Frequently asked questions

We're a registered investment advisory firm that manages investments, coordinates financial planning, and acts as the central point of contact for every aspect of a client's financial life — including working with their accountant, estate attorney, and other outside advisors.

We're independent and fiduciary, which means we're legally required to act in your interest and we don't earn commissions from products we recommend.

Our clients include successful professionals, business owners, creative entrepreneurs, executives with complex comp structures, and families with multigenerational wealth. What they have in common is that their financial lives don't fit a standard template — they want a thoughtful advisor, not a product salesperson.

We're not the right fit for everyone, and we're transparent about that from the first conversation.

At a wirehouse, advisors work within institutional constraints — product quotas, approved lists, compliance limitations, and conflicts of interest built into the business model. The advisors are often talented, but the institution limits what they can actually do for you.

We don't have any of that. No products to push, no minimum revenue targets, no conflict between what's good for us and what's good for you. We're registered investment advisors, not broker-dealers, which changes the entire legal and incentive structure.

You work directly with us. The people you meet with are the people managing your account and making decisions about your portfolio. We don't have a tiered service model where clients get moved to less senior staff as the firm grows.

This is one of the reasons we're selective about who we take on — we want to make sure we can give every client the attention they deserve.

Yes. We have offices in New York (SoHo and One World Trade Center), Miami (Wynwood), Los Angeles (Beverly Hills), and Boston (Harvard Square). Most of our client relationships are managed through a combination of in-person meetings and video calls, and we have clients across the country.

Reach out through our contact page and we'll set up an introductory call — no pitch, no presentation, just a real conversation about your situation and whether we're the right fit. There's no commitment involved.

We charge an annual advisory fee based on a percentage of assets we manage for you.

We don't earn commissions, referral fees, or compensation from third parties of any kind. Our Form ADV, which details our full fee schedule and any potential conflicts, is publicly available and linked in our footer.

We work with clients across a range of situations. While we do have clients with significant assets, we're more focused on fit than on hitting a specific number. If you're early in accumulation and your situation is a good match, we'd rather have that conversation than turn you away based on an arbitrary threshold.

In addition to our advisory fee, clients pay standard custodial fees to BNY Pershing and, where applicable, fund-level expenses on investments (like ETF expense ratios). We're transparent about all costs and will walk you through the full picture before you make any decisions.

Today, planning is part of our advisory relationship rather than a separate engagement with its own fee. For most of our clients the two are inseparable. The portfolio only makes sense in the context of the tax picture, the estate documents, the concentrated position, the business, the next liquidity event. Splitting them into two conversations tends to produce advice that's technically fine and practically useless.

That said, plenty of people come to us wanting a second opinion on a plan, not a new place to hold their assets. That's a conversation we're glad to have. If you want someone to look at what you've built and tell you honestly where the gaps are, start there and we'll figure out together whether a full relationship makes sense.

We start with your situation before we start with the market. Goals, time horizon, tax picture, income needs, liquidity, what you already own elsewhere, and how much volatility you can actually live with, which is usually different from what a risk questionnaire says.

From there we build. Depending on what the situation calls for, that can mean low cost ETFs, individual equities, bonds and other fixed income, institutional cash management, options and income strategies, commodities and real assets, and where it fits, private markets and alternatives. Some clients are best served by a straightforward allocation using established strategies we've vetted. Others need something built from scratch around a concentrated position, a business, or a liquidity event. We use both, and the work is deciding which one you need.

What we won't do is decide what you own before we understand why you'd own it.

For more information, see Growing Your Wealth.

Yes. Through our Goldman Sachs alternatives platform and BNY Pershing infrastructure, we can provide qualified clients with access to private equity, hedge funds, real estate funds, infrastructure, co-investment opportunities, and other alternative investments such as sports franchises, art, cryptocurrencies, and beyond — typically at institutional terms and minimums that aren't available through most advisors.

For more information, see Growing Your Wealth.

We think about taxes in every investment decision, not just at year-end. This includes tax-loss harvesting, asset location across account types, managing wash sales, and coordinating with your CPA on timing of gains and distributions. For clients with concentrated positions, we can help with strategies to diversify without triggering an unnecessary tax event.

Yes — this is one of our core specializations. We work with executives, finance professionals, and founders who have a significant portion of their net worth tied up in equity compensation. We can help model vesting schedules, develop a tax-efficient diversification strategy, design 10b5-1 plans, and coordinate with legal and tax advisors around liquidity events.

We do formal reviews at least quarterly, but we're available whenever something changes — a new job, a liquidity event, a major purchase, a market event you have questions about. We don't believe in an annual check-in model. If something is happening in your life or the markets, we want to be in that conversation.

We don't draft estate documents — that's the role of an estate attorney. But we coordinate closely with your attorney to make sure your investment accounts, beneficiary designations, and financial structure are aligned with your estate plan. For clients who don't have an estate attorney yet, we can make introductions and help get the process started.

Yes, and we think this coordination is one of the most undervalued parts of financial planning. We proactively share information with your CPA — realized gains, loss harvesting activity, alternative investment K-1s, and anything else that affects your tax picture. We've found that most advisors and CPAs don't talk enough, and that disconnect costs clients money.

This is where we're most useful. A business sale is a tax event, a legal event, a family event, and a planning event all at once — and the decisions made before the close often matter more than anything that happens after. We coordinate across your M&A attorney, CPA, and estate attorney to make sure the timing and structure are optimized before you sign anything.

Yes — for both individuals and business owners. For individuals, this means building a retirement income strategy across all account types (IRA, 401k, taxable, etc.) and modeling Social Security timing, RMDs, and withdrawal sequencing. For business owners, we can also help structure and manage SEP IRAs, solo 401ks, and cash balance plans.

All client assets are held in custody at BNY Pershing — America's oldest bank, founded by Alexander Hamilton, currently custodying over $59 trillion in assets globally. You maintain direct ownership of your assets at all times, and BNY Pershing sends you independent statements. We never take custody of client funds.

Because your assets are held at BNY Pershing and not at Downtown Wealth Studios, they're not affected by anything that happens to our firm. BNY Pershing is a SIPC member (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) and maintains additional private insurance coverage well above SIPC limits. Your assets are yours — we're simply the advisor, not the custodian.

Yes. You have direct online access to your accounts through BNY Pershing's client portal, which provides real-time balances, transaction history, and statements. We also provide consolidated reporting and are happy to walk through your portfolio picture at any time.

A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest — not just recommend something "suitable." As a registered investment advisor (RIA), we're held to the fiduciary standard at all times. Broker-dealers, by contrast, are held to the lower "suitability" standard, which allows them to recommend products that are appropriate for you even if they're not the best option available.

No. We are fee-only, which means our only compensation comes from the advisory fees clients pay us directly. We don't receive commissions from product sales, referral fees from third parties, or any form of compensation that could create a conflict with your interests.

Our Form ADV (Parts 1 and 2) and Form CRS are available in the footer of this page. These documents disclose our full fee schedule, potential conflicts of interest, disciplinary history, and how we're compensated. We're registered with the SEC and you can verify our registration at adviserinfo.sec.gov.

From initial conversation to accounts being open and funded, the process typically takes two to three weeks. This includes our discovery process, investment planning, account opening at BNY Pershing, and asset transfer. For clients with more complex situations (business sale, concentrated equity, alternative investments), it can take a bit longer to get everything structured correctly.

We handle the transition. Once you decide to move, we initiate the account transfer process through BNY Pershing — most assets transfer in kind (meaning they don't need to be sold), which avoids unnecessary tax events. We coordinate with your previous custodian to make the process as smooth as possible. You don't need to be involved in the logistics.

That's exactly what we'd recommend. Our first conversations are always exploratory — no pitch, no presentation, no pressure. We want to understand your situation and make sure we're actually the right fit before either of us commits to anything. If we're not the right firm for you, we'll tell you.