Six months of coordinated work, with the decisions that matter actually getting made.
Like an architectural keystone, the Keystone Method™ is the central piece that locks your entire financial structure into place.
The plan sits at the center. Everything else calibrates to it, and nothing gets treated in isolation.
What Keystone actually is.
A lot of financial planning engagements produce a plan document. You leave with a PDF. You put it in a drawer. Six months later, the recommendations haven't happened, because recommendations don't implement themselves.
Keystone is structured differently. Over six months and four to five working meetings, we go through your financial life together. My job is to lead the work. I know which questions to ask, in what order, and why. I've seen how these decisions play out for people in situations like yours, and that experience is the reason you're hiring me in the first place. Your job is to live your life, tell me what matters to you, and make the final calls on the things that are yours to decide. In between, I'm running the process.
Some of the work I do directly. Tax analysis, allocation adjustments, coordination with your CPA or attorney, the Roth conversion paperwork, the beneficiary form review. Some of it you do yourself, because it's your signature on the document or your conversation to have. But you're never doing it alone, and you're never guessing. I'm in the room, on the phone, or on the email chain. By the end of six months, the things that were on the list are either handled or in motion with a clear next step.
How Keystone is different from what you've probably been offered before.
What Keystone isn't.
Not a plan document that sits on a shelf. Not a sales process dressed up as planning. Not a one-time consultation where you leave with questions instead of answers. Not a product pitch with financial planning bolted on the front.
What Keystone is.
A six-month working engagement where we go through your whole financial picture together, make the decisions that have been waiting, and get the actions those decisions require into motion. By the end, your situation is measurably further along than where it started.
How the work actually gets led.
The best version of this engagement is one where I'm doing the work of leading, and you're doing the work of being the person whose life it is. Those are different jobs.
My job is to know what to ask, what order to ask it in, what's worth analyzing deeply and what's worth setting aside, and how decisions in one area ripple into three others. I've sat across the table from people in situations like yours more times than I can count. That pattern recognition is most of what you're hiring me for.
Your job is to be clear about what you actually want. Not the sanitized version. Not what sounds reasonable. The real thing. You make the final calls on decisions that are genuinely yours to make. I handle the rest.
How the six months actually go.
There isn't a rigid script. Every client's situation dictates which pieces need attention first, and in what order. What stays the same across every engagement is the shape of the work and the rhythm of the meetings.
WHAT STAYS THE SAME
Four to five meetings across roughly six months. Between meetings, our team handles analysis, modeling, and coordination. You get a clear agenda before every session and a written summary after, so nothing gets lost. By month six, the engagement has produced resolved decisions and coordinated actions across the areas that matter most for your situation.
WHAT FLEXES
The sequence and emphasis. A client five years from retirement with a concentrated stock position will spend different time than a business owner three years from a sale, and both will spend different time than someone navigating an inheritance. The framework is the same. The depth shifts to where decisions are actually waiting.
What you walk away with.
Most of the value of Keystone isn't a thing you can hold. It's a set of decisions that have been made with real analysis behind them, and a set of actions that are either complete or clearly in motion. That said, here's what's concrete.
DECISIONS RESOLVED
The Roth conversion strategy for the next several years. The withdrawal sequencing plan. The asset location across accounts. The beneficiary designations across every account. The estate document gaps and how they'll be filled. The insurance coverage that's right-sized to your situation. Every major decision has a reason behind it that you understand.
COORDINATED ACTIONS, COMPLETED OR IN MOTION
Conversions initiated. Beneficiary forms updated. Allocations shifted. Policies reviewed with recommendations to your agent or attorney. Tax elections filed. I handle the work I'm best positioned to handle. You handle what's genuinely yours to do. Either way, nothing gets dropped. We're tracking every open item to completion.
A WRITTEN SUMMARY OF WHAT WAS DECIDED, AND WHY
A short document you can refer back to. Covers the decisions we made, the reasoning, the actions taken, and anything still outstanding. Your spouse can read it. Your heirs eventually could too.
A CLEAR NEXT CHAPTER, WHATEVER THAT IS
If continuing into ongoing advisory makes sense, you'll roll in with everything already coordinated. If it doesn't, you'll leave in good enough shape to manage independently until life changes. Both endings are fine.
One framework. Three levels of depth.
Every client follows the same Keystone shape. The tier reflects the complexity of the decisions, not how hard we work.
Keystone Personal
flat fee · six-month engagement
Fully refundable. Any reason, any time during the engagement.
For households and professionals where the financial picture is mostly personal. Retirement timing, tax strategy, investment coordination, estate review. The shape of decisions people navigate in the five to ten years before and after leaving full-time work.
BY THE END OF SIX MONTHS:
- Retirement income strategy mapped and the first actions initiated
- Multi-year Roth conversion plan decided and in motion
- Tax strategy coordinated across the year, not left until April
- Investment allocation calibrated to the plan
- Estate review complete, with gaps flagged and next steps coordinated
Keystone Owner
flat fee · six-month engagement
Fully refundable. Any reason, any time during the engagement.
For business owners and households where the entity materially shapes the personal outcome. Same six-month shape, but the depth extends across the business and personal sides of the balance sheet together.
BY THE END OF SIX MONTHS:
Everything in Keystone Personal, plus:
- Owner compensation structure reviewed and optimized
- Business tax strategy coordinated with personal tax strategy
- Retirement plan design reviewed (SEP, Solo 401(k), defined benefit if applicable)
- Entity structure examined for whether it still fits
- Early succession or exit considerations surfaced, if relevant
Keystone Complex
scoped based on complexity · six-month engagement
Fully refundable. Any reason, any time during the engagement.
For genuinely complicated situations. Multiple entities, multi-state, cross-border considerations, significant concentrated equity combined with business ownership, or estate structures that span generations. Keystone Complex is scoped individually because the range of work varies. We'll agree on the scope and the fee before the engagement begins.
TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF WHAT'S INVOLVED:
- Multi-entity analysis across related businesses and family trusts
- Cross-border tax coordination with outside international counsel
- Concentrated equity unwinding across multiple grants and lockups
- Estate planning coordinated across multiple generations
- Pre-sale or post-sale planning for a business transition
Which tier is me?
If your financial life sits mostly on W-2 income, retirement accounts, and a brokerage account, Keystone Personal is almost certainly right. If you own a business, have meaningful K-1 income, or manage entities alongside personal wealth, Keystone Owner is the fit. Keystone Complex is reserved for the cases where the usual frameworks don't quite stretch far enough, usually when multiple entities, cross-border considerations, or generational estate structures are involved.
When it's not obvious, that's what the Explore Call is for. I'd rather we figure out together which tier fits than guess.
Common Questions
If this is the kind of work you're looking for.
The Explore Call is the next step. Fifteen minutes on the phone, no prep, no obligation. If Keystone is a fit for your situation, we'll talk about which tier and what the first meeting looks like. If it isn't, I'll tell you that directly.