Fee-only fiduciary · Boston · Since 1998 Client portal login
Our approach
Good planning is mostly unglamorous: listen carefully, organize completely, test honestly, implement in the right order, and keep showing up. Here is exactly how we do each of those, and the evidence-based philosophy underneath.
A 45-minute conversation about what the money is for.
Before a single spreadsheet appears, we listen: who depends on you, what worries you at 2am, and what a good decade would look like. No documents, no fee, no obligation, and no pitch deck.
One clear picture of everything you own and owe.
We gather accounts, insurance, equity pay, estate documents, and tax returns into a single family balance sheet. Most households see their whole financial picture here for the first time.
Scenarios tested in ranges, including the bad ones.
We stress-test your plan against early retirement, a long bear market, a health event, or a family business sale. You see the range of outcomes and the trade-offs, not a single flattering number.
Coordinated moves, in priority order.
Portfolio changes are timed around taxes and built-in gains. Beneficiaries, titling, and insurance gaps get fixed alongside investments. It's the unglamorous work that plans actually depend on.
Reviews that keep the plan honest as life changes.
Structured reviews, steady rebalancing, and yearly tax-loss and gifting passes. When you're ready, we bring the next generation into the conversation so the plan outlives its authors.
Investment philosophy
Nobody at this firm will predict next year's market for you, because nobody anywhere can do it reliably, and the industry's habit of pretending otherwise is expensive. What the evidence does support is unglamorous and durable: broad diversification, relentless cost and tax discipline, and the patience to let compounding work.
A percent lost to fees or avoidable taxes every year compounds exactly like a percent of return, just in the wrong direction. We build with low-cost funds and manage for after-tax results.
Concentration builds fortunes and destroys them; diversification keeps them. We spread risk across asset classes, geographies, and time rather than betting your retirement on a view.
The market's long-term returns went only to investors who stayed in their seats. Much of our value shows up in bad markets, when a plan and a steady hand beat a reaction.
The right portfolio is the one you can hold through a 30% drop without abandoning the plan. We size risk to your need, your capacity, and your temperament, in that order.
Cadence
Discovery and organization: two working meetings, a complete family balance sheet, and a prioritized list of what needs attention first.
Plan presentation: your scenarios in ranges, the trade-offs stated plainly, and the implementation order agreed together.
Implementation: portfolio transitions sequenced for taxes, beneficiary and titling fixes, insurance gaps closed with providers you choose.
Two structured reviews a year, a pre-year-end tax coordination pass with your CPA, and unlimited access in between. Life doesn't schedule itself.
Curious what all of this costs? The whole schedule is published, in plain numbers, on our fees page. No meeting required to see it.
The first step is free
The introduction is where we find out: 45 minutes on your questions and our honest answers, including 'you may not need us.' It happens.