Financial Planning & Equity Compensation

I do one thing: comprehensive planning for people whose financial lives have gotten complicated — equity compensation, a retirement transition, aging parents, or all three at once.

That means your retirement income plan, your portfolio, your equity comp decisions, your Social Security timing, and your estate coordination are handled as one connected strategy rather than six separate conversations. And because I'm also an IRS Enrolled Agent, the tax consequences get built into those decisions up front instead of discovered next April.

Investment management, with a long-term, evidence-based approach built around your specific goals and risk tolerance

My Planning Process Covers

Retirement income planning and Social Security optimization

Equity compensation strategy — RSU taxation, NQSO exercise decisions, concentrated stock positions

Tax-efficient portfolio management and Roth conversion analysis

Healthcare planning and the Medicare transition

Estate planning coordination — working alongside your estate attorney to make sure your financial plan and your estate documents are aligned

2025 Tax Report summary showing Key Figures and a pie chart breakdown of ordinary income, self-employment, and capital gains

Here's What a Sample Tax Report Looks Like

The figures on this sample tax report are hypothetical and for illustration purposes only.

What I Do & Why The EA Credential Matters

Many people know what a CFP® is. Fewer know what an Enrolled Agent is, or why it matters.

An EA is a federally licensed tax practitioner. To earn the designation, you pass a three-part examination covering individual taxation, business taxation, and representation before the IRS. It is not a continuing education course. It is a rigorous credentialing process that many tax professionals find challenging.

I do not do tax preparation. What I do is integrate tax strategy directly into your financial plan — because for most of my clients, the difference between a good plan and a great plan is measured in taxes. The year you retire, the year your RSUs vest, the year you move money from a traditional IRA into a Roth — these are the years that matter most from a tax standpoint, and they are exactly the years where a planner who has to refer the question out is at a disadvantage. I'll also coordinate directly with your existing tax preparer, and I'm glad to review a draft return before you file.

Investment Philosophy

I believe in a simple but powerful idea: use the right tool for the right job. Unlike some advisors, I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all, strictly passive, or cookie-cutter approach to investing. Instead, I believe in the value of combining active and passive investment management — deploying each where it has the greatest potential to work in your favor.

What does this mean in practice?

In some parts of the market — particularly large, well-covered companies — it is very difficult for even the best active fund managers to consistently beat the index. In those areas, I use low-cost index funds to keep more of your return in your pocket. In other parts of the market — like smaller companies or emerging economies — skilled managers with disciplined research processes have a genuine track record of adding value above and beyond their benchmarks. That's where I may lean into active management, selecting strategies with a proven track record.

I also believe in individual stock ownership where appropriate. When the top ten companies by market capitalization can represent one-quarter to one-third or more of the S&P 500 at any given time, thoughtful individual stock selection can be a meaningful complement to a well-diversified portfolio.

At the core of everything, though, is you — your goals, your timeline, and where you are in your financial journey. The portfolio should be built around your life, not the other way around. The result is an investment strategy that is purposeful, transparent, and aligned with what matters most to you.

Retirement Income Approach

Retirement is not just about how much you have saved — it is about how confidently and consistently you can live from those savings for the rest of your life. Unlike a static rule-of-thumb approach, I use a dynamic approach that typically allows for a higher sustainable income starting point than conventional methods. This process establishes a personalized withdrawal rate calibrated to your specific timeline, investment mix, and the level of certainty you need to feel genuinely secure. The result is a retirement income plan that balances three things many people assume are in conflict: spending with confidence today while maintaining your purchasing power for the decades ahead, with the goal that your retirement nest egg doesn't run out before you do.

My clients are people who have spent decades building something real — and who are now at the point where the decisions they make in the next few years will shape the rest of their financial lives.

Many of them are pre-retirees in their mid-50s to early 60s, often with equity compensation — RSUs, stock options, deferred compensation — that has accumulated over a long career at a pharmaceutical, biotech, or corporate employer. They are high earners with financial complexity they did not grow up with, and they are smart enough to know that the decisions ahead of them — when to retire, how to handle equity comp at separation, how to time Social Security, how to bridge healthcare coverage before Medicare — deserve more than a generic plan.

What most of my clients have in common is this: they built their financial lives largely on their own, without a lot of guidance, and now they want someone genuinely invested in what happens next — not just for them, but for their spouse, their children, and the legacy they are trying to leave behind.

Who I Work With

If you are approaching retirement, managing equity compensation, or simply at a point in your financial life where you want someone genuinely engaged in your future — I would like to hear about your situation.

There is no pitch. No pressure. Just a conversation to find out whether what I do matches what you need.

Let's Talk