Goals-Based Planning & Investing

Our multidisciplinary approach delivers singular results.

Empirical’s goal-based planning rests on two fundamental truths: every investor has different needs, and success depends on understanding them. Here, your portfolio is built to your specifications to deliver life-changing results.

WHAT

Welcome to investing with you at the center.

Your goals and circumstances guide how your team manages every part of your financial life. The objective is to create alignment across all strategies for maximum impact.

  • Step 1: Identify the investment strategies, solutions, and opportunities most likely to support your long-term success.
  • Step 2: Engineer a personalized portfolio from a broad range of investment strategies accounting for your assets, your goals, your beliefs, and the realities of your life.
  • Step 3: Manage the portfolio actively in response to shifting conditions, including changes in interest rates, tax law, and the global economy.
HOW

Together, we apply precision, expertise, and evidence to every decision.

Your legacy is too important to risk, so we don’t. Empirical orchestrates every aspect of your finances to ensure everything is working its hardest for you.

Our approach

Empirical advisors average over 20 years of experience and hold a variety of academic and professional credentials including CFA®, CFP®, EA, CAIA®, MBA, PhD, ChFC®, MPAS®, CPWA®, CPA, CEPA®, CDFA®, CPA/PFS, ECA, and CAIA®.

You need meaningful, data-driven insights tempered with 3rd-party, peer-reviewed academic and empirical support. You will get it here.

At Empirical, every portfolio is unique. We design each one by customizing the mix of stocks, bonds, and alternative strategies to align with your goals, needs, and life circumstances, rather than fitting you into a predefined model. With 55 active and 8 passive strategies, you have options.

Empirical supports your goals with investments not available to the public, a bespoke Portfolio Withdrawal Strategy, and specialized portfolio diversification designed to increase returns for given levels of risk. These tools allow us to support client goals with precision and flexibility that set us apart from traditional wealth managers.

We assemble your full financial staff to integrate tax strategy directly into portfolio management. This includes proactive tax-loss harvesting and coordinated planning around major financial events such as real estate transactions, business sales, or capital gains. The goal is to maximize after-tax returns now and in future years through unified execution.

WHY

The goal is life-changing results. Nothing less will do.

Empirical is here to transform your life and legacy. That is a bold statement but we stand behind it. Just as we do with every recommendation we give.

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Our integrated team approach can help clients achieve greater tax savings than traditional approaches.

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Disciplined planning and execution help clients build wealth more effectively and efficiently.

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Specialized portfolio diversification can yield higher returns for a given level of risk.

Michael Kelly, CEPA®, CFP®, CFA, EA, MS

President | Chief Wealth Strategist

Goal-based planning is not just about accumulating assets—it’s about aligning every financial decision with what matters most to each client. By anchoring investment strategies to clearly defined objectives, we help clients progress with clarity, confidence, and measurable impact.
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You deserve a better approach to financial planning. And you have found it.

If you have read enough and are ready to get to work, we are too.
If you still want to learn a little more, check out Our approach for more details.

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