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
What we do
Planning and investing, treated as one job rather than six conversations.
Everything we do
Six pieces of work, reviewed as one file
Most firms sell you a portfolio and call it advice. The portfolio is the easy part. Everything below moves together, reviewed as one file rather than six separate conversations.
Financial planning
Cash flow modelled to age 95 with the assumptions visible.
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Discretionary portfolios
Low-cost index and factor building blocks, rebalanced to bands.
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Tax-aware investing
Asset location, loss harvesting and gain realisation planned properly.
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Retirement income
A withdrawal order that survives a poor first decade.
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Estate and legacy
Beneficiaries, trusts, gifting and the awkward family conversations.
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Giving and philanthropy
Donor-advised funds, stock gifts and multi-year pledges.
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Who we work with
Four situations we see most weeks
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
Look inside
The four portfolios, and what is actually in them
Most firms will not show you this until you have signed. Here are the target allocations, the long-run assumptions behind them, and the worst year each has had.
Balanced
The default for clients within a decade of drawing an income. Enough equity to keep pace with inflation over twenty years, enough high-quality bonds that a bad year does not force you to sell them.
5.4%
Long-run assumption
9.1%
Expected volatility
−21%
Worst modelled year
0.11%
Underlying fund cost
Target allocation
Global equity44%
Global investment grade30%
Small and value tilt12%
Inflation-linked9%
Cash5%
Allocations are targets, not holdings, and drift within agreed bands before rebalancing. Long-run assumptions are gross of our fee and are not a forecast of any particular year. Past performance says nothing reliable about future returns.
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.
Ways to work with us
Three engagements, one fee schedule
Every tier includes unlimited contact with your adviser. We do not meter meetings, and we do not charge for answering the phone.
Plan only
$6,500 one-off
A complete written plan you implement yourself. Suits confident DIY investors who want a second set of eyes.
- Full cash flow model to age 95
- Tax and account structure review
- Recommended portfolio and rationale
- Two revision rounds
- Ninety days of follow-up questions
Private client
0.90% tiered, falling with assets
Ongoing planning and discretionary management. The standard relationship for households from $500k upward.
- Everything in Plan only
- Discretionary portfolio management
- Rebalancing and loss harvesting
- Annual plan refresh, unlimited contact
- Direct line to your named adviser
Family office
Quoted from $15M
Multi-generation and multi-entity work where the coordination matters as much as the investing.
- Everything in Private client
- Trust, entity and partnership reporting
- Consolidated statements across custodians
- Attorney and CPA coordination
- Next-generation financial education
Yes, and it is written into the engagement letter rather than implied. We are a registered investment adviser, which means the fiduciary duty applies to every recommendation, not only to the ones made while wearing a particular hat. We accept no commission, revenue share or referral payment from any product provider.
An independent custodian, in accounts registered in your name. We are authorised to trade and to deduct the agreed fee, and nothing else. You receive statements directly from the custodian, which means you can verify every figure we report without going through us.
$500,000 for the ongoing Private client relationship. There is no minimum for a one-off plan, and we waive the threshold for the adult children of existing clients — the pattern of who needs advice most rarely follows account size.
No. We build low-cost, broadly diversified portfolios and spend our effort on the things that reliably add value: cost, tax, asset location, rebalancing discipline and stopping clients from selling at the bottom. Any firm promising consistent outperformance is describing luck as though it were process.
You hear from your adviser within the first week, before you have to ask. Your plan already assumes several bad years, so in most cases the answer is that nothing changes except rebalancing and harvesting losses. Where the plan genuinely needs adjusting, we say so and show the working.
Any time, with no exit fee and no notice period. Because the assets are held in your name at the custodian, transferring away is a form you sign with the receiving firm. We will help with the paperwork and flag any tax consequences of selling positions, even on the way out.
Every household has a second named adviser who attends at least one review a year, so somebody who knows the file is always available. Plans, notes and decisions are documented centrally rather than living in one person's head.
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