Working Together
The Family of Firms Advantage
Most people juggle a financial advisor, an insurance agent, and an accountant who never speak to one another. We built the opposite: a family of firms, under common leadership, that works as one.
A quiet advantage the Japanese have a word for
In Japan, a keiretsuis a family of firms that operate as one: separate companies, aligned interests, working from the same playbook. It is one of the reasons Japanese businesses have historically been able to think in decades rather than quarters.
Whitwell & Co. is part of exactly that kind of family. We are the investment advisory firm, held to the fiduciary standard. Under common leadership sit a licensed insurance and annuity firm and a tax and accounting firm. Three specialties, one table, so the advice you get in one area is designed never to work quietly against you in another.
The three firms
Whitwell & Co., LLC
Wealth management, investment strategy, cash-flow and financial planning, and business exit planning. An SEC-registered investment advisory firm, held to the fiduciary standard.
Living Prepared, LLC
Life insurance, annuities, long-term care, and business protection. Offered through licensed insurance professionals, subject to the best interest standard for annuities and state suitability rules for life insurance.
Whitwell Tax & Ledger Co.
Tax planning and preparation, bookkeeping, and accounting. The tax engine of the family, so strategy and filing sit under one roof with everything else.
Why it matters to you
Plans rarely fail on a single product or portfolio. They fail on coordination: an insurance policy that triggers an avoidable tax bill, a beneficiary form that overrides an estate plan, an investment sold without regard to the tax return. Those failures happen in the gaps between an advisor, an agent, and an accountant who never talk.
Because the firms share leadership and a philosophy, those gaps close. When a recommendation touches your taxes, the tax firm is already in the room. When protection belongs in the plan, the insurance firm is too. You get advice built to fit the whole picture, not to sit beside it.
How it works in practice
We coordinate across Whitwell & Co., Living Prepared, LLC, and Whitwell Tax & Ledger Co. only with your written, prior permission. Your information is not shared between the firms unless and until you authorize it in writing, and you can withdraw that permission at any time.
- Shared discovery. We start with your full picture: investments, taxes, estate, and business, not just one slice.
- Coordinated strategy. Recommendations are designed to fit inside your plan. If a decision affects your taxes or your protection, we flag it before you act.
- Ongoing review. A business sale, a new grandchild, a change in tax law: each triggers a coordinated review across investments, tax, and protection.
Separate firms, on purpose
Keeping these as distinct firms is deliberate. Investment advice, insurance, and tax are governed by different rules and different standards. Investment advice through Whitwell & Co. is held to the fiduciary standard under the Investment Advisers Act; insurance through Living Prepared is subject to the best interest standard for annuities and to state suitability rules for life insurance; tax work sits with Whitwell Tax & Ledger Co. Separate, coordinated firms keep that clear for you and compliant for regulators, while common leadership keeps everyone rowing the same direction.