Principles
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Listening comes first.
Before the portfolio, before the plan, there is a conversation: what you want, what worries you, and what you hope to leave behind. Our first job is to make space for those answers, and to draw out the ones that haven’t yet been put into words.
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Decisions should inform one another.
Investments do not exist in isolation. Retirement decisions affect taxes, business ownership shapes how a portfolio is built, and an estate plan changes how assets are titled and transferred. Better outcomes come when major financial decisions are considered together rather than separately. Our work is to keep each one supporting the others, in service of the same long-term goals.
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Get the allocation right, then hold it steady.
How a portfolio is divided among stocks, bonds, and other assets drives most of its long-term return. Picking individual winners matters far less than people think. So we put our care into the mix, set it down in writing, and hold to it when headlines turn dramatic. We’ll act on structural shifts in the broader environment, but by tilting the allocation, not by chasing the hottest stock.
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Patience is rewarded.
Markets are unpredictable and volatile over months, yet remarkably consistent over decades. The longer your horizon, the better your odds. When conditions become uncertain, we return to the plan, the objectives, and the long view.
How we work together
The goal is not simply to build a portfolio. It is to give you a framework for making financial decisions with confidence. We begin by understanding your goals, your resources, and the constraints you are working within. Those conversations become a written Investment Policy Statement, the guide for the decisions that follow. From there, we build a comprehensive financial plan and the portfolio to carry it out. Ongoing reviews keep the plan and the portfolio aligned as your life and the markets change.
What We Invest In
Portfolios are built from publicly traded investments: stocks, bonds, index funds and ETFs, mutual funds, U.S. government and municipal bonds, and cash. Wherever an index fund can capture a market efficiently, we generally prefer it for its low cost, tax efficiency, and simplicity.
In rare cases we may use hedging instruments (derivatives) to reduce a specific risk, but never to speculate, and never without talking it through with you first.
Safeguards
Your accounts are held in your own name at Charles Schwab, an independent custodian. We manage the portfolio, while custody of the assets remains with Schwab. Our compensation comes from a single, transparent advisory fee, with no commissions, revenue sharing, or other forms of hidden compensation. There is no account minimum. Fit and alignment matter most.
Estate coordination runs alongside the investment work. We work with your attorney and CPA on asset titling, beneficiary designations, and preparing trustees and executors, so your legal documents, your accounts, and your intentions stay in step.
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