Consider what comprehensive service includes: Asset allocation that balances growth and risk across your entire portfolio. Asset location that puts the right investments in the right account types for tax efficiency. Cashflow discipline that prevents emotional decisions during market volatility. Add tax-managed investment strategies that can save thousands annually, and estate planning coordination that keeps everything aligned as your life changes.
Each component might seem manageable individually. But together, they create a financial framework that compounds benefits over decades.
The question isn’t whether you can handle these pieces separately. It’s whether you have the time and expertise to coordinate them all while managing your career and family, or trying to enjoy your retirement. Most clients discover the value isn’t in any single service; it’s in how everything works together.
You’re right, we can’t. And we don’t try to. We focus on three core areas: comprehensive financial planning, disciplined investment management, and proactive tax coordination.
Financial planning means understanding your complete picture—cash flow, goals, risks, and opportunities. Investment management means building portfolios designed for your specific situation, not generic market conditions. Tax coordination means thinking about tax implications before making moves, not after, and coordinating with your CPA.
What we don’t do: insurance sales, mortgage origination, or accounting services. We work with specialists in those areas when clients need them.
We offer deep expertise in what matters most for building and protecting wealth, without the distractions that come from trying to be everything to everyone.
Yes, always. No exceptions. This means I am legally bound to put your interests first. I don’t sell commission products, and I don’t get paid more for recommending one investment over another. My compensation comes directly from you, creating complete alignment.
When selecting investments, I follow strict policies focused on your needs, not my profits. When trading, I prioritize your outcomes.
Your trust demands nothing less than complete loyalty to your financial well-being.
As a fee-only financial advisor, we charge a percentage based on assets under management. All-inclusive. This covers financial planning, investment management, tax planning and coordination with your CPA, estate planning support, and performance reporting.
No commissions. No hidden fees. Our compensation is directly tied to your success. When your portfolio grows, we benefit, and when it declines, we feel it too. This creates complete alignment between your interests and ours.
The clients who work best with us aren’t just looking for the lowest cost; they’re looking for comprehensive value. They understand that avoiding one major financial mistake often pays for years of careful oversight.
I personally oversee this process for every client, supported by institutional-grade research and risk management tools. There are no junior analysts making decisions about your future.
The goal isn’t to be clever or chase returns—it’s to be consistent and thoughtful in building wealth that lasts.Investment returns are point-in-time sensitive and often misleading without proper context. What matters more than beating an index? Staying on track to meet your goals.
Did your portfolio provide the income you needed in retirement? Did you have enough liquidity during that business opportunity? Were you able to weather that market downturn without panic selling?
Performance to plan beats performance to benchmark every time. We focus on building portfolios that work in different market environments, not just the one we’re in today. Because your financial life is longer than any single market cycle.
Yes. Scattered accounts create blind spots in your financial picture. When retirement funds are spread across multiple 401(k)s from past employers, investment accounts at different firms, and IRAs opened years apart, it becomes nearly impossible to see how everything works together.
Consolidation brings clarity. You can finally see your complete asset allocation, eliminate duplicate fees, and make coordinated decisions about tax planning and estate planning. Most importantly, it prevents costly oversights that happen when no one is watching the full picture.
You don’t have to. Smart transitions protect your existing tax position. We use ACAT transfers to move most assets in-kind, without the need for sales. Your cost basis, holding periods, and tax status transfer directly to the new custodian.
For positions we want to keep, nothing changes except who is managing them. For holdings that don’t fit the strategy, we sell selectively, harvesting losses where possible and managing the timing of gains.
The goal is to improve your portfolio without creating unnecessary tax drag. Sometimes that means keeping investments we wouldn’t have originally chosen, then updating gradually over time.
Every investment involves trade-offs. Return-seeking assets carry risk. Risk-mitigating assets offer stability but lower growth potential. Diversifying assets helps balance both.
The key isn’t eliminating risk; it’s taking the right risks at the right time. A 30-year-old can handle more volatility than someone five years from retirement. Someone with a stable income can invest differently from someone facing business uncertainty.
This is where careful planning matters. We don’t promise unrealistic outcomes. We help you take calculated risks that align with your timeline, goals, and ability to handle uncertainty.
Because the biggest risks of all? Running out of money in retirement or failing to meet your legacy goals.
Theoretically, yes, but in any practical sense, that is a highly unlikely scenario. The diversification of and amongst asset classes, along with the right security selection, should help mitigate an extreme outcome like ‘zero’.
While there are many possibilities out there, if we are fair and objective, we should assign each possibility a probability of occurrence. If you do that and then rank from highest to lowest, you might find that the vast majority of the probabilities happen in the top handful of scenarios.
For example, while financial events like the Great Depression and the Great Financial Crisis 2007-2009 incurred deep losses and exposed investors to prolonged recoveries, the U.S. equity markets did not hit zero. Certain companies did go to zero, but based on standard risk management practices, we wouldn’t be overexposed to any one company by way of diversification. In addition, broadly speaking, many industry safeguards have been put in place to avoid the circumstances that led to both events.
Put another way, between 2007-2009, the S&P 500 Index was down 52%. That means that a typical 60/40 investor would have been down about 31%. That is a painful place to be, but it is still nowhere near zero. The extreme circumstances that led to 2007-2009 are unlikely to repeat themselves exactly, but even if another extreme event were to occur, it probably wouldn’t be as bad as many investors would think, provided they didn’t panic sell, of course.
It would be helpful for investors to remove the fear of “zero” from their vocabulary altogether, provided they have total trust and confidence in the overall investment strategy and the underlying selection of the securities themselves.
We provide investment advice and financial planning. Your assets are held at Charles Schwab, a separate, independent custodian.
Think of it like a safety deposit box. We have the key to make authorized changes, but the bank (custodian) holds the vault. We can’t withdraw your money and place it in our accounts, and we can’t disappear with your assets.
Our custodian, Charles Schwab, is a major financial institution with SIPC insurance coverage, regulatory oversight, and institutional-grade cybersecurity. They handle thousands of advisory firms and over $10 trillion in assets.
If something happened to our firm, your assets would remain safely at the custodian. You’d simply work with a new advisor.
You might not. Some investors thrive managing their own portfolios. But ask yourself: Are you catching the details others miss, like tax-loss harvesting opportunities, asset location strategies, and rebalancing triggers?
Most successful professionals I work with—physicians, attorneys, business owners—excel in their fields precisely because they stay focused. They delegate financial oversight so they can concentrate on what they do best.
Generally, we have found that there are five types of investors: Delegators, Collaborators, Distributors, Avoiders, and Self-Directed.
Knowing which one you are determines whether professional management makes sense.
The goal isn’t to convince everyone they need help. It’s to help the right people get the careful attention their wealth deserves.
Neither do we. That’s why tax planning is woven into everything we do.
Understanding account types is the foundation. Tax-deferred accounts like 401(k)s and traditional IRAs delay taxes until withdrawal and are great during high-earning years, but require minimum distributions in your 70s.
Tax-exempt accounts like Roth IRAs grow tax-free forever and are powerful for long-term wealth building.
Taxable accounts offer the most flexibility but require careful management of capital gains and dividend taxes.
The strategy isn’t avoiding taxes completely—it’s paying them efficiently. Sometimes it makes sense to realize gains in low-tax years. Sometimes Roth conversions create long-term savings despite short-term costs.
We coordinate with your CPA to time these moves properly, looking at your complete tax picture before making recommendations.
Because the goal isn’t just building wealth, it’s keeping more of what you’ve earned to support your life and legacy goals.
Because good advice requires complete information, and if I only know part of your story, I can only offer a partial solution. If we don’t understand your cash flow, debt, insurance coverage, estate planning, and business interests, we can’t give you advice that actually fits your life.
This thoroughness isn’t just best practice, it’s our legal duty of care. We’re required to understand your complete situation before making any recommendations.
Think of it like visiting a new doctor. They don’t prescribe medication based on one symptom. They take your complete medical history, run tests, and understand how everything connects.
Financial planning works the same way. The time invested upfront in understanding your situation pays dividends in better decisions for years to come.
Absolutely not. We work with your existing tax advisor. Great financial planning requires coordination. We explain tax consequences before making moves and help organize missing cost basis information. We provide annual tax packages that make your CPA’s job easier.
Your CPA knows your business, your tax history, and your unique situation. Our job is to complement their expertise, not replace it.
The best client outcomes happen when everyone is working together with complete information and clear communication. Because tax planning isn’t something you do once a year, it’s woven into every financial decision.
No need to change attorneys. But here’s what I’ve learned: you can have the best will in the world, but if your 401(k) still lists your ex-spouse as beneficiary, that document won’t help your family.
We work with your attorney to make sure what’s on paper actually happens in real life. That means updating how your accounts are titled, checking that beneficiaries are current, and catching the details that can create problems later.
Every five years, we send your attorney a summary of account changes and family updates. Small details that prevent big problems later. Because protecting your family means getting both the big picture and the fine print exactly right.
