I use a four-stage framework, drawn from a century of market history, to judge where a rising market stands and what that means for how a family is invested: what to own, how much risk to carry, and how much to hold in any one position.

Long rises reward staying invested, and much of what investors give up is given up quietly: too cautious while the market is recovering and no one believes in it, too concentrated after years of gains, and unprepared when conditions change. The framework doesn't predict when a rise will end. It gives each decision a written reason, made in advance, so nothing is improvised when the market moves.

A conversation about your family and how your money is invested now. Then a written plan for the whole cycle: what you own and why, how much risk you carry in each phase, what changes as the market moves, and what each change costs in taxes before it's made. The aim is a plan you can stay with through the whole cycle. Then we follow the plan, review it on a schedule, and bring the next generation in when you're ready.

The market is somewhere in its cycle today, and your portfolio is invested for some version of it, whether anyone chose that or not. If you know how you're positioned and why, you're ahead of most. If you don't, the time to find out is while the climb is still paying.

Some people find me when something has changed: a sale, an inheritance, a retirement. Most simply decide they'd rather know how they're positioned than assume it.

You know how you're invested and why. Your plan for the whole cycle is written down before it's needed. Your wealth is working as hard as your situation allows. Your children know how the family thinks. And you can reach your advisor whenever you need to.

Fees, where your money is held, and the other questions people ask first are answered plainly here.

I've followed and invested in markets for more than twenty years, worked in finance for thirteen, and advised families for the last eight, first at Merrill Lynch and now at Gemstone, the independent firm I founded. Most of what I believe about money I learned from a century of markets rising and falling, and from the difference between families invested for where the market actually was and families invested for where they hoped it was.

Before I advised families, I spent five years in corporate finance, including as Director of Finance at a company through its sale to a publicly traded firm. I've been inside a business through the year of a sale. It's part of why I work with owners.

I'm a Certified Private Wealth Advisor, with the designation's coursework completed through Yale School of Management Executive Education. I hold an MBA from Columbia Business School and a degree in history from the University of Michigan. I studied history before finance, and I still think that's the right order.

The conviction that came out of those years is simple: markets move in a cycle, the long rises are where most wealth is built, and a family should be invested for the stage the market is actually in. That became a book, The Bull Market: The Four Phases of Ascent and the Conduct That Endures, written for anyone with money in the market who wants to understand the climb they're in. A second volume, The Bear Market, is in progress.

Gemstone is named for my two children. It's a reminder of who the work is for: not this year's return, but the people who inherit what a family builds.

The firm is small on purpose. I work with a small number of individuals and families who want an advisor who knows their whole situation and answers to them alone. I'm the founder and also the chief compliance officer, so the rules that protect my clients are ones I wrote and follow myself.

Gemstone Wealth Management, LLC works with clients across the United States.

• Your calls and messages answered by me, usually the same day.
• Every recommendation in writing, with the reasoning.
• No surprises: no fee you haven't seen, and no change to the plan we've agreed on without a conversation first.
• Reviews on a schedule, not only when markets make the news.
• Your children welcome in the room whenever you're ready.

I live in South Florida with my wife and our two children. I play tennis and pickleball, and a good part of my weekends goes to my daughter's theater performances and my son's games.

For the phase the market is actually in, not the one anyone hopes for. A long rise rewards being invested, so the default is to participate: broadly diversified, mostly low-cost, with the amount of risk set for where we are in the cycle and written down in advance, and taxes weighed on every move. I don't chase what's working this year, and I don't sell what's frightening people this month.

A position you hold a great deal of is handled deliberately, over time, using the tools built for that purpose, with the tax cost worked out before anything moves. Where private investments, partnership interests, or restricted stock fit a family's situation, I say so plainly and bring in the right people.

That's not a problem. Some families hand me everything from the start; others begin with a portion and add later, or keep the rest where it is. Either way, I coordinate with whoever else is involved, so nothing is done in isolation.

Moving is simpler than most people expect. Accounts transfer to Schwab in your name, usually without selling anything, so there's no tax bill just for moving. I review what you hold before anything changes, and changes happen in stages if that serves you. Nothing is done in a hurry.

• Time the market.
• Sell you a product.
• Put your money into anything I can't explain to you in plain language.
• Change the plan we've agreed on without a conversation first.

Only by my clients, through an annual fee based on the assets I manage. No commissions, no payments from anyone else, and no fee I haven't shown you first. It's in writing before anything is signed.

Anyone with money in the market who intends to build something with it: the person still building, the family with a fortune to hold and grow, the spouse who will one day manage it alone, and the children who will inherit it.

How each phase looks from inside it, and the mistake each one invites. The five kinds of investor who pass through every cycle, and an honest way to find out which one you've been. And how to be invested, phase by phase, through the whole climb.

I wrote this book for anyone with money in the market who wants to understand the climb they're in: my clients and their children among them, and my own children one day. Markets have risen and fallen many times in my lifetime and will do so many more times in theirs. The families who build wealth and keep it are not the ones who saw the turns coming. They are the ones invested for where the market actually was.

A second volume, The Bear Market, is in progress.

Or write to me directly at ross@gwminvest.com. I reply to every message myself, usually the same day.

Gemstone Wealth Management
Delray Beach, Florida

By video, at your home, or at a private meeting room, whichever you prefer.