Pricing

What it costs, and what gets built.

The Keystone Method puts every piece of your picture in order in six months, for one flat fee. Wealth Advisory and Tax Advisory open once it is complete, each optional.

The first year, in order

Explore Call

Fifteen minutes

Free. Whether we should work together at all.
Strategy Session

One hour

We review what you've shared and decide together what the build should focus on.
Months one to six

The Keystone Method

Flat fee, once. $6,000 personal, $12,000 owner. Refundable in full at any point.
Keystone complete

Then, optional
Wealth Advisory

1.00% of managed assets, from the month your money is managed.

Tax Advisory

$200 a month, or $400 for business owners.

Both, either, or neither. It is on the table from meeting one, and some engagements end here, happily.

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 one flat fee

For households where the pieces are mostly personal, especially the years when retirement stops being theoretical.

What gets decided and done

Retirement income strategy, with timing and withdrawals set in motion
A multi-year Roth conversion and tax-window plan, paced and ready
Tax strategy coordinated across the year, with the next steps clear
Investment allocation matched to the income, tax, and risk decisions
Estate planning driven through documents, beneficiaries, and titles

Usually four to five meetings over roughly six months, with most of the work done for you between them.

Who this usually fits

Keystone Owner

$12,000 one flat fee

For owners whose business shapes the personal picture: owner pay, business cash flow, taxes, and retirement plans.

Everything in Personal, plus

Owner pay set into salary, distributions, reserves, and tax payments
Business tax strategy coordinated with the personal side
Retirement plan design reviewed against profit and cash flow
Entity structure checked against the tax and personal plan
An owner-pay rhythm: what stays in the business, what comes home

The same six months and the same meeting rhythm, with the business at the table.

Who this usually fits

Everything Keystone includes, and what the six months look like

Then, optional: Wealth Advisory

One published schedule for the money side.

One fee covers your planning, your strategy, and your investment management. It buys three things.

01

Someone to ask, about anything involving money, who understands your entire picture.

Your plan, your investments, your taxes, and what you are trying to do with your life. Almost every financial question depends on context.
02

Someone managing your investments as a fiduciary, in accordance with your plan.

Your money managed as if I were you, with your plan in front of me.
03

Someone proactively thinking about your situation.

Keeping up with tax law and the investment world is my full-time job, all year. Spring and fall we sit down so I hear your side of what changed and bring you what fits, curated and prioritized.

The advisory fee: 1.00%; of managed assets, on the first $2M; 0.75%on the next $2M
0.50%from $4M to $10M
Negotiableabove $10M
The minimum: Your fee for the year is the larger of the advisory fee or $5,000. It only matters below roughly $500K in managed assets, and it pays for the planning time.
Portfolio only: If, at the end of Keystone, the portfolio is the only job, we manage it at the same schedule with no minimum and one review a year.

The Wealth Advisory year The full advisory fee schedule

Then, optional: Tax Advisory

One published schedule for the tax side.

A monthly fee that carries the whole tax year, with the return included. Through Talley Tax, our tax firm, with every return signed by David, an Enrolled Agent.

The monthly fee: $200; a month, for individuals and households; $400a month for business owners, a household with a business return in the year

The handoff: With Wealth Advisory, the plan decides the tax moves, how much to convert, which account pays first, when to gift, and Tax Advisory carries the year those decisions land in, and files. On its own, Tax Advisory does both.
What the year includes: Every return you file, prepared, filed, and signed by David, an Enrolled Agent
Withholding and estimates reset each spring
A summer projection and a fall strategy session
IRS letters handled, questions answered all year
Just the return: $750 a year, flat, for a tax year with nothing to carry: no estimates, no business, nothing in motion.

The Tax Advisory year Tax preparation on its own

A year, added up

Two households, deliberately different.

One uses both ongoing services. One uses Tax Advisory alone. Fees only, at the published rates on this page. Nobody chooses them upfront. It is a decision you make during Keystone, once you can see what your system actually needs, and the advisory fee starts the month your money is managed.

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 keep both services, Wealth Advisory and Tax Advisory.

The first six months

Keystone Personal, flat fee, once$6,000

Then, from the month their accounts move

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, once Keystone ends

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

Hypothetical illustrations at published rates. 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. The same holds on the tax side: Tax Advisory replaces what you pay a preparer today, with 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. This is what it costs to make them with someone who holds the whole picture with you.

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. Tax work is billed by Talley Tax, a separate business: a monthly fee for Tax Advisory, a flat fee for the return alone. All of it is disclosed before anything begins.

Nearly everyone pays us one of the fees on this page and nothing else. 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. I have to go broad before I can go deep. Your tax decisions shape your investment decisions, which shape your estate decisions, which shape your cash flow, and advising on any one of them at a fiduciary level means understanding all of them first. Keystone is built to do both at once: get done the things you probably need done, and build that whole-picture understanding. Tax Advisory or a managed portfolio without it would be incomplete work, and I would rather not sell you incomplete work.

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, for any reason, you get the whole fee back, without proration. It's a term of the engagement agreement. 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 is three things in one fee: someone to ask about anything involving money who understands your entire picture, your investments managed as a fiduciary in accordance with your plan, and someone proactively thinking about your situation, all year. The spring and fall planning sessions are where we work through it together. Tax Advisory, through Talley Tax, carries the whole tax year for a monthly fee, with the return included. Both are optional, and many families choose both.

When does the advisory fee start?

The month your money is managed. For most households that is near the end of Keystone, once the plan has settled what the portfolio should look like. The Keystone fee does not change either way.

Do all of my accounts have to move to you?

No. The advisory fee applies only to what we manage, and what moves is decided together during Keystone, based on what the plan needs. An account that stays where it is, a 401(k) still at work being the usual case, still gets planned around.

Can I keep Tax Advisory without Wealth Advisory?

Yes. The business owner in the example above does exactly that: the business is the investment, there is no portfolio to manage, and what they need is the tax year carried by someone who already holds the whole picture. The reverse is also fine. Wealth Advisory decides the tax moves, and your own preparer can file them.

Can you manage the portfolio without the planning?

Yes. If, at the end of Keystone, the portfolio is the only job, we manage it in accordance with the plan at the same published schedule, with no annual minimum and one portfolio review a year. What it leaves out is the spring and fall planning sessions. We decide that together once the plan is built.

Can Talley Tax just prepare my return?

Yes. The return alone is a flat $750 a year, federal and state, prepared, filed, and signed by David, an Enrolled Agent, and delivered through your secure portal. It fits a tax year with nothing to carry: income through a paycheck or retirement accounts, no estimated payments, no business. Returns with a business, rental property, or K-1s belong in Tax Advisory, where the year around the return gets managed too.

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

No. It is a floor. Your Wealth Advisory 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 the planning takes real time, and the minimum reflects the actual cost of doing that work well. The minimum is trued up once a year, at your engagement anniversary.

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.

It starts with fifteen minutes.

The Explore Call is the first point on the line at the top of this page. A few questions about your situation, 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

Next open callWednesday, October 21 at 10:10am Eastern