Coats Wealth Management was founded on the idea that the families who need the most thoughtful advice are often the ones least likely to find it.
By the time most successful families step into the office of a financial advisor, they already know the basics. They've read the books. They have a CPA. They have a will somewhere in a drawer. What they don't have is someone whose only job is to look at all of it together — the tax return, the estate plan, the portfolio, the operating business, the kids — and ask the harder questions.
Coats Wealth Management was founded to be that person. We are an independent, fee-only firm built around a single principle: the family is the client, not the account.
We work with a small number of families at a time. We begin every engagement with a disciplined, tax-efficient financial plan — and we treat tax structuring, investment management, and estate work as services of that plan, not as separate transactions.
With over fifteen years across private equity, corporate finance, founding companies, and executive leadership of an international public company, I came to wealth management by a less common road than most.
I spent the early part of my career as a private equity investor, learning to underwrite the kinds of complex, illiquid, owner-led businesses that show up on the balance sheets of first-generation wealthy families. I went on to executive leadership at an international public company, founded and ran my own ventures, advised growth-stage startups through critical funding rounds, and spent years investing in mining and commodities — work that taught me how to size up an opportunity, a risk, and a person quickly.
That entrepreneurial and operator background is the part of my résumé clients tend to care about most. Business owners want an advisor who has been on their side of the table — who understands what an LLC versus an S-corp actually means for take-home pay, what an accountable plan is and why it matters, how to think about owner compensation, and what business expenses can do for the family's overall tax picture. I have been that operator, and I bring those instincts to every engagement.
When I started sitting down with families who had just experienced a liquidity event — or with second-generation heirs trying to make sense of structures their parents put in place — I noticed the same pattern again and again: they were being handed financial products when what they needed was a financial relationship. Their legal documents, tax return, portfolio, and business succession plan were all being managed by different people, and no one was responsible for the whole picture. I built this firm to be that whole-picture relationship.
I spend most of my time outside of work outdoors. I thru-hiked the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail — an experience that taught me, mile by mile, how much of getting where you want to go is preparation, patience, and the willingness to keep moving when the weather turns. I ski, scuba dive, and travel when I can. I bring the same instincts to client work that the trail asked of me: think long, plan well, and stay calm when the conditions shift.
Ben's legal training informs how the firm approaches tax structuring, entity strategy, and estate planning. The firm does not draft legal documents and is not marketed as a law practice.