Wealth-Tech Edge-Case Coverage Score
Edge cases are where wealth-tech bugs live. The well-trodden golden path has been tested by the team, by QA, and by the first 100 customers. The edge cases — ITIN filer KYC, RMD aggregation across IRAs, AMT triggered by ISO exercise, IRMAA cliff transitions — are where production defects come from. This assessment quantifies the firm's coverage across the structurally tricky cases.
What you walk away with
~8 min · 5 categories · 21 items- A coverage index across demographics, accounts, transactions, life events, and tax scenarios.
- A radar chart showing the shape of coverage gaps.
- A ranked remediation list mapped to specific archetype slices that close each gap.
- Calibration against the WealthSynth edge-case catalog.
Answer every item (0 of 21 so far) to lock in a banded score and unlock the remediation roadmap. Live category scores update as you go.
Demographic edge cases
0 / 4 answeredWhether the corpus exercises the demographic boundaries — age extremes, household compositions, citizenship status, special populations.
- Senior clients (65+) with cognitive flags are present
FINRA Rule 4512 senior-client cases — cognitive flags, trusted contact, POA scenarios — are present in the corpus.
- ITIN filers and mixed-status households are present
Households with ITIN-only filers and mixed citizenship status are present, exercising onboarding and tax-document edge cases.
- Non-traditional household structures are represented
Multi-generational, blended-family, single-parent, and same-sex married households are present.
- Veteran and active-duty military households are represented
Households with VA benefits, BAH/BAS, SCRA-eligible accounts, and military-specific retirement plans (TSP, BRS) are present.
Account-type edge cases
0 / 4 answeredWhether the corpus covers the account types that produce structural complexity — trust accounts, equity comp, alternative investments, crypto, K-1 sources.
- Trust accounts (revocable, irrevocable, special-needs) are present
Households with various trust structures, beneficiary configurations, and trustee relationships are present.
- Equity compensation accounts (ISO, NSO, RSU, ESPP) are present
Each form of equity comp is represented, including the structurally tricky ISO/NSO + AMT cases and 83(b) elections.
- Alternative investments (PE, hedge funds, real estate LPs) are present
Household holdings include alts with K-1 income, capital calls, and complex distribution structures.
- Crypto and DeFi accounts are present
Crypto holdings with cost-basis tracking, DeFi lending positions, and on/off-ramp transactions are present.
Transaction-pattern edge cases
0 / 4 answeredWhether the corpus exercises the structurally tricky transaction patterns — wash sales, lot selection, large deposits, structuring patterns.
- Wash-sale across taxable accounts is exercised
Cross-account wash-sale cases (taxable + IRA + spouse's account) fire in the corpus with documented expected disposition.
- Multiple lot-selection methods are exercised
FIFO / LIFO / HIFO / specific-id are each exercised by at least one synthetic household.
- Large deposits triggering KYC review are exercised
Deposit events triggering CTR, expected-activity-deviation, or source-of-funds review are present.
- Structuring-adjacent transaction patterns are present
Sub-threshold deposits, split-account transfers, and rapid-movement patterns exist as test cases.
Life-event edge cases
0 / 4 answeredWhether the corpus captures the lifecycle events that change tax, account ownership, beneficiary, and behavioral patterns.
- Retirement transition fires within the trajectory
Households where retirement transition fires mid-trajectory exist, exercising RMD onset, SS election, Medicare enrollment.
- Death and divorce events fire mid-trajectory
Households where death or divorce occurs mid-trajectory exist, exercising beneficiary distribution, account splitting, and step-up basis events.
- Beneficiary-change events are exercised
Beneficiary changes following marriage, divorce, birth, or death events fire and propagate correctly.
- Income shocks (job loss, large raise, retirement) are exercised
Households with income trajectory inflections exist, exercising tax-bracket transitions and contribution-eligibility cases.
Tax-scenario edge cases
0 / 5 answeredWhether the corpus exercises the structurally tricky tax scenarios — AMT, NUA, QSBS, multi-state, IRMAA cliffs.
- AMT triggers are exercised
ISO exercise + AMT cases, large deduction + AMT cases, and AMT-credit-carryforward cases are present.
- NUA election cases are exercised
Net Unrealized Appreciation election scenarios for employer-stock-in-401(k) cases are present.
- QSBS holding-period cases are exercised
Founder QSBS holding-period scenarios with the $10M / 10x exclusion thresholds are present.
- Multi-state filer cases are exercised
Households filing in multiple states with reciprocity, source-rules, and credit-for-tax-paid cases are present.
- IRMAA cliff transitions are exercised
Households where Roth conversions, large gains, or RMD onset push MAGI across an IRMAA bracket are present.
Banded score reference
Coverage Gaps Likely to Ship Bugs
0–35%The corpus has structural blind spots. Expect bugs in production from cases the team didn't think to test.
Next step: Close the lowest-scoring category first; the remediation list ranks gaps by archetype impact.
Coverage Acceptable for Pilot
35–60%Major code paths are covered but edge cases are uneven. Acceptable for pilot launch with manual oversight on edge cases.
Next step: Close the highest-impact gaps before broad launch.
Coverage Acceptable for GA
60–85%Edge-case coverage is structurally complete for the firm's product line. Most production defects will surface in non-edge cases.
Next step: Focus on coverage maintenance — new product features should add archetypes.
Coverage Audit-Grade
85–100%Edge-case coverage is documented, version-pinned, and reproducible. The corpus is a defensible asset.
Next step: Operate steady-state; integrate coverage tracking into the release process.
Key takeaways
- Demographic and life-event edge cases are the most under-covered. Most teams test the median household and ship.
- Tax-scenario edge cases (AMT, NUA, QSBS, IRMAA) produce a disproportionate share of customer-reported bugs.
- Transaction-pattern edge cases (wash-sale across accounts, structuring-adjacent flows) are where compliance bugs hide.
- Coverage decays. New product features and new regulations open new edge cases; coverage assessments should run quarterly.
FAQ
How do I tell which edge case caused a production bug?
Use the Which-Archetype-Reproduces-This-Bug? Wizard (when published). Or work backwards from the bug symptom — the assessment categories cluster bugs by the kind of edge case that produces them.
Do I need every category?
If you ship to retail wealth customers, yes — your customers will surface every category eventually. If you have a narrow product (TLH-only, robo-advisor only), you can prioritize the categories that match.
How does this differ from the Test-Data Maturity Assessment?
The Maturity Assessment scores the firm's overall test-data practice. This Edge-Case Score zooms in on coverage of the structurally tricky cases. They're complementary — a high-maturity firm with low edge-case coverage is still going to ship bugs.