Wealth Planning
The Bucket Most Families Don't Know They're Missing
Most families have two financial buckets. The flexible ones have three. Here is the framework we use with every client.
8 min readRead
You'll only retire once.
A small, dedicated team — led by two finance professors and a longtime advisor — who treat your plan the way we treat our own families' plans.At Elemental, we've helped many people get there — and navigate everything that comes after. Just a small, dedicated team — led by two finance professors and a longtime advisor — who've spent careers studying what works in retirement and wealth planning, and who treat your plan the way we treat our own families' plans.
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What We Believe
Four Things That Shape How We Work
Experience Over Promises
You only retire once. We have helped many people get there and through it. Almost nothing you bring us is something we have not seen before – and that’s the point.
Research-Informed
Two of our founders have spent their academic careers publishing research on what works and what is broken in retirement investing. We built a practice so that work could actually help people.
Depth Over Scale
At the large firms, your "dedicated advisor" is often stretched across several hundred households. The math doesn’t allow real attention at scale, so we don’t try. We keep our roster small enough to actually know your family, your priorities, and what keeps you up at night.
Plain English, Every Step
A plan you don’t understand is a plan you won’t follow. We take the jargon out, walk you through every decision, and make sure you can answer the question "why are we doing this?" before we do it.
Our Research Featured In
WSJUSA TodayWSJ Your Money BriefingFinancial TimesCNBC Squawk BoxPensions & Investments
WSJUSA TodayWSJ Your Money BriefingFinancial TimesCNBC Squawk BoxPensions & Investments
WSJUSA TodayWSJ Your Money BriefingFinancial TimesCNBC Squawk BoxPensions & Investments
WSJUSA TodayWSJ Your Money BriefingFinancial TimesCNBC Squawk BoxPensions & Investments
What We're Hearing
“Do I even need a financial advisor anymore?”
It's a fair question. Index funds are cheaper and simpler than ever. Robo-advisors will build you a diversified portfolio in minutes. AI tools answer questions your parents had to call a broker for. We've read the same articles you have. Some of them are right.
Here's what they tend to miss. Investing is the easy part — until it isn't. Behavioral research, some of it ours, shows DIY investors tend to sell at the bottom, buy at the top, hesitate when they should be most aggressive, and second-guess every downturn. And even when the investing goes well, it's one piece of a bigger question: getting to and through retirement with flexibility, the right tax sequence, the right protection against curveballs, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing it's all coordinated.
That's the work we do. Not chasing returns. Not timing markets. Building a plan that actually holds together — across investments, taxes, estate, insurance, and the decades you'll spend living off what you've built.
The Honest Part
Many people who'd benefit from a real advisor are hesitant to act. Here's why.
01
Inertia
Many people know they could benefit from professional help. But life is busy, and inaction becomes the default. That inaction is also expensive — every year of missed optimization is a year that doesn't compound.
02
Good Intentions, Not Enough Time
DIY investors are doing what they know — they save, they invest, they read. But investing is one piece. Doing the rest well takes experience and more attention than most have time for. The missed opportunities compound quietly over decades.
03
The Noise
Podcasts, blogs, and YouTube tell you advisors are overpriced and unnecessary. Some advisors may be. We're here to be the kind that isn't.
04
The Neighbor Effect
Your neighbor seems to be doing fine on their own. Maybe they are. Maybe they don't yet know what they don't know.
05
The Fear of Finding Out
Some people worry they've started too late or made mistakes they can't undo. If that's you, please come anyway. There's no judgment, and almost no situation we can't improve.
Our Methodology
How We Work Together
Two halves of the same conversation. Most firms start with your portfolio. We start with your life.
Your Aspirations→Your Assets→Your Plan
What We Do
Comprehensive Wealth Services
Every element of your financial life deserves expert attention. We bring it together under one roof.
50+ years combined in finance
across academic research and client practice
Two PhDs and a ChFC
the people studying the work are the people doing the work
Fewer clients, by design
your family, your values, what keeps you up at night
Independent and Fiduciary
as it should be
Who We Serve
Building Futures at Every Stage
Most of our work is with families approaching or in retirement, with medical and dental professionals who built complex earning lives early, and with executives whose compensation looks more like a puzzle than a paycheck. We also work with the young professionals who are children, friends, and colleagues of those families — because the next generation matters.
Our clients live in every part of the country. Many meet with us virtually. Others prefer to meet in person. Always on your schedule.
Meet the Team
The Right People,
The Right Expertise
When you reach out to Elemental, you'll talk to the people who'll actually plan with you. Not a screener. Not a junior associate. The same researchers and advisors whose names are on the academic papers, and who answer their own phones.
From Our Team
