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Abacus Planning Group
Abacus was founded by Katy Cook, a Princeton-trained applied mathematician who shifted from teaching and data consulting into personal finance after...
Abacus Planning Group
Abacus was founded by Katy Cook, a Princeton-trained applied mathematician who shifted from teaching and data consulting into personal finance after experiencing the impact of a structured plan on her own family. The firm is a fee-only fiduciary, accepting compensation solely from clients to minimize conflicts, and its stated mission centers on serving women, families, and populations historically underserved by the financial industry. Cook holds a CFP® designation and built the practice around lifestyle transitions — retirement, career shifts, and changes in family composition — rather than asset accumulation alone. Abacus blends financial planning with direct investment management, and its disclosed portfolio includes a private fund interest in the United States as well as publicly traded commodities vehicles such as the VanEck Merk Gold ETF and the iShares Silver Trust. The firm does not advertise a venture or direct-private-equity posture, but the appearance of a private fund holding alongside liquid alternatives suggests a multi-asset approach intended to diversify beyond traditional stocks and bonds. Geographic coverage centers on the Pacific Northwest, with the principal office in Kirkland and a virtual service model that extends its reach across the country from the Seattle metro area. Mary Bold, a former university associate CIO and tech-startup cofounder, joined the firm in fall 2023 after passing the Series 65 exam — an explicit signal that Abacus is adding capacity and investment-advisory depth. The team remains compact, with Cook and Bold appearing to form the core professional unit. As a further marker of institutional identity, the firm operates the Abacus Planning Group Charitable Giving Program, integrating philanthropy into client financial planning rather than treating it as an add-on service. Structurally, Abacus occupies an unusual position: a single-family-office label in the Altss taxonomy that functions, in practice, like a boutique RIA built to manage principal and personal capital alongside client accounts. This hybrid blur — part family office, part fee-only advisory — is its true differentiator. It carries no external fund-raising mandate, reports no AUM figures publicly, and maintains a deliberately low profile, which signals a priority on permanence and client alignment over scale.
General information
Firm type
Unspecified
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Kirkland
Corporate office
Kirkland, WA, United States
Principals
Katy Cook
Principal
Mary Bold
Team member
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Abacus?
Katy Cook serves as Principal and appears to direct both financial planning and investment management. The firm’s website does not break out a separate CIO title, and with a lean professional roster — Cook and Mary Bold are the named team members — investment decisions likely sit with Cook. Bold’s arrival in 2023 with a Series 65 credential suggests growing internal advisory capacity, though ultimate authority presumably remains with the founding principal.
Is Abacus structured as a single family office or an advisory firm?
Altss research tags Abacus as a family office, but the firm’s public footprint resembles a fee-only RIA. It serves external clients — predominantly women and families — and markets itself as a fiduciary planner. Behind the scenes, the firm holds private-fund interests and precious-metals ETFs that likely include principal capital from the founding family, creating a hybrid model where house assets and client assets share the same investment framework.
Does Abacus participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Disclosed holdings reveal at least one private fund interest in the United States alongside directly held ETFs such as VanEck Merk Gold and iShares Silver Trust. This mix indicates the firm is willing to commit to pooled private vehicles rather than relying solely on direct public-market positions or individually negotiated deals, though the size and vintage of the private fund holding are not public.
What is Abacus’s known posture on philanthropy?
The firm maintains the Abacus Planning Group Charitable Giving Program, integrating charitable planning into its core financial-advice offering. While it is not structured as a separate private foundation in disclosures found to date, the program suggests that philanthropic strategy — whether through donor-advised funds or direct giving — is a standard component of client engagements rather than a peripheral service.
Where does the underlying wealth come from?
No wealth-origin narrative is publicly disclosed. Katy Cook’s background includes a decade in teaching and independent consulting after a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Princeton. The firm’s private capital likely accumulated from professional earnings and investment returns rather than a publicly known operating-business exit, but the source and scale remain unpublished.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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