Frequently Asked Questions
What does a financial advisor actually do?
A financial advisor helps you make coordinated decisions about your money: investments, taxes, insurance, and business planning, so they work together instead of in isolation. At Merited Wealth, that means building an evidence-based investment portfolio, creating a financial plan around your goals, and helping self-employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners build their businesses, grow their wealth, and lower their taxes as their lives and companies change.
What services does Merited Wealth offer?
Merited Wealth offers three core services: financial planning, investment management, and estate planning.
Financial planning: the GamePlan. Our financial planning service is called the GamePlan, a thorough, stage-by-stage review of your entire financial life that becomes the foundation for everything else we do.
Investment management. We build evidence-based, tax-aware portfolios designed for durability, and we work with JPMorgan Wealth Management to help create our client portfolios. Our current allocation to alternatives is limited to structured notes. We're happy to provide more detail on our portfolios and how we construct them upon request.
Estate planning. We focus on estate planning as a core part of your plan, making sure your assets are protected and pass according to your wishes. What sets Merited Wealth apart is that Stephen A. Taylor, Esq. is a licensed and practicing attorney in Florida and can assist in creating your legal estate planning documents directly. For most people, estate planning means coordinating between a financial advisor and a separate attorney who rarely speak to one another, which is where gaps, delays, and documents that don't match the financial plan tend to creep in. Here, your legal documents and your financial and tax strategy are shaped by the same person, so your estate plan actually aligns with the rest of your picture instead of sitting in a silo. Please see our Form ADV for more information on these services.
What is the GamePlan, and how does your financial planning process work?
Everything at Merited Wealth begins with the GamePlan, our name for a financial plan and a thorough review of your entire financial life, including your retirement planning and long-term income strategy. It's a stand-alone service with no obligation to work with us any further after it's completed, and we build it in five stages:
1. Start the Game: develop a full and complete personal balance sheet.
2. Get in the Game: asset and debt management, and income tax planning.
3. Prepare to Defend: insurance planning and asset protection.
4. Play Smart: estate and legal planning.
5. Win Championships: achieve your goals through perspective and accountability, with consistent, ongoing execution.
The GamePlan is a flat fee of $3,500 to $5,000, agreed to in advance based on the depth and scope of your situation. If you become an ongoing investment management client after your GamePlan is complete, we waive half of that fee. Once the GamePlan is done, we'll recommend one of our two levels of ongoing advisory service, Wealth Teaming or Wealth Counsel, but the choice to continue is always yours.
Who does Merited Wealth work with?
We work with families, business owners, and corporate leaders who want a trusted guide through financial decisions rather than a transactional relationship. Whether you're building a growing business or navigating equity compensation as a corporate executive, our approach is the same: understand your full picture before recommending anything.
How much does it cost to work with Merited Wealth?
In most cases, the GamePlan comes first: a flat fee paid directly to us for building your financial plan (see the GamePlan section above for the amount). From there, ongoing investment management carries its own separate fee.
Our standard investment management fee is a transparent, asset-based fee billed on the assets we manage for you, with no hidden commissions. It's tiered, so each portion of your assets is charged only at its tier's rate:
| Investable assets | Annual advisory fee |
|---|---|
| First $250,000 | 1.50% |
| $250,000 to $500,000 | 1.35% |
| $500,000 to $1,000,000 | 1.15% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 | 1.00% |
| $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 | 0.75% |
| $3,000,000 and above | 0.65% |
Because the tiers are marginal, your blended rate comes down as your assets grow.
For accounts we manage directly through one of our custodians, the investment management fee is deducted straight from the account. We're also able to manage 401(k) accounts for some clients when their plan permits; for those 401(k) accounts, clients pay the investment management fee directly by bank draft or credit card.
We believe you should understand exactly what you're paying and why before you become a client, and we walk through your fee structure clearly during your initial consultation.
Is there a minimum amount of money needed to work with you?
Yes, we have a hard minimum. At a minimum, we have to like you and you have to like us, or it doesn't matter how much money you have! With that said, we normally do our best work with clients of at least $500,000 of investable assets. However, we are very experienced working with business owners and entrepreneurs, so that's not a hard and fast rule; if we feel it's a good fit, we can work with you.
Is Merited Wealth a fiduciary?
Yes. Merited Wealth is a Registered Investment Adviser with the SEC, which means we're held to a fiduciary standard, legally required to act in your best interest, not just recommend what's "suitable." You can verify our registration and disciplinary history at any time through FINRA BrokerCheck, and our Form ADV Part 2 and Form CRS are publicly available on our site.
Who holds and safeguards my investment accounts?
Your assets are held at an independent, qualified custodian, not directly by Merited Wealth, which is standard practice for registered investment advisers and an important safeguard for clients. We custody client assets with Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and AssetMark Trust Company, each of which maintains extensive protections for the safety of client assets. You can also access your accounts directly at any time through your client portal.
How do I get started?
Getting started begins with a no-obligation conversation so we can understand your goals and see whether we're a good fit before any commitment is made. You can start that conversation by calling (305) 722-0091, emailing Info@MeritedWealth.com, or using the "Start Your Journey" form on our website.
How often will I meet with my advisor?
We hold scheduled meetings once or twice a year. Beyond those, we're available whenever a major decision or life event comes up: a new job, an inheritance, buying a business, or a market downturn that has you second-guessing your plan. Whenever you need us, we're here.
Can you help with estate planning and taxes, or just investments?
All of the above, coordinated as one plan rather than separate, disconnected services. Estate and legal protection, tax planning, and insurance needs all affect each other, so we address them together rather than handing you off between specialists who don't talk to one another.
What makes Merited Wealth different from an automated investing app or a big brokerage firm?
Merited Wealth combines personalized, relationship-based advice with the same evidence-based investment discipline that low-cost automated platforms use, without losing the human judgment that matters most at the moments that matter most (a market crash, a job loss, an inheritance, a business sale). As a fiduciary, we're also legally bound to put your interests first, which isn't a requirement at every brokerage.