You can't predict the future.
You can prepare for it.
PLAN LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR. ADAPT LIKE ONE TOO
Assess → Plan → Act → Measure → Adapt
FIDUCIARY:
Legally obligated to put your interests ahead of our own
FEE ONLY:
You pay us directly for advice only. Nobody else pays us anything.
NO COMMISSIONS:
We do not sell products and earn nothing from any financial product company
NO MINIMUMS:
No minimum net worth, income, or account balance.
Advice should make your financial life clearer, not more complicated.
— FINANCIAL PLANNING BUILT AROUND YOU
Most financial advice arrives wrapped in jargon that makes the person giving it sound necessary. We work the other way. We explain the reasoning behind every recommendation, in plain language, until it makes sense to you. Then you decide.
Choose the level of guidance
that fits your life.
From a single decision to an ongoing planning relationship, every engagement begins with your circumstances, priorities and goals.
Some of what we do…
Investment strategy and allocation
Retirement planning and income strategies
Cash flow and budgeting analysis
Estate planning coordination
Tax aware planning and Roth conversion analysis
Small business financial planning
Portfolio reviews
Saving strategies
— THE FUTURE PROOF FINANCIAL APPROACH
Assess. Plan. Act. Measure. Adapt. Grow along the way
Entrepreneurs rarely have perfect information about what comes next. Neither do the rest of us. They succeed by understanding their resources, making thoughtful decisions, taking action, measuring results, and adapting when circumstances change.
We believe your financial plan should work the same way.
Plan for uncertainty
A financial plan isn't a prediction of what your life will look like 20 years from now. It is a framework for making better decisions as your life unfolds.
Make informed decisions.
Understand your choices and the tradeoffs involved.
Build flexibility.
Create the financial capacity to respond to opportunities and setbacks.
Keep adapting.
Review the results and change course when circumstances change.
What Does It Mean to Future-Proof Your Financial Life?
Future-proofing means preparing your financial life for an uncertain future by making thoughtful decisions today while maintaining the flexibility to adapt tomorrow.
It doesn't mean predicting what will happen. It means understanding where you are, deciding where you want to go, taking purposeful action, measuring your progress, and adjusting when life changes. We take decades of experience in finance, entrepreneurship, and education to deliver a unique approach toward financial planning, that is empathy led.
We apply entrepreneurial thinking to financial planning, because there are a lot of commonalities between starting a business and starting a financial planning process. Both contend with uncertainty and resource constraints. Knowing how to navigate those two variables can be an empowering experience.
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Understand where you are today, your goals, cash flow, assets, liabilities, investments, benefits, risks, and priorities. This is where we start. What you are working toward, what concerns you, and what you want your money to make possible.
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Evaluate alternatives, understand the tradeoffs, and develop a strategy for moving forward. We gather and review your complete financial picture: income, expenses, accounts, insurance, retirement plans, taxes, and estate documents. We think through the lens of an entrepreneurial mindset, and recognize that the unexpected is likely to occur, and develop strategies to navigate what might happen.
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Sometimes we feel stuck. We help you put the plan into action. You decide what to implement, and you implement it through the institutions and professionals you choose.
A plan alone is a good starting point, but taking action is what really matters, and is where we learn.
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Financial planning isn't finished when the plan is delivered, or even acted upon. We measure progress, revisit assumptions, and determine what's working and what has changed. We analyze where you stand and build a personalized dynamic written roadmap with clear recommendations tied to your stated goals.
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Life changes. Markets change. Tax laws change. Goals change. Your financial strategy should evolve with them. We review your progress and update the plan as your life, your goals, and the rules around them change.
You don't need to know exactly what the future holds.
You need a plan capable of changing when it does.
— ADVICE FOR REAL LIFE.
Financial planning should be accessible.
No minimum net worth. No minimum income. No minimum account balance.
Most advisers will not talk to you until you have a quarter million dollars. We think that is backwards, because the decisions you make before you have money are the ones that determine whether you ever do.
We work with people across a wide range of circumstances, and we charge for the work involved rather than a percentage of what you have saved.
Guidance for every stage.
Practical advice. Personalized planning. A future you can feel confident about.
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You are building a career and the beginning of some savings, and every financial article assumes you already know the vocabulary. We explain the reasoning behind every recommendation so the decisions you make now compound in your favor.
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You have a pension, a 403(b), maybe a 457, and a benefits portal nobody has ever walked you through. We help you understand what you already have and how it fits with everything else.
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Your business finances and your personal finances have grown into each other. We plan for the owner: your retirement savings, your tax picture, your cash flow, and what happens to you if the business has a hard year.
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You are close enough to see it, and the questions have gotten specific. When to claim Social Security, which accounts to draw from first, whether the number actually works. We run it with you.
Not sure where you fit? Most people are somewhere between two of these. Let's talk it through.
Andy Gold, Ph.D., M.S.
Founder, Future Proof Consulting Group LLC
Licensed Investment Adviser Representative
Wall Street • Main Street • Higher Education
Why I Started
Wall Street taught me how money works. Entrepreneurship taught me how to navigate uncertainty. Teaching taught me how to make the complex understandable. Future Proof brings all three together.
Born and raised in New York City and a proud product of the NYC public school system, I have spent time working on Wall Street, building and running businesses of my own, and over the past 15 years teaching business, entrepreneurship, investing, and financial decision making. What I do here draws on all three. The analysis comes from the first, the practicality from the second, and from the third, the part that matters most: the ability to explain it in a way that actually makes sense to you.
For twelve years I worked on Wall Street, part of it in equity research advising institutional investors. Those clients had analysts, consultants, and teams of people whose entire job was helping them decide what to do with their money.
I now teach at a public college in the Bronx, mostly first generation students. Many of them are the first person in their family to have a retirement account, and nobody has ever explained it to them. Same questions the institutions were asking, and there is nothin I enjoy more than helping others understand the financial planning process.
In between, I spent years as an everyday entrepreneur. Running a business teaches you what cash flow really means. It also teaches you how easily the demands of the business crowd out the owner's own financial future. I watched capable people build something real while putting off their own planning year after year, and lose time they could not get back.
That gap, in all three versions of it, is why this firm exists. I created the business around a simple idea: we cannot predict the future, but we can prepare for it, by applying an entrepreneurial mindset to financial planning. There are many similarities and challenges that both entrepreneurs face when starting a business and individuals encounter when trying to map out a financial future. Both deal with uncertainty, resources constraints, and cultivate over time a spirit of resilience, adaptability, and persistence. This is what I believe sets my business apart.
It all begins, not by forecasting the market, but by understanding your circumstances, thinking clearly about what you want, and making decisions you can live with when things do not go as planned.
Working inside the financial industry also taught me how much of the advice people receive is shaped by what the person giving it gets paid to sell. That is why I built a fee only firm. My clients pay my business directly. Nobody else pays us anything. No commissions, no sales charges, no compensation from any fund company or insurer. As a series 65 licensed Investment Advisor Representative, I am legally held to a fiduciary standard, which means I am obligated to put your interests ahead of my own, and I have removed the incentives that would make that difficult.
Financial planning should not begin with a product or a sales pitch. It should begin with you: your goals, your questions, your circumstances, and the future you are trying to build.
I feel strongly that everyone should understand their own financial life and feel a sense of empowerment to live the life they desire. I am here to help you along the way, and put financial education first, so you are better positioned to make informed decisions.
Pricing
Every fee is quoted in writing before any work begins.
We are a fee only registered investment adviser. Our clients pay us directly and nobody else pays us at all. No commissions, no sales charges, no revenue sharing, no referral fees, no compensation of any kind from any fund company, insurer, or other third party.
No fee we charge is based on the size of your portfolio. What you pay reflects the work involved, not the balance in your accounts. See our services pricing below.
Let’s prepare for what comes next
Start here, at no cost.
Every relationship begins with a complimentary 30 minute consultation. We discuss what you are trying to accomplish and determine which service, if any, is the right fit. No fee, no obligation, and no advisory relationship is created by it. If what you need is simpler than what we offer, or if you do not need an adviser at all, we will tell you.
Our Three Service Offerings
Future Proof QuickStart™
$150 per hour
Focused guidance on a specific financial question or concern. Most engagements total $150 to $300. You get a written estimate before any work begins.
Future Proof Blueprint™
Fixed fee starting at $1,500
Comprehensive financial planning, delivered as a written roadmap. Most engagements run $1,500 to $3,000 depending on complexity.
$99, $199, or $349 per month
An ongoing planning relationship that keeps your plan current.
Essential, $99. Annual planning meeting, midyear check in, annual plan update.
Growth, $199. Two meetings a year, portfolio review, tax aware coordination, retirement projection updates.
Premier, $349. Quarterly meetings, business owner and equity compensation planning, coordination with your attorney and accountant.
Future Proof Advantage™
Ready to start?
Other Considerations
Which one fits
If you have one question, or topic you want to lean into, choose QuickStart.
If you have never had your full financial picture examined in one place, choose Blueprint.
If you have a plan and want it kept current, choose Advantage.
Fees charged by others
Our fees are separate from and in addition to what your custodian, broker, and fund companies charge you. We receive no portion of those charges.
Changing your mind
Either of us may end an agreement at any time with written notice, including by email.
Terminate within five business days of signing and you receive a full refund of everything paid, with no penalty. After that, fees are earned proportionally based on work completed.
Education is the point
Most of what you need, we give away.
Fifteen years of teaching taught me that people do not need to be told what to do with their money. They need someone to explain it until it makes sense, and then get out of the way.
So our resources page is free and open to anyone. Tools and research from agencies and nonprofits with nothing to sell you. A checklist for organizing your estate before you pay an attorney to organize it for you. The questions worth asking any adviser, including us, along with our answers. And our full disclosure documents, so you can verify everything we have told you.
You do not have to hire us to use any of it.