Helping families in Lexington, Massachusetts
Fee-only financial advisors for Lexington families
About 20 minutes from our Concord office along Route 2A.
Monument Group provides fee-only fiduciary financial planning to Lexington, MA families from our Concord office, about twenty minutes away. Common work includes equity compensation planning for biotech and technology employees, retirement income modeling, and Massachusetts estate tax planning for long-held homes.
Lexington sits between two economies: the research and biotech corridor along Route 128, and the federal and defense employment centered on Hanscom.
Those produce very different balance sheets, and the planning that follows looks different too.
Two very different Lexington households
The first works in biotech or software and is compensated substantially in equity — RSUs vesting on a schedule, options with expiry dates, an ESPP accumulating in the background. The wealth is real and concentrated in a single employer, which makes the tax consequences of diversifying it the central planning question.
The second has spent a career in federal service or at a research institution, with a defined benefit, a Thrift Savings Plan, and a house bought long before Lexington prices reached their current level. Here the questions are about pension election, survivor benefits, and an estate that crossed the Massachusetts threshold without anyone noticing.
We advise both, and the first conversation looks quite different depending on which one you are.
What comes up most in Lexington
- Concentrated employer stock
- Biotech and technology equity often becomes the largest single holding on a family’s balance sheet. Unwinding it across tax years, rather than in one sale, usually preserves materially more after-tax value.
- RSU and option timing
- Vesting schedules and expiry dates interact with bracket management, AMT and Medicare thresholds. Planning a year ahead is worth more than reacting at vest.
- Federal benefits
- TSP allocation, FERS annuity election and survivor benefit choices are irreversible decisions made once. They deserve modeling rather than a default.
- 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 Lexington families use most
Tax-Efficient Wealth Transitions
Deep experience transitioning concentrated stock positions and highly appreciated assets into diversified portfolios while managing tax impact.
Learn moreRetirement Income Planning
Using sophisticated tools, we help you determine sustainable withdrawal strategies designed to support decades of spending, and to hold up through market volatility.
Learn moreTax Strategy & Preparation
Proactive tax planning and in-house preparation to optimize after-tax returns and minimize lifetime tax liabilities.
Learn moreLexington, MA
Questions from Lexington families
Do you work with Lexington clients on equity compensation?
Yes. Lee McGowan has advised Massachusetts executives on concentrated stock for over two decades — staged diversification across tax years, charitable giving with appreciated shares, and coordinating sales with bracket capacity. It is one of the most common reasons Lexington families contact us.Can you advise federal employees on TSP and FERS decisions?
Yes. Thrift Savings Plan allocation, FERS annuity election and survivor benefit choices are largely irreversible, and they interact with the rest of a retirement income plan. We model them alongside portfolio withdrawals and Social Security rather than in isolation.Do I need to travel to Concord to work with you?
Only if you would like to. Lexington is about twenty minutes from our Main Street office and many people prefer to sit down in person, but we also work with families across the country by secure video and an online portal.
Lexington, Massachusetts
Fifteen minutes of conversation beats an hour of reading.
Schedule a time to discuss whether our approach is the right fit for you.