Stoneholt Wealth is a fee-only, registered investment advisor (read that as “financial planning firm”) in Portland, Oregon, built for dual-income millennial families.
I’m Will Steiner, the founder.
Does this sound like you?
Somewhere in the last few years your family’s finances got way more complicated: RSUs stacked on ESPP stacked on bonuses, highly concentrated wealth in employer stock, a side project throwing off more income than you expected, a home purchase decision with too many considerations (some more emotional than others… like whose parents you going to move closer to).
You’ve been regularly contributing to retirement accounts, opened a Roth IRA at some point (and are maybe even doing backdoor contributions the right way), plus some tax loss harvesting here and there.
You’re doing *objectively *well, but the whole thing could be a lot more organized.
And because it feels disorganized, you’re not sure if you’re missing something important. You might not be. But most people are.
Okay, if most of that sounds like you, keep reading.
Where do most high-income millennial families benefit from a financial planner?
Equity compensation and concentrated stock
A few good years of vesting can turn one company position into an undesirably large share of your portfolio. Consider that your salary and benefits may also be tied to that same company, and you’re looking at a serious dose of concentration risk.
Layer on ESPP, ISO/NSO vesting and exercise decisions, tender offers, potential IPOs, and RSU grants, and suddenly managing your company equity in a thoughtful way is another full time job if you intend on doing it in a tax-aware way.
Household tax and cash-flow coordination
For households with income streams that span W-2s, bonuses, side hustle income, freelance or contract work, and other random little side quests, proactive tax planning is both a huge opportunity and a potentially huge headache. Our approach is to map it all out, and build a sensible plan for what gets saved, spent, reserved, gifted, and invested, in a way that helps lower your lifetime tax bill.
Medium-term family decisions
In my opinion, short and long term savings are pretty much solved problems; high yield savings accounts or bonds for the short term stuff, equities for the long term (assuming you have a solid 20-30 years. But what about the stuff in the middle? Retirement calculators are not built for the four-to-six-year decisions–and these are the ones that materially impact your quality of life: the remodel, the sabbatical, the year abroad while the kids are 8, 10, and 12, or the possibility that one partner steps back from work for a few years (in our case, a “few” became “indefinitely”).
What the planning process looks like
It starts with a short discovery call to check the fit on both sides. If needed, we can book another meeting to address questions (anything that isn’t addressed in the collateral I’ll share before and after).
If it feels like a good fit, we’ll start the onboarding process.
Onboarding is four meetings over about five or six weeks, with a short educational videos and analysis sprinkled throughout.
- Values & Goals. The first meeting is ten to twelve questions that have very little to do with finance. In the background, documents come in, accounts connect, and the cash-flow, investment, and tax analysis gets underway.
- Timelines & Tradeoffs. Sequencing the decisions ahead and the order they belong in: the house, the equity position, a career change, the next kid’s childcare. This is where an initial analysis gets built.
- Overlays. Tax, insurance, and estate layered onto the plan. The final plan is written, modeled, and tested against the timelines we discussed.
- Plan Delivery. You get a written plan with a 3060-90 day action item list.
After onboarding, the relationship settles into a quarterly rhythm: reviewing the action items, planning the year’s tax strategy, and tracking income and career moves. In between, you have call-or-text access for the things that don’t keep until next quarter: a new equity grant, a job change, a severance package to consider and probably negotiate (not ideal, but they happen).
How is Stoneholt paid?
“Fee-only” means we’re paid by clients (as opposed to commissions from certain products, like insurance or specific funds).
Planning + investment management starts at a $7,500 minimum or 1% of assets, whichever is greater, and it steps down as the portfolio grows. Billing is quarterly, and you can cancel with 30 days’ notice. We can also do one-time plans or just financial planning (if you want to manage your own investments, that’s fine!).
How to get on a call
If this sounds like a process you’d benefit from, let’s book a discovery conversation.
You talk through what’s going on with your money and your family; we’ll jointly assess whether Stoneholt fits, and I can point you somewhere else if it doesn’t. You don’t need to prepare anything, and a polite no, in either direction, is a perfectly acceptable ending.
You can schedule that call here: stoneholtwealth.com/get-started.
I look forward to meeting you.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between a fee-only and a fee-based financial advisor in Oregon?
A fee-only advisor is paid exclusively by clients. A fee-based advisor charges fees and can also collect commissions on products they recommend, which introduces a conflict you’d have to keep watching. The firm’s Form ADV, filed with regulators, tells you which model you’re looking at.
Do I need a financial advisor?
I don’t know.
The case for hiring a planner arrives when complexity stacks up and you don’t have the time you once had to manage it (kids do that). That’s where I think the most value is.
How much does a fee-only financial advisor in Portland cost?
Fee-only planners price three ways: flat annual fees, hourly rates, or a percentage of assets under management. At Stoneholt, planning starts at $7,500 a year, or 1% of assets under management if that’s greater, with investment management included rather than billed separately. A one-time plan runs $4,000 to $10,000 by complexity, for households that want the roadmap without the ongoing engagement.
What’s a fiduciary financial advisor, and how do I check?
A fiduciary is legally required to put your interests ahead of their own. To verify a firm’s status, look it up on the SEC’s adviser search at adviserinfo.sec.gov and read the Form ADV; Oregon-registered firms also appear with Oregon’s Division of Financial Regulation.
Nothing here is investment, legal, or tax advice. It’s a general discussion of concepts I find useful in planning conversations and shouldn’t be relied on as a recommendation for your specific situation. Talk to a qualified advisor (ideally one who knows you) before acting on anything here.
