Twenty-five years of watching cycles. Specialized advisory work for households at an inflection point.

Every week, before any portfolio decision, I run through four layers of market health: economic conditions, market internals, valuations, and sentiment. Each one gets scored from +2 to −2. Those scores combine into a composite that maps directly to a portfolio posture, from aggressive on the positive end to defensive on the negative.

The work is in the scoring. Once the scoring is done, the positioning is already written. Which removes a dangerous thing in investing, which is making it up as you go.

Sequence risk often kills more plans than return assumptions do. The best Roth conversion year is usually the one you almost didn't do. The surviving spouse moves to single filing, same income, higher bracket, and that's a tax trap many plans ignore. Concentration builds wealth; diversification keeps it.

These aren't theories. They're the principles behind every plan I build, and they're why I spend as much time on what not to do as on what to do.

The tax code is a set of instructions Congress wrote to shape behavior. Aligning your life with those instructions is not aggressive planning. It's the planning. Roth conversion sequencing, capital gains compression on concentrated positions, charitable remainder trusts, Social Security timing, beneficiary coordination.

None of these are obscure. They're all legitimate, all written into the code intentionally, and all under-used. Most CPAs handle compliance, not strategy. The strategy work is mine.