FAQ

We are a fee-only fiduciary SEC-registered RIA (Registered Investment Advisor). In plain-English - that means we put our clients first and only take payments from Steward users. No ads, commissions to push products, or shady hidden fees.

Ami Shah, who built our planning algorithm directly based off the wealth management and tax optimization strategies she used to serve ultra high net worth families as a “white-glove” investment advisor:

• is educated at Harvard, both Harvard College and Harvard Business School
• is CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certified - the “gold standard” of financial planning. The CFP® requires rigorous study (includes 72 principal knowledge Topics, passing a six-hour exam), work experience (6000 hours of professional experience), continuing education, and adherence to ethical standards. Only 1 in 3 professionals calling themselves “financial advisors” have earned this designation.
• has a decade of experience in sophisticated wealth management and tax optimization strategies, having served families directly at a registered investment advisor and single family office, and previously, the executive teams of many of the largest financial services firms as part of McKinsey’s Wealth and Asset management practice.

We offer families we serve a low-cost, no-obligation annual check-up on finances for $10. It's a mutual investment of time from both sides to see if we're a good fit, and can add significant value to your situation.

For comparison, the average annual fee for a standalone financial plan is $2,400.

We're exploring taking this one step further. If you find that you'd like help "doing it for me" on executing the plan and access to ongoing advisory to support you on navigating money decisions and trade-offs, investment management and coaching, and tax strategies, we hope to soon introduce charging 0.5%-1% AUM, scaling down as your assets scale. We take your success personally. That means we offer our services on an independent and fee-only basis, putting your needs first. We’ll never choose a fund to claim a commission, because we don’t take commissions. We have nothing to sell you but guidance that is aligned with your vision for the future.

Your Steward annual personal finance "check-up" includes 3 parts:

1) Where you are today

• How you’re tracking on the key areas of personal finance. Celebrate what you're doing right and identify and prioritize any "hot spots" that need attention
• Recommendation for how much you should keep in cash vs. invest now, and with what you earn this upcoming year

2) Where you want to go

• Identification and prioritization of what life milestones to save and invest for first
• Specific and direct investment suggestions and tax strategies based on your life

3) How to get there

• A “prescription” to optimize your finances - an easy and actionable "to-do" list to invest smarter and save on taxes.
• When, how, and why to take each step, with step-by-step guides and direct links to get started.

Steward will only ever take payment from you, and in turn Steward’s first and only priority will always be to care for you and put your best interests first, as fiduciaries.

We don’t earn any revenue from the investments we recommend for your portfolio. We will never take kickbacks to push products on you, sell your info to 3rd parties, or bombard you with ads or credit offers.

Steward makes money in one way. Serving you. We’re are proudly, and fiercely, independent. We met the SEC's high-bar and are SEC-approved Registered Investment Advisors.

• Most financial planners and registered investment advisors (RIAs) focus on near-retirees, do not accept customers with under $1M in assets, and work on antiquated tech.
• Steward is focused on mid-career professionals, who are looking for the “missing middle ground” between going DIY and ultra-high-net-worth white glove advisor. Steward’s powerful personalized advice technology, allows us to not have million $ + asset minimums.

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• CPAs and accountants are hyper-focused on the block-and-tackle execution and admin work of filing your taxes.
• Steward focuses on developing proactive tax optimization strategies for you.

Investing apps allocate and rebalance your personal investments.‍

Steward gives you more comprehensive end-to-end guidance

• telling you how much to invest, when to invest, what proactive tax optimization strategies you can use
• explaining your different investment options, their trade-offs, and the “why” behind our recommendations in plain-talk
• including guidance for your employer-sponsored investments and savings accounts for your kids, beyond just your personal investments
• helping you get organized with CFO-style projections of your household finances in one place (money coming in vs. going out, what you own vs. what you owe).

teward’s discovery survey is what allows Steward to personalize your plan. It consists of three parts:

(1) you as a person - your big upcoming life events, your priorities, and the relationships that matter to you.

(2) your future finances - your rough estimates the money coming in and going out of your household

(3) your current finances - your estimate of how much cash you have on hand today, and the accounts you hold to help you get organized

We ask you as few as questions as possible, to get you to an optimized plan, to be mindful of your time and privacy.

1. Personal finance should be personal. Steward structures your recommended mix of savings and investment types based on your unique goals.

2. Don't try to time the market. Get in the market and then stay in your seat.

3. Own the market. Take the guesswork out of investing by diversifying broadly across investment types and geographies vs. trying to pick individual winners.

4. Focus on what you can control. Keep fees low, keep lifetime taxes low, and ignore the "crisis du jour" and noise.

5. Simpler is (usually) better. The optimal investing strategy is often the most simple.

We eat our own cooking. The team behind Steward uses Steward, and invests in the same assets that Steward recommends to clients.

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• Wealth managers at large investment banks or insurance companies, often build their own funds or insurance products and recommend them to their customers as part of their financial guidance, even if it’s not in the customer's best interest. This means they're also narrowly focused on investments, without accounting for tax strategies as well, meaning the left hand is left not talking to the right hand.
• Steward does not build its own funds or sell insurance, to ensure we avoid conflicts of interest. We give you advice on your integrated tax and investment picture.

Ami Shah and Viktor Muller, the founders of Steward, met at Harvard Business School. They’ve both worked at the intersection of technology and financial services throughout their careers. They founded Steward with a singular mission - to provide personalized plain-talk guidance on how, where, and when to invest in an optimized way, to more families - after seeing their own families struggle to navigate the black box of personal finance. You can learn more about them here.

Steward has a clear and structured 4-step process to working with prospective clients.

1. Try before you buy. Take a discovery survey to share the specifics of your life and goals.
2. See a personalized sample of Steward’s plan and the value we could add for you specifically.
3. Sign up for Steward, allowing Steward to create and share your full personalized plan.
4. Optimize your investments. Steward will give you clear and doable step-by-step instructions on how, when, and where to invest and take advantage of various tax optimization strategies.

Building you a personalized plan requires collecting some personal info. We take this responsibility seriously. We commit to ensuring your personal information is safe, private, and secure at every hour of every day, year round. We will never sell, trade, or rent your info to others. See our Privacy policy for more details on our approach to security.

• Budgeting apps help you track your spending.
• Steward helps you optimize your savings, helping you “pay your future self first” and set up automatic investments for your longer-term goals. If you fill up the plate with veggies, there’s less room for dessert, and you can enjoy the dessert guilt-free.