How we’re paid
Most firms charge to manage investments. We charge to coordinate decisions.
The greatest source of long-term value isn’t found in any single investment. It’s found in how investments, taxes, estate planning, liquidity, insurance, and family decisions work together. So that’s what we’re paid to do.
- The Coordination Review
- A defined engagement fee, agreed in writing before any work begins.
- Wealth Architecture
- A flat annual engagement fee, priced by complexity across four tiers.
- Investment Management
- Optional. A transparent, tiered fee on assets we manage.
Figures are set by individual agreement. The schedule, in full → PDF not yet published.
Why not just charge on assets
Here’s a simple test. If markets returned nothing for the next three years, would Driftwood still create real value? The answer is yes, and it isn’t close.
In a flat market we might still save six figures in taxes through better withdrawal sequencing, convert to Roth at depressed valuations, restructure a trust, coordinate a business sale, and catch an estate problem years before it forces a sale. A fee that only rises and falls with the market would measure none of that.
You aren’t buying market exposure. You’re buying decision architecture, and the fee should reflect that.
What you’re actually paying for
Managing money is one layer of the work. There are four, and only one of them is the portfolio.
Think
Architecture
The strategy and the big calls. Sell the business this year or next? Convert to Roth before retirement? Gift the stock or hold it for the step-up?
Connect
Coordination
The role no one owns today. Running the meetings, working with your CPA and attorney, keeping every decision aligned with the others.
Execute
Implementation
Portfolio construction, trading, rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, asset location.
One layer of four
Compound
Stewardship
The long arc. Family governance, preparing heirs, updating the plan, and the operating manual that keeps it all current across the years.
Most firms price the whole relationship as if it were the third box. We price the other three as the product, and treat the portfolio as one module inside it.
Two engagements
So the work is priced as two clear, separate things. You can take the first on its own; most clients take both.
The core product
Wealth Architecture
The standing seat that owns how it all fits together.
- Quarterly coordination reviews and an annual operating plan
- Tax and estate coordination; work with your CPA and attorney
- Liquidity planning, insurance review, cash-flow architecture
- Decision support, family meetings, and implementation oversight
- A living Wealth Operating Manual that holds the whole plan
A flat annual engagement fee, priced by complexity
Optional
Investment Management
When you’d like us to run the portfolio, too.
- Evidence-based portfolio construction and execution
- Rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, and asset location
- Manager research and ongoing maintenance
- The “Execute” layer, coordinated with everything above
A transparent, tiered fee on assets we manage
Priced by coordination demand, not just size
A $6M single brokerage account and a $2.5M business owner with entities, a trust, and multi-state taxes are not the same amount of work. The second creates far more coordination, and far more value to capture. So the engagement fee follows coordination demand, not just assets. We assess it with a short, transparent review of the drivers that actually generate work. Count yours:
- Operating business
- Multiple entities
- Trusts
- Equity comp / options
- Concentrated stock
- Multi-state / cross-border
- Private investments
- Investment real estate
- Active philanthropy
- Estate-tax exposure
Tier I
Foundational
Straightforward
Tier II
Active
A few moving parts
Tier III
Intensive
Many, interacting
Tier IV
Institutional-grade
Bespoke
Your coordination demand reads as opportunity, not a surcharge. A higher tier means more places coordination can create value, and every assessment comes with the register of opportunities it surfaced. The schedule, in full → PDF not yet published.
What you’re really buying
Not meetings, emails, or calls. The assurance that no important financial decision is made without its interactions being considered first, and that one accountable party is watching the whole board.
We don’t replace the professionals you trust. We make sure their work and your portfolio move as one plan.
You’re not paying for portfolio management. You’re paying so nothing important happens in isolation.
See where coordination is worth the most for you.
The exact figures depend on your complexity and the assets, if any, you’d like us to manage. We walk through them directly. If you’d rather see the numbers first, the two-minute Tax Diagnostic is a good starting point.