Pricing

What it costs, and why it's structured this way.

Flat fees for the planning work. Most clients begin through tax-smart retirement planning or financial planning for business owners. Roth conversion and retirement tax-window questions are usually part of the retirement planning work. A transparent assets-under-management fee applies if you continue into wealth advisory.

The Whole Picture

What it costs, start to finish.

One fee to build the system, then two optional paths that carry it. Nothing after Keystone is automatic, and every fee is discussed before you decide anything. The rest of this page walks through each number in detail.

First

The Keystone Method

$6,000 personal / $12,000 owner

Flat fee, once, roughly six months of work that ends with the decisions made, the actions in motion, and a written summary. Refundable in full at any point during the engagement, for any reason.

Some engagements end here, happily.

Then, if you continue

Wealth Advisory

1.00% on the first $2M

We manage the accounts and keep the plan current through the year: planning, strategy, and investment management. $5,000 annual minimum, declining brackets above $2M.

Tax Advisory

from $200/mo

Through Talley Tax, a separate business. The return prepared and filed, the planning windows, and the estimates handled. Business-owner pricing from $400/mo.

Both paths are optional. Some families finish Keystone, take the system home, and carry it themselves. That is a fine outcome, and it will not surprise anyone, because the choices are on the table from meeting one.

Keystone Method™ Fees

Flat fee, once, for the six-month engagement. Refundable in full at any point, for any reason. The version reflects the complexity of the decisions.

Keystone Personal

$6,000

For households where the pieces are mostly personal, especially the years when retirement stops being theoretical and the decisions need to start happening.

Included in Keystone Personal

Usually four to five meetings at most over roughly six months, with most of the work done for you between them
Order across your whole picture: a working system for your money, written down, with the understanding that makes it yours
Retirement income plan with timing, withdrawal sequencing, Social Security, Medicare, and sustainability decisions mapped
Multi-year Roth conversion and tax-window plan with the first-year actions identified
Forward-looking tax projection with strategy, estimated-payment, and year-end planning steps coordinated to the plan
Investment allocation rebuilt around the retirement income, tax, cash-flow, and risk decisions the plan requires
Estate planning process led from goals and document review through execution steps, beneficiary updates, and account/title coordination
Risk and protection work: insurance gaps, umbrella coverage, disability, long-term care exposure, and what should actually change
Between-meeting analysis, forms, coordination, and open-loop tracking handled by our team so the work keeps moving

Who this fits

Keystone Personal is the usual starting point for families approaching retirement who need income, taxes, investments, Social Security, Medicare, and estate decisions to line up. It can also fit complex personal situations where the business side is not central.

Keystone Owner

$12,000

For business owners where tax, cash flow, owner pay, retirement plans, entity decisions, and personal wealth all need to be turned into an executable plan.

Included in Keystone Owner

Everything in Keystone Personal, plus:
Entity-level planning across the business, household cash flow, tax return, and personal balance sheet
Owner compensation plan covering salary, distributions, reasonable-compensation pressure, retirement contributions, and cash reserves
Business tax strategy with pass-through planning, timing decisions, estimated payments, and implementation steps coordinated through the year
Retirement plan design review across SEP, Solo 401(k), defined benefit, or employer plan options when relevant
Owner-pay system for deciding what stays in the business, what comes home, and what gets invested outside the company
Succession, sale, or continuity questions surfaced early enough to shape tax, estate, and personal planning decisions
Coordinated follow-through across personal, entity, and family balance sheets so business decisions do not sit apart from the plan

Who this fits

Keystone Owner is the right engagement when business decisions materially shape the personal outcome. Owners with meaningful profit. Owners trying to reduce tax surprises. Owners thinking about an exit. Families where the entity structure has quietly become complicated.

Not sure which one is you? Retirement, income, taxes, and investments point to Personal. A business that shapes the personal outcome points to Owner. When it is not obvious, that is what the Explore Call is for.

Learn more about the Keystone Method™ Schedule an Explore Call

If you already have an advisor.

Most people who come to us are already paying someone. Some have been managing it themselves. Either way, the fee schedule on this page can read like it stacks on top of whatever you are doing now, so here is the math, plainly. It does not stack.

If you move your accounts here, Wealth Advisory replaces the fee you are paying today, which makes the Keystone fee the only new money. One fee covers your planning, your strategy, and your investment management. You are not keeping your current advisor's fee and adding ours to it. And if part of your money has no advisor on it today, a 401(k) still sitting at work is the usual case, the schedule on this page is the whole cost of it. Nothing rides on top.

And before I take any engagement, it has to pass my own test: I need to be confident the work is genuinely worth doing for you. If your situation does not have that much in it, I will say so, because the first piece of advice I give you cannot be bad advice.

And Keystone stands on its own. Some people finish it, take the system and the understanding home, and stay right where they are. If your current advisor already keeps your taxes, your investments, and your retirement income working as one plan, you are in good hands, and I will tell you that too.

Wealth Advisory

Most clients continue with us after Keystone is complete. By then we have wrapped our minds around your full picture together, and that is what makes real stewardship possible: the plan stays current as your life changes, and the investments stay calibrated to it.

Investment advisory fee

1.00% on the first $2M

Declining brackets above $2M. Tiered so larger relationships pay proportionally less.

Annual minimum

$5,000

Clients below roughly $500K in managed assets pay the minimum directly until AUM crosses that threshold.

Meeting cadence

About twice a year

Plus touchpoints as life decisions require. Most of the work runs in the background.

After Keystone

Wealth advisory is the price of keeping the plan owned.

Wealth Advisory covers your planning, your strategy, and your investment management: tax-aware decisions, retirement income, business-owner planning, and follow-through kept in one rhythm by the team that already knows your whole picture.

First $2M

1.00%

Next $2M

0.75%

$4M-$10M

0.50%

Above $10M

Negotiable

The full schedule is public for transparency, but the decision to continue comes after the plan is built.

Review wealth advisory fees

Tax Advisory through Talley Tax is the second path after Keystone: tax strategy implementation, tax preparation, and the tax side of your cash flow handled through the year. It is optional and billed monthly, starting at $200 per month for individual households and $400 per month for business owners, with the return included. Many families choose both paths, because when strategy, investments, and the return itself are coordinated, the planning gets tighter and the surprises get fewer.

See the advisory fee schedule See the wealth advisory rhythm See the Tax Advisory rhythm

A year, added up.

Two hypothetical households, deliberately different, so you can see the arithmetic and the options at the same time. One uses both ongoing paths. One uses Tax Advisory alone. Fees only, at the published rates on this page. One thing to know before the math: the ongoing paths are a decision you make near the end of Keystone, once you can see what your system actually needs. Nobody chooses them upfront.

A couple retiring next year

Their last paychecks arrive this spring. They have handled the money themselves for thirty years and done it well, and now the decisions are changing shape: which account pays them first, when each of them claims Social Security, whether the low-income years ahead are the window for Roth conversions. They wanted one person holding the whole picture before they sign anything. They use both paths, Wealth Advisory and Tax Advisory.

The first six months

Keystone Personal, flat fee, once$6,000

Then, if they continue past Keystone

Wealth Advisory, 1.00% of $1.2M$12,000

Tax Advisory, $200/mo$2,400

Every year, at that balance$14,400

What the ongoing relationship buys

Someone thinking ahead on their behalf, so Roth conversion windows and tax moves get flagged while there is still time to act
A standing place to bring any money decision before acting on it, with someone who already holds their whole picture
The portfolio managed for them, with allocation, risk, taxes, and withdrawal pacing decided together
Meetings built around real decisions, spring and fall for most clients, plus a call whenever life moves
The tax year carried end to end: estimates, IRS letters, and the return filed by the same team that planned it

A business owner

The business is the investment, and they like it that way. Profit goes back into the company and into real estate, so there is no portfolio to move and nothing under management here. What they need is the tax side of a growing company handled by someone thinking ahead with them: owner pay set on purpose, estimates that match reality, the year-end window actually used. They use Tax Advisory on its own.

The first six months

Keystone Owner, flat fee, once$12,000

Then, if they continue past Keystone

Tax Advisory, $400/mo$4,800

Every year$4,800

What the ongoing relationship buys

A year-round tax strategy relationship, with the business and personal returns prepared and filed by the person who planned them
Owner pay, distributions, and quarterly estimates set with real numbers behind them
Every tax move carried on its own deadline, executed while it still counts instead of discovered on a return
A standing place to bring the next decision, a hire, a big purchase, an entity question, before it shows up on a return

Before you add this up at home, two things. If an advisor manages your money today, Wealth Advisory replaces that fee, so the Keystone fee is usually the only new money, and the clearest new capability is the tax work: moves flagged before year-end while they still count, and the return filed by the same team that planned it. If you manage it yourself, this is all new cost. You did the saving well. The years ahead are full of decisions you have not had to make before, which account pays you first, what a pension election should be, how much to convert and when, and this is what it costs to make them with someone who holds the whole picture with you. Either way, I only take an engagement when I am confident the work will be worth well more than the fee, and if your situation does not have that much in it, I will say so.

Hypothetical illustrations at published rates. Tax Advisory is scoped per household after we see the return, and every number is confirmed before anything begins.

How we're compensated, in full.

Flat fees for the Keystone Method. An advisory fee for the ongoing investment work, based on assets under management. Both of those are clearly disclosed before anything begins.

There's a third category worth naming directly. For a small number of situations, an insurance or investment product genuinely fits the plan, and in those cases we're compensated by commission on the product. When that's true, I'll tell you directly, walk through the math, and explain why that specific tool is the right one. Nothing gets recommended that way unless the plan calls for it.

Common questions about pricing.

Do I have to do Keystone before working with you?

Yes. Keystone is how every relationship starts. It is where we come to understand your whole picture, and where a good deal of the work actually gets done. Managing your investments without that understanding would mean acting on a picture we have not fully seen.

What if I only want a second opinion, not a full engagement?

Reach out. A one-time consulting conversation is not the standard offering, but if that is genuinely what you need, I would rather have that conversation than sell you something bigger than what fits.

Is the Keystone fee refundable if we don't finish?

Yes. If at any point during the six months you decide Keystone is not the right fit, you get the fee back. No questions, no friction, no proration. The reason this exists is not marketing posture. It is that the work is high-trust and the only way to make the trust real is to take the financial risk off the table.

What does the ongoing fee actually cover?

Wealth Advisory covers your planning, your strategy, and your investment management, with about two structured planning meetings a year and additional touchpoints as life decisions come up. Tax Advisory through Talley Tax is optional and priced separately as a monthly fee, and many families choose both.

Why is there a $5,000 minimum?

Because meaningful advice takes real time, and the minimum reflects the actual cost of doing the work well. Below that level, the economics do not work for either of us, and the client is usually better served by something simpler.

Do fees get discounted for larger portfolios?

Yes. The advisory fee brackets decline above $2M in managed assets. The full schedule is public, and it is also reviewed before you make any decision about wealth advisory.

Not sure which fits? That's what the call is for.

Fifteen minutes on the phone. I'll ask a few questions about your situation and we'll work through whether Keystone Personal or Owner is the right starting point. Or whether we should be working together at all.

Schedule an Explore Call