Comprehensive planning and investment management for high-net-worth Bay Area households.
A fee-only fiduciary advisory practice helping Bay Area households work through the connected financial decisions of high-net-worth life: accumulation, retirement, taxes, equity compensation, and the path between them. CFP®, ChFC®, in practice since 2004.
We are a fee-only fiduciary advisory practice built around one premise: the financial decisions of high-net-worth life are too important and too connected to handle in isolation. Our work brings together planning, investment management, and tax-aware decision modeling across each stage of a client's financial life, from peak earnings through retirement and beyond.
How we work with clients.
Our practice is organized around six connected service areas. Many clients engage in two or three of them, and the mix often changes as their financial life does. Each area links to a dedicated page with the full detail.
Financial planning for HNW households
For households in their accumulation and peak-earning years. Real estate, equity compensation, tax-aware planning, college funding, charitable giving, and estate foundations, modeled side by side against alternatives.
Learn more →Retirement income planning
For households transitioning into and through retirement. Built on the Retirement Lifestyle Plan framework (Needs, Wants, Wishes) and the Confidence Zone, with tax-aware withdrawal modeling in DrawDownIQ.
Learn more →Active investment management
For $1M+ portfolios, managed on a non-discretionary basis. Guided by the Innovation Moat research framework: profitable large-cap companies with durable competitive advantages, applied through a strategic and tactical approach.
Learn more →Equity compensation planning
For Bay Area employees and executives with stock options, RSUs, and ESPP shares. Exercise timing, AMT modeling, sale planning, and coordination on 10b5-1 sale schedules.
Learn more →Concentrated stock & NUA planning
For households with a large share of their net worth in one company. Staged sales, charitable strategies, and Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA) analysis for employer stock in a 401(k), compared with a standard rollover.
Learn more →Retirement plans for business owners
For self-employed professionals and small business owners who want to increase retirement savings and may be able to reduce current-year taxable income. Defined Benefit, Cash Balance, and hybrid plan design. Complimentary, no-obligation proposal available.
Learn more →Our philosophy and method.
Two frameworks shape our engagements: a planning method that starts with the client's goals, and an investment research framework focused on durable competitive advantage.
Foundation first: Needs, Wants, Wishes.
Every Index Gurus plan starts with what matters to the client, organized into a structured hierarchy: the Needs you must fund, the Wants you would like to fund, and the Wishes you dream about. Investment strategy, withdrawal sequencing, and tax planning all serve this hierarchy, not the other way around.
Our planning software runs many simulated market paths against the goals you have set and reports how many of them funded those goals. We generally look for a result in the Confidence Zone, a range of roughly 70% to 90% — but we treat that figure as one input among several rather than a score to be raised, because it moves whenever the assumptions move. Simulations are hypothetical and do not predict actual results.
See the full process →The Innovation Moat: a focus on durable advantages.
Our research focuses on the large-cap companies that account for much of the major indexes' value: profitable companies with durable competitive advantages such as proprietary data, control of energy and infrastructure, deep R&D budgets, and strong free cash flow.
The approach is both strategic (a long-term view of structural advantages) and tactical (adjusting how that view is expressed as market conditions change), with a quality tilt, attention to valuation, and limits on position size. Like any approach, it involves risk, including concentration in large-cap growth companies.
Read the full philosophy and risks →DrawDownIQ — tax-aware withdrawal modeling.
Software developed and owned by Index Gurus, Inc. to model one of the most consequential annual decisions in retirement. It models how different withdrawal mixes change a single year’s federal taxable income — applying that year’s brackets, the standard deduction, capital-gain stacking, Social Security taxability and required minimum distributions, and flagging when an income threshold that carries a Medicare surcharge may be crossed. It does not choose a withdrawal strategy, rank one against another, or tell anyone what to do. DrawDownIQ shows three withdrawal strategies side by side, without ranking them. We use it in our own planning work; the judgment is ours and the decision is yours.
Every comprehensive retirement income engagement includes DrawDownIQ analysis. Learn more on the retirement income planning page →
The founder.
Over twenty years of fee-only fiduciary practice, built on a career inside the financial services and technology industries.
Faruk Jaffer founded Index Gurus, Inc. in 2004 after a career spanning investment firms, mutual fund and asset management companies, and technology companies including Intuit and Google. He learned the financial services industry from the inside, and built Index Gurus as a fee-only practice to avoid the commission-based conflicts he observed elsewhere.
Faruk previously taught CFP® candidates through UC Berkeley Extension and UC Santa Cruz Extension. Read the full story →
The commitment behind the practice.
Index Gurus, Inc. is a registered investment adviser operating on a fee-only basis. In practice, this means:
Fee-only — We are paid by our clients. We accept no commissions, referral fees, or product-placement payments. Other economic benefits, such as services made available through our custodian, are described in our Form ADV Part 2A.
Fiduciary — When we provide investment advice to clients, we are required to act in their best interest within the scope of the advisory relationship.
Why it matters — Fee-only compensation removes the conflicts that come with selling commission-paying products. It does not remove every conflict: for example, an asset-based fee means we earn more when more assets are under our management. We disclose conflicts like this in Form ADV Part 2A and manage them in clients' interest.
Let's talk about your situation.
Schedule a complimentary 30-minute discovery call. We will listen, ask focused questions about the financial decisions on your horizon, and tell you honestly whether an engagement is a fit. No sales pressure, no obligation.
Index Gurus, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training, nor does it imply endorsement by the State of California. Information on this site is general and educational and does not constitute personalized investment, financial, tax, or legal advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Personalized advice is provided only after entering into a written advisory agreement.
References to types of client situations and categories of work the firm has performed are illustrative; they are not testimonials and do not represent the experience of any specific client. Planning simulations are hypothetical and do not guarantee future results. Tax laws, IRS limits, and regulatory rules referenced throughout the site reflect rules in effect as of publication and are subject to change. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against loss. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Please review Form ADV Part 2A, available at adviserinfo.sec.gov, CRD 131014 and on request at no charge, for information regarding services, fees, and conflicts of interest. See our Disclosures page for full risk disclosures and privacy policy. CFP Board owns the certification marks CFP® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® in the U.S.