Working together
What it's actually like to work with me — the first conversation, the years that follow, what sits inside each service, and how it's billed.
Someone paying attention the whole way through.
Free, 45 minutes, mostly you talking. At the end I say honestly whether I'm the right person.
One clear picture of everything you own. Beneficiary forms checked. The authorizations that let me act for you.
Returns prepared and filed. The portfolio managed and kept in balance. The moves that lower the bill, made in time.
A sale, a retirement, an illness, a death in the family. The years that decide the most, handled by someone who already knows you.
What reaches your family, and how much the tax code takes on the way. Decided years ahead, not afterward.
Hiring someone at the fourth stage is the common thing to do. Hiring someone at the second is where almost all of the money is.
The first one is free, and whether we go any further is entirely up to you. Its only job is to work out whether this makes sense.
In person if you're near Walnut Creek — I'm glad to come to you and sit at your own kitchen table. By video or phone anywhere else. If taxes are part of what you need, I may ask for last year's return beforehand so I arrive already up to speed.
You're deciding whether you want to work with me. I'm deciding whether I'm the right person for what you need. If I'm not, I'll tell you on the call rather than afterward.
A spouse or partner, an adult child, your attorney, a friend. I work with a household rather than one person's accounts, and these decisions tend to get made by more than one person anyway.
I won't pitch you on the call at all. The time is for understanding your situation and for you to get a sense of me. If I think there's a fit, I'll follow up afterward with a proposal you can read on your own time.
Mostly, the first call is you talking. I can't be useful about your situation until I understand it.
Six things that come from having one person on both sides of it.
Roth conversions sized against the bracket you're actually in. A concentrated position sold across two tax years instead of one. Giving that also satisfies a required withdrawal. By the time most people sit down with their preparer, those decisions have already been made for them.
Because I see the return and manage the money, losses get harvested when markets dip and the right holdings sit in the right accounts — instead of two professionals optimizing separately and neither seeing the other's work.
I'm licensed to represent you before the IRS. With one form on file, official correspondence arrives at my desk and I answer it — instead of sitting unopened on your kitchen counter while you work out who to call.
A job offer. An offer on a house. A form you don't recognize. A decision you'd like a second opinion on before you make it rather than after. Answering questions is part of what you're paying for, not billed on top.
Most advisers don't prepare returns at all, and most preparers never see the portfolio. I do both myself, so nothing has to be explained twice and nothing falls into the gap between two offices.
Down to the details — who's retiring, who's unwell, who's helping whom, what you'd like to leave behind and to whom. Those aren't side notes to your finances. More often than not, they are the finances.
A year-round investment service and a year-round tax service. Take one, take the other, or take both and let them work together.
Service one
We start by building your financial plan, then I manage your portfolio against it. The plan isn't a separate purchase — it's where the investment work begins.
Built around your actual life, not a binder you file away. Where you are, where you're headed, and what the money has to do to get you there — the decision about when to stop working, the income it has to produce afterward, and what's left for the people who come after you. It tells us what your money is actually for.
A portfolio built around your goals and the risk you can genuinely live with. Diversified, kept in balance as markets move, adjusted as your life changes. And because I also see your tax return, I can do it tax-smart: harvesting losses when markets dip, and holding the right investments in the right accounts. One strategy, across every account you own.
Service two
Most people hear from their preparer once a year, after everything has already been decided. We'll talk while the decisions can still change the outcome — then I prepare and file the return that reflects them.
Sequencing Roth conversions to hold down future required withdrawals and Medicare surcharges. Timing the sale of a concentrated position. Deciding which tax year a gain belongs in. Giving in a way that counts toward a withdrawal you have to take anyway. I'm looking ahead all year, not reporting after the fact.
I prepare and file every return myself, with your whole picture already in front of me. Federal and state, more than one state if you've moved or work across lines, quarterly estimates so April doesn't surprise you, the entity filings if you have a business, and trust and estate returns where a family needs them. When it's done, I walk you through it — so you understand what happened and why, not just what you owe.
Book a time, tell me what's going on, and I'll tell you honestly whether I can help and what it would take. If the answer is no, you'll get that straight too.
Book a free consultation