Bethesda, MD Office

Ithaka Financial Planning, LLC serves individuals, high‑net‑worth individuals, personal trusts and estates with integrated financial planning and ongoing portfolio management; the firm also accepts investment‑only, plan‑only and hourly consulting engagements. It reviews held‑away retirement accounts and provides ongoing advice intended to align investment implementation with each client’s financial plan.

The firm’s process centers on a client discovery and written investment policy statement, using Modern Portfolio Theory to design diversified allocations and generally favoring open‑end index funds and ETFs while occasionally holding individual stocks or bonds. Portfolios are monitored and rebalanced on an ongoing basis, and Ithaka acknowledges fiduciary obligations when advising retirement plan accounts.

Noteworthy differences from many peers include the firm’s occasional pro‑bono educational seminars and workshops on financial planning, a practice it says is not marketed but is offered intermittently. Ithaka is a small, fee‑only advisory team (three advisors) managing roughly $92 million for about 55 clients, and it also offers participant account management for held‑away employer plan assets using an order management system (Pontera) to implement tax‑efficient asset location and opportunistic rebalancing.