We provide advice, not products.

Ballast Point Financial Planning is a fee-only firm that does not receive commissions, kickbacks, or any type of revenue from our vendor relationships. The only fees we collect come directly from you, the client. Whether we recommend life insurance, a specific investment strategy, paying down debt, or getting your estate plan done, you can rest assured that we are making these recommendations because they are in your best interest and not to pad our bottom line. We intentionally chose this fee model because we believe it reduces as many conflicts of interest as possible.

Three Major Services

What do you get?

1. Comprehensive financial planning

2. Forward-looking tax advice (Tax preparation is available for an additional fee)

3. Investment management

How do the fees work?

We try to keep our fees as simple and transparent as possible. To match the timing of the work provided and the complexity of your situation, we charge a one-time onboarding fee.

There is no required minimum time commitment, however, our services are designed for clients who wish to build a comprehensive long-term advisory relationship. We do not have an assets under management fee minimum. However, to provide the level of care our clients deserve, we do have a minimum fee.

We believe our fee structure aligns our interests with yours as we both want your wealth to grow!

If you are unable to afford our minimum annual fee, consider an hourly financial planning engagement. Our hourly rate is $350/hour and we have a variety of packages available based on the scope of work. We will provide an estimate for the project during the discovery process. To learn more, please set up an Intro Call.

COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL PLANNING

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We will follow a three-step process to create a comprehensive financial plan that aligns your finances with your values.

1.     First, we will understand what money means to you and how it fits into your life. Then we will organize your finances so you have a clear picture of where you currently stand.

2.     Next, we will talk about your financial goals. What are your short, medium, and long-term goals? What are your dreams? We will work together to clarify your goals so they are crystal clear and tangible.

3.     Finally, we will create actionable steps to get you on a path towards financial independence, whatever that means to you. 

This process is not something we do once and set aside on a bookshelf. Like physical fitness, your financial fitness needs constant attention throughout your professional career and beyond. But don’t worry, we will be there every step of the way to guide you and to make sure your money is working hard for you! 

Tax Preparation and Forward-Looking Tax Advice

We have found that it is very difficult to find a forward-looking tax advisor that will help you optimize your tax strategy over multiple years. That is why we go way beyond tax preparation, which is typically backward-facing, to help you develop an ongoing strategy to minimize the impact of taxes on your personal finances over time.

Services include:

• Ongoing strategies to reduce the impact of taxes on your personal finances by creating tax projections

• Stock option planning to make the most out of your company equity (including ISOs, NQSOs, RSUs, ESPPs, founders shares, etc.)

• Year-end tax planning

• Estimating your quarterly tax payments to eliminate/reduce any under-withholding penalties

• Amending your historical returns when we find mistakes from your previous preparer

• For a separate fee, we can prepare and file your individual tax returns

Investment Management

We provide full-service investment management for all types of short- and long-term goals. We believe in passive investment management and focus on what we can control like global diversification and tax minimization strategies.

Services include:

• Developing an investment strategy based on your specific goals

• Helping you pick the investments within your 401(k)

• Divesting concentrated stock positions

• Tax-loss harvesting

• Facilitating and reporting of Backdoor Roth IRAs

• Monitoring of investment allocations and recommending changes when appropriate

• Paperless account application and transfer process

• Web-based performance reporting

• Automatically investing additional contributions

• Rebalancing of investments