Comprehensive Financial Planning
And Investment Management
Specializing in helping Tech Execs, Solopreneurs, and Small Business Owners with comprehensive financial planning and investment management tailored to their unique needs and circumstances including:
Equity Compensation Planning and Optimization
We provide comprehensive planning for tech professionals navigating high-value equity grants, including RSU, ISO, and NSO strategies. Our approach focuses on transforming "paper wealth" into lasting financial freedom through proactive tax-efficient exercise strategies and concentration risk management. By modeling the "tax gap" and conducting Cost Basis Audits, we ensure you avoid common pitfalls like the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and "double-tax" basis errors. Whether you are navigating a post-IPO lockup or implementing a Rule 10b5-1 diversification plan, we serve as your partner in ensuring your equity compensation is managed with the precision required to meet your long-term life goals.
Exercise & Vesting Optimization: Strategic planning for ISO, NSO, and RSU grants to maximize after-tax value and ensure your equity serves your broader financial roadmap.
Concentration Risk Management: Systematic diversification strategies, including the "Cash-Equivalent Test" and Rule 10b5-1 plans, to protect your wealth from single-stock volatility.
Proactive Tax Planning: Pre-calculating the "tax gap" and managing Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exposure to prevent high-value surprise bills in April.
Cost Basis Auditing: Specialized review of 1099s to identify and correct "double-tax" basis errors, ensuring you only pay what you truly owe.
Post-IPO & Lockup Navigation: Specialized guidance for executives at pre-IPO or recently public companies to manage the transition from "paper wealth" to liquid assets.
It starts with discussions, questionnaires, and risk profile surveys. Once I get to know you, your money stories, your attitudes toward risk, your financial and personal circumstances, your time horizon, and your short and long-term goals and objectives, I’m going to place your assets in a portfolio with an asset allocation that’s a good match to your risk and required return profile, ranging from Conservative or Capital Preservation to Aggressive Growth, or one of many levels in between. I’ll monitor and rebalance as allocations drift beyond certain thresholds, and may adjust allocations occasionally for changes in economic cycles or your personal circumstances.
Investment
Management
Financial Planning For Solopreneurs and SMB Owners
Retirement Planning
Tax Guidance
Tax guidance is a large part of your financial plan. We can work with you and your tax professional to make sure the tax impact of each financial decision is understood and to minimize taxes. For example, I’ll process your tax return through one of our software packages to ensure no tax deduction, credit, or other saving opportunities are overlooked. During accumulation years, I’ll ensure you’re taking full advantage of tax deferral opportunities, maxing out 401ks, IRAs, 529s, and more. In retirement years, we can make sure the sequence of distributions is tax optimal and look for opportunities to favorably time Roth conversions. In your investments, I’ll have a bias towards holding long-term for favorable capital gains and qualified dividend treatment, I’ll look at the tax-equivalent yields of muni’s if they fit in your portfolio, and when considering mutual funds, we’ll guard against accumulated “phantom” capital gains taxes.
For independent professionals and creators, the line between business and personal finance isn’t just blurred—it’s a single financial ecosystem. We specialize in navigating the unique complexities of high-margin, variable income, transforming your business from a job into a scalable, sellable asset. By integrating entity optimization with advanced tax-mitigation strategies, we ensure your business structure works as hard as you do to build "paper wealth" into tangible, long-term security.
Tax-Efficient Entity Optimization: Continuous analysis of S-Corp vs. LLC structures to optimize your draw-to-salary ratio and minimize self-employment tax exposure.
Retirement Plan Advising: Guidance on specialized "Retirement for One" (or many) plans—including Solo 401(k)s, SEP-IRAs, and Cash Balance Plans—designed specifically for high-income builders.
Cash Flow & Variable Income Management: Strategic volatility planning to ensure your personal lifestyle remains funded and stable through the natural ebbs and flows of business revenue
Exit & Succession Guidance: Proactive "sellable from day one" planning to mitigate single-point-of failure risks and maximize the eventual value of your largest asset.
Integrated Ecosystem Management: A holistic approach that treats your business and personal balance sheets as a unified strategy for wealth acceleration.
Building Education Savings and Paying For College
If you have children, as part of your financial plan, I can determine how much you need to save each year to be on target for paying for college, and I’ll help you select the best savings vehicle. We’ll also examine how your college saving goal fits your overall financial plan. When your child is in high school and you’re getting closer to the big decision, I can calculate Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and offer strategies for getting financial aid, grants, or scholarships. If you need to take out student loans, I can help you choose a loan and determine optimal repayment options. And if you’re paying off student debt, I’ll advise you on options like consolidation and debt forgiveness. To help me give advice, I subscribe to one software package that helps optimize financial aid and another that helps navigate student loan and repayment decisions.
As part of your financial plan, to plan against running out of money in retirement, once we’ve input all your financial circumstances like income, savings, expenses, and retirement goals, we’ll use financial planning software to run aMonte Carlo analysis, testing it for 1000 different long-term return scenarios to get an overall probability of success. We like to see probabilities of at least 80% to 90%. We’ll also run other stress tests for events that are out of your control, such as various inflation levels, and sit with you to run through an if-then analysis, showing you the trade-offs of how changing things you do have control over might affect the results, such as working longer, delaying social security, saving more, spending less before or after retirement, moving, or possibly eliminating certain nonessential goals. We’ll also integrate other important components into the plan, like investing, taxes, insurance, and legacy considerations. Once we’ve settled on a plan together, we’ll work to implement it and monitor it on a regular basis.
Insurance Reviews
As you accumulate wealth, you also increase your financial exposure in several areas of life. Most families cannot withstand the financial burden of unexpected events such as a long-term disability, the death of the family breadwinner, or a major liability claim. Failing to mitigate even one risk could jeopardize all you have worked hard to create for yourself and your family. As someone who doesn’t sell insurance, I can be an unbiased reviewer of your insurance needs. As part of all comprehensive financial plans, I do an evaluation of your policies including, homeowner’s, life, health, and annuities to determine what changes or additions you should make to improve your overall risk management.
Legacy Planning
Without proper planning, death can create significant hardships on the people for whom the estate was created. A will can alleviate many problems, but other simple yet often overlooked tools can provide critical protection while you are living. We work with you and your other advisors to proactively identify the tools and techniques to protect you and your family from costly legal and financial complications.