Forward planning

Tax-Aware Wealth Management

We look forward. Our approach to wealth management is proactive, tax-aware, and designed years in advance. We build tax strategy into your financial plan from the beginning, then coordinate with your tax advisors to put it into action.

One principal. One operator.

Small on purpose.
Advice is everywhere, execution is rare.

Forward Financial is designed around two people, and the distinction between them is the design. Clark leads the relationship and the planning. Meghan works directly with every client, turning each decision into action and keeping every moving piece aligned along the way. No junior staff, no handoff after the first meeting. We’ve curated industry-leading custody, research, and planning infrastructure. The resources are institutional. The relationship is not.

Nine areas. One lens.

Tax runs through all of it.

Investments, taxes, cash flow management, and the decisions in between are constantly influencing one another. We plan the areas below as one connected set, in the years before those decisions land, so the tax result is planned rather than discovered.

Ongoing Tax Management

Tax planning doesn’t happen once a year. Losses are harvested as markets move up or down, not hunted for in December. Those losses can accumulate to offset gains elsewhere: a property sale, an equity vest, a rebalance. We continuously look for opportunities to harvest losses, improve asset location, and make investment decisions that help reduce taxes over time.

Pre-Liquidity Planning

A business, a building, a private investment coming due, or a position held so long the gain makes it hard to sell can all create significant tax consequences. What the sale costs is largely decided before it closes, while the timing, the structure, and the amount of loss already banked against it may still be changed.

Executive Compensation

Vesting schedules, option exercises, and deferral elections each land in a tax year, and the year in which they land is often a choice. The concentration that builds up alongside them can be a separate problem with its own answer.

Ordinary Income Planning

Wages, bonuses, and pass-through income are taxed at potentially higher rates, which makes their timing, their structure, and where they are recognized financially significant.

Retirement Plan Design

For an owner or a partner, the plan itself is a tax decision: how it is designed determines how much goes in, whether it goes in before or after tax, and what rate applies when it comes back out.

Sustainable Spending

When income stops depending on a career and starts depending on what you own, one question matters: how much can be spent each year, after tax. That gets modeled rather than estimated, and the order in which accounts are funded today and drawn from later can change the answer.

Estate and Wealth Transfer

Attorneys draft the documents. The tax work runs alongside them: what to gift now, what to hold until the basis resets at death, and whether the titling and beneficiary designations match the plan.

Risk Management

Cash flow is often a household's most important financial resource. Premature death, sickness or injury, and lawsuits are three things that can interrupt it, and each should be planned for.

Implementation

A financial plan creates value when it’s implemented. Every recommendation has a next step, an owner, and a timeline. We coordinate with your CPA, attorney, and other professionals, following through on each step until the action item is complete.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you work with clients?

Most arrive through an introduction from current clients, other professional advisors we work alongside, or people we have met through organic relationships. Many meetings happen by video because that is what busy schedules allow.

What does the first conversation look like?

We start with a scheduled call and two high-level questions beforehand so we can spend our time discussing your situation rather than gathering basic information. By the end, we'll often both know whether we're a good fit and what the next steps would look like.

What if I already have a good CPA?

Most of our clients do. Your CPA prepares tax returns and advises on tax law. We focus on the proactive planning decisions that shape those returns, then coordinate with your CPA to help implement the strategy.

Who holds the assets?

Client assets are held at Charles Schwab, an independent custodian. Forward Financial never takes possession of client funds, and you'll always have direct access to your accounts.

Who makes the investment decisions?

We coordinate with institutional partners and their Investment Policy and Research Committee. The recommendations, planning decisions, and ongoing relationship remain with us, and you won't be handed off to a junior advisor.

Can I do this myself?

You could. Our clients choose not to because their financial lives have become interconnected: multiple income sources, equity compensation, business ownership, taxable investments, and significant tax decisions. We think ahead, connect the decisions, manage the portfolio, and stay involved through execution, using institutional strategies not available to retail investors.

What does it cost?

A percentage of assets under management, billed quarterly. The fee moves with the portfolio, so it only grows when the assets do.

What are your thoughts on private and alternative investments?

They can be suitable for someone with the capacity to assume the risk and a clear understanding of it. For that person, we think the question is how to size the position appropriately, not whether to hold one at all.