Most advisers won't take your call until you've crossed some asset line, and that's kept people away from meaningful financial advice for years. It's not okay with me. I believe everyone deserves a financial advisor, regardless of income or how much they already know about money. I think that's backwards, and Koinos exists to prove it.
What I kept seeing
It started in my own life, early in my career in the nonprofit sector. I wanted help getting my financial life in order, and I had important questions: What's a Roth IRA, and should I contribute to it or to my 401(k)? What's an HSA, and why does everyone keep telling me to max it out?
I was lucky. I grew up in a family that took financial education seriously, and I had family friends in the industry I could call. Most of the people I worked alongside didn't have that. I watched coworkers stare down open enrollment paperwork and 403(b) elections with no idea what any of it meant, and realized nobody was going to explain it to them unless someone actually sat down and did it.
Coworkers, friends, people doing good work for their communities — capable people with the same questions I had, and nowhere good to take them. The industry didn't feel built for them. Minimums, jargon, a sales culture all said the same thing in the end: come back when you have more.
Why most advisers have a minimum — and why that's backwards
A lot of advisors will tell you they need a minimum to make the business work, or to meet quotas their firm sets for them. Fair enough — for them, and for those firms. But it doesn't work for the people who need an advisor most, at the exact point in life when a decision actually matters.
By the time someone has $500,000 or more, a lot of the important decisions have already been made — for better or worse. The Roth conversion window that closed. The RSU vest that got sold, or not sold, without anyone explaining the tax hit. The 403(b) or PERSI decision made blind because nobody was around to walk through it. Those are the moments that shape a financial life, and they almost always happen well before there's a large portfolio to manage. Waiting until later means missing the part where an advisor could have helped.
Why I went back to school and built it this way
I avoided this work for a long time. I knew early on I was interested in it, but I didn't like what it meant to join the industry as a young professional: the sales quotas, the products, the pressure. So I stayed in the nonprofit sector for over a decade, working alongside people who could have used the kind of help I'd eventually decide to offer.
I didn't want to do this without strong credentials, though. I'd self-studied for years, managed my own investments and planning, and knew a lot, but that wasn't good enough for me to hang a shingle and call myself an advisor.
So I went back to school for a Master of Science in Financial Planning. I passed my Series 65 in 2026, the license that actually lets me give investment advice, and I'm working toward my CFP® certification now too. There's always more to learn if I want to keep doing right by and for people.
What I decided along the way mattered just as much as the degree. I wasn't going to do this inside a big firm, chasing commissions or sales quotas. I wanted to work for the person in front of me — not a corporate parent, not a commission structure.
What Koinos actually is now
Koinos is the firm I always wanted for myself, both as a client and as an advisor. It's a Greek word that means "common" or "shared." That's the idea: you and I are in this together. I'm not managing your money from a distance; I'm in it with you.
There's no asset minimum: I'll work with you no matter how much or how little you have. I'm a fiduciaryA legal and ethical duty to act in the client's best interest at all times — not just recommend something that's merely “suitable.” Not every financial professional is held to this standard., which means your interests come first, always, not mine and not a firm's. And I explain everything in plain English. If you don't understand a recommendation, you shouldn't act on it, and it's my job to make sure you do.
Bring the question you've been sitting on. That's where we'll start. No sales pitch. No form asking how much you've saved first. Whatever it is, I'd like to hear it.
If that sounds like what you've been looking for, book a free call and let's talk.
Welcome to Koinos Financial.
Mathew