,000 can't pay for it, so the family plan sells part of the trust's QQQ, buys VEA and AGG, and leaves KVUE, TSM and QQQ outside their range. The trust ends at 1.9% QQQ against 0.0%. Under **Each account individually**, the trust sells nearly the same QQQ, and both plans realize \$25,000, because no other account holds QQQ and the budget stops both. The plans still differ in the IRAs, which sell VEA on their own and buy it in the family plan, where the family is short of VEA. ## Example: two taxable accounts with different costs The Hartley Household has two taxable accounts, Simon Hartley Taxable (Fresh 2022) and Simon Hartley Taxable (Seasoned). They have the same model, US Large Cap Core, and their lots have different costs. No budget is set for 2026, so the family plan realizes no more than the accounts would on their own, \$45,362. About the same dollars of AMZN leave the family under either plan, \$15,494 and \$15,504, and the family plan takes more of it from Fresh 2022: \$10,981 against \$7,755. Across the whole plan, the sales shift the same way: | **Taxable gain** | Fresh 2022 | Seasoned | | - | - | - | | **Each account individually** | \$18,351 | \$27,010 | | **The household** | \$27,394 | \$8,015 | ![Hartley Household plan. Rebalance each account individually reads \$45,362 of taxable gains and Rebalance the household \$35,409. In the table, Taxable gain under Each account individually reads \$18,351 for Fresh 2022, \$27,010 for Seasoned and \$45,362 for the household, and under The household \$27,394, \$8,015 and \$35,409.](https://mintcdn.com/tilt/WuQt70waUXfAnqO9/images/advisor/household-plan-hartley.jpg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=WuQt70waUXfAnqO9\&q=85\&s=eec0e6ac8735e3c150ef7f25977adf6c) The Hartley Household. Rebalance the household realizes $35,409 against $45,362, and Fresh 2022 realizes more than it would on its own. 1. **Taxable gain** under **Each account individually**, for each account and the household. 2. **Taxable gain** under **The household**, for each account and the household. 3. The two plans' totals under their headings. A family plan's gains count across the family, so one account can realize more while the family realizes less. Here the family plan ends with the family on its model and every account on its own model. ## When a family plan helps Compare the two plans' taxable gains on the **Rebalance plan** page to see whether a family plan realizes less. You can do this for any family before you turn the switch on, and the two tiles in **Household optimization** make the same comparison with no budget. For the sample families on this page: | Family | Individually, then as the household | On the page | | - | - | - | | Hartley | \$45,362, then \$35,409 | Two taxable accounts on the same model. | | Huang-Bennett | \$25,000, then \$25,000 | The budget stops both plans. | | Lawson | \$166, then \$166 | Every fund is inside the family range. | ## A family plan uses only some account settings A family plan uses each account's model, cash buffer, no-trade, no-buy and no-hold lists, whole-share setting and wash-sale settings, plus your firm's minimum buy and risk model. Other optimization settings shape an account's own optimization and have no effect on a family plan's trades. These include **Turnover limit**, **Active risk limit**, **Maximum weight relative to benchmark**, **Minimum weight relative to benchmark**, an account's own **Risk model** (a family plan uses your firm's), **Tax sensitivity**, **Gains target**, **Tax-loss harvest threshold**, **High-loss lots**, **Lot selection**, the trading cost settings and substitution pairs. Position and factor limits [stop the plan](https://docs.tilt.now/advisor/review-household-proposal.md#fix-a-family-plan-that-fails). Each taxable account follows its own **Wash-sale window**, **Wash-sale policy** and **Wash-sale override tickers**, and a tax-sheltered account has no wash-sale restrictions. [Wash sales in a family plan](https://docs.tilt.now/advisor/tax-aware-management.md#wash-sales-in-a-family-plan) says what Tilt checks across the family. An account whose every holding reads **Tracked only** buys nothing and keeps its cash. With no cash either, it has no value to plan, and it stops the family. *** Wash-sale rules may disallow a loss if substantially identical securities are bought within 30 days before or after the sale, including in the client’s other accounts, such as IRAs or a spouse’s accounts. The Platform’s wash-sale checks cover only accounts on the Platform, so confirm the client’s full position with a qualified tax professional. Tilt provides portfolio technology, not investment, tax or legal advice, and is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. The advisor makes all investment decisions, including whether to accept a proposal and submit trades, directly or through approval rules the advisor configures. Trades are executed through the client’s custodian. Estimates depend on the data and assumptions recorded for the account; confirm the client’s tax treatment with a qualified tax professional. See [IRS Publication 550](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550) for U.S. wash-sale rules. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.