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. From time to time, there may be a waitlist if the onboarding slots for the current month are filled. Please contact us to find out the current status of our waitlist.

Once we have signed up 30 to 40 financial planning clients, we anticipate closing our financial planning services to new clients unless a spot frees up.

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 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 FeeX, a service that grants us capabilities to trade and manage your assets within your retirement plans.

Our clients have two options for their workplace retirement plans.

1) DIY: Clients who are comfortable managing and trading their own 401k, 403b, etc. can continue to do so. These assets are not considered managed by us and will not be billed a fee.

2) Delegate: Clients who wish to have the simplicity and peace of mind of not having to worry about selecting funds and managing investments can elect to have us manage your retirement funds. We will select investments, trade, rebalance, and monitor performance over time. Because most retirement plans offer a limited choice of investment options, we will mostly commonly charge our lower passive management fee (see Pricing page).  

We also have the ability to manage other types of accounts such as 529s for education saving through similar arrangements.

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 8636 Forest Glen Drive, Irving, TX 75063. 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). However, we have partnered with XY Tax Solutions to offer tax preparation services for an additional cost. This is offered purely as a convenience to our clients as we charge no markup and just pass through the costs of XY Tax Solutions. Clients are welcome to use XY Tax Solutions or to continue to prepare taxes themselves or through their preferred tax preparer.

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.