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Wealth Design
Wealth Design was established in San Jose to serve technology executives and business owners navigating liquidity events on the West Coast. The firm combines...
Wealth Design
Wealth Design was established in San Jose to serve technology executives and business owners navigating liquidity events on the West Coast. The firm combines investment advisory, financial planning, tax strategy, and estate planning into a single advisory relationship, positioning itself as an outsourced family-office function for clients who have not yet built their own dedicated single-family office infrastructure. The firm's investment approach spans public equities, fixed income, alternative assets, and private-market opportunities, with an emphasis on tax-aware portfolio construction. Wealth Design also provides risk-management services, which for its typical client base often involves hedging concentrated stock positions — a critical need for Silicon Valley founders and early employees holding large blocks of a single issuer. The firm advises on 401(k) rollovers, retirement-income modeling, and insurance structuring as part of a holistic balance-sheet view. Wealth Design operates from its headquarters in San Jose, embedded in the region that generates much of the concentrated wealth it manages. The firm's structure as a registered investment advisor means it operates under a fiduciary standard, charging fees directly rather than earning commissions on product sales — a model that aligns with the preferences of financially sophisticated tech clients who scrutinize incentive structures. Team size and total assets under advisement are not publicly disclosed. What distinguishes Wealth Design's architecture is its deliberate bundling of investment management with tax and estate planning under one advisory roof, avoiding the fragmentation that occurs when a family hires separate money managers, CPAs, and estate attorneys who rarely coordinate. For clients whose net worth is tied up in a single stock or illiquid private-company equity, this integrated model aims to solve the coordination problem that standalone wealth managers leave on the table.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
1997
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Laramie
Corporate office
San Jose, CA, United States
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who makes investment decisions at Wealth Design?
Wealth Design operates as a registered investment advisor, which means investment decisions are made by the firm's in-house advisory team rather than outsourced to a third-party platform. The firm has not publicly named its chief investment officer or investment committee members. Clients seeking details on portfolio-manager tenure and decision-making authority should request the firm's Form ADV Part 2B, which discloses key personnel and their backgrounds.
Does Wealth Design serve single-family offices or only individual clients?
Wealth Design functions as a multi-family-office-style practice for individuals and families, but it does not appear to manage dedicated single-family office entities as separate legal structures. Its service model bundles investment management, tax planning, and estate planning in a way that mimics the CFO function of a single-family office — aimed at clients who lack the scale or desire to build their own in-house team.
What is Wealth Design's approach to concentrated stock positions?
The firm lists risk management as a core service, and for its Silicon Valley client base that typically means managing concentrated single-stock exposure from IPO or acquisition proceeds. Wealth Design can structure hedging strategies, staged liquidation plans, and tax-aware diversification programs. The specific instruments used — exchange funds, prepaid variable forwards, or collar strategies — would be tailored to each client's lockup period and tax basis.
Is Wealth Design a fiduciary, and how is it compensated?
As a registered investment advisor, Wealth Design is bound by a fiduciary duty to act in its clients' best interests. The firm charges asset-based advisory fees directly to clients rather than earning commissions on financial products. This fee-only structure reduces the incentive to recommend high-commission insurance or investment products that might conflict with a client's optimal asset allocation.
Does Wealth Design make direct investments into private companies or venture funds?
Publicly available information does not confirm whether Wealth Design allocates client capital to direct private-company investments or venture-capital fund commitments. The firm's advisory scope covers portfolio construction across public and alternative markets, but specific private-market access points — co-investment platforms, feeder funds, or direct deals — have not been disclosed. Allocators evaluating the firm should ask about due-diligence processes for any private-market exposure.
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