Investment Management Built Around the Life You Want to Live
At Capital Investment Advisors (“CIA”), your portfolio is built with the goal of doing something specific: support the life you want now and help protect the life you want next. Decisions are shaped by your income needs, your tax picture, your timeline, and the goals that matter most to your family.
Building What You’ll Eventually Live On
When retirement is years away, growth takes center stage. Your portfolio needs room to compound, the discipline to stay invested through volatility, and a tax strategy that works to protect what you’re building along the way.
We build growth-stage portfolios around your timeline, your risk tolerance, and your tax situation. As retirement gets closer, we begin shifting the portfolio’s weighting toward income, deliberately and on your timeline based upon your need, so the transition is intended to be seamless rather than sudden.
Our key areas of focus
- Customized equity-focused portfolios built around your timeline and risk tolerance
- Tax-efficient accumulation: asset location, tax-loss harvesting, and direct indexing for taxable accounts
- Employer retirement plan and equity compensation allocation guidance
- Concentrated position management as your career or business builds wealth
- Access to private equity, private credit, and private real estate for qualified investors
- A deliberate glide path from growth to income as retirement approaches
Turning Your Wealth into a Steady Income Stream
Rather than building wealth that depends on selling shares of stock to fund your lifestyle, we build portfolios that seek to generate dependable monthly cash flow from a diverse mix of return sources, so your income is designed to be more consistent over time regardless of changing market conditions.
This philosophy is grounded in our research showcased in Wes Moss’s latest book, The Retire Sooner Method, which found that the most financially confident retirees generally draw on multiple income streams working together: Social Security, pensions, rental or business income, and cash flow from their investment portfolios. Your portfolio is one of those streams, and often the one where planning decisions can have the most influence. We build your portfolio to help contribute steady cash flow alongside the others.
Our multi-asset class income strategy draws from four distinct categories:
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Tailored Portfolios
A CIA portfolio is built around the family it serves, whether that portfolio is focused on growth, income, or the transition between them. Your investments are shaped by your tax situation, your existing holdings, your income needs, your timeline, and the lifestyle your money is intended to support.
If you have concentrated stock, an inherited position you can’t sell yet, or assets you’d rather not move, we incorporate them. The portfolio is designed to adapt to your life, not the other way around.
What Shapes Your Portfolio
Here’s how we typically approach this work, though every engagement is shaped by the family it serves.
We begin with what you need your money to do, then work backward to design a portfolio intended to help support those objectives. Whether you’re building toward retirement, supporting your family, or planning for a meaningful goal, we tailor an investment strategy to align with your needs and circumstances.
We believe investment decisions and tax decisions belong in the same conversation. We apply tax-loss harvesting and asset location strategies designed to align investments with the account type where they may be more tax-efficient, and direct indexing for clients who may benefit from harvesting losses at the individual security level.
We aim to rebalance thoughtfully, share market updates and newsletters to help keep you informed, and meet with you at least annually to review the portfolio in the context of your full plan. Our goal is for you to understand the reason behind the decisions we make.
As a fee-only, fiduciary firm with 30 years of experience and more than $9 billion managed for over 6,100 families*, our work is grounded in a simple belief: investments should be designed to help you live well today and feel more confident about tomorrow.
*As of June 4, 2026
Services Available Through CIA Investment Management
- Customized multi-asset class income portfolios
- Ongoing, tailored rebalancing and trading
- Incorporation of existing holdings, where appropriate
- Employer retirement plan allocation guidance
- Market updates through newsletters and proactive advisor communication
Tax loss harvesting
In taxable accounts, we systematically look for opportunities to realize losses to offset gains, which may help reduce your taxes while maintaining your target allocation. This is a year-round discipline, not a year-end exercise.
Direct indexing
Direct indexing can give broad market exposure while owning the underlying stocks individually. This can help create opportunities to personalize your portfolio and strategically harvest losses that may help offset taxable gains.
Concentrated position management
Highly concentrated stock positions, often from a career at a single company, an inheritance, or a business sale, can create both opportunity and risk. We help families work through diversification carefully, balancing tax cost, market timing, and long-term portfolio goals.
Access to private investments
For qualified investors, we provide access to private equity, private credit, and private real estate strategies that are typically unavailable to individuals through retail channels. These investments may be appropriate for clients seeking additional sources of return beyond the public markets.
Questions We Help Families Consider
Choose what brings you here
- Am I on track to retire when I want to, and how should my portfolio reflect that?
- Should I sell my concentrated stock position, and how could I manage the tax cost?
- How should my portfolio balance growth and income as I approach retirement?
- Can I keep some of my existing investments, or do I need to start over?
- How can I generate more dependable monthly income from my portfolio?
- How should I think about private investments at my level of wealth?
- What should I do with a large equity position from my employer or business?
- How can I help reduce taxes on my investment returns?
- Am I taking too much risk, or not enough?
Investment Management FAQs
I’m still working and saving for the future. Can CIA help me?
What is income investing?
What is tax loss harvesting?
What is direct indexing and who is it for?
Can you manage a concentrated stock position for me?
Do I have to sell my existing investments to work with you?
How do you charge for investment management?
What is a fee-only fiduciary financial advisor?
Coordinated With the Rest of Your Plan
Investment management at CIA does not happen in isolation. Your portfolio is coordinated with:
Retirement Planning
Seeking to align assets with your retirement income needs.
Tax & Accounting
Investment decisions made in concert with your tax picture.
Financial Planning
Investments that fit the broader plan, not the other way around.
Estate Planning
Tax-efficient transfer of wealth across generations.
Ready to Build a Portfolio Around Your Life?
Whether you’re approaching retirement, navigating a liquidity event, or simply ready for a thoughtful, income-focused approach, we’d welcome the conversation.
Capital Investment Advisors, LLC (“CIA”) is an SEC-registered investment adviser. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. No investment strategy, asset allocation, diversification approach, tax strategy, or income objective can guarantee results or protect against loss. References to income generation, cash flow, tax efficiency, portfolio construction, or downside protection describe investment objectives rather than guaranteed outcomes. Actual results will vary based on market conditions and individual circumstances. Dividend-paying securities may reduce or eliminate dividends. Fixed income investments are subject to interest rate, credit, inflation, and market risks. Alternative investments, including private equity, private credit, private real estate, REITs, preferred securities, energy infrastructure, and closed-end funds, involve additional risks, may be illiquid, and are not appropriate for all investors. Certain private investments are available only to qualified investors. Tax-loss harvesting, direct indexing, asset location, and other tax-management strategies may not be appropriate for every investor and do not guarantee tax savings or investment gains. Their effectiveness depends on each client’s individual circumstances. Clients should consult their tax advisor regarding their specific situation. References to research, publications, or retirement observations are provided for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as guarantees of future financial outcomes or investor experience. Past performance is not indicative of future results.