refine: author domain_knowledge/personal-finance/domain_pack.md (Layer 7)

[mokashang]

What changed

Adds domain_knowledge/personal-finance/domain_pack.md — Layer 7 of
the 4-layer knowledge model for V2 §4 domain 5 of 10. This is the
Triage Pass-2 / Editor / Critic prompt overlay scoped to the
personal-finance domain.

Why

personal-finance is high_stakes: true per _meta_ontology.md §5
AND is the canonical Mechanism E gating case named in ROADMAP §5
— dollar-specific investment guidance is exactly the harm class the
gate was written to prevent. Without a domain_pack.md, Triage Pass-2
has no domain-specific persona enumeration, the Editor has no
mandatory numeric-specificity rules or selective-professional-
referral matrix, and the Critic has no per-numeric-claim citation
floor or dollar-specific-investment-guidance gate. This file supplies
all three.

Roadmap item

v2/personal-finance/domain-pack-md — Layer 7 of the 4-layer
knowledge model for V2 §4 domain 5 of 10. Closes personal-finance
6/8 → 7/8 (joining housing 7/8 + immigration 7/8 + health-insurance
7/8 at the "eval pass only remaining" status).

This change mirrors health-insurance/domain_pack.md (PR #88, merge
commit a911acb) uniform Mechanism E posture — NOT housing PR #69
partial-gating. Personal-finance is the canonical ROADMAP §5
Mechanism E gating case.

Mechanism E posture

Uniform high-stakes — mirrors immigration PR #53 + health-insurance
PR #88; NOT housing PR #69 partial-gating.

ROADMAP §5 names personal-finance as the canonical Mechanism E
gating case. Three irrevocability classes drive the posture:

1. Tax-year-boundary one-shot windows (Roth-IRA-cap-by-April-15 of
   year-N+1; Roth-conversion irrevocable since TCJA 2017
   IRC §408A(d)(6)(B)(iii); 60-day-indirect-rollover; once-per-12-
   month-rollover per IRC §408(d)(3)(B) and Bobrow v Commissioner;
   Mega-Backdoor plan-document feature window).
2. Permanent Social-Security and Medicare-adjacent penalties (PIA
   permanent ~30% reduction at age 62; survivor-floor locked by
   higher-earner-claim per 42 USC §402(e)(2); RMD 25%-excise-tax-
   reduced-to-10% per IRC §4974 SECURE 2.0 §302; IRMAA 2-year-
   lookback per 42 CFR §418.1115).
3. Compounding-cost-of-procrastination — missed $7k annual Roth-IRA
   contribution at 30 compounds to ~$76k at 65 at 7% real return;
   annual caps under IRC §219(b) / §408A(c)(2) are per-year-use-it-
   or-lose-it.

The uniform Mechanism E posture adds on top of the standard
specific-professional-referral requirement a dollar-specific-
investment-guidance gate that is the canonical case for the entire
V2 ontology: no specific securities, no specific dollar amounts
tailored to the asker's portfolio, no specific allocation percentages
personalized to the asker's stated net worth. Categorical
recommendations (US-total-stock-index, intermediate-Treasury-bond-
fund, target-date-fund) PASS as decision-support framings; specific
tickers / specific dollar amounts / specific personalized allocations
FAIL.

Per-decision selective-professional-referral matrix

Keyed to D1–D10 from decisions.md:

• Fee-only fiduciary CFP (NAPFA / XY-Planning / Garrett — fee-
  only NOT fee-based hybrid) → D3 (asset location), D4 (asset
  allocation and glide path), D7 (Roth conversion ladder), D8
  (withdrawal sequencing + SS coordination)
• Retirement-experienced CPA (Form 8889 / 8606 / 5498 / 1099-R /
  Mega-Backdoor experience) → D1 (Mega-Backdoor + pro-rata), D2
  (Roth-vs-traditional), D6 (TLH + wash-sale), D7 (Roth-conversion
  ladder sizing against IRMAA / ACA-MAGI / NIIT cliffs), D9 (529-vs-
  Roth-vs-taxable), D10 (RMD + QCD + basis-step-up)
• Fee-only SS-claiming specialist (Mike Piper / Maximize-My-
  Social-Security software-run scenarios) → D8 (SS-claim-age 62 vs
  FRA vs 70 + spousal + survivor coordination)
• State-bar estate attorney → D10 (trust formation, beneficiary-
  form audit, 2025 doubled-exemption sunset window — pre-2026
  SLAT / GRAT / lifetime-gifting with anti-clawback Treas. Reg.
  §20.2010-1)
• ERISA attorney → D1 (high-balance 401(k) force-out disputes,
  Rule-of-55 / SEPP-72(t) review), D10 (QDRO drafting under 29 USC
  §1056(d)(3), creditor-protection consultation, fiduciary-breach
  under ERISA §404 / §405)
• SHIBA / SHIP volunteer (federally funded, conflict-free) → D8
  Medicare-coordination side (boundary health-insurance D4 / D8)
• SEC IAPD / FINRA BrokerCheck verification → $0 zero-friction
  procedural floor on ANY individual professional named (catches
  disciplinary histories)

Companion files

Referenced by ID, content not duplicated:

• decisions.md (D1–D10) — PR Claude/gifted margulis 9cf260 #62
• framings.md (F1–F14) — PR refine: author domain_knowledge/personal-finance/framings.md (Layer 2) #74
• blindspots.md — PR refine: author domain_knowledge/education-funding/framings.md (Layer 2) #82
• sources.yaml (per-domain source registry with community_tag) — PR refine: author domain_knowledge/health-insurance/sources.yaml (Layer 4) #76 lineage
• communities/*.md (Voice anchors / Mental model) — bogleheads-and-
  passive-index, erisa-and-fiduciary-rule-law, fee-only-fiduciary-cfp,
  financial-economics-journalism, fire-and-mr-money-mustache,
  retirement-economics-academics, social-security-claiming-and-rmd,
  tax-and-cpa-practitioner
• fixtures/*.yaml — PR refine: author domain_knowledge/personal-finance/fixtures/ (Layer 6) #90 (11 multi-route fixtures spanning D1 /
  D2 / D4 / D5 / D6 / D7 / D8 / D9 / D10 with cross-domain edges)

Predicted signal delta

Pure-additive Layer 7 knowledge file. The file activates once Triage
Pass-2 routing is wired to a fixture that selects personal-finance
domain. Predicted aggregate quality_score delta when eval runs in
future: +0.0 to +0.02 (additive knowledge files don't activate
without Triage Pass-2 routing being wired to a fixture, which is the
eval-pass-time gating).

Predicted strategic value when V2 §4 personal-finance eval-pass runs:

• +0.04 specificity on personal-finance fixtures (numeric-mechanic
  citation floor + per-decision referral routing + dollar-specific-
  guidance gate)
• +0.03 non_obviousness on multi-route fixtures (+1 floor when
  matched-persona spans multiple decisions or opposing-framing pairs)
• 0 grounding_pct (this is Layer 7 overlay, not new evidence)
• 0 diversity

Eval status

env-degraded-skip — VOYAGE_API_KEY / ANTHROPIC_API_KEY /
REDDIT_CLIENT_ID are UNSET in this environment. Eval requires
VOYAGE_API_KEY (embedding-based tag normalization + source-view
retrieval). Established precedent for additive Layer 1–7 knowledge
files: PRs #44, #48, #49, #54, #58, #63, #64, #66, #67, #68, #69,
#70, #71, #72, #73, #74, #75, #76, #77, #78, #79, #80, #81, #82, #83,
#84, #85, #86, #87, #88, #89, #90, #91 all flagged
eval_status="env-degraded-skip".

• baseline quality_score: 0.8164 (V1.x→V2 entry baseline from PR
  refine: eval measurement #2 of 3 (55-min budget — first full eval since 2026-05-14) #43 / PR refine: eval measurement #3 of 3 for v1.x/eval-baseline-stability #57 / PR refine: eval measurement #4 (full 15/15 at 0.7964 — 3-consecutive ±0.03 met) #59 median)
• branch quality_score: null (eval skipped)
• delta: n/a

Pure-additive knowledge file; cannot regress aggregate quality_score
because it is not wired into the pipeline until Triage Pass-2
routing is exercised at eval-pass time (gated on VOYAGE_API_KEY).

Files touched

• domain_knowledge/personal-finance/domain_pack.md (new, 1227
  lines / 8761 words — exceeds the 700–900 target line count flagged
  in the brief; the dollar-specific-investment-guidance gate adds
  load above the health-insurance precedent because personal-finance
  is the canonical Mechanism E case named in ROADMAP §5 with the
  strictest posture in the V2 ontology)

Risk assessment

The file is a pure additive knowledge artifact that does not
modify any executing code path. Risks:

1. Statutory drift. Numeric anchors (annual contribution caps,
   IRMAA brackets, estate exemption, NIIT thresholds, ACA-MAGI cliff)
   are date-stamped to 2025/2026 and need annual re-verification. The
   "Notes for refine" section enumerates specific watch items: 2025
   doubled-estate-exemption sunset Dec 31 2025, TCJA 2017 income-tax-
   bracket sunset Dec 31 2025, ARPA / IRA enhanced-subsidy sunset
   end of 2025, 2026 IRS contribution caps, 2026 IRMAA brackets,
   SECURE 2.0 §126 529-to-Roth $35k rollover final regs, Social
   Security Fairness Act 2024 WEP/GPO repeal effective Jan 2025.
2. Specificity-gate over-fitting. The Critic's mandatory
   per-numeric-claim citation rule is strict; eval may show
   regressions if the source-view inventory in sources.yaml
   doesn't cover every cited statute. Mitigation: the rule names
   specific IRC sections and SCOTUS precedents that match
   community_tags already in sources.yaml (bogleheads, fee-only-
   fiduciary-cfp, tax-and-cpa-practitioner, erisa-and-fiduciary-rule-
   law, social-security-claiming-and-rmd, retirement-economics-
   academics).
3. Over-referral risk. The selective referral matrix is verbose
   (7 distinct categories); the Critic's over-referral check
   counterweights by flagging wrong-category referrals as failures.
   The uniform Mechanism E posture trades the over-referral risk for
   the canonical-gate enforceability.
4. Line count above target. 1227 lines / 8761 words exceeds the
   700–900 brief target; flagged here per brief instruction. The
   dollar-specific-investment-guidance gate (canonical to this
   domain) adds ~150 lines beyond the health-insurance template.

The file is delta, not duplication — companion files
(decisions.md, framings.md, blindspots.md, sources.yaml,
communities/.md, fixtures/.yaml) supply the underlying content;
domain_pack.md only adds the Triage / Editor / Critic prompt
overlay deltas.

🤖 Generated by refine-blindspot skill (parallel attempt, run-20260518-2024)

[mokashang]

@claude review this, if good, merge

[claude]

Claude finished @mokashang's task in 3m 49s —— View job

---

PR #93 Review — domain_knowledge/personal-finance/domain_pack.md

Tasks

• Load tools
• Read the new file (domain_knowledge/personal-finance/domain_pack.md)
• Read reference file (domain_knowledge/health-insurance/domain_pack.md) for structural comparison
• Check ROADMAP for item status and scope alignment
• Verify companion files referenced in PR description exist
• Post review findings
• Merge (see note below)

---

Review

Verdict: APPROVED ✅

This is a clean, well-scoped Layer 7 authoring PR. Full analysis follows.

---

Structural conformance

Compared against health-insurance/domain_pack.md (PR #88) as the stated template. Structure matches exactly:

Section	health-insurance	personal-finance	Status
Header + irrevocability classes	2 classes	3 classes	✅ (personal-finance is stricter — canonical case)
Companion files list	✅	✅	✅
Triage: Decision matching	✅	✅	✅
Triage: Persona refinement	19 personas	25 personas	✅ (higher density justified for most cross-cutting domain)
Triage: Risk-surface vocabulary	8 categories	9 categories	✅
Triage: Framing-signal vocabulary	7 pairs	All 14 pairs + meta-framings	✅
Triage: Cross-domain routing flags	5 domains	8 domains	✅ (personal-finance is the most cross-cutting)
Editor: Numeric specificity	✅	✅	✅
Editor: Decision-support label	✅	✅	✅
Editor: No-dollar-guidance gate	❌ absent	✅ added	✅ (canonical new gate for this domain)
Editor: Opportunity-cost framing	❌ absent	✅ added	✅
Editor: Selective referral matrix	8 categories	7 categories	✅
Editor: High-density blindspot anchors	D3/D4/D5/D7/D8	D1/D5/D6/D7/D10	✅
Editor: Opposing-framing surfacing	✅	✅	✅
Critic: Per-claim citation mandatory	✅	✅	✅
Critic: Specificity bar examples	10 fails listed	9 fails listed	✅
Critic: Non-obviousness +1	✅	✅	✅
Critic: Referral check (both directions)	✅	✅	✅
Critic: Dollar-guidance gate	❌ absent	✅ added	✅ (canonical)
Critic: Mechanism E label check	✅	✅	✅
Notes for refine	✅	✅	✅

---

Companion file verification

All companion files referenced by the PR exist:

• domain_knowledge/personal-finance/decisions.md ✅
• domain_knowledge/personal-finance/framings.md ✅
• domain_knowledge/personal-finance/blindspots.md ✅
• domain_knowledge/personal-finance/sources.yaml ✅
• domain_knowledge/personal-finance/communities/ ✅
• domain_knowledge/personal-finance/fixtures/ ✅

---

ROADMAP alignment

ROADMAP §4 line 245 explicitly names personal-finance domain_pack.md as item (1) of the current "Next up" queue. This PR closes personal-finance 6/8 → 7/8, matching the stated roadmap item.

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Statutory accuracy spot-check

Sampled key citations against the file content — all checked out:

• IRC §408A(d)(6)(B)(iii) Roth recharacterization elimination (TCJA 2017) ✅
• SECURE 2.0 §107 RMD ages 73/75 ✅
• SECURE 2.0 §302 RMD excise reduction 50%→25%→10% ✅
• SECURE 2.0 §109 age-60–63 super catch-up ✅
• *Egelhoff v Egelhoff Ex rel Breiner*, 532 U.S. 141 (2001) ✅
• *Clark v Rameker*, 573 U.S. 122 (2014) inherited IRA creditor protection ✅
• *Bobrow v Commissioner*, TC Memo 2014-21 once-per-12-month rollover ✅
• Social Security Fairness Act 2024 (Public Law 118-273) WEP/GPO repeal ✅
• Treas. Reg. §20.2010-1 anti-clawback ✅
• 11 USC §522(n) IRA bankruptcy exemption cap ✅
• IRC §1091 / Rev. Rul. 2008-5 wash-sale / household-aggregation ✅

Date-stamp risk items are appropriately flagged in "Notes for refine" with explicit watch items.

---

Mechanism E posture

The three-tiered enforcement (uniform — not partial like housing; plus dollar-specific-investment-guidance gate not present in health-insurance) is correctly grounded in the three irrevocability classes: tax-year-boundary one-shot windows, permanent SS/Medicare penalties, and compounding-cost-of-procrastination. This is the strictest posture in the V2 ontology and is appropriate for the canonical Mechanism E case named in ROADMAP §5.

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Minor observations (non-blocking)

1. Line count: 1227 lines vs 700–900 target. The PR body and "Notes for refine" both acknowledge and justify this on the canonical-gate basis. The health-insurance precedent (PR refine: author domain_knowledge/health-insurance/domain_pack.md (Layer 7) #88) at ~774 lines shows the gap is driven by the dollar-guidance gate (~150 lines) plus denser persona/risk-surface coverage. Not a reject criterion.
2. Cross-reference to [ROADMAP §5 Mechanism E](../../docs/specs/ROADMAP.md#mechanism-e--high-stakes-domain-gating): anchor appears throughout; ROADMAP §5 was not directly read but the ROADMAP link structure is consistent with the file tree.
3. No code changes: This is a pure knowledge file addition with zero impact on any executing code path. No test changes needed or expected.

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Merge note

I reviewed and approved this PR. However, my merge attempt (gh pr merge 93) was blocked by the harness permission mode — the gh CLI is not in the allowlist for this session. You can merge directly on GitHub, or add gh to allowed tools via /update-config to enable future autonomous merges.