The Keystone Method™
Keystone is built for the moments when retirement, taxes, investments, and business strategy start creating decisions you do not want to guess through. Most clients enter through one of two main doors: retirement is getting close, or the business is doing well enough that tax and owner decisions need a real process. Roth conversion and retirement tax-window questions often sit inside the retirement path.
Schedule an Explore CallThe Keystone Method™ turns scattered decisions into an integrated plan that can stand on its own.
Keystone turns scattered financial pieces into an integrated plan that can support real decisions.
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.
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 is your signature on the document or your conversation to have. But you are never doing it alone, and you are never improvising.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What flexes
The sequence and emphasis. A client five years from retirement with concentrated stock will spend different time than a business owner three years from a sale. The framework is the same. The depth shifts to where decisions are actually waiting.
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.
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 will be filled. The insurance coverage that is 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 am best positioned to handle. You handle what is genuinely yours to do. Either way, nothing gets dropped. We are 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 will roll in with everything already coordinated. If it does not, you will leave in good enough shape to manage independently until life changes. Both endings are fine.
Every client follows the same Keystone shape. The tier reflects the complexity of the decisions, not how hard we work.
$6,000
flat fee, six-month engagement
For households where the financial picture is mostly personal, especially the years when retirement timing, income, tax strategy, investments, Medicare, and estate decisions need to work together.
By the end of six months:
$12,000
flat fee, six-month engagement
For business owners where the entity materially shapes the personal outcome. The depth extends across tax strategy, owner pay, business cash flow, retirement plans, and personal wealth.
Everything in Keystone Personal, plus:
Starts at $20,000
scoped individually, six-month engagement
For unusually layered situations where the standard scope does not quite fit. Multiple entities, multi-state issues, concentrated equity, inheritance, divorce, or estate structures that span generations.
Typical examples:
If the main question is retirement timing, income, taxes, investments, and the next chapter of life, 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 Custom is reserved for unusually layered situations where the scope needs to be designed around the work, usually when multiple entities, cross-border considerations, a major transition, or generational estate structures are involved.
Not really, and here is why. The reason Keystone exists is that those areas are not actually separate. Your tax strategy is shaped by your retirement income plan, which is shaped by your investment allocation, which is shaped by your estate picture. If you only want help with one piece, an hourly advisor is probably a better fit. If you want coordinated work across everything, that is what Keystone is for.
No. Keystone is a planning engagement. Whether investments end up moving is a decision we make together during the work, based on what the plan actually needs. If it does not need to happen, it will not.
One of three things. Most clients roll into ongoing advisory, where we maintain the plan, manage the investments, and keep the tax work coordinated year to year. Some finish Keystone in good enough shape to manage independently and come back when life changes. A small number decide partway through it is not the right fit and take the refund. All three endings are valid.
Yes. Fully. If at any point during the engagement you decide Keystone is not the right fit, for any reason, I will refund what you have paid. I would rather you leave a partial engagement feeling fairly treated than stay in one that is not working.
I lead the work. That means I run the analysis, set the agendas, ask the questions that matter, and coordinate everything moving between meetings. Some of the execution is mine to do directly. Some of it needs to be yours, because it is your signature or your conversation. When it is yours, I have prepared you for it and I am in the chain. The one thing that does not happen is you sitting at home searching for what to do next. That is my job, not yours.
The Explore Call is the next step. Fifteen minutes to see whether Keystone fits the situation and what the first meeting would look like. If it is not the right fit, I'll tell you directly.
