Straight answers. No sales pitch in the answer.

Fee-only means I'm paid only by my clients, directly. No commissions, no product kickbacks, no hidden fund payments. The number you see on the invoice is the total amount I earn from working with you.

A fiduciary is legally required to put your interests ahead of theirs on the entire relationship — every recommendation, every aspect, all of the time. Most "financial advisors" at big brokerages now operate under Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), which sounds similar but isn't. Three differences matter:

1. When it applies. Fiduciary: always. Reg BI: only at the moment a specific recommendation is made.
2. Conflicts. Fiduciary: must avoid or eliminate them. Reg BI: brokers can disclose a conflict and still earn commissions on what they recommend.
3. Scope. Fiduciary: the whole advisory relationship. Reg BI: transaction by transaction.

As a registered investment adviser, StandUP Advisors is a fiduciary 100% of the time. Not just when it's convenient.

Wirehouse advisors are typically dual-registered as brokers and advisors, can earn commissions on the products they recommend, and operate inside firms with proprietary product quotas. StandUP Advisors is an independent RIA with no proprietary products, no commissions, and no revenue-sharing with any product provider.

No. StandUP Advisors does not sell insurance, annuities, mutual funds, or any other product on commission. When insurance is needed, we identify the requirement and refer to a fee-disclosed broker — we don't earn from the transaction.

No. All client assets sit with an independent qualified custodian — Betterment or Interactive Brokers, depending on the engagement. StandUP Advisors has advisory authority on your accounts, not custody. I can manage your accounts; I cannot move your money out of them. That separation between adviser and custodian is part of how the industry is supposed to work — and how the worst headlines of the last twenty years happened when it didn't.

The name says what the firm does — stand up for the people who don't have the time, training, or appetite to fight an industry built to confuse them. It's also a reminder of the fiduciary line we drew when the firm started: integrity doesn't need a cop.

Fees depend on engagement. Modular planning is flat-fee, scoped to the project. Comprehensive ongoing planning is an annual retainer. Investment management is a transparent percentage of assets under management — starting at 1% annually, with reduced rates at higher asset levels. The Purpose Pit Stop is $750 half-day or $1,500 full-day, credited toward any subsequent engagement. You'll see the number before signing anything.

For Comprehensive Planning and Investment Management combined, accounts generally start at $500K. The proprietary options strategy requires $1.1M minimum (SEC qualified-client threshold for performance-fee structures). Modular Planning and the Purpose Pit Stop have no minimum — available to anyone.

Yes — Modular Planning is built for that. Flat-fee, defined scope, defined deliverable. Common engagements: equity comp analysis, pre-sale tax positioning, retirement readiness review, cash flow restructure.

Annual deep planning review, plus check-ins whenever life or markets warrant — an equity event, a market dislocation, a business sale, a family change. The cadence matches what's actually happening in your life, not a calendar quota. Investment Management works the same way: annual portfolio review plus proactive reach-outs when markets do anything that actually changes the picture. Most quarters, nothing has — and you won't hear from me just to fill the calendar. When something has, you'll hear from me. Unlimited access for questions year-round.

If you have the time, the expertise, the discipline through three full market cycles, and a tax strategist on call — you probably shouldn't. Most people who hire an advisor are paying for one of three things: the time they don't have, the complexity they don't want to navigate alone, or the behavioral firewall between them and their worst instinct on a bad market day. If those three aren't worth it for you, doing it yourself is the right answer.

Plans get updated. That's the whole point. Major life events — selling the business, buying property, inheritance, divorce, new kid, move to a different state — all trigger a planning revisit at no additional charge inside a Comprehensive engagement.

Maryland is our regulatory home. Genti splits time between Maryland and Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and travels for in-person client meetings several times a year including on RV tours across the US. Most client work happens by video — we work with clients nationwide.

Yes. StandUP Advisors is registered in Maryland and offers advisory services in other jurisdictions where exempted. We work with clients across the United States.

Entrepreneurs, founders mid-build, founders post-exit, executives with significant equity comp, and professionals whose career growth outpaced their financial plan. The common thread isn't a dollar amount — it's the way of thinking. People who care more about what the money is for than which quarter's return beat the index. People who want simplicity over complexity, purpose over performance-chasing, and a plan they can hold during chaos. They've built something real and want their money pointed at the life they actually want — not at a benchmark.

If you want stock tips, market timing, a guaranteed return, or someone who will out-trade the index for you — this is not the firm. If you want an advisor who validates every gut decision without pushback — also not the firm. The work here is honest, simple, evidence-based, and sometimes that means telling you the thing you didn't want to hear.

The Da Vinci Index is a 10-minute proprietary diagnostic that scores three dimensions of financial life: IQ (how you process complexity), EQ (how you handle pressure), and Purpose Clarity (whether you actually know what the money is for). It identifies which of the three is dragging the other two down. Free, instant results, no email gate.

A half-day ($750) or full-day ($1,500) intensive financial clarity session, in-person or virtual. Designed for people who are financially successful but not sure their money is pointed at what actually matters. Fee is credited toward any subsequent advisory engagement.

Three principles, applied together:

1. Built around your life, not a model. Every portfolio is designed around your time horizon, goals, tax bracket, existing concentrations (RSUs, business equity, real estate), and liquidity needs over the next three to five years. Not a model portfolio with your name on it.
2. Low-cost and structurally simple. Mostly index and factor-tilted ETFs, total expense ratio typically under 0.15%, globally diversified, no story stocks.
3. Tax-aware at every step. Asset location, tax-loss harvesting, coordinated with planning.

Then the harder half: behavioral coaching. Vanguard research shows roughly 1.5% per year of net return comes from stopping clients from doing the worst thing at the worst time. Two halves of the same job — building a portfolio that fits your life, and helping you hold it through the years that test it. Full breakdown on the Investment Management page →

A rules-based options overlay engineered for capital efficiency and uncorrelated alpha. Designed for HNW individuals, family offices, and institutions as a standalone strategy. Requires $1.1M minimum and qualified-client status. Full details under NDA.

Yes — STANDUP: Journey to Financial and Personal Development is available on Amazon. The free first chapter is available through the Field Notes newsletter signup.

Yes. Genti Cici holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) certification and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) charter, plus an MBA in Finance and a BS in International Business from the University of Baltimore. More about Genti →

Three on-ramps. Take the Da Vinci Index (10 minutes, free, no email gate). Or book a 30-minute call. Or — if you want to start with something deeper — book a Purpose Pit Stop half-day or full-day session.

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