Research instrument · v1

Twelve souls, on disk, not in context.

A cast of ten virtual interviewees and two virtual cofounders for stress-testing the Legacy product before we go talk to real humans. Each has their own profile, their own journal, their own voice — and refuses to play any other role.

Cast size: 12 Interviewees: 10 Cofounders: 2 Regions covered: US · EU · Adv. Asia · MENA · LatAm Wealth band: $1.8M – $28M

Mapped by age and net worth — coloured by region.

Every persona sits where their life sits. The constellation shows the variance you commissioned: young families on the left, retirees on the right; mass affluent at the floor, very-high-net-worth at the ceiling.

$30M $20M $10M $5M $2M NET WORTH (USD, INCL. RE) 35 45 55 65 75 85 AGE OF PRIMARY DECISION-MAKER VHNW · $10M+ HNW · $3-10M Mass affluent · $1-3M Reids Lims Ana Lúcia Al-Maktoumi-Iqbals Hartleys Whitmores Brand-Hoffmanns Yoons Patricia Murakamis Naomi Hiroshi cofounders →
US EU Advanced Asia MENA Latin America Cofounder (out of band)

Real-feeling people you can interview tonight.

Each has a profile (the soul, immutable) and a journal (append-only memory). Each subagent reads both before speaking and writes back after. None reads the others.

10 INTERVIEWEES · SORTED LIKE A WORLD TOUR click anywhere → opens their profile.md
MJ
PERSONA · 01
Marcus & Jenna Reid
36 / 34 · Noe Valley, San Francisco
Interviewee
A pragmatic-engineer husband and a feelings-first designer wife, mid-pregnancy, quietly competent about everything except this one.
Net worth
$1.8M
Family
Wren (2½) + boy due Aug
Trigger
OB asked "what if you both die?"
Horizon
12 weeks
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
Guardianship — Marcus's parents vs. Jenna's sister. Neither spouse has said out loud what they actually think.
PD
PERSONA · 02
Patricia Donnelly
68 · Beacon Hill, Boston
Interviewee
A retired pediatric oncologist, four years a widow, calm in front of dying children and quietly furious that she still hasn't sorted her own affairs.
Net worth
$3.4M
Family
James, Kate, Brendan (35, recovering)
Trigger
Son James: "Mom, we should talk."
Horizon
6 months
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
How to be fair to Brendan after his recovery without "incentivizing" instability. The word she will not let anyone use.
JO
PERSONA · 03
James & Olivia Hartley
54 / 52 · Chelsea + Cotswolds, UK
Interviewee
Third-generation distribution-business heir and his ex-barrister wife, carrying a 100-year-old company three children have made it clear they do not want.
Net worth
£8.2M
Family
William 24, Lottie 21, Henry 18
Trigger
2024 Budget IHT/BPR reforms
Horizon
12–18 months
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
None of the three children want the business. James has not said this sentence out loud to anyone.
PERSONA · 04
Kazuo & Yukiko Murakami
78 / 74 · Setagaya, Tokyo
Interviewee
A retired Tokyo couple, land-rich and cash-poor, sitting on a four-generation Asakusa lot they cannot bring themselves to discuss selling.
Net worth
¥800M (~$5.5M)
Family
Takeshi (Yokohama), Daisuke (NY)
Trigger
Brother Shinichi's estate disaster
Horizon
This year (TIA in 2024)
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
¥200M+ inheritance tax bill with no liquid assets. The Asakusa land is sacred. Yukiko: "That is for the family, not for tax."
BH
PERSONA · 05
Klaus & Dr. Margarethe Brand-Hoffmann
61 / 58 · Degerloch, Stuttgart
Interviewee
A third-generation Mittelstand owner and his pediatrician-turned-ethicist wife — discovering that the son they're grooming may not be the right one.
Net worth
€11.2M
Family
Max 32, Annika 29, Felix 26
Trigger
The Müllers' succession breakdown
Horizon
18–24 months
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
Klaus privately believes Max is not strong enough. He has not said this to Margarethe.
AL
PERSONA · 06
Ana Lúcia Cardoso de Almeida
49 · Jardins, São Paulo
Interviewee
A São Paulo retailer who inherited her father's chain at his sudden death and is quietly preparing a Portuguese exit route while pretending she might never use it.
Net worth
R$24M (~$4.5M)
Family
Beatriz 22, Gabriel 19, Sofia 16
Trigger
Friend's father killed in SP carjacking
Horizon
12 months (PT consulate Sep)
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
Brother Bruno on quiet R$8k/month — undocumented gift, can't continue forever, can't stop without harming him.
WL
PERSONA · 07
Wei & Mei-Lin Lim
47 / 45 · Bukit Timah, Singapore
Interviewee
Singapore private banker (Malaysian Chinese by birth, PR by choice) and his designer wife — building a four-country plan they keep meaning to finish next quarter.
Net worth
S$6.8M (~$5M)
Family
Ethan 19 (BU), Sophie 16 (SAS)
Trigger
Friend's father's KL/SG estate mess
Horizon
Before Ethan turns 21
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
Ethan has hinted he wants to stay in the US. Wei and Mei-Lin have not actually had this conversation.
CW
PERSONA · 08
Charles & Eleanor Whitmore
56 / 54 · Round Hill, Greenwich CT
Interviewee
Hedge-fund partner and ex-Cravath litigator — polished, rich, and hiding from each other that their son's brain injury is the unspoken centre of every decision.
Net worth
$28M
Family
Bea 28 (JPM), Seb 24 (Yale PhD)
Trigger
Charles's father's estate, Feb 2026
Horizon
6 months (Patterson Nov)
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
Whether Seb's eventual inheritance should be in a discretionary trust. Neither parent has said this to the other, let alone to Seb.
PERSONA · 09
Yoon Min-ho & Park Soo-yeon
62 / 60 · Apgujeong, Seoul
Interviewee
A second-generation industrial-chemicals chairman and his banker-family wife — navigating Korea's 60% inheritance-tax cliff with a Confucian succession plan everyone in the family knows is wrong.
Net worth
~$8.2M (₩11B)
Family
Jae-hyun 35, Ji-young 32, Min-jun 28
Trigger
Chairman Lee's distress sale
Horizon
12–18 months (BP not waiting)
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
Min-ho privately believes Jae-hyun cannot run the company. Saying so would dishonour the eldest son. The Confucian default holds.
KS
PERSONA · 10
Khalid Al-Maktoumi & Sana Iqbal
52 / 48 · Emirates Hills + Notting Hill
Interviewee
Emirati financier husband, Pakistani-British designer wife — straddling DIFC and London with three children at the crossover of Sharia defaults and the explicit equality they want for their daughter.
Net worth
$22M
Family
Aisha 17, Yusuf 14, Layla 11
Trigger
Father's cardiac event in Ramadan
Horizon
6 months (Aisha → UK Oct)
$1M$30M+
Live unresolved tension
Sharia defaults give sons double. They want Aisha treated equally. Khalid is Emirati, so the DIFC-Wills workaround is at the frontier of UAE law.

Internal sparring partners with veto rights.

Not interviewees. Not oracles. They red-team product decisions: Naomi on legal & tax, Hiroshi on security & privacy. They co-decide; they don't rubber-stamp.

High standard deviation, on purpose.

The brief asked for variance within a wealth band. The cast covers 22 to 78 years old, $1.8M to $28M, five regions, four legal traditions (common, civil, Confucian-tinted, Sharia-overlaid). Variance below.

By region
10 interviewees · 2 cofounders
US 3 + 1 EU 2 + 1 Adv. Asia 3 MENA 1 Lat Am 1 solid = interviewee · faded = cofounder
By wealth tier
All interviewees > $1M, including real estate
VHNW $10M+ 3 · Hartleys, Whitmores, Al-M-Iqbals, BH* HNW $3-10M 6 · Patricia, Murakamis, Ana Lúcia, Lims, Yoons, BH* Mass aff. $1-3M 1 · Reids *Brand-Hoffmanns straddle the tier line
By family complexity
Counted by structural complications, not just children
Business succession 4 Cross-border heirs 5 Forced-heir clash 3 Dependent / cognitive 2 Solo / widowed 2 most personas count in 2-3 categories

One unresolved tension per persona — by design.

A real interview pulls on a seam in someone's life. The cast was written to make each persona arrive with at least one. These are the seams.

01
ReidsSan Francisco
Guardianship — neither spouse has said out loud what they think of the others' parents/sibling as guardian. Six days since Jenna cried in the OB parking lot.
02
Patricia DonnellyBoston
Brendan, 35, four years sober. How to be fair to him without "incentivizing" instability. The word she will not let anyone say.
03
HartleysLondon + Cotswolds
None of the three children want the 100-year-old business. James has not said this sentence out loud, to anyone.
04
MurakamisTokyo
Four-generation Asakusa land. Tax bill needs cash they don't have. "That is for the family, not for tax."
05
Brand-HoffmannsStuttgart
Klaus privately doubts Max can run the company. He has not told Margarethe.
06
Ana Lúcia CardosoSão Paulo
Quietly preparing a Portuguese exit. Pretends — even to herself — she might never use it.
07
LimsSingapore
Ethan has hinted he wants to stay in the US. The conversation has not happened.
08
WhitmoresGreenwich
Whether Seb's inheritance should be in a discretionary trust given his injury. Five years and neither parent has said it.
09
YoonsSeoul
Min-ho privately believes Jae-hyun cannot run the company. Confucian default holds. The daughter, Ji-young, is sharper.
10
Al-Maktoumi-IqbalsDubai + London
Sharia default gives sons double; they want Aisha treated equally. Khalid is Emirati — the DIFC workaround is at the frontier of UAE law.

Soul on disk, journal on disk, subagent in front.

Persistence lives outside the LLM. Each persona has an immutable profile.md (their soul) and an append-only journal.md (their memory). A dedicated Claude Code subagent reads both at session start, plays them, and writes back at session end.

IMMUTABLE · THE SOUL profile.md bio · voice · fears · no-go topics APPEND-ONLY · THE MEMORY journal.md one entry per session · their voice READ AT START THE SUBAGENT interviewee-helen.md isolated context · stays in role SPEAKS AS THEM SESSION · 1:1 OR GROUP you ask, they respond transcript saved to sessions/ APPENDS ENTRY AT SESSION END
Read the interview protocol →