Frequently Asked Questions

As of July 2026, Tilia directly managed over $430 million of wealth for more than 300 families, small business owners, and foundations. While rooted in coastal North Carolina, we serve clients across a dozen states.

We maintain a selective, boutique scale to deliver institutional-grade portfolio oversight alongside deeply personal relationships. Precision management is possible because our clients are invested alongside us in Tilia's "Core Portfolio" of individual U.S. stocks, index funds and investment-grade bonds. By anchoring our firm around direct ownership and keeping all accounts at Charles Schwab & Company, we eliminate the internal fund expenses and operational friction of traditional portfolios.

Our comprehensive wealth management services are most frequently tailored for households with at least $3 million in investable assets, though our baseline minimum is $1 million. We welcome relationships with forward-thinking families currently below these thresholds who have a high savings rate or anticipate a near-term liquidity event. For clients with over $10 million in investable assets, we offer specialized consulting and concierge services.

We evaluate total liquid and marketable financial wealth across your entire household, including traditional and Roth IRAs, trusts, employer plan rollovers, taxable brokerage accounts, cash equivalents, and corporate investment assets held within an LLC, S-Corp or C-Corp structure. While illiquid holdings like primary real estate are generally excluded, we consider private business equity for business owners facing an enterprise transition. Leveraging our specialized advisory background in certified exit planning, we collaborate with your corporate tax and legal teams ahead of a sale to prepare your personal balance sheet, minimize transaction-related tax drag, and design a seamless post-sale roadmap.

Tilia operates under a philosophy of absolute fee simplicity, charging a single flat asset-management rate that covers comprehensive financial planning, forward-looking tax projections, specialized consulting, and full orchestration of our professional network. Our maximum annual fee is 0.95% for assets between $1 million and $10 million (with fee decreases granted for balances approaching $10 million), which drop significantly lower for portfolios exceeding $10 million. In circumstances where we work for clients with less than $1 million, we instead charge a flat fee of $2,500/quarter for our services.

We do not charge performance-based fees, nor do we benefit from hidden transaction-driven costs or soft-dollar modifications. Unlike typical bracketed fee structures that function like tax brackets and force you to pay peak rates on your first million forever, our threshold model applies your lower tier percentage to your entire balance from dollar one once a significant milestone is crossed.

The defining difference is our structural status as an independent, fee-only Registered Investment Advisor, meaning we are legally and ethically bound to act solely in your best interests under a strict fiduciary standard.

Unlike traditional retail banks or brokerage houses, we are completely decoupled from financial product sales; we do not sell insurance, earn commissions, or accept third-party distribution kickbacks. Our compensation is derived entirely from a percentage of assets under management, meaning our business thrives when your net worth is actively protected and expanding. This structure allows our advice to remain transparent and objective.

While national accolades are validating, the most meaningful recognition we receive comes directly from the multi-generational families we serve, as seen in our years of consistent five-star Google reviews. That said, our unwavering commitment to independent, fee-only fiduciary stewardship has also earned Tilia notable recognition on a national scale.

Most recently, we were deeply honored to be named the 2026 #1 Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firm in North Carolina by USA Today. This ranking highlights our dedication to fee-only transparency, objective advice, and comprehensive wealth planning. Additionally, Tilia was named to Newsweek's Best Advisory Firms for 2026, an accolade that reflects our collaborative, team-based planning model and our reputation for protecting client interests.

To ensure protection and peace of mind, Tilia does not act as a physical custodian or take direct possession of your wealth. Every client account is registered directly under your name, trust or business entity at Charles Schwab and Company, which serves as our independent qualified custodian. This structure separates your investment assets from our advisory firm's business operations. Clients are able to independently view and access their funds anytime, while Schwab independently sends monthly statements and tax forms directly to your household.

Beyond these operational safeguards, your assets are backed by world-class institutional security frameworks. Schwab provides account protection through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) up to $500,000, which includes a $250,000 limit for cash claims. For added peace of mind, Schwab also carries substantial excess account insurance through Lloyd's of London. Additionally, any uninvested cash in your portfolio is automatically swept into Schwab-affiliated banks to secure Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) protection up to $250,000 per bank. This cash is routinely spread across multiple banking institutions to maximize your total safety limits automatically, allowing us to manage your wealth with the absolute transparency, asset validation, and structural efficiency your legacy deserves.

While you will have a dedicated primary investment advisor acting as your personal relationship anchor, your wealth is managed through a unified team approach to ensure you always have immediate, seamless access to an expert who knows your financial blueprint.

We deliberately design our client experience to eliminate single-advisor vulnerability and automated friction. When you call our office, you will never be greeted by an automated phone tree or a recorded prompt; a friendly member of our Operations team answers our phones five days a week to ensure you get answers when you need it. Furthermore, for our larger wealth management clients, we pair you with a second dedicated advisor. This second professional actively participates in your joint planning meetings, deeply understands your specific tax-aware parameters, and is fully equipped to provide tailored assistance whenever your primary advisor is unavailable.

Behind the scenes, your portfolio decisions are never left to one person's isolated opinion. Every portfolio's design, selection and implementation is handled collectively by our investment committee and Certified Financial Planner professionals. This collaborative framework brings multi-disciplined strategic oversight and continuous compliance auditing to your capital, pairing our low-turnover, direct-ownership investment philosophy with the collective, decades-long experience of our entire firm.

Advanced charitable giving solutions are built directly into our high-net-worth wealth processes, and we routinely handle philanthropic assets for private foundations, charitable trusts, and customized giving plans.

Because our operational core integrates directly with Charles Schwab, we seamlessly construct and manage philanthropic allocations through Schwab Charitable. We are also able to coordinate directly with your charity of choice to facilitate donations. Our mandate covers designing the underlying tax-aware portfolio architecture, aligning asset distributions with annual granting requirements, and executing strategic gifting techniques, including the direct transfer of highly appreciated individual securities or orchestrating Qualified Charitable Distributions directly from retirement accounts to maximize your family's tax benefit.

We believe that proactive tax planning and generational planning cannot execute successfully in a vacuum, which is why we step forward to act as the central coordinator for your existing legal and tax professionals. Rather than waiting for year-end compliance, our annual service calendar enforces dedicated professional interaction points to uncover forward-looking optimization opportunities.

During our mid-year planning window from May through July, our advisory group actively reviews prior-year tax returns for select clients alongside their CPA to conduct advanced tax planning, project liabilities, and facilitate required tax payments on your behalf. Simultaneously, we lead your generational planning by coordinating with your estate planning attorney for the hands-on implementation of estate plans and generational wealth transfer plans. This extended care includes providing direct financial education and dedicated portfolio management for the younger generations of your family to protect your legacy across decades.

As a core part of this multi-generational stewardship, we coordinate tax-sheltered education funding plans using 529 College Savings Plans at Charles Schwab. Because we believe in investing in your family's future, Tilia manages and monitors these specialized education accounts with zero fees paid to us, maximizing every dollar meant for your children's or grandchildren's academic milestones.

Our main priority when managing a concentrated corporate holding or an inherited single-stock position is to systematically reduce market risk without triggering an immediate, substantial capital gains tax event.

Instead of utilizing opaque mutual funds or exchange-traded funds that frequently duplicate your existing sector exposure, we leverage our core strategy of direct ownership in thirty to forty high-quality individual U.S. businesses. This unique structural flexibility allows our investment research team to construct a custom, defensive portfolio designed specifically to wrap around and hedge your concentration. We select robust, proven companies to balance your risk profile over time while executing a long-term, tax-budgeted unwinding schedule to control your lifetime capital gains footprint.

We design family portfolios for long-term structural endurance, ensuring your wealth reliably funds your current lifestyle while preserving your multi-generational legacy. Because unexpected liquidity needs can arise, our team emphasizes proactive cash-flow coordination anchored by recurring formal financial plan reviews. This allows us to protect your capital and adjust your strategy as your family, charitable, and business circumstances change.

This disciplined coordination helps counter stark industry trends suggesting that seventy percent of families lose generational wealth by the second generation, and ninety percent by the third. By partnering directly with your estate attorney, we help ensure your legal frameworks protect your legacy while maintaining the level of flexibility you desire for your heirs and/or charitable organizations. We couple this legal alignment with direct next-generation education, meeting with your children or grandchildren to prepare them for the challenges and opportunities that come with long-term wealth stewardship.

Families with generational wealth tend to utilize intra-family loans to minimize taxes & avoid gifting limits. Our team can help facilitate and document these arrangements, as well as provide access to securities-backed lending solutions from Schwab Bank when necessary. Finally, to protect your valuable time, we provide an elevated tier of administrative oversight: for our Private Wealth clients with more than $10 million invested with our firm, we can handle the direct coordination of your required federal and state tax payments on your behalf from your assets held at Charles Schwab.

Tilia welcomes formal Requests for Proposal from multi-generational families, single-family offices, and regional non-profit foundations seeking institutional fiduciary stewardship.

This onboarding and evaluation track is directly overseen by our Chief Investment Officer, Walker Abney, in coordination with our investment management committee. Our response framework is designed to deliver full structural transparency, ensuring alignment between your organization's legal mandates and our specialized, direct-ownership investment management process before moving forward into a collaborative relationship. Formal RFP inquiries should be directed to Walker directly at 910-679-4093 or by email at Walker@tiliapartners.com.

Yes. We help professionals transition concentrated private equity into a practical portfolio that is set up to deliver a blend of personal lifestyle enjoyment and long-term financial security.

We view wealth as a tool to serve your goals, so we encourage you to use a meaningful portion of your IPO proceeds to enjoy now—whether funding a personal dream, business idea or supporting family and the community. Once those goals are funded, we focus on investing the remainder to protect and grow your capital.

Our primary focus for clients on the verge of an IPO is tax mitigation and risk management. We work directly with you to analyze your specific stock options, evaluate the timing of exercises, and map out a strategy to handle the concentrated risk of holding a single company stock. Because taxes are typically our clients' greatest pain point during these liquidity events, we emphasize forward-looking strategies that plan ahead for the tax bill rather than just reacting to compliance deadlines.

Many post-IPO clients desire to maintain some level of stock in their company. In those cases, we help you settle on the appropriate amount to keep and design your portfolio with that stock allocation in mind. We also coordinate with your CPA, business attorney and estate attorney as appropriate to create and fund generation-skipping, charitable and/or other specialized trust entities to further achieve your goals.

Yes. Navigating a significant inheritance often brings a complex mix of emotional and financial responsibilities. We specialize in bringing clarity and organization to these moments, frequently guiding families through sudden wealth events exceeding $5 million. Because wealth is ultimately a tool to support your life goals, we encourage you to first take the necessary time to reflect on a loved one's legacy before making any major financial commitments. If meaningful to your family, this path can include allocating a portion of the inheritance toward immediate personal dreams or milestones. Once those near-term goals are addressed, our focus shifts to establishing a disciplined strategy to protect and compound the remainder of your capital for the long term.

Receiving a significant windfall brings immediate tax complexities and asset management choices that require a patient, deliberate approach. Instead of forcing a rushed liquidation that triggers unnecessary tax bills, or outsourcing your capital to generic, high-cost mutual funds, we perform a detailed intake of your inherited assets. We evaluate the stepped-up basis of incoming holdings and carefully analyze any legacy shares transferred into our care. With inherited positions of sentimental value, we design a transition roadmap that respects the legacy of your inherited assets, selectively retaining premier individual companies and using a phased approach to reallocate the rest, ensuring your realized capital gains remain at a strict minimum.

Furthermore, windfalls of this scale rarely arrive as simple cash; they often involve complex corporate structures, real estate, or existing trust assets. Our advisory group coordinates the entire onboarding process by working directly with your current professionals or introducing top-tier estate attorneys, corporate trustees, and experienced CPAs from our vetted Expert Network of professionals. Together, we collaborate to establish and fund generation-skipping, charitable, or other specialized trust entities, such as Charitable Remainder Trusts, to further mitigate capital gains and other taxes. This team-based oversight ensures that your inherited assets are structurally protected, properly titled, and seamlessly integrated into your broader family legacy from day one.

Yes, we help individuals who dream of working or retiring overseas manage the practical financial steps of moving abroad. Our services are specifically designed for clients who want to retain their U.S. citizenship and keep the majority of their wealth safely in the United States. Whether you are splitting your year in New Zealand, navigating dual citizenship in Italy, or relocating to Spain, we work alongside your cross-border legal and tax experts to handle the U.S. side of your transition.

Specifically, we guide you on how international tax codes and residency choices impact your U.S. tax reporting, help you coordinate the U.S. details of your retirement, estate, banking, and real estate plans, and manage your wealth in a tax-aware, low-turnover U.S. investment portfolio. This gives your international experts a clean financial foundation to work with, keeping your U.S. goals secure while you enjoy life abroad.

Tilia Fiduciary Partners is looking for ambitious people to expand our team. If you are a new Certified Financial Planner™ professional interested in a career in financial planning or a veteran fiduciary advisor looking for a bridge to retirement, you are encouraged to contact us.

We are proud to offer a team-based culture, transparent and rapid career progression, and mentorship along that path. Benefits include 100% employer paid health insurance premiums, 401(k) retirement account with employer matching, paid parental leave, flexible time off, annual bonuses and more. We operate as a meritocracy where we support each other in working towards a shared goal – and have fun doing it – while rewarding each individual’s contribution to team success.