As a firm composed of both CPAs and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals, JLFranklin Wealth Planning bases all financial decisions on sound investment principals and your personal goals and dreams. Our advisors have a tax background, so we are uniquely aware of the tax implications of every action. We also specialize in equity award and stock option planning for employees and executives.

Our founder and lead advisor, Joyce Franklin, has over 25 years of experience in the wealth management and tax fields. She has published two books about wealth preservation for tech executives and entrepreneurs.

Our firm is a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). As such, we rigorously comply with professionally dictated standards of integrity, competence, and objectivity—standards which JLFranklin adheres to resolutely. We use a fee-only compensation structure that assures no conflict of interest in our decision-making.

A successful investment experience is about more than just returns. It means offering peace of mind because investors know that a transparent process backed by decades of research is powering every decision.

Dimensional Fund Advisors provides the foundation of our client asset allocation, though we use non-Dimensional funds in our portfolios, as well. Their approach mirrors ours, in that it rests on a belief that the market is an effective information-processing machine whose real-time pricing power works against active mutual fund managers who attempt to use stock picking or market timing to outperform it. Rather than trying to predict the future, Dimensional draws information about expected returns from the market itself, taking into account the collective knowledge of millions of buyers and sellers as they trade securities.

Securities offering higher expected returns share certain characteristics, or dimensions. Our team structures broadly diversified portfolios that emphasize these dimensions, while strategizing the execution to minimize trading costs.

At JLFranklin Wealth Planning, we’ve seen the difference this approach has made in people’s lives. Our goal is to help people live better.

Our ideal investment management clients begin with at least $2 million in assets available for management. However, many of our clients have restricted stock or stock options and come to us for strategic stock option planning to minimize taxes, increase diversification, and decrease their overall investment risk. If you don’t have $2 million now but expect to within the next year or two, let’s talk.

Yes. We can set up periodic fixed amount transfers from your managed accounts into your checking account.

Our fees are as follows:

Our minimum quarterly investment advisory fee is $5,000.

To learn more, visit our Services page

JLFranklin is an independent, fee-only firm. This means that we do not accept commissions or referral fees for our work. We are compensated by our clients only, based on assets under management. There is no other way we are compensated. This approach to managing wealth enables us to make the best investment choices for each client, free of undue influence. Unlike fee-based advisors, who earn commissions, we do not sell clients products for which we receive commissions, nor do we accept compensation from providers of investment products.

Behind the scenes, via email, over the phone, and in face-to-face meetings, you can expect to receive customized professional services, expertise, and advice. We are available throughout the year to answer financial planning, cash flow, and portfolio questions. We also provide quarterly performance reports and annual reviews, in which we take a deep dive into your personal situation to make sure you’re on track to achieve your goals. Clients receive trade confirmations and monthly statements from the custodian, and we continually monitor mutual fund and ETF investments and periodically adjust portfolios, as your needs and the market change. We rebalance portfolios as necessary, keeping asset allocations in line with objectives. But we also keep a sharp eye on the tax consequences of our actions and only sell if we believe the benefit outweighs the tax cost. Where appropriate, we take advantage of tax loss harvesting.

As comprehensive financial planners we help our clients with all aspects of their financial lives including cash flow, retirement, tax, equity compensation, insurance, college education, employee benefits, estate planning, and charitable giving. These areas are in addition to investment management. While we don’t prepare taxes, sell insurance, or set up estate plans, we have a network of vetted professionals who can help our clients implement recommendations.

One of the major things you will learn from working with us is that performance is not the primary concern for a successful investment experience. The crucial factor is for you to achieve your financial goals. Risk and time horizon determine your portfolio design, which in turn affect performance. Risk is the degree of volatility of your investment returns. When we design your investment plan, we help you choose a level of risk that you are comfortable with, and we implement the plan using asset allocation principles. Asset allocation does not maximize a portfolio’s total return, but it does help clients reach their goals with an appropriate level of risk. Assets needed to fund lifestyle expenses and major purchases within the next five years will not be invested in the market. Instead, we will carve out a reserve for these expenditures.

Our job is to help our clients plan well so they sleep soundly at night and achieve their goals.

Just give us a call or click here to schedule an introductory call. To learn more about our onboarding process, click here.

Our judicious 5-step onboarding process reveals each client’s unique concerns and needs.

1. Discovery Meeting—In this 90-minute meeting, we get to know your entire financial picture. We will ask you about your goals, values, assets, and relationships to develop a picture of where you are and where you’d like to be.
2. Financial & Investment Plan Meeting—Based upon what we learn about you in the Discovery Meeting, we will present the first two parts of the wealth management plan. Comprehensive or limited financial planning will be done at the outset of our engagement. The Investment Plan is a summary of your current portfolio and our investment recommendations. The Investment Philosophy Statement delves into our investing approach and strategic portfolio management process in greater detail.
3. Mutual Commitment Meeting—At this meeting, you become a client. We make the mutual commitment to work together and execute all the necessary agreements to begin to do so.
4. 45-Day Follow-up Meeting—This meeting allows us to help you understand your first Schwab statement and answer questions about the financial paperwork generated when your money is transferred. We check in about action items and address any questions or concerns.
5. 90-Day Meeting—We present the advanced plan with a range of financial planning recommendations, each designed to address a specific concern. With your approval, we then begin to implement the plan, focusing first on the action items of highest priority.

Annual Review Meeting—At each annual review meeting, we go over your current financial position to verify that you’re still on track to achieve all that is important to you. In addition to an analysis of your comprehensive financial picture, we review your investment portfolio performance.