Turn High Income Into
Strategic Wealth

An anesthesiologist and a hospitalist — both practice partners — came to us earning nearly $700,000 and feeling like they had nothing to show for it. Taxes were brutal, their practice retirement plans were barely funded, they still carried significant student loan balances, and nobody had ever looked at everything together. They were financially successful by most measures, and financially disorganized in nearly every one that matters.

We coordinated with their CPA to implement a cash balance defined benefit plan through one practice and layered backdoor Roth conversions for both spouses. We restructured their insurance to match actual income and obligations, and built a 10-year financial independence model that revealed they were much closer to the finish line than they realized — with the right structure in place.

A married couple — both equity partners at a mid-size firm — had a tangled income picture: W-2 wages, K-1 distributions, and deferred compensation elections they'd been guessing at for years. A major equity buyout from a senior partner was approaching, and they had received conflicting advice about how to structure it. Meanwhile, their personal investments had accumulated across several disconnected custodians with no coherent strategy.

We consolidated their investments onto a single platform to eliminate overlap and get a true picture of their allocation. We modeled several buyout scenarios and ultimately helped structure a portion through a charitable remainder trust aligned with their philanthropic goals. We also built a deferred compensation framework so that annual elections became strategic decisions, not annual guesses.

A husband-and-wife team had built a thriving firm over two decades — and nearly all of their estimated $4M+ net worth was sitting inside it. They had no formal succession plan, an outdated buy-sell agreement, and personal finances that had always played second fiddle to reinvesting in the business. Retirement was visible on the horizon, but the path to it was not.

We commissioned a formal business valuation and worked alongside their attorney to update the buy-sell agreement with realistic triggering events. We established a SEP-IRA and defined benefit plan to begin building meaningful personal retirement assets outside the business. We also helped identify internal succession candidates and modeled the difference between a structured internal transition and an outside acquisition — so they could make that decision with clear numbers, not guesses.

A senior tech leader had built substantial wealth through years of RSU vesting — but the vast majority of her net worth sat in a single employer's stock. She was also navigating a batch of NQSOs approaching expiration, a pending blackout period tied to a secondary offering, and growing concern about the stock's near-term trajectory. She had significant wealth and no strategy for it.

We built a multi-year equity compensation calendar mapping every RSU vest and option expiration against projected tax impact. We established a 10b5-1 trading plan for compliant, systematic diversification, and modeled an optimal NQSO exercise schedule to spread ordinary income across years. A meaningful portion of proceeds went into a donor-advised fund, generating a significant charitable deduction in a high-income year. Over 18 months, her concentration dropped from 74% to under 25%.

The founder of a fast-growing digital marketing agency had built something genuinely valuable — but nearly all of it existed inside the business. She was pulling a modest salary, personally guaranteeing the firm's credit line, and had no retirement plan, no formal valuation, and no clear picture of what an exit would actually look like. A near-miss acquisition offer two years prior had made the question urgent. She needed a strategy for both the business and herself.

We started by separating her personal financial life from the business — establishing a market-rate salary and a disciplined distribution policy. We set up a solo 401(k) with profit sharing to begin building retirement assets outside the company. Working alongside her attorney, we reviewed her personal guarantee exposure and updated the operating agreement. We also built a clear framework for evaluating any future acquisition offers — so she'd know exactly what "a good deal" meant for her specific goals and timeline.