The State of the Market (Q1 2024) with Steve Dean

Your questions, answered.

Wealth management is confusing and littered with unknowns. Compound exists to support entrepreneurs, professionals, and retirees in achieving their financial goals so they can focus on what matters most.

General
Experience
Billing
Security

Message us directly at [email protected]

General

What is Compound's mission?

Compound helps entrepreneurs, professionals, retirees, and families achieve their financial goals. You can think of us as your family office — a single place to manage your taxes, investments, and borrowing. We support your goals and help you make better financial decisions.

What is Compound not?

Compound is not:

  • Affiliate-linking you to external financial or tax advisers
  • An insurance broker
  • A robo-only-adviser
  • Business-to-business software that we sell to other financial and tax advisers

We provide a robust wealth management technology and service offering, enabling our advisors to deliver a personalized financial, tax, and investment planning experience that feels magical for clients.

Where is Compound available to clients?

Compound currently serves entrepreneurs, professionals, and retirees who live in the US.

Does Compound have investors?

Yes. We’re proud to partner with Greenoaks, Egon Durban, Lachy Groom, and Y Combinator, along with leaders from Goldman Sachs, Stripe, and Meta.

Who works at Compound?

We are engineers who understand equity modeling and financial advisers who follow Hacker News. We’re always looking for more kind and ambitious people.

Where is Compound’s team based?

Compound has team members in North America and Europe, with offices in San Francisco and New York.

Experience

How does the client experience work?

We start by cataloging your assets and understanding your goals. Then we use our software to build a multi-year financial plan with you. Once you’ve made a plan, we help you achieve it by managing the time-consuming work for you—coordinating with attorneys and bank representatives, helping you make capital calls, etc.

What services does Compound provide?

Compound provides entrepreneurs, professionals, retirees, and families with financial advice, tax advice, tax filing, retirement planning, estate planning, public equities investing, alternative asset investing, philanthropic planning, stock option financing, portfolio lines of credit, document management, and balance sheet tracking.

Who are Compound's typical clients?

We work with entrepreneurs, business owners, professionals, retirees, and families, and we don’t have a minimum asset requirement to become a client. If you think you might be a fit, get in touch.

What is Compound's approach to financial planning?

We want to help you achieve your goals over the next year — and for the next 5 years, 10 years, and decades into the future. Compound Planning’s approach to financial planning is personalized and goal-oriented, specializing in the unique needs of entrepreneurs, professionals, retirees, and families. We leverage purpose-built modeling software to help you forecast your IPO, estate plans, retirement and diversification strategies.

I have stock options. How can you help?

We help you understand the value of your post-tax stock options and make a plan for them. (Oftentimes, 20-40% of the value of your equity is tied up in how you manage the taxes.)

Is Compound a fiduciary?

Yes. Compound and Compound’s licensed financial advisers are all fiduciaries, meaning that they are legally obligated to prioritize your finances above all else.

Is Compound a tax advisor?

Yes. We offer tax advising, planning, and filing services to entrepreneurs, professionals, and retirees. We specialize in helping folks with topics like options-exercising, charitable giving, and capital call tracking.

How does Compound support my insurance needs?

Compound’s expert advisory team has experience supporting clients in acquiring insurance advice and policies. Since Compound does not offer insurance advice or policies in-house, we will support you in acquiring a satisfactory solution through a qualified insurance consultant or broker.

How does Compound support borrowing (including loans & mortgages)?

Compound can help you acquire loans, portfolio lines of credit, stock option financing, mortgages, and many other borrowing products. If Compound does not offer the specific financial function in-house, we will help you find a satisfactory solution.

What investment opportunities are available on Compound?

We provide our clients with investment opportunities across public and alternative markets, including venture capital, real estate, private equity, and fixed income, among others.

How does Compound support giving/donations/philanthropy?

Compound can help you establish philanthropic foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs). Our goal is to help you support causes you care about while ensuring you receive the tax benefits afforded to you under the law.

I'm currently doing things on my own. Why should I switch to Compound?

We founded Compound to help entrepreneurs, professionals, and retirees manage their finances, taxes, and investments so they can focus on what matters most.

We measure our success by the impact we have on our clients’ lives. Sometimes our impact is quite concrete: we save someone $500k by helping them exercise their stock options in the tax-optimal way, or we increase someone’s investment returns by helping them invest in private opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. But sometimes it’s more subtle: like the peace of mind that you can live the lifestyle you want in retirement or that your family is set up for success.

Consider a free consultation with our team to learn more.

What is the difference between Compound and a private bank or traditional financial/tax adviser?

We offer a complete solution for people in technology—we’ll invest your money, file your taxes, advise you on exercising your stock options, and help you set up an estate plan, all in one place.

What is the difference between Compound and Mint or Personal Capital?

Compound is not merely a financial tracker like Mint or Personal Capital’s dashboard: We won’t just track your actions: we’ll ensure you execute the optimal ones to achieve your aims. Our team specializes in supporting the unique financial needs of tech founders and employees, from estate planning to options tax treatment.

Can Compound help me set up an estate plan, a trust, a college fund, etc.?

Compound Planning’s expert advisory team has experience supporting clients in all sorts of vehicles for transferring wealth, including revocable and irrevocable trusts (e.g. Grantor-Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), and work with many law firms if needed to achieve your wealth transfer goals.

What is the difference between Compound and a robo-advisor?

Compound Planning is designed for entrepreneurs, professionals, and retirees who want the personal touch of a trusted advisor accompanied by a beautiful digital experience. We help you optimize your public investments while also solving all of the problems that robo-advisers ignore. Compound's team doesn't merely invest your liquidity in public equities and assign you a 1-10 risk number: we help you design and execute against a personalized strategy that accounts for alternative investments, tax treatment, liquidity needs, residence, family needs, and estate plans.

Is Compound a financial adviser/registered investment adviser?

Yes. Compound is an SEC-registered investment adviser, and all of our financial advisers are themselves educated, trained, and licensed to provide financial advice. They, like Compound, are all fiduciaries, meaning they are legally obligated to prioritize your financial goals over all else.

Billing

Can I get a refund?

If you find yourself having questions about your fees or are dissatisfied with anything at all, please contact our Concierge.

How can I close my account?

To close your account, just email the Compound Concierge.

Security

Who does Compound use to custody my assets?

When you work with a Compound Planning advisor, you have access to top custodians — like Fidelity, Schwab, and more. We'll help you choose the right custodian partner for you depending on your specific needs and circumstances.

Is my information secure on Compound?

Compound operates state-of-the-art security and compliance programs. For more on our security practices, see our Security Overview and Privacy Policy.