Challenge

When the advisor modeled the full four-year aviation commitment, acquisition, fixed management fees, and flight costs. The numbers were stark. A significant portion of the acquisition capital was permanently absorbed at exit each cycle, as fractional shares recover ~50% of their original cost on the provider's timeline and terms. Annual fixed fees consumed hundreds of thousands of dollars regardless of how much the aircraft flew. None of this capital was working as an investment.

Separately, the client held concentrated public equity positions already flagged for diversification. Meaningful appreciation, growing concentration risk, and no clean path to reallocation without a significant tax event. Aviation restructuring and equity diversification were being treated as two separate problems. The Glidepath Fund offered a single mechanism to solve both simultaneously.

Solution

The advisor exited the fractional program and invested in the Glidepath Fund using Craft's tax-deferred exchange-fund mechanism, contributing the concentrated equity positions directly. No sale. No gain recognition at entry. Aviation access preserved at Craft's locked hourly rate. Three outcomes from a single transaction.

1. Fractional acquisition cycle eliminated

   The recurring capital commitment to fractional acquisition, and its permanent losses at exit, was replaced with a fund investment that compounds throughout the holding period and exits into diversified ETF shares at market value.
   
   

2. Annual fixed fees reduced by more than 90%

   Fixed management fees that previously ran regardless of utilization were replaced with a percentage-of-AUM annual fee, payable only while capital is invested. Over a four-year horizon, the fee reduction alone is material.
   
   

3. Freed capital redeployed into private credit and PE

   Capital no longer locked in a fractional acquisition cycle was redirected into private credit and private equity co-investments already on the investment committee's agenda, at target net returns significantly above the cost of the aviation program being replaced.

Impact

Across a four-year horizon, the restructure produced a capital impact measured in the millions1, a combination of fee savings, capital growth versus fractional depreciation, tax liability deferred on the equity contribution, and incremental returns from freed capital redeployed at target rates. Aviation became a gateway into a broader capital relationship rather than a line item to manage.

Portfolio Impact

1. Aggregate four-year capital impact reflects the sum of modeled fee savings, fund growth net of fractional residual losses, deferred tax liability on the equity contribution, and target returns on freed capital redeployed into private credit / PE. Modeled scenario; actual outcomes vary by client portfolio and market conditions.