Built from the balance sheet up.

Most firms begin with a questionnaire and end with a model. We begin with the full balance sheet: the concentrated stock, the deferred taxes, the trusts already drafted, the house that will never be sold. From there, the work is unglamorous and specific. What must this capital do, for whom, and by when. Only then do allocation, manager selection, and construction follow, in that order, each documented and each reversible. The discipline comes from institutional markets. The scale, and the patience, are a family's.

It starts with what you hold, not how you feel

Risk tolerance is a poor first question for someone who just sold a company. We map the whole position first: liquidity needs over the next decade, tax posture across entities and states, existing trusts and gifts, income the family actually requires. The portfolio is designed against those facts. A risk conversation still happens, but it happens with the balance sheet on the table, not a quiz.

Preserve, compound, transfer, in that order

The ordering is the philosophy. Capital that must fund the next twenty years is treated differently from capital destined for the next generation. We size the preservation layer first, let the compounding layer take the horizon it deserves, and structure the transfer layer with counsel from the start. No layer borrows risk from another to flatter a statement.

Allocation for a horizon measured in decades

Post-liquidity wealth rarely has a redemption date. Allocations here span public and private markets and are built to be held through full cycles, rebalanced on discipline rather than headlines. Illiquidity is taken deliberately and only where the balance sheet has already earned the right to it.

Manager selection without a thumb on the scale

We run independent diligence on every manager and fund we recommend. Muse manufactures no products, earns no revenue sharing, and accepts no placement fees. When a manager is in your portfolio, there is exactly one reason: our research put it there. When one leaves, the same is true.

Custody held apart, and named in writing

Client assets are custodied at Charles Schwab, J.P. Morgan, and Interactive Brokers, with consolidated reporting through Advyzon. Muse holds ownership in none of them. The separation is the point: the firm that advises on the assets should not be the firm that houses them. You see every position at the custodian directly, not only on our letterhead.

The concentrated position, handled deliberately

Founders arrive concentrated. Dogma says sell everything at once. Sentiment says sell nothing. We do neither by default. Single-stock exposure is worked through deliberately: sale schedules sequenced with QSBS clocks and tax years, hedging and exchange structures evaluated with counsel where appropriate, and a written plan for what the position becomes over time.

Taxes considered in July, not April

Implementation is tax-aware all year: asset location across taxable and exempt accounts, losses harvested when markets offer them, charitable gifts made in appreciated stock, trades sequenced around vesting and sale events. This is where Room II meets Room V, and the two are run as one calendar.

The first ninety days

A new engagement follows a set sequence. Weeks one through four: full balance-sheet assembly, account and entity mapping, custodian onboarding, and a written investment policy statement drafted for your review. Weeks five through eight: transition analysis of existing holdings, position by position, weighing embedded gains against the target allocation, because moving carelessly can cost more than staying put. Weeks nine through twelve: staged implementation begins, the reporting ledger goes live in Advyzon, and the first quarterly agenda is set with your CPA and counsel included. Nothing is liquidated on day one to make a chart look finished.

Where Muse sits

Muse is the architect and the sequencer, not the vault and not the drafting desk. Custodians hold the assets. Managers run their mandates. Counsel drafts the structures that own the accounts. We design the whole, select the parts, and remain accountable for how they fit together. The habits are institutional by biography: our founder spent his early career in derivatives markets at Susquehanna International Group, and the respect for process, pricing, and risk came home with him. It informs how we work. It is not a forecast of results.