By introduction · Rochester, NY
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Rochester, NY · Wealth Advisory
01 / Private Wealth Advisory Est. 2011 · Rochester, NY

Private banking style
wealth management.

For families and business owners with complex finances who want one person who actually knows the whole picture — coordinated with your CPA and your attorney, built to last decades not quarters.

Start a conversation → See who we serve
2011
Founded in New York City
50 states
Licensed nationwide · select US citizens abroad
100% independent
Not owned by any bank, broker, or insurer
Fee-only on advisory
Commission disclosed where applicable
David Perrotto, Founder of Perrotto Private Wealth
David Perrotto Founder · Perrotto Private Wealth · Est. 2011
“

Private banking used to mean one person who knew your whole picture — your business, your family, your balance sheet, your goals. Somewhere along the way the industry traded that for efficiency, and clients lost. I built Perrotto Private Wealth to bring it back.

02 / What We Do

Three pillars, one coordinated plan.

Not three services bolted together. One practice with three lenses
/ 01

Private Banking Coordination

Cash, credit, and investments treated as one balance sheet, not three silos. The coordination most clients only get from a private banker. We do it without the bank.

What this looks like

A New York client held an eight-figure cryptocurrency position and needed $7M in liquidity to acquire a commercial property. New York residents cannot borrow against crypto on Coinbase. Selling would have triggered capital gains tax in the millions. We worked with counsel to establish a Wyoming asset-protection trust with proper situs and residency documentation, formed an LLC owned by the trust, transferred the cryptocurrency into the structure, and opened the Coinbase account in Wyoming. The client borrowed $7M against the position, completed the property purchase, and kept the underlying asset.

/ 02

Strategic Tax Optimization

The CPA prepares the return. We do the year-round planning that determines what the return looks like. Different work, same goal: keep more of what you earn.

What this looks like

A retiree with $600K traditional IRA and a paid-off house had a six-year window between retirement and RMDs nobody had modeled. We built a Roth conversion ladder filling the 22% bracket each year, projected lifetime tax savings of approximately $45,000, sequenced alongside the CPA on the timing.

/ 03

Wealth Stewardship

The work that compounds: estate alignment, beneficiary audits, family meetings, the boring decisions that turn into the big ones twenty years later. Most advisors do not do this. We do.

What this looks like

A widow inherited a $300K IRA with the wrong beneficiary on file from her husband's pre-marriage employer plan. We caught it during the inventory phase, worked with the estate attorney to fix the chain of title, and avoided what would have been a six-figure tax bomb for her kids.

03 / Who We Serve

Built for complex households.

Not a one-size-fits-all plan
/ 01

Business owners & founders

Align taxes, cash flow, and reinvestment decisions across business and household. One shared balance sheet, not two that argue with each other.

Entity & compensation coordination Liquidity & reinvestment planning Risk & coverage integration
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/ 02

Retirees & near-retirees

Turn scattered accounts into a calibrated retirement plan: lower friction, clearer decisions, income that lasts, and taxes that don't surprise you.

Clean up old accounts & fees Tax-smart withdrawal sequencing Reduce risk without guessing
↗
/ 03

Executives & equity comp

Turn complex compensation into a plan, not a surprise tax bill. RSUs, options, ESPP, and 10b5-1 windows, integrated with the rest of the household.

RSUs, options & timing decisions Concentration risk management Tax-aware diversification
↗
/ 04

Families & multigenerational

The plan that gets passed down, with the kids in the room before they need to be. Not a binder that gets inherited and ignored. Family meetings, governance language, gifting strategy, beneficiary alignment all in one shared picture.

Education & gifting strategies Family meetings & governance Legacy & beneficiary alignment
↗
/ 05

Nonprofits & foundations

Institutional-grade investment management for operating and non-operating foundations and other nonprofits. Built around the realities of board governance, spending policies, and fiduciary responsibility. Not retail products dressed up for institutions.

Investment policy & spending plan Committee education & reporting Operating & capital budget alignment
↗
A note on fit

Where we're a strong fit.

The practice is built for households with genuine planning complexity, not for assets-under-management quotas. Most ongoing-advisory clients have at least $250,000 invested, and many have several million. The number that matters is not the asset balance. It is the complexity of the decisions in front of you.

$250K – $1M

Building toward private-banking service

You have rollovers to consolidate, a spouse with a different account at a different brokerage, RSUs vesting, a tax bracket you have not modeled, an inheritance on the horizon, or a retirement five to ten years out. You want the level of coordination wirehouse clients with $5M get, without being treated like a number.

$1M – $5M

Already complex, ready for a single coordinator

You have a CPA you trust, an estate attorney you have used, a portfolio across two or three custodians, equity-comp tax decisions every year, and nobody putting the picture together. You are paying for fragmentation. We are the seat at the table that makes the picture one picture.

$5M and above

Negotiated engagement, full coordination

You may already have a private banker, a multi-family-office, or an institutional advisor. The fit question is whether you want a single advisor who actually returns calls, knows your kids' names, builds the plan himself, and answers to you instead of to a quarterly revenue target. Pricing and scope negotiated.

Don't see your situation? Project-based engagements (flat-fee, scope-defined) start at $1,000 with no asset minimum. Sometimes a one-time consultation is the right starting point. That is also a yes from us.

A recent engagement Cryptocurrency Asset Protection Securities-Backed Lending Multi-Jurisdiction

When the structure doesn't exist yet, we bring it.

The situation

A New York-resident client held an eight-figure cryptocurrency position and needed $7M in liquidity to acquire a commercial property for his business. He had already hit a wall before he called us. New York state regulation prevents residents from borrowing against crypto on Coinbase. Selling enough of the position to fund the acquisition would have triggered capital gains tax in the millions. He had spoken with attorneys, his accountant, and his existing advisor. Nobody had a path forward. Most would have told him to sell, eat the tax, and move on.

What we did

We brought in our Wyoming trust company partner — an exclusive referral relationship we maintain specifically for situations like this — and built the structure that didn't exist for the client on his own. A Wyoming asset-protection trust with proper situs, a registered agent, and residency documentation anchored in-state. An LLC owned by the trust. Cryptocurrency transferred into the LLC. The Coinbase account opened in the LLC's name with every jurisdictional document reflecting Wyoming residency. The client then borrowed $7M against the position, completed the property acquisition, and kept the underlying asset.

The point most advisors miss: this kind of work is not something a client can assemble with a generic estate attorney and a custodian. It requires a relationship with a trust company that will actually serve as trustee, situs documentation that holds up under scrutiny, and an advisor who has done it enough times to know the order of operations. We have that infrastructure ready when a client needs it.

The outcome
  • $7,000,000 in liquidity deployed without any capital gains realized
  • The cryptocurrency position remained intact, free to continue compounding
  • Asset-protection structure in place as a permanent feature of the household, not a one-time fix
  • Property acquisition completed on the client's actual timeline

Case study described in summary form, anonymized to protect client privacy. Outcomes depend on individual facts, circumstances, and applicable law, and should not be construed as a guarantee of similar results. Multi-jurisdictional planning involves attorneys, custodians, and tax professionals; the trust company referenced is an unaffiliated third party with which we maintain a referral relationship. Suitability and feasibility are determined case by case.

04 / About

The advisor behind the work.

Family-owned · Independent · Since 2011

A small, stable team that knows your whole picture.

Dave leads client relationships and the planning work at Perrotto Private Wealth. He works with families, owners, executives, and retirees who want coordination, clarity, and a plan that actually gets implemented. The work centers on the kind of complexity most advisors will not touch: Wyoming asset-protection trusts (we maintain a referral relationship with a Wyoming trust company specifically for this), Roth conversion ladders sized to specific bracket math, securities-backed lending against concentrated equity and cryptocurrency positions, beneficiary audits that catch what a CPA review will not, and individual 401(k) rollovers timed to specific tax years. The firm serves clients nationwide and select US citizens abroad.

The practice is family-owned, not private-equity-backed, not a wirehouse breakaway. Christina, Dave's spouse, leads client services and keeps the experience consistent from onboarding through ongoing stewardship. There is no junior associate. There is no paraplanner. The advisor on your call is the advisor whose name is on the door.

Piper, the family mini-aussie, supports morale and occasionally participates as our unofficial Rollover Specialist.

Published

New York State Society of CPAs

Author, Looking Under the Hood of Mutual Funds and ETFs. A piece on hidden expense ratios, 12b-1 fees, mutual fund tax inefficiency, and why the fiduciary standard exists. The article is still on the NYSSCPA site, written for the people who read your tax return.

Industry

NAIFA · Board & National Leadership

Member, NAIFA New York Board. Grassroots leadership at the NAIFA national level. Showing up for the practice means showing up for the profession that protects clients from the bad version of it.

Practice

Independent & Family-Owned Since 2011

Not bank-owned. Not PE-backed. Not a wirehouse breakaway dressed up as independent. Founded in 2011 in NYC, now operating from Rochester, NY. The structure that lets us actually mean what we say.

A note from Dave

I started this practice in 2011 because I wanted to do the work the way I would want it done if I were the client. That meant not selling products on commission as a default, not handing planning off to a paraplanner I had only met twice, and not running a book that grew faster than I could remember which client's daughter just got into Cornell and which one's husband just had a knee replacement.

The clients we serve well are the ones who care about the same things I do: how decisions get made, how long they take, how the math actually checks out, and whether the person on the phone is the same person whose name is on the door. If that sounds like the practice you're looking for, we should probably talk.

If you've read this far, you're already the kind of person we work well with. Thank you for taking the time.

— David Perrotto Founder, Perrotto Private Wealth

When we're not at the office

  • Most weekends are family time with Christina, our daughter Michaela, and Piper. Cooking, anything outside, anything that gets everyone off a screen.
  • Dave is a tech and systems nerd. The practice runs on tools he builds himself: planning software, security analysis, RMD generators, tax modelers. Building beats buying.
  • Honest reading list: Nick Murray on behavior, Howard Marks on cycles, Michael Kitces on technique. The boring stuff that compounds over decades.
Founded
2011
Structure
Independent RIA
Standard
Fiduciary on advisory
Coverage
All 50 states
David Perrotto
David Perrotto
Founder
Christina Perrotto
Christina Perrotto
Client Services
A confidence move

What we don't do.

A short list, on principle. Saying it in writing keeps us honest.

  • We don't chase performance. No one beats the index reliably. Time, taxes, and behavior are where real returns get won or lost. We focus there.
  • We don't sell products as a default. Insurance and annuities exist when they fit the plan. They don't fit most plans. We say no more often than yes.
  • We don't take every prospect. If a situation is genuinely simple, a robo-advisor is cheaper and just as good. We'll tell you that on the first call.
  • We don't outsource the planning. The advisor on your call is the advisor doing the work. There is no junior associate. There is no paraplanner. There is Dave.
  • We don't grow past one advisor's capacity. Capacity is a feature, not a problem to fix. When the book is full, the answer is "not now" — not "let me hire someone."
05 / How We Work

A repeatable process for complex households.

Four steps · ongoing cadence
01

Discovery

Clarify goals, cash flow, taxes, and balance-sheet priorities. A two-way interview. Nobody signs anything on call one.

02

Plan

A clear written strategy across investments, taxes, insurance, retirement distribution, and estate coordination. Every recommendation shows the math.

03

Implement

Coordinate with your CPA, attorney, and other professionals. Trust funding executed. Accounts retitled. Beneficiaries aligned.

04

Steward

Annual strategic review. Quarterly check-ins. On-demand access when life calls for it. Stewardship is the job, not a checkbox.

For a month-by-month view of the first twelve months, the coordination model with your CPA & attorney, and the six promises every engagement keeps: See our full process →

06 / Fees

What we charge, and why.

Transparent · tiered · no commissions on advisory work

Most advisor websites do not publish fees. We do. If you are going to evaluate whether private-banking-style work is worth it for your situation, you need to know what it costs.

Advisory fee — most common engagement
First $1M of assets1.50%
$1M–$3M1.00%
$3M–$5M0.85%
Over $5MNegotiated

Fees are tiered: each band applies only to assets within that band, blended for the total. Billed quarterly in arrears. No hidden fees, no soft dollars, no markups on trades.

Our first-million rate is higher than a bare-minimum portfolio-manager AUM fee. The work is broader. Tax strategy, estate alignment, retirement income planning, ongoing stewardship. Not just managing a model portfolio. The fee compresses quickly above $1M as the relationship grows.

What's included
  • Written investment policy + ongoing portfolio management
  • Annual strategic review + quarterly check-ins
  • Tax-coordination work with your CPA
  • Estate coordination with your attorney
  • Roth conversion planning, RMD management, IRMAA planning
  • Beneficiary & titling audits
  • On-demand access for real life events
  • No additional charge for plan revisions or model changes

Other engagement types

Project-based planning

Flat-fee engagement for households not seeking ongoing advisory. Typical scope: Roth conversion plan, retirement income plan, equity-comp strategy, one-time fit consultation. Starts at $1,000 and scales with complexity, typically up to $15,000. No asset minimum.

Insurance & annuity products

Where insurance, annuities, or disability coverage is appropriate, those products pay a commission to the licensed agent. We disclose the commission, the alternative, and why we are recommending the product. Clients are always free to purchase elsewhere.

Why we publish this

Most prospective clients have no idea what their current advisor is being paid. We think that's a problem. When you can see the fee, you can evaluate whether the work justifies it. When you can't, you have to take it on faith, and faith is the wrong basis for a multi-decade financial relationship.

For advisory work, we operate as a fiduciary through Bright Futures Wealth Management. Where insurance or annuity products fit the plan, those are sold separately through Silver Oak Securities and pay a commission. Both fee schedules are disclosed before you ever sign anything. You see what you're paying, on what work, and why.

If your situation is genuinely complex and the advisory work is in scope of what we do, the ongoing fee is small relative to what aligned planning can be worth across a multi-decade relationship. If your situation is simpler, a one-time flat-fee consultation may be the right starting point. You get the planning work without committing to ongoing advisory. And if even a project doesn't make sense, we'll say so on the first call. Honest fit assessment is the job, not the conversion.

07 / Writing

From the desk.

All writing →
Tax Bracket Management Feb 2026

RSUs and Concentration Risk — An Executive Decision Framework

RSUs can be a great benefit. They can also quietly turn into a problem you do not notice until the wrong day. A plain-English decision framework for executives.

Read the piece →
Retirement Coaching Feb 2026

Withdrawal Sequencing in Retirement — A Tax-Smart Framework to Make Your Money Last

A lot of retirees do retirement income the same way they do home repairs. The problem is not effort — it is order. Here is the plain-English framework.

Read the piece →
Private Banking Feb 2026

How Much Cash Should You Keep — A Private Banking Framework for Liquidity

If you have too little cash, life becomes a string of small emergencies. If you have too much, you pay a quieter cost. Most people have a cash system problem — here is the private-banking framework for fixing it.

Read the piece →
08 / The introduction

A thirty-minute
conversation costs nothing
and usually clarifies
everything.

No sales pitch, no pressure. We'll talk about what's on your mind, and you'll get an honest answer about whether this is the right practice for your situation. Either way, you leave with something useful.

Prefer to write or call?

dave@perrottowealth.com 718.551.7131