Needs Must happen
Living expenses, the down payment, tuition. Matched with high-quality bonds timed to when you'll need them, so one bad market year can't derail them.
Financial planning for what's nextLiability-driven wealth management
Rooted in patience.
Moving with purpose.Plan for outcomes,
not forecasts.
Clear, honest advice for young professionals and growing families, so you always know where you stand and where you're headed. We price your goals like liabilities, secure what must happen, and invest only your true surplus for growth. The institutional method, built on Libretto.
CFP® professional
Fiduciary advice, always in your interest
Plain English, no jargon
Liability-driven investing
Total-wealth planning on Libretto
Custody at Schwab
Our approach
Wealth with roots, plans that moveThree ideas that change the math
01
Start with your lifeYour total balance sheet
Your career, your family, the home you want, the trips you keep putting off. The plan starts there, not with a product.
Your career, home, Social Security, and equity compensation are assets and obligations too. The plan accounts for all of them, not just your accounts.
02
Explain everythingGoals priced like liabilities
Every recommendation comes with the why, in plain English. If something is unclear, that is on us to fix.
Every goal becomes a stream of future cash flows with a present-day cost, measured at market interest rates instead of assumed returns.
03
Keep it movingRisk set by funded status
Life changes, so your plan does too. We check in regularly and adjust before small things become big ones.
How much risk to take comes from your surplus over what your needs cost, not from a questionnaire about how you feel.
How we investHow we invest · the full method
Built around outcomes, not forecastsThe logic, step by step
Most portfolios start with a risk questionnaire and a guess about future returns. We start with what your money has to do, and when.
Liability-driven investing is how pension funds and endowments manage money. Libretto adapts it for families. Play with the numbers first, then walk through the logic.
Wants Should happen
Travel, an earlier retirement, the upgrades. A balanced mix with time to recover from a downturn.
Wishes Would be great
Legacy, giving, the dream property. Invested for long-term growth, because this money has decades to work.
Try it
How would we invest for your goal?
Illustrative mixes to show the idea, not a recommendation.
Your total wealth
Your portfolio is only part of the picture
Your careerOften your largest asset in your 30s and 40s
Home and mortgageAn asset and a long-term obligation
Retirement accounts401(k)s, IRAs, and equity comp
Social SecurityFuture income that behaves like a bond
Insurance and reservesProtection a portfolio can't provide
Why not just use a risk score?
A questionnaire measures how you feel about risk on the day you fill it out. Monte Carlo simulations depend on return assumptions no one can know. Matching your money to your real obligations means the plan holds up without needing a forecast to be right.
The same approach family offices use
This is the total-wealth, liability-driven strategy I used with multi-family office clients, built on Libretto's planning platform, which I've used for years. Now it's available to young professionals and families, not just the ultra-wealthy.
No strategy eliminates risk. Matching investments to goals can reduce, but not remove, the chance of falling short.
Try it
Price a goal, then measure your funded ratio
Cost to secure this goal today
Funded ratio
0%100%200%
Illustrative math: the present value of level annual spending at one real rate. A real plan uses a full yield curve and every goal you have.
01
Start with a balance sheet, not a portfolio
Traditional planning looks at your investment accounts and asks how much risk you can stomach. We start with your whole economic balance sheet, the way an institution would: everything you have, including the present value of your future earnings, and everything you owe your future self.
For most people in their 30s and 40s, human capital dwarfs the portfolio. Ignoring it is how plans end up quietly wrong.
02
Turn every goal into a liability with a price
Each goal is a stream of future cash flows: $90,000 a year in retirement, $160,000 for a down payment in four years, tuition starting in 2040. We discount those cash flows to today using market interest rates: a Treasury zero-coupon yield curve, and TIPS for goals that rise with inflation.
That gives every goal a real, present-day cost instead of a guess.
03
Measure your funded ratio
Funded ratio = resources you can count on ÷ present value of your goals
Above 100% on your needs means they're covered even if markets disappoint. Everything above that is your surplus, and the surplus, not a questionnaire, sets how much investment risk makes sense. Try it in the calculator above.
85%
Short of needs: save more, adjust a goal, or take risk on purpose.
100%
Needs secured, whatever markets do.
140%
A 40% surplus that can afford real market risk.
04
Hedge the needs, grow the surplus
Money for needs is invested to match the timing and inflation sensitivity of those goals: bond ladders and duration-matched Treasuries and TIPS, so assets and liabilities move together when rates change. Wants get a balanced mix. The surplus, for wishes and legacy, is invested for long-term growth in a diversified, low-cost equity portfolio.
Your overall stock and bond mix becomes an output of your goals, not an input.
05
Treat the portfolio as a completion portfolio
Your liquid investments should fill the gaps in the rest of your balance sheet. A tenured teacher's career behaves like a bond, so their portfolio can lean toward growth. A tech employee paid in RSUs already carries a big, concentrated equity bet in their paycheck and their stock, so their portfolio should diversify away from it.
Same age, same risk score, very different right answers.
06
Manage the risks a portfolio can't
Some of the biggest threats to a plan aren't market risks at all. They're handled directly, with the right tool for each, so the portfolio doesn't have to carry them.
Losing income to disabilityDisability insurance
An early deathTerm life insurance
A layoff in a down marketCash reserves
A concentrated stock positionStaged diversification
07
Why we don't lean on Monte Carlo
A Monte Carlo simulation runs thousands of hypothetical markets using assumed returns and volatility, then reports a "probability of success." Small changes to those assumptions swing the answer dramatically, and the number says little about what happens in the scenarios that fail.
Funded-ratio planning uses today's market prices instead of forecasts, so the plan is anchored to something observable.
08
Keep it current
Interest rates, markets, and your life all move. When rates rise, the present value of your goals falls and your funded ratio improves. When you get a raise, have a child, or buy a home, the balance sheet changes.
We re-measure regularly and rebalance toward the plan, locking in progress as goals become fully funded.
Where this comes from
Liability-driven investing is how pension funds and endowments have managed money for decades. Libretto adapts it for individual families, and it's the platform I've used for years to build and monitor client plans.
Go deeper
Libretto publishes articles, webinars, and podcasts on total-wealth planning, human capital, and risk management.
Dollar figures and percentages above are illustrative examples, not projections for any client. Hedging reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of falling short.
Services
Everything your money touchesOne balance sheet, managed as a whole
Financial planningTotal-wealth planning
Cash flow, savings goals, and a clear picture of how today's choices shape the next ten years.
A full economic balance sheet, including human capital, Social Security, and equity compensation, with every goal priced in today's dollars.
Investment managementLiability-matched portfolios
Diversified, low-cost portfolios built around your goals, not a risk score.
Treasury and TIPS ladders for needs, a diversified low-cost growth portfolio for the surplus, rebalanced to your funded status.
Equity comp & taxesConcentration & tax strategy
RSUs, ESPPs, and stock options, with a plan for when to hold, when to sell, and what it means at tax time.
Staged diversification of employer stock, ISO and ESPP timing, asset location, and tax-loss harvesting.
Home & big decisionsDecision modeling
Buying a home, paying down debt, or changing jobs. Run the numbers before you commit.
Mortgage versus investing, rent versus buy, and career moves, each measured by its effect on your funded ratio.
Family & educationEducation liabilities
529 plans, childcare costs, and making room for a growing family without losing sight of retirement.
Tuition priced and hedged like any other goal, with 529 funding coordinated across the whole plan.
Protection & estateRisk transfer & estate
Insurance, beneficiaries, and the basic estate documents every family needs, coordinated with your attorney.
Disability and life coverage sized to your human capital, reserves for job risk, and estate documents coordinated with your attorney.
How it works
Four steps, no pressureFrom balance sheet to funded plan
01
Intro callMap the balance sheet
A free 20-minute conversation to see whether we're a good fit.
Aggregate every account, then value human capital, Social Security, and equity compensation.
02
DiscoveryPrice the goals
We learn your goals, your numbers, and what keeps you up at night.
Build a cash-flow schedule for every goal and discount it on Treasury and TIPS curves.
03
Your planDesign the portfolio
A clear written plan with priorities, trade-offs, and next steps.
Hedge the needs, size the surplus, and build a completion portfolio around the rest of your balance sheet.
04
OngoingMonitor funded status
Regular check-ins, a quarterly report you can actually read, and a call whenever life changes.
Track your funded ratio as rates, markets, and life change, with a clear quarterly report.
Photo of KeatonAdd a natural, unposed shot
About
Hi, I'm Keaton
I'm a CFP® professional and a self-described financial planning nerd. I started Cedar and Current to give young professionals and families the kind of thoughtful, personal advice that usually goes to people much further along.
Before starting the firm, I spent years as a client advisor at a Seattle multi-family office, leading financial planning and working with families on everything from equity compensation to estate plans.
Outside of work you'll find me sailing, skiing, or planning the next trip up the coast.
CFP®Seattle, WA
Fiduciary
Libretto user for years
Multi-family office background
Let's talkLet's run the numbers
See if we're a good fitWant to see your funded ratio?
A free, no-pressure 20-minute call. Bring your questions; leave with a clearer picture.Book a call and we'll price your goals together, using your real balance sheet.
Schedule a call
Prefer email? [email protected]