What we do

The portfolio

Low cost across all of it, and watched daily.

The same low-cost approach runs through the whole portfolio — stocks, fixed income, and alternatives. Index ETFs do most of the work. We use option strategies where a position calls for one, not as a matter of course.

Then the unglamorous half, which matters more than it sounds. Accounts are monitored daily, not reviewed once a quarter. Rebalancing runs through Schwab’s iRebal software, so drift is caught and corrected on a rule rather than whenever someone remembers to look.

Most active managers do not beat the benchmark they were hired to beat, and the ones who do rarely repeat it — we wrote up the research in why we do not try to beat the market. So we do not try. Owning the market is a bet that the world keeps working. If it stops, your portfolio is the least of anyone's concerns — so we assume it keeps going, and we build to grow with it.

That is the investing conversation, and it is a settled one. Which is why we spend our time on the rest of this page.

Tax

Planned during the year, not at filing.

Your CPA sees last year. We are looking at this one.

Withholding checked before it becomes an April surprise. Gains and losses timed while there is still time to time them. Roth conversions modeled against your actual bracket rather than assumed. And the handful of decisions that only work before December 31.

We do not prepare your return. We work alongside the person who does.

Workplace benefits

The choices you make in ten minutes and live with all year.

The 401(k) menu nobody explains. Whether your contribution schedule is quietly costing you match — front-loading the year leaves money behind if your plan does not true up at the end of it. The mega-backdoor Roth, when your plan allows it, which is more often than anyone tells you. What to do with the ESPP once it vests. Whether the HSA gets spent or invested. Open enrollment, decided in a hurry every November.

None of this sits in an account we manage, which is why most advisors treat it as somebody else's problem. It is also where a great deal of household money is quietly won and lost.

Estate and the household

When money has to move.

Beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, gifting strategy — the paperwork most people mean to get to. Your attorney drafts the documents. We make sure they exist, that they say what you believe they say, and that your beneficiary forms have not quietly contradicted them.

Underneath that sits the household balance sheet: where the cash is, what it earns, which account a large purchase should come out of, and the retirement accounts still sitting with former employers.

Negotiation

We will negotiate for you.

Cars, homes, the purchases where a few hours of pushing saves real money. We have done this for clients and we will do it for you.

Most advisors do not think that is their job. If it moves your net worth, we think it is.

What all of this costs

One fee, and it covers the page.

Everything above is included in the advisory fee on the assets we manage. There is no separate planning fee, no hourly rate, and no charge for picking up the phone. See the fee schedule.