Advisory

Wealth advisory for the eight transitions that reshape wealth more than any market does.

The stories open the door. The services do the work. We build transition-aware advisory architecture with conflict-free planning, tax-aware implementation, and a framework that measures what a portfolio alone cannot.

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$15B+

SEC-Registered

Forbes Financial Council

Barron’s Recognized

40+ Years Combined

How We Support

Moving through life with grace.

Anticipating and planning for change and transition.

Loss & Legacy

The loss of a spouse

Her husband handled the money. He died in March. By June she had discovered one hundred and sixty digital accounts she could not log into.

Margaret arrived with a fully-funded plan and no way to operate it. The work we built around her case is what we call survivor readiness — account inventories, credential continuity, structural tax modeling for the year of widowhood, and the pension and Social Security elections that determine the trajectory of the next twenty years. The most consequential piece, in retrospect, was the work that should have happened before her husband died and almost did not.

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Services

When a partner or parent dies, the estate plan either holds the household together or fractures it. We design distribution structures that survive grief, family conflict, and the first 90 days of operational chaos — including account inventories, credential continuity, and the survivor readiness package.

Meaningful Life Financial Security Resilience

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The death of a spouse or partner disrupts every income stream simultaneously. We stabilize cash flow in the immediate aftermath and restructure the operating system for a single-income or survivor household.

Vitality Financial Security Autonomy

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Death changes filing status, sometimes permanently. We model the transition from joint to single filing, review inherited account distributions, and identify the narrow windows for tax optimization before they close.

Structural Capability Financial Security

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The most expensive errors in widowhood are made years earlier under different assumptions. We audit insurance coverage and survivor benefit elections while both partners are alive to ensure the surviving spouse is protected.

Resilience Financial Security

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Inheriting a portfolio or managing one alone for the first time requires immediate attention to positions, risk, and liquidity. We stabilize the investment architecture and restructure it to fit the surviving household's actual needs.

Optimism Goal Setting Financial Security

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The family home often becomes the most fraught decision after a death — sell, stay, or restructure? We help surviving spouses make this decision with full financial context, not under grief-driven urgency.

Environmental Quality Community Connection

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Services

The work, described plainly.

Each service is deployed inside a broader architecture — not as a standalone product.

Estate Planning

The architecture of legacy. We design distribution structures that hold under the conditions of grief, conflict, and time — not just the conditions of the spreadsheet. For surviving spouses, this includes the survivor readiness package: account inventories, credential continuity, and the first-90-days operational document.

Elements

Meaningful Life Financial Security Resilience

Death Marriage Becoming Parents Retirement

Cash Flow Architecture

The regulatory system of daily liquidity. We restructure income and expense flows so vitality is not drained by financial stress, and so structural shocks (death, divorce, caregiving) do not require complex decisions during the periods when complex decisions are hardest to make.

Elements

Vitality Financial Security Autonomy

Divorce Death Career Change Retirement Caregiving

Tax Planning

The optimization of outflows. We model multiple scenarios — joint and single filing, accumulation and decumulation, pre- and post-liquidity-event — well in advance, so structural changes in tax position do not arrive as surprises. Where appropriate, we accelerate Roth conversions, harvest gains, and structure charitable strategies as part of the engagement.

Elements

Structural Capability Financial Security

Retirement Death Divorce Caregiving

Methodology

Four domains. One interconnected system.

Human Wealth™ is built on four interconnected domains that together account for all that is required for a healthy individual, household, or organization. Each domain feeds the next in a living cycle.

The Outputs

Wellbeing

The quality of life as lived

Meaningful Life

Satisfying Life

Psychological Richness

Daily Affect

Outputs › Inputs

Wellbeing insights dictate how resources are mobilized and prioritized.

The Inputs

Resources

The objective socio-economic soil

Structural Capability

Financial Security

Environmental Quality

Social Network

Inputs › Processes

Available resources become the inputs for architected life systems.

The Processes

Systems

Where potential becomes purposeful action

Autonomy

Goal Setting

Community Connection

Engagement

Processes › Engine

Architected systems require behavioral adoption and psycho-physical integration.

The Engine

Integration

The internal psycho-physical substrate

Vitality

Self-Efficacy

Optimism

Resilience

Fees

Fee clarity without AUM-first framing

We believe you should understand exactly what you pay and why before any engagement begins. Our fee structures are designed to align our incentives with your outcomes — not to gather assets.

Human Wealth™ Planning

Human Wealth planning is an ongoing process — not a one-time document. Whether you are an individual, a family, or a business entity, your planning fee is charged monthly and based on your net worth. This ensures we are compensated for thinking about your entire financial picture, including real estate, business interests, and liabilities — not just your investment accounts.

Monthly fee based on net worth
Tailored for individuals, families, and business entities
Covers all 16 elements of the Human Wealth ontology

Investment Management

Investment management fees are based on the amount of assets we manage on your behalf. Fees can range from approximately 1% to 0.4%, depending on the total assets under management and whether you are also a planning client.

AUM-based fee structure
Competitive fee range from 1% to 0.4%
Tiered pricing that rewards scale

Better Together

Clients who bundle Human Wealth planning with investment management receive a meaningful breakpoint on their investment fees. This is not an arbitrary discount — when we are already doing your comprehensive planning, the investment management becomes more efficient. We understand your full systemic picture, which reduces complexity and allows us to manage your portfolio with greater precision and lower effort.

Bundled clients receive discounted investment fees
Planning reduces investment management complexity
Aligned incentives across all services

Our Commitment to Clarity

Every client relationship begins with a transparent conversation about fees. Before any services begin, you will clearly understand what you are being charged, how it is calculated, and what you receive in return. Our fees are bespoke — tailored to the scope and complexity of your situation — but they are never hidden.

Fees communicated before services begin
No hidden charges or asset-gathering incentives
Bespoke pricing based on engagement scope

Full fee details

Team

The people who carry the advisory work

Scott Coles

Founder & Wealth Advisor

Scott has pioneered wealth management evolution since the early 1980s. As founder of WMBC and co-founder of Human Wealth™, he brings over 40 years of experience serving both individual clients and industry professionals.

I look to bring the human element to the forefront of every decision.

David Coles

President & Wealth Advisor

David brings 15 years of expertise in personal finance, specializing in identifying client needs and designing customized financial systems. He co-founded Human Wealth™ in 2018.

The money my clients entrust to me is something much greater than dollars and cents – it is a tool to build a fulfilling life.

Meet the full team

Common Questions

Do we have to arrive through one of these transitions?

No. The transition language is the public-facing recognition layer. It names the moments that make structural planning urgent. Many clients arrive through a service need and only later realize the transition was the real reason the old plan stopped fitting.

Are these services separate from investment management?

Sometimes yes, often no. We treat investment management as one service inside a broader advisory architecture that also includes tax planning, cash flow design, risk mitigation, estate planning, retirement planning, and real estate decisions where those are materially relevant.

Why is the work organized around services instead of ontology systems?

Because the ontology is the diagnostic framework, not the advisory menu. Systems, domains, and elements explain what is happening. Services describe what we actually do in response.

Begin

Find the next step that fits where you actually are.

The recognition layer is useful only if it leads somewhere real. We can start with the transition, the service, or the assessment and work from there.

Take the assessmentBrowse the transitions