Know the cost before we meet.

Everything in the engagement. There is no tier of service to buy up into and no menu of add-ons, because a plan that leaves out the parts you did not purchase is not a plan.

• Investment management: portfolio design, tax-aware implementation, rebalancing and ongoing oversight
• Tax planning: multi-year projections, Roth conversion analysis, withdrawal sequencing, coordination with whoever prepares your return
• Retirement income planning: the withdrawal strategy, Social Security timing, and the bond allocation sized to fund it
• Estate planning: beneficiaries, titling, and the conversations with your attorney
• Risk and insurance review: an independent read of your coverage from someone who sells none of it
• Equity compensation and benefits: RSUs, ISOs, NSOs, ESPP, and the tax consequences of each
• Budgeting and cash flow: spending structure, savings targets, and the irregular expenses that break budgets
• Student loan planning: repayment plan choice, filing status, and the tax at the end of the loan
• Business owner planning: entity and pay structure, retirement plan design, and the exit modeled ahead of time
• Scheduled review meetings, plus calls and email in between, with no meter running

One point worth making plainly: the tax decision and the investment decision are made by the same person. There is no handoff, no second firm to brief, and no decision that gets made on one side of the house without the other side knowing.

Three costs sit outside the advisory fee, and you should know about all three before you sign anything.

Fund expense ratios. The ETFs and mutual funds in the portfolio carry their own internal costs, typically in the range of 0.05% to 0.20% depending on the mix. That money goes to the fund company, never to us, and it is netted out inside the fund rather than billed to you. Keeping it low is part of the job.

Custodian charges. The custodian may charge for specific transactions and account services, such as outgoing wires or an account transfer. These are the custodian's charges, published by them, and we receive no part of them.

Tax preparation and legal work. Preparing and filing your return is a separate engagement with a separate professional, as is drafting estate documents. We coordinate with both and pay for neither.

What is not on this list matters too. There is no financial plan fee, no onboarding or setup charge, no performance fee, no commission on anything, and no payment to us for referring you to anyone.

Quarterly in advance, deducted directly from the account. Each quarter's fee is one quarter of the annual rate applied to the account value on the last day of the previous quarter, so the amount is known before the quarter starts rather than worked out after it.

If the engagement ends part way through a quarter, the fee is prorated to the days served and the unused portion is refunded to you.

At the same time the fee is deducted, you receive an itemized invoice showing the formula, the asset value it was applied to, and the period covered. That is not a courtesy. Florida requires it of any adviser who deducts fees directly, and it exists so the arithmetic is auditable by you rather than taken on faith.

Your custodian also sends statements at least quarterly, independently of us, showing every fee debited from the account. Compare the two. If they ever disagree, the custodian's statement is the record and we want to hear about it the same day.

Because the work scales with the portfolio, though not in a straight line, and the tiers are there to reflect exactly that. A larger portfolio means more account types, more tax complexity, more estate exposure and more consequence attached to every decision. It does not mean ten times the work at ten times the assets, which is why the rate steps down rather than staying flat.

The honest counterargument: a percentage fee means we are paid more in years when markets rise and less when they fall, regardless of how much work the year required. That is a real feature of AUM billing and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What it also means is that when your account value falls, the next quarter's fee falls with it, and that our incentive is never to sell you something to earn a commission.

If your situation is mostly planning with few assets to manage, an AUM fee is probably the wrong shape for you and we will say so on the first call rather than the third.

It is in the range you will see quoted for a full-service fiduciary relationship, and comparison is only useful once you know what is inside each fee. Ask any advisor you are considering three questions: is the planning included or billed separately, do you accept any compensation from a third party, and what is the blended rate at my asset level rather than the headline rate.

No. There is no asset minimum. The fee is a percentage of what we manage, so a smaller portfolio pays a smaller fee. If your situation is mostly planning with few assets to manage, we will say on the first call whether an asset-based fee is the right shape for you.

Not as a separate engagement. The tax planning is built into the advisory relationship because it depends on seeing the whole picture, and the fee covers both. If forward tax planning is all you want, an hourly planner is a better fit and we are glad to point you toward one.

No. Your accounts are held at an independent, third-party custodian, in your name, and you retain full access to them at all times. Our only authority is to manage the investments and to deduct the advisory fee, which you see on both our invoice and the custodian’s statement. We cannot move your money anywhere else.

It falls with it. Each quarter's fee is set from the account value on the last day of the previous quarter, so a decline carries into the next quarter's fee rather than the one it happens in. There is no floor that keeps the fee up while the balance goes down, and nothing about the fee is fixed in dollars.

At any time, in writing, with no termination fee and no notice period. The final quarter is prorated to the days served and any overpayment is returned. Your accounts stay where they are and you keep every document produced along the way.