Helping families in Boston, Massachusetts
Fee-only financial advisors for Boston families
Our second office is at 55 Union Street, by Faneuil Hall.
Monument Group Wealth Advisors advises Boston professionals and families from offices at 55 Union Street in Boston and 801 Main Street in Concord. The work most often involves deferred compensation, partnership or carried-interest income, concentrated equity positions, and Massachusetts estate tax planning for appreciated city property.
Boston is where a great deal of our clients’ earning happens, and it is also where the most consequential compensation decisions are made — often once a year, often under a deadline, and usually in isolation from the rest of the plan.
We keep an office at 55 Union Street so those conversations can happen near where our clients work, with the same team that holds the whole picture.
What planning for Boston professionals usually involves
The balance sheets we see in the city are built differently from the ones a few towns west. Compensation arrives in more forms — base, bonus, deferred elections, partnership distributions, carried interest, equity that vests on a schedule set by someone else — and a much larger share of the year’s income is decided by elections made months in advance.
That changes what planning is for. The question is less often how a portfolio is allocated and more often which year a given dollar should land in, and what a large realization does to everything around it.
The property side matters too. A city condominium bought a decade or more ago frequently carries appreciation well past the capital gains exclusion, and combined with retirement accounts it clears the Massachusetts estate tax threshold without the household ever having thought of itself as an estate tax case.
What comes up most in Boston
- Deferred compensation elections
- Deferral and distribution elections are made well before the income arrives and are difficult to unwind. Modeling them against a projected retirement date is worth more than optimizing any single year.
- Partnership and carried-interest income
- Income that varies sharply year to year creates real planning capacity: charitable bunching, Roth conversions in a light year, and loss harvesting timed to a heavy one.
- Concentrated equity
- Firm stock, fund interests and employer equity often represent an outsized share of net worth. Reducing that concentration is a sequence of decisions across tax years, not a single sale.
- Massachusetts income surtax
- Massachusetts adds a surtax on income above an annually indexed threshold, which is what makes the timing of a large one-off realization — an exit, a vest, a property sale — a decision worth planning a year or two ahead.
- Massachusetts estate tax
- Massachusetts applies its own estate tax above $2 million — far below the federal exemption — and around Boston a long-held house plus retirement accounts clears that line more often than people expect.
Services Boston families use most
Financial Planning
Life planning that coordinates retirement income strategies, estate planning, tax planning, risk management, and charitable giving into one cohesive blueprint.
Learn moreTax-Efficient Wealth Transitions
Deep experience transitioning concentrated stock positions and highly appreciated assets into diversified portfolios while managing tax impact.
Learn moreTax Strategy & Preparation
Proactive tax planning and in-house preparation to optimize after-tax returns and minimize lifetime tax liabilities.
Learn moreBoston, MA
Questions from Boston families
Do you meet clients in Boston?
Yes. We have an office at 55 Union Street, Boston, MA 02108, and our principal office is at 801 Main Street in Concord. Many Boston clients meet us in the city, and we also work by secure video. You can reach the Boston office at 617-285-6388.How should I think about a deferred compensation election?
As a decision about which year income lands in, made against a projected retirement date rather than this year’s tax bill. Deferring into a lower-bracket future year usually helps; deferring into a year that already carries a large realization can cost more than it saves. Because the election is hard to unwind, it is worth modeling before it is made.Does a Boston condominium create an estate tax problem?
It contributes to one more often than owners expect. Massachusetts taxes estates above $2 million, well below the federal exemption, and a long-held city property combined with retirement accounts frequently clears that line. It is a planning question rather than an emergency, and the answer usually involves document structure rather than selling anything.
Boston, Massachusetts
Fifteen minutes of conversation beats an hour of reading.
Schedule a time to discuss whether our approach is the right fit for you.