Reference
Questions, answered.
32 answers · 4 sections
What clients actually ask before engaging us, answered directly and in full. Nothing here is hidden behind a click.
Section 01
About the Firm
Who we are, what we are, and what we deliberately are not.
What is Odyssey Strategic Advisors?
A senior-led strategic advisory practice for people whose income arrives in a complicated shape: equity and RSU holders, business owners with significant pass-through income, and independent consultants. We run one method, in one order, across the whole picture rather than advising on a single slice of it.
Are you a law firm or a CPA firm?
Neither. Odyssey Strategic Advisors LLC is a strategic advisory practice. We do not provide legal services, issue tax opinions, or prepare and file returns. Legal services are provided by McClintock Tax Law LLC, a separate and independent law practice, under its own written engagement. Return preparation is performed by your own CPA.
So what exactly do you deliver?
A written strategy and its implementation. The document sets out the sequence: what happens in each stage, in what order, by when, and what each step depends on. Then we coordinate the drafting, the funding, and the filings with the professionals who execute them.
How is this different from what my CPA already does?
Your CPA reports what happened. A return is a backward-looking record of decisions already made. We work on the decisions themselves, before the year closes and before the event happens, then hand your CPA a documented position to file. The two roles are complementary, not competing, and we want your CPA in the loop throughout.
How is it different from a wealth manager?
A wealth manager generally starts at the third stage, growth, and works with the capital you hand them after tax and without regard to what structure holds it. We work on the two stages that come before that, which determine how much capital reaches them and whether it is exposed when it does.
Who leads the work?
One of two principals, on every engagement, start to finish. The people on your first call are the people who design and implement the work. There is no intake team and no handoff to a junior associate.
Do you work with clients outside your home state?
Yes. The practice is national and most of the work is done remotely with secure document exchange and scheduled calls. Multi-state exposure is a common reason people come to us rather than an obstacle.
Do you replace my existing advisors?
Usually not, and we generally prefer not to. Most clients keep their CPA and their wealth manager and bring us in to own the strategy and the sequence across all of it. We coordinate directly with your team so nothing falls between seats.
Section 02
Our Approach
Why there are three stages, and why the order is the part that matters.
What is the Save · Protect · Grow process?
Our method, run in that order. Save: capital is positioned in a stability-first asset and the tax position is designed deliberately at the front. Protect: structure is wrapped around that position through entity layering, trust architecture, and liability insulation. Grow: the difference the first two stages freed up is deployed into tax-advantaged, equity-oriented growth.
Why does the order matter so much?
Because each stage hands the next one something specific. Growth funded by capital the first stage preserved is different from growth funded by post-tax income. An asset protected before it appreciates is different from one you try to protect afterwards. Run out of order, the last stage sits on nothing.
What happens if someone skips the first stage?
It is the most common failure we see. Capital gets deployed into a growth position and the tax consequence is discovered at filing, by which point every meaningful lever has already closed. Elections have deadlines, holding periods have start dates, and structures have to exist before the event they relate to.
What happens if someone skips the second stage?
Capital is preserved and grown inside a structure that a single claim, judgment, or partnership dispute can reach. The gain was real and the exposure was never addressed. Protection built in advance generally holds; protection built in response to something already pending generally does not.
Is this a product you are selling?
No. The deliverable is a written strategy and its implementation. If one stage of the sequence is already handled well by somebody else, we will say so and work around it rather than duplicating it.
Do I have to do all three stages?
No, but the sequence is what makes the work durable, and taking one stage in isolation gives up most of the benefit. On the first call we will tell you honestly which stages you actually need and which are already covered.
How long does the sequence take to implement?
It depends on what is being built and what deadlines are in play. Some elections and structures are time-sensitive and have to be in place before a specific date or event; others are deliberately staged over multiple years. The written strategy sets out the timing explicitly.
Section 03
Specific Situations
Equity compensation, pass-through income, and independent professionals.
I have RSUs vesting this year. When should I talk to someone?
Before the vest, not after. Once shares vest the income event has happened and the planning options narrow sharply. The useful conversations happen while you still control timing, withholding, and what you do with the shares on the other side.
I have ISOs I have never exercised. What is the issue?
Exercising incentive stock options and holding the shares past year end can create an alternative minimum tax consequence on the spread, even though you have sold nothing and received no cash. It is a genuinely common and expensive surprise. The exercise decision should be modeled across multiple years before it is made, not after.
Most of my net worth is in my employer's stock. Is that a problem?
It is a concentration problem and a tax problem at the same time, which is why people stay frozen in it. Selling triggers a consequence, so they hold; holding increases the concentration, so the stakes rise. The work is to reduce concentration deliberately and in a sequence, rather than all at once or not at all.
My K-1 income is taxed whether or not I take distributions. What can be done?
Several things, and most of them are decided upstream of the K-1: entity classification and elections, how owner compensation is set, how and when distributions are timed, and how the entity stack is arranged. Those are design decisions, which means they have to be made before the year they affect.
My entity structure was set up years ago. Does that matter?
Often significantly. Most structures were designed for a business that no longer exists in the same form, and nobody revisited them as the business changed. A structure review is usually one of the first things we do, and it frequently surfaces exposure the owner believed had been handled.
I am an independent consultant. Is my situation too small for this?
Possibly, and we will tell you. Independent professionals often carry the highest effective rates and the least infrastructure, so there is usually real work to do. But if your situation is straightforward, a good CPA serves you better than we would and we will say so on the call.
I am planning to sell my business. How early should we start?
Far earlier than most people do. Pre-transaction structure, entity work, and timing generally need to be in place well before a buyer is at the table, and several of the meaningful options require holding periods or have to be established before a transaction is in motion. Arriving a few months before a sale leaves most of it unavailable.
Section 04
Working Together & Fees
How engagements start, what they cost, and what we will not do.
How do I start?
A thirty-minute confidential conversation with a principal. We map your income, entities, and timing and identify where the largest levers actually sit. If there is a fit, we follow up with a written engagement that sets out scope and fee before any work begins.
Is the first call really free?
Yes, and there is no obligation attached to it. The purpose is to establish whether we are the right practice for your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and saying so quickly is better for both of us.
Is there a minimum?
Engagements typically begin around a seven-figure annual income, or a substantial taxable event inside the next twenty-four months. It is a guideline rather than a rule. If you are close, have the call.
How do you charge?
Fees are quoted in writing before work begins, either as a fixed engagement fee for a defined scope or as a retainer for ongoing work. We do not bill hourly, because hourly billing rewards inefficiency and discourages clients from picking up the phone.
Will you guarantee a result?
No, and you should be cautious of anyone in this field who does. Tax positions depend on specific facts, and both facts and law change. What we commit to is a documented, defensible position, a sequence designed around your actual situation, and review on a set cadence.
Do you need my CPA involved?
Yes, and this is not negotiable. Your CPA confirms the treatment for your specific facts before anything is implemented, and they execute the filings. If you do not have one, we can point you toward preparers who work on this kind of position.
What if I do not want my existing advisors to know?
Then we are not the right practice for you. Work that cannot be shown to your own CPA is work we will not do.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes, as a matter of course. Every engagement involves material personal and financial information and is treated as confidential from the first call onward.
How quickly can you start?
Most engagements begin within a couple of weeks of a signed engagement letter. Matters with a hard statutory or transactional deadline are triaged ahead of the standard queue.
What happens to my information if I do not engage you?
It is retained under our privacy notice and is not sold. You can ask us to delete it at any time, and if you are a California resident you have specific statutory rights set out on our privacy page.
These answers are general information about how this practice works. They are not tax, legal, accounting, or investment advice and do not consider your circumstances. Odyssey Strategic Advisors LLC is not a law firm and is not a CPA firm. See our disclosures.
Begin
Ask the one that is not here.
Thirty confidential minutes with a principal. No pitch and no obligation.
Engagements typically begin at $2M+ of annual income, or a comparable taxable event.