M&E Capital Group: a static site for people with a large capital gain

One reader, one problem, five possible answers. The site is built as a decision tree rather than a brochure, and the engineering constraint throughout was saying nothing that would need a disclaimer to survive being quoted.

One reader with one problem#

Most sites in financial services are organized around the firm: who we are, what we offer, our team, contact. This one is organized around a single situation the reader is already in. They have realized, or are about to realize, a large capital gain, and the tax on it is about to become real.

Four of the five sections exist because they are different answers to that one problem: a 1031 exchange, a Delaware Statutory Trust, a deferred sales trust, a 721 exchange into an operating partnership, or an oil and gas deduction against the gain. A reader does not arrive wanting a Delaware Statutory Trust. They arrive wanting to not write the check, and the site's job is to show them which door their own circumstances point at.

Information architecture as a decision tree#

That reader model produced the navigation directly. The paths that answer the capital gains problem are grouped together under one menu, so the reader sees them as alternatives to each other rather than as unrelated services. The fifth arm, which is a different business entirely, sits outside that group as its own destination rather than being forced into a taxonomy it does not belong in.

• One page per mechanism, each answering the same questionWhat it is, who it suits, what it requires, and where it stops being the right answer. A page that only lists advantages is read as sales copy and trusted accordingly.
• Every page ends at a conversationThere is no listing, no portal and no product grid, because the honest version of this does not have one. The call to action is a conversation, everywhere, with no exceptions engineered in later.
• A single form, a single confirmation pageDuplicate contact forms are how a lead goes missing. One form, one destination, submissions routed into the CRM rather than into an inbox where they age.

Writing under a hard constraint#

The copy rules were written down before the first page and kept as comments in the source so they could not be forgotten halfway through: make no claim about licensing or regulatory status in either direction, name no counterparty, describe no fee that varies with a closing, and never phrase anything as an offer or as tax advice.

Constraints like these are usually treated as a tax on the writing. In practice they improve it. A sentence that cannot lean on an implied credential has to carry its own weight, and a page that explains a mechanism accurately and says who it does not suit is more persuasive to a reader with a seven figure decision than any amount of confident language.

One section was held back entirely, kept out of the site's index until the underlying structure was settled, rather than shipped with vague copy that would have to be corrected later. Publishing a page you are not ready to stand behind is a decision you make once and pay for in search for a long time.

The build, and why it is static#

Thirteen pages, built with Astro and deployed as static files. No CMS, no database, no plugin surface, nothing to patch on a schedule. For a site of this size a content management system adds an attack surface and a monthly bill in exchange for an editing convenience that a site of thirteen pages does not need.

The design system was ported from an existing build rather than invented, which is the unglamorous reason the site was finished quickly: the layout primitives, navigation, footer, call to action banners and section rhythm were already proven on a live site in an adjacent category.

What this one demonstrates#

It is the clearest example in this portfolio of the thing we are usually hired for, which is not the code. It is turning a messy commercial situation into an information architecture a stranger can navigate in ninety seconds, under constraints that make the obvious phrasing unavailable, and then shipping it as something fast and maintainable rather than as a platform someone has to keep feeding.