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FAS Wealth Partners
FAS Wealth Partners, a Leawood, KS-based multi-family office and RIA, is built on a life-centered planning model rejecting asset-gathering scale.
FAS Wealth Partners
Founded in 1999 by Scott Scharff, FAS Wealth Partners emerged as a registered investment advisor in Leawood, Kansas, deliberately positioning itself away from coastal wealth hubs. The firm's founding thesis rejects asset-gathering scale in favor of a 'life-centered planning' protocol, where investment policy is derived from a client's stated life goals rather than a standard risk-tolerance questionnaire. This approach places FAS in the small cohort of advisory firms whose fiduciary stance is embedded in their operating agreement, not just their marketing. The firm constructs multi-asset-class portfolios spanning public equities, fixed income, alternative investments, and private real estate, with a pronounced emphasis on tax-aware withdrawal sequencing for clients in decumulation. FAS does not operate pooled proprietary funds. Instead, the firm acts as an allocator—evaluating third-party managers, direct indexing strategies, and structured products—while executing through Charles Schwab and Fidelity custodial platforms. The geographic concentration remains the Kansas City metro and broader Midwest, with select clients in Arizona and Florida reflecting retiree migration patterns. A documented allocation approach includes Dimensional Fund Advisors strategies and municipal bond ladders, though specific portfolio company names are not publicly disclosed. Team size has remained deliberately small. Public filings indicate a lean professional staff, consistent with a family-office-style advisor that caps client households to maintain a high ratio of professionals per relationship. The firm has not raised external institutional capital or launched a fund vehicle, reinforcing its single-book, fee-only structure. Adjacent vehicles are absent from the record—no affiliated philanthropic trust, real estate operating company, or club vehicle surfaces in state or SEC disclosures. FAS Wealth Partners' structural differentiator is its embedded life-planning protocol, which subordinates portfolio construction to a client's personal timeline and liquidity needs. For a multi-family office that serves Midwestern entrepreneurs and professionals, the 'financial planning first, investment management second' architecture—codified in the client advisory agreement—means the firm cannot be replaced by a robo-advisor or a purely discretionary asset manager without losing the planning integrity that defines its value proposition.
General information
Firm type
Multi Family Office
Year founded
1999
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Leawood
Corporate office
Leawood, KS, United States
Principals
Scott A. Scharff
President
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at FAS Wealth Partners?
Scott A. Scharff, the founder and President, oversees investment decisions within the firm's fiduciary framework. The investment process is centralized—no external investment committee or outsourced CIO (OCIO) arrangement is disclosed. As a small RIA, portfolio construction follows an internal allocation policy that draws from Dimensional Fund Advisors, municipal bond ladders, and select alternative strategies, all tailored to each household's life-planning output.
Is FAS Wealth Partners structured as a single family office or a multi-family office?
FAS operates as a multi-family office under a registered investment advisory (RIA) structure, serving multiple unrelated high-net-worth households. The firm's ADV filings confirm it is not a single-family office exempt from registration. Its client base is concentrated in the Midwest, with a fee-only billing model that aligns the firm's compensation with client goals rather than product commissions.
Does FAS Wealth Partners run proprietary funds or commingled vehicles?
No. The firm does not operate pooled investment vehicles or proprietary funds. FAS acts as an allocator and advisor, constructing individual portfolios for each client from separate accounts, third-party mutual funds, ETFs, and direct municipal bond holdings. This separation avoids the conflict of interest that can arise when advisors push in-house products.
What is FAS Wealth Partners' known posture on alternative investments?
FAS includes alternatives in its asset-class toolkit—typically liquid alternatives, private real estate funds, and structured products—but does not syndicate direct private equity or venture capital deals. The firm's size and fiduciary posture favor due diligence on interval funds and publicly traded alternative strategies over illiquid direct co-investments, which would strain the firm's lean internal resources.
How does the 'life-centered planning' model work in practice?
The firm's proprietary protocol begins with a non-financial discovery process that identifies each client's temporal, familial, and legacy goals. Investment policy statements are then written to fund those specific goals with dedicated sub-portfolios, rather than a single risk-budgeted portfolio. Tax-aware withdrawal sequencing, Social Security optimization, and Roth conversion analysis are integrated into the planning engine, making the investment allocation the output of the life plan, not the input.
Does FAS Wealth Partners maintain a philanthropic or foundation arm?
No affiliated philanthropic trust or donor-advised fund program is publicly disclosed. The firm's planning model includes charitable giving strategies—qualified charitable distributions and appreciated-stock gifting—but these are executed through external custodians and DAF providers like Schwab Charitable, not through a FAS-branded entity.
What is the custody arrangement for FAS Wealth Partners' clients?
FAS does not custody client assets directly. The advisory relationship operates through Charles Schwab and Fidelity custodial platforms, where assets are held in client-owned accounts with FAS holding limited power of attorney for fee deduction and trading. This separation of custody and advice is a structural safeguard standard among fiduciary RIAs.
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