What it costs, and why it's structured this way.
Why planning comes first.
Every financial decision touches every other one. A tax move affects the investments. A retirement date changes the estate plan. A concentrated stock position reshapes the risk profile. Trying to manage any single piece without understanding the rest is where good intentions go sideways.
So I don't start by managing money. I start by building the plan. The Keystone Method is a structured six-month engagement that maps the whole picture together. Once the plan is real, everything else calibrates to it.
The plan sits at the center. Everything else calibrates to it, and nothing gets treated in isolation.
Keystone Method™ Fees
Three tiers. One framework. Depth flexes to your situation.
Keystone Personal
flat fee · six-month engagement
Fully refundable. Any reason, any time during the engagement.
For households and professionals where the pieces are mostly personal.
Included in Keystone Personal
- Four to five working meetings over roughly six months
- A written financial plan built around your actual goals, not a generic template
- Retirement income analysis: timing, sequencing, and sustainability
- Multi-year Roth conversion analysis
- Tax projection and strategy coordinated with the plan
- Investment review and allocation recommendation calibrated to the plan
- Estate review: beneficiaries, documents, and coordination
- Risk and protection review: insurance gaps, umbrella coverage, disability
- All analysis and coordination between meetings handled by our team
Who this fits
Keystone Personal is the right starting point for families approaching retirement, professionals with concentrated compensation or equity, and people navigating a significant transition. A sale, an inheritance, a divorce, a retirement date.
Keystone Owner
flat fee · six-month engagement
Fully refundable. Any reason, any time during the engagement.
For business owners and complex households where the entity matters as much as the individual.
Included in Keystone Owner
- Everything in Keystone Personal, plus:
- Entity-level analysis across your business and personal finances
- Owner compensation strategy: salary, distributions, retirement plan design
- Business tax strategy, including pass-through optimization
- Retirement plan review: SEP, Solo 401(k), defined benefit if applicable
- Succession and exit-readiness considerations
- Coordinated planning across personal, entity, and family balance sheets
Who this fits
Keystone Owner is the right engagement when business decisions materially shape the personal outcome. Owners thinking about an exit. Professionals with meaningful business income. Families where the entity structure has quietly become complicated.
Keystone Complex
scoped individually · six-month engagement
Fully refundable any time, for any reason.
For situations with multiple moving pieces that don't fit a standard scope.
How Complex works
For situations with multiple moving pieces. A business sale alongside an inheritance, a concentrated stock position with estate-planning implications, a divorce that intersects with retirement timing. The fee is scoped to the work after we talk. The structure of the engagement, the six-month timeline, and the refund policy are the same as the other two tiers.
Which one 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. When it's not obvious, that's what the Explore Call is for. I'd rather we figure it out together than guess.
Keystone Complex makes sense if...
- You're navigating more than one major financial transition at the same time
- You have a business sale, inheritance, or concentrated equity position with tax implications that won't fit on one engagement scope
- You've been told by another advisor that your situation is "outside their normal practice"
If you're not sure whether your situation is Owner or Complex, that's a reasonable question to bring to the Explore Call. We'll sort it out on the call.
Ongoing Advisory
Most clients continue with us after Keystone is complete. The work shifts from build mode to maintenance mode. The plan we built together stays current as your life changes, the investments stay calibrated to it, and tax strategy stays woven through the year rather than reviewed once in April.
INVESTMENT ADVISORY FEE
1.00% on the first $1M
Declining brackets above $1M. 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.
Tax preparation through Talley Tax is optional and priced separately. Most ongoing clients add it, because when strategy, investments, and the return itself are all coordinated inside one engagement, the planning gets tighter and the surprises get fewer.
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.
Not sure which fits? That's what the call is for.
Fifteen minutes on the phone. No prep. I'll ask a few questions about your situation and we'll work through whether Keystone Personal, Owner, or Complex is the right starting point. Or whether we should be working together at all.
Schedule an Explore Call