Pricing

What it costs, in one picture.

A flat fee for the planning work. A published fee for the investment work, if you continue. Both on the table before you decide anything, and how we are compensated, in full, further down this page.

First, once: The Keystone Method; $6,000 personal · $12,000 owner; Flat fee for roughly six months of work. Refundable in full at any point during the engagement, for any reason.
Then, optional: Wealth Advisory; 1.00% on the first $2M; Or the $5,000 annual minimum, whichever is greater, with declining brackets above $2M. Planning, strategy, and investment management in one fee.
Then, optional: Tax Advisory; From $200 a month; Through Talley Tax, a separate business. Business-owner pricing from $400 a month. The return prepared and filed, the planning windows worked, the estimates handled.

Some engagements end here, happily. Both paths are optional, and the choice is on the table from meeting one.

The Keystone Method

Flat fee, once. The version reflects the complexity of the decisions.

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.

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

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 usually fits

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

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 usually fits

What the six months look like

After Keystone, optional

Wealth Advisory

Your planning, your strategy, and your investment management, kept in one rhythm by the team that already knows your whole picture. By then we have wrapped our minds around it together, and that is what makes real stewardship possible.

First $2M

1.00%

Next $2M

0.75%

$4M to $10M

0.50%

Above $10M

Negotiable

The fee: Your fee for the year is the larger of the advisory fee or $5,000. The minimum only matters below roughly $500K in managed assets, and the 1.00% replaces it once your assets cross that line.
The rhythm: Two planning sessions a year, spring and fall, plus a call whenever life moves. Most of the work runs in the background.
The timing: The full schedule is public for transparency. The decision to continue comes after the plan is built, when you can see what your system actually needs.

The full advisory fee schedule The Wealth Advisory year

After Keystone, optional

Tax Advisory

Through Talley Tax, a separate business. Tax strategy implementation, tax preparation, and the tax side of your cash flow, handled through the year by the same team that planned it.

Households: From $200 a month
Business owners: From $400 a month; The return is included, and the exact fee is set after we see it. Many families choose both paths, because when strategy, investments, and the return itself are coordinated, the planning gets tighter and the surprises get fewer.

The Tax Advisory year

A year, added up

Two households, deliberately different.

One uses both ongoing paths. One uses Tax Advisory alone. Fees only, at the published rates on this page. 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.

The fair question

If you already have an advisor.

Most people who come to us are already paying someone. The schedule on this page can read like it stacks on top of whatever you are doing now. It does not.

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. 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.

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.

In full

How we're compensated.

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.

Is the $5,000 minimum on top of the 1.00%?

No. It is a floor. Your fee for the year is the larger of the advisory fee or $5,000, so the minimum only matters below roughly $500K in managed assets. It exists 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 version is you? That is what the call is for.

Fifteen minutes on the phone. A few questions about your situation, and whether Keystone Personal or Owner is the right starting point, or whether we should be working together at all.

The Keystone Method Schedule an Explore Call