First Step Wealth Planning

First Step Wealth Planning provides comprehensive wealth planning and investment management to individuals and high‑net‑worth clients, offering ongoing comprehensive planning (including a minimum of three meetings per year) as well as one‑time project‑based financial plans. Services include discretionary portfolio management and delivery of a written financial plan early in the engagement (the initial plan is completed within the first 90 days).

The firm’s investment approach emphasizes passive portfolio construction informed by modern portfolio theory, while also drawing on fundamental, charting, and cyclical analysis in its research. It frequently recommends or uses Outside Managers and sub‑advisors — including J.P. Morgan Investment Management, 55IP, Parametric, and SyntheticFi — and retains responsibility for ongoing monitoring and suitability assessments of those managers.

Notably, the firm uses fixed, flat advisory and project fees (with a published annual fee schedule and separate fixed project fees) rather than a traditional percentage‑of‑assets billing model, and it does not offer performance‑based fees or participate in wrap fee programs. As a small, solo‑practitioner registered adviser with roughly $31 million in discretionary AUM and a limited client roster, it combines hands‑on financial planning with access to institutional sub‑advisors.