Five years from retiring
The saving is largely done and the question changes shape: how much can come out each year, from which account, taxed how, and what happens if markets fall in year two.
Needs: drawdown sequencing
About the firm
Independent, fee-only advice for families and business owners since 2004.
Who we work with
The households we are built for
We are not for everybody, and saying so up front saves us both a meeting. These are the moments where independent advice earns its fee several times over.
Just sold a business
A single illiquid asset becomes a large liquid one overnight. Concentration risk disappears and a different set of problems — tax, timing, family expectation — arrives in its place.
Needs: liquidity event planningInherited wealth
Money arrives alongside grief and often alongside siblings. We slow the decisions down, deal with the estate mechanics, and get you to a plan that is yours rather than the previous owner's.
Needs: estate and structure workHigh earners still building
Strong income, equity compensation, not much time. The work is mostly about tax efficiency, deferred comp decisions and stopping good years from quietly disappearing.
Needs: tax-aware accumulation
The firm in four numbers
Twenty-two years, two market crashes, one fee model
Figures as at the most recent quarter end and verified against custodian records. Retention counts households, not accounts.
0
Client assets under advice
0
Households advised across 19 states
0
Ten-year client retention rate
0
Average all-in cost, advice plus funds
How an engagement runs
First ninety days, then every year after
Nothing is charged until the plan is presented and you have decided to go ahead.
Week 1 — no charge
Introduction
An hour, usually by video. You describe the situation, we say plainly whether we are the right firm for it. Roughly one in four conversations ends with a referral elsewhere.
Weeks 2 to 4
Discovery and document gathering
Statements, tax returns, trust deeds, benefit summaries. We build a single balance sheet, which for most households is the first time everything has appeared on one page.
Weeks 5 to 8
Plan presented
Cash flow projection, tax analysis, recommended portfolio and a short list of the things that would genuinely hurt. Two rounds of revision are included before anything is signed.
Weeks 9 to 12
Implementation
Accounts opened at the custodian in your name, transfers coordinated, positions moved with the tax bill modelled first. We stage large transitions rather than doing them in one day.
Ongoing
Monitoring and annual review
Rebalancing to bands, loss harvesting where it clears the wash-sale rules, and a full plan refresh each year. Between reviews, you email your adviser directly, not a service desk.
Your advisers
You get a person, not a pod
Each adviser holds a maximum of 65 households, which is why we occasionally close to new clients for a quarter.
Adeyemi Fashola
Managing partner
CFP. Founded the firm in 2004 after nine years in institutional fixed income.
Sylvie Renard
Head of planning
CFP, EA. Leads the tax and cash flow work and reviews every plan before it goes out.
Nikolai Brandt
Chief investment officer
CFA. Chairs the investment committee and writes the quarterly market letter.
Priya Ramanathan
Estate and legacy
JD, CFP. Coordinates trust, gifting and multi-generation work with clients' attorneys.
Anonymised client work
Ask about a similar case
Three files, details changed
Retirement income
Retiring two years early
Couple, 61 and 59, convinced they were three years short. Reordering withdrawals and delaying one pension moved the date forward without raising portfolio risk.
2 yrEarlier
$318kLifetime tax saved
SameRisk level
Liquidity event
Sale of a manufacturing firm
Founder, 54, with the entire net worth in one company. We staged the proceeds into markets over fourteen months and ring-fenced a giving structure before completion.
$11MProceeds
14 moStaged entry
$1.2MTo DAF
Estate
Three siblings, one inheritance
An estate split unevenly by an old will. Separate plans for each beneficiary, a shared property held in trust, and the family still speaking to each other afterwards.
3Plans built
7 moTo settle
0Disputes filed
Client comments
Collected in annual reviews
They talked me out of a structured product I had already half agreed to elsewhere. That conversation alone paid for four years of fees.
Ines Kowalczyk Client since 2016
In March 2020 my adviser called before I called her. No pitch, no reassurance script — just the plan, and the reason we were not changing it.
Rafael Osei-Brown Client since 2011
The first meeting after the sale, they spent forty minutes on what we wanted the money to do before anyone mentioned a portfolio.
Marguerite Halloran Client since 2021
Two crashes in, and the answer has always been the same: here is the plan, here is why nothing changes, here is what we are rebalancing.
Theodore Nakamura Client since 2008
Registered, audited and independently verified
RIA REGISTERED
CFP Board
Fiduciary
CFA Charter
GIPS VERIFIED
Start with a conversation
An hour, no charge, and an honest answer
Tell us the situation and we will say plainly whether we are the right firm for it. If we are not, we will point you to someone who is. That happens often enough that we plan for it.
No cost, no obligation
Fee-only, always
Leave any time