Holistic Financial Planning
Here’s the thing about holistic financial planning:
Many financial advisors slap the phrase on their website and then just manage your investments. Cool. Very helpful.
We actually mean it. Holistic financial planning means everything works together. Your investments talk to your tax strategy, your tax strategy informs your estate plan, your estate plan protects who you actually love, and all of it aligns with the life you're trying to build.
What It's Not: Generic advice that assumes you're married with 2.5 kids, a picket fence, and a linear career path. That might be you, and it might not be. We plan for your actual life, from chosen families to career pivots, supporting aging parents, building something that matters, or funding your most audacious dreams.
Why It Matters: Life doesn't follow a script. Maybe there’s a career transition that changes everything. A relationship shift. A parent's diagnosis. A dream you're finally ready to chase. These aren't the tidy milestones traditional financial planning prepares for, but they're the ones where you need a plan. Comprehensive financial planning means having strategy and support for the real, messy, beautiful transitions that define you.
Our Services
Cash Flow and Debt Management
Good cash flow management means you understand your financial rhythm, make intentional spending decisions, and use debt strategically instead of letting it control you. It's the foundation that can make everything else possible.
We don't do restrictive budgets that make you feel bad about buying the things that bring you joy. Instead, let’s run the scenarios, show you the trade-offs, and help you make decisions that work for your whole financial picture, not just what Dave Ramsey says you "should" do.
Investment Advice
Portfolio strategy that aligns with your values, goals, and how you actually want to live. We build diversified portfolios, rebalance regularly, harvest tax losses, and manage risk, so your investments work toward what matters most to you.
And, yes, we have an exclusive Pride Portfolio*—socially responsible investing that supports LGBTQ+ equality. We also offer traditional portfolios for those who prefer a different approach. Either way, we focus on long-term strategy based on research (not hot stock tips or market timing), tax-efficient investing, and coordination with your overall financial plan.
Tax Planning & Preparation
You’ll benefit from year-round tax strategy designed to minimize what you owe. With proactive planning throughout the year, tax implications can be built into every major financial decision before you make it.
Your CPA stays in the loop, helping ensure your tax prep and financial planning are designed to work together. Living in California with brutal state taxes? That’s our specialty. Have equity comp creating complex tax situations? The tax impact is mapped out before you take action. Every decision is made tax-aware, helping you keep more of your hard-earned money.
Estate & Charitable Planning
Protecting who you love and supporting what matters to you is important, whether that's blood family, chosen family, or causes close to your heart. This is about helping you make sure your wishes are honored and your people are protected.
Proactive coordination with estate attorneys allows us to create trusts and legal structures that reflect your real relationships, not just what fits the legal template. And we help you give strategically to causes that matter through donor-advised funds, appreciated stock donations, and legacy planning.
Retirement Planning
Together, we can build a plan for your vision of freedom, not someone else's template. Maybe that's traveling for a year. Maybe it's cutting back to part-time. Maybe it's never fully retiring but having the option to say no. We run the scenarios (retirement readiness, Social Security optimization, healthcare pre-Medicare, withdrawal strategies), model different timelines, and tell you what's realistic, so you can make informed decisions about your future.
Protection Planning
You need protection for what matters most (your income, your health, your people) without the fear-mongering sales pitch that usually comes with insurance conversations.
Insurance isn’t sold here, so we have zero commission incentive. We analyze what you actually need (life, disability, long-term care, umbrella liability), tell you if you're over-insured or under-protected, and coordinate coverage with your overall financial plan. Our job is making sure you're protected appropriately, not selling you products you don't need.
Equity Compensation Strategy
You don’t have to tackle RSUs, stock options, ISOs, NSOs, ESPP, and all the other crazy acronyms your employer uses on your own. We model the tax impact before you make moves (because AMT surprises are awful), help you time exercises strategically, coordinate with your company's equity team, and build diversification plans that don't trigger massive tax bills. This is technical stuff with huge financial implications, and we speak this language fluently.
Holistic planning means everything connects. Nothing happens in isolation. And you finally get clear answers to the questions keeping you up at night.
*For select clients, Brio has partnered with unaffiliated independent advisory firm Ethic to offer Brio’s Pride strategy to achieve clients’ ESG goals. Brio relies on Ethic for our primary research and fund screenings and primarily uses their metrics when constructing the portfolio. More information about our process and the criteria used by Ethic to construct the strategy is available upon request. The total fees to be charged, as well as the billing cycle information, will be detailed in Ethic’s ADV Part 2A and separate advisory agreement, to be signed by the client. Brio does not provide legal or tax advice, and nothing contained in these materials should be taken as legal or tax advice. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Brio and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Brio unless a client service agreement is in place.