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Rooted Wealth Advisors
Gray launched Rooted Wealth Advisors in 2016 and later codified his planning philosophy in the book 'Deep Roots: Laying the Groundwork for Retirement.' The...
Rooted Wealth Advisors
Gray launched Rooted Wealth Advisors in 2016 and later codified his planning philosophy in the book 'Deep Roots: Laying the Groundwork for Retirement.' The practice is built around a three-stage client journey — cultivate, plant, and nurture — that front-loads goals discovery and tax positioning before allocating assets. A companion entity, Rooted Tax Advisory, sits alongside the RIA and is cross-referred from the advisory site, signaling an integrated wealth-and-tax proposition for households in and approaching retirement. The firm’s public footprint points to a planning-first, implementation-second posture. Standard engagement covers investment advisory services, financial planning, and retirement-income structuring, delivered to individuals and high-net-worth individuals. The website lists paid media placements with nationally recognized outlets, and Rooted holds a paying sponsorship relationship with the University of Illinois, though that relationship is clearly disclosed as non-endorsement. No specific portfolio holdings, fund vehicles, or co-investment structures are publicly documented. Headcount and assets under advisement are not disclosed, consistent with the firm’s local-market orientation. The practice operates from a single office in Bourbonnais, about 60 miles south of Chicago, with no additional locations or announced expansion plans. No foundation, donor-advised fund, or club-membership structure is referenced in available materials. Rooted’s structural distinction is its bundled RIA-plus-tax-firm architecture targeting the retiree lifecycle, a model more common in accounting-led firms than in independent wealth-management shops. Gray’s authored book serves as both a client-acquisition funnel and a conviction signal — the firm’s entire public identity is organized around a proprietary retirement framework rather than a product shelf or performance track record.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
2016
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Bourbonnais
Corporate office
Bourbonnais, IL, United States
Principals
Zach Gray
Founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Rooted Wealth Advisors?
Founder Zach Gray leads the firm. He authored 'Deep Roots: Laying the Groundwork for Retirement,' which outlines the planning philosophy that drives the advisory practice. No other investment-committee members or portfolio managers are identified in publicly available sources.
How does Rooted Wealth Advisors structure its client engagement?
The firm uses a proprietary three-step process called Cultivate & Dig, Plant & Grow, and Nurture & Harvest. Clients begin with goals discovery and tax review, move into plan formulation, and then enter ongoing monitoring with regular adjustment meetings. Rooted Tax Advisory, a related firm, handles the tax-preparation side of the relationship.
Is Rooted Wealth Advisors a single-family office or an independent RIA?
It is an independent registered investment advisor, not a family office. The firm serves individual and high-net-worth individual clients from its Bourbonnais, Illinois headquarters, with no indication of a single-family mandate or multi-family-office structure.
Does Rooted Wealth Advisors participate in fund commitments or direct deals?
Public materials do not reference any private-market fund commitments, direct investments, or alternative-asset programs. The firm's outward focus is on financial planning, retirement-income strategies, and investment advisory services for individual clients.
What is Rooted Wealth Advisors' relationship with the University of Illinois?
Rooted Wealth Advisors is a paying sponsor of University of Illinois. The firm's website explicitly states the university is not a client and that no endorsement is implied, framing the relationship as a marketing sponsorship rather than an advisory or investment-management engagement.
Does Rooted Wealth Advisors disclose assets under management or adviser headcount?
No. Neither AUM nor adviser headcount is published on the firm's website or in available public filings. The practice operates without publicly stated scale metrics, consistent with its local-market, planning-led positioning.
What is Rooted Tax Advisory and how is it separated from the RIA?
Rooted Tax Advisory appears to be a companion firm offering tax services, cross-promoted from the Rooted Wealth Advisors website. The exact legal or ownership structure between the two entities is not detailed in public materials, though the site presents them as part of a unified retirement-experience offering.
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