Account

An account is a single custodial registration — an IRA, a joint taxable account, a trust — holding securities and cash under one registration type and tax treatment.

Registration type matters more than it appears. It governs tax treatment, beneficiary rules, creditor protection and what may be held, which is why an allocation decision made at the household has to respect the constraints of each account beneath it.

The common design error in advisory software is assuming one account holds one strategy. That assumption is why many platforms require three registrations to run three mandates.