Upstart Wealth
Upstart Wealth is a fee-only registered investment advisor serving startup founders and employees.
Founded
2014Upstart Wealth is a fee-only registered investment advisor serving startup founders and employees.
Upstart Wealth delivers three integrated services for the startup community: financial planning, investment management, and tax planning and return preparation, offered together as a full-service engagement rather than as separate a-la-carte products. The firm targets startup founders and early employees anticipating acquisition, IPO, or other liquidity events, as well as professionals with stock options and equity compensation complexity.
Financial planning starts with a clear-eyed view of each client's current standing and works toward their vision for the future, while investment management aligns portfolios with risk capacity and goals using individual stocks and bonds plus tax-loss harvesting, and the tax practice completes returns and runs projections to identify after-tax wealth opportunities.
Upstart Wealth operates as a fee-only fiduciary, meaning it does not take commissions and is structured to put client interests first, which is a meaningful differentiator in a market where many advisors earn product-based compensation. The firm targets a 50-to-one client-to-advisor ratio so planners remain present for each client's ongoing planning needs.
Its team holds CPA, Personal Financial Specialist, and Certified Financial Planner credentials, and the firm specializes in equity compensation, including stock option exercises, concentrated position diversification, IPOs, acquisitions, and tender offers, served by credentialed planners working together as a collective team.
Upstart Wealth charges a simple annual retainer of $7,600 that includes the first $750,000 of assets under management, keeping pricing predictable for clients regardless of portfolio size at the entry tier. The firm operates on a fee-only basis and does not take commissions, so its revenue is not tied to product sales.
Once assets under management exceed the included threshold, a tiered schedule applies: 0.80% on the portion from $750,001 to $2.5 million, 0.75% from $2.5 million to $10 million, 0.55% from $10 million to $20 million, and 0.45% above $20 million.