Personal finance for people who want to be great with money — written by the friend who already is.
Trusts, generational planning, insurance as an asset class, and charitable giving done right — the family-office playbook, translated.
The framework
Ninety percent of wealth preservation is executing on four documents, correctly, before you need them. The other ten percent is where advisors earn their keep — but nothing there matters if the four aren't done.
The document that decides what happens if you don't decide.
Dying without one is a five-figure gift to a probate court and a decade of family strain.
The document that keeps your affairs out of that court.
For most families with real assets, this is the single highest-leverage piece of estate planning.
Financial and healthcare — the documents you'll be grateful you signed young.
The point isn't death. It's the year you're incapacitated and someone else has to make decisions for you.
The form that quietly overrides your entire will.
Retirement accounts, insurance, TOD accounts. Wrong beneficiary on a 401(k) can undo a $5,000 estate plan.
Voices on this desk
Joining soon
The Retired Millionaire Next Door
Retired at 58 from a decidedly ordinary career. The math is boring. The discipline was not.
Joining soon
The Family Office Advisor
Spent a career advising ultra-high-net-worth families. Believes the playbook translates further down the wealth spectrum than most people think.
Joining soon
The Tax Strategist
Twenty years structuring tax positions for high earners. Believes most of the good moves happen before December.
On this desk
Jul 6
Issue #14
Most families don't. Some absolutely do. The three questions that tell you which one you are.
1 min read
Evergreen
Jun 20
Issue #15
The DAF is a useful tool. It is not a moral upgrade. Here's when it earns its keep, and when it just delays generosity.
1 min read
Evergreen
Jun 15
Issue #27
The cheapest asset protection in personal finance — and the most under-owned. A quiet product, examined in daylight.
1 min read
Evergreen
May 13
Issue #32
$19,000 per person, per recipient, per year. What most families do with it, and what a few families do brilliantly.
1 min read
Evergreen
The Desk Reads
Sources we track — not endorsements. The Smart Money reads widely and writes its own take. When a dispatch draws on one specifically, it's cited at the bottom.
Established sources
What multi-generational money reads.
A library, not a blog.
Authoritative plain-language estate-planning resources and podcast.
Nolo — Wills, Trusts & Estates
Consumer-level legal accuracy checks.
Fidelity Charitable — Giving Report
DAF data for giving Teardowns.
National Philanthropic Trust — DAF Report
The annual donor-advised-fund dataset.
Rising voices
Trust-industry insider turned plain-English podcaster.
The most readable consumer estate-planning explainers.
Primary & data sources
Exclusion amounts and gift rules.
Insurance Information Institute
Umbrella and life-insurance data for Teardowns.
Follow just this desk
Just the Wealth Preservation Desk — the family-office playbook, translated.
The weekly dispatch
The kind of financial advice you'd get from a friend who's already figured it out. No hot takes, no leaderboards, no affiliate hustle.