FAQ

Yes! We are currently accepting new clients. However, to ensure the highest service levels for both our new and existing clients, we may limit the number of new financial planning clients we onboard per month. 

While we currently have openings for new clients, we anticipate reaching capacity and closing our financial planning services to new clients in the next one to two years.

Yes, we are fiduciaries. As a member of XYPN, Chao has signed the fiduciary oath to place his clients’ interests ahead of his own.

We are 100% fee-only, which means we get paid directly by you, our clients. We do not accept any commissions and do not make money from product sales. We do this to minimize our conflicts of interest.

Financial planning services: We do not require any minimum assets.

Investment management services: Traditional investment advisers sometimes require minimums of $1 million or more. For clients who wish to use only our investment management services, we require minimum assets under management of $200,000. For clients who intend to use both our financial planning and investment management services, this minimum is waived.

We reserve the right to raise these minimums for new clients in the future.

Yes! Most financial advisors cannot manage accounts such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s because the assets must remain in the employer-sponsored retirement plan and cannot be moved to a custodian such as Charles Schwab. We have partnered with Pontera, a service that grants us capabilities to trade and manage your assets within your retirement plans.

Because our clients can cancel at any time and because of the large amount of work that goes into creating a new financial plan, we require this fee to recoup the significant time we spend upfront in developing a new plan. We also find this upfront fee serves as an effective screening tool that filters out all but the most serious prospects.

We believe good financial planning is not a static piece of paper but rather an ongoing process of monitoring, revision, and implementation. Going in, we intend to build multi-year relationships with our clients and, for our best clients, hopefully a life-long partnership. Thus, we only accept financial planning clients who are interested in an ongoing comprehensive financial planning relationship.

For clients who are only interested in investment management, we do offer our investment management services on a standalone basis.  

We intend to earn the loyalty of our clients through superb service, not by locking them into unfriendly contracts. Our agreements are all month-to-month and can be cancelled with a 30-day written notification.

We require 30-day written notification of cancellation. Both the financial planning fee and the investment management fee will be pro-rated based on the effective date of cancellation.

Yes, we use Charles Schwab as our custodian for all our investment management clients. Your assets will be kept safe at Charles Schwab and we only have limited powers to trade your investments and withdraw fees. Further, Charles Schwab is a member of SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation), which protects your account against loss from unauthorized activity. Please note SIPC only protects your assets against theft, not market fluctuations or investment losses.

Our office is located at 808 Shallowater Dr. Allen, TX 75013. We offer both in-person meetings and virtual meetings via Zoom. Many local clients like to meet in person for the first few meetings, but then switch to virtual meetings later.

Yes, we work with clients from across the U.S. For clients not in the Dallas area, we generally meet virtually via Zoom. From time to time, we may also offer the opportunity to meet in-person if our travels take us to your city.  

We do not prepare taxes ourselves (the process of actually filing your tax return). 

We do offer tax planning as part of our comprehensive financial planning services at no additional cost. We will analyze your past returns, estimate your future tax liability, and identify planning strategies to minimize and avoid taxes.