First Financial Group is an independent, fiduciary planning practice serving households and small businesses across the D.C. metro. We translate complicated balance sheets into clear, calm decisions — retirement, taxes, estate, and investments under one roof.
Live planning room
Most of our clients arrive with a stack of statements from three different institutions and a vague sense that something should be happening differently. Our first job is to listen. The second is to organize. The third — only after we understand the household — is to recommend anything at all.
Bethesda Office
Our Bethesda studio is where 401(k) rollovers, trust documents, and tax projections get argued out on a single whiteboard — usually with coffee, occasionally with a calculator thrown.
We don't sell products in isolation. Each engagement below is priced as a standalone scope, but most clients bundle two or three into an ongoing relationship. Indicative fees are shown below — final quotes are confirmed in writing after an introductory call.
A full household plan: cash flow, retirement projections, insurance review, education funding, and a year-one action calendar. Delivered as a written plan with two revision cycles.
Discretionary portfolio management with quarterly reviews, tax-loss harvesting, rebalancing, and access to our planning team year-round. Asset-based fee, all-in.
For clients within five years of retirement: a drawdown sequence across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth buckets, with Social Security timing analysis and Medicare bracket planning.
Year-round tax strategy in partnership with your CPA: Roth conversion ladders, charitable bunching, QSBS review, and equity compensation modeling. We do not prepare returns — we make them cheaper.
A document audit against current Maryland and federal law, beneficiary verification across all accounts, and a coordinated handoff to your attorney for any updates needed.
For Bethesda-area practices and LLCs: retirement plan selection (SEP, SIMPLE, 401(k), defined benefit), owner compensation strategy, and succession planning for the eventual exit.
"We are not trying to be the most exciting office in Bethesda. We are trying to be the one you stop worrying about."
Our investment philosophy leans on broadly diversified, low-cost index funds and individual bonds laddered to your cash-flow needs. We do not chase themes, we do not tactically trade around earnings, and we will not pretend we can time the market.
What we do spend time on: tax efficiency, withdrawal sequencing, behavioral coaching through the inevitable bad quarter, and making sure your plan still fits the life you actually have — not the one you had three years ago.
Legal obligation to act in your best interest, in writing, on every recommendation.
One fee, disclosed in advance. No kickbacks, no revenue sharing, no hidden share classes.
Studio · Bethesda Row
Send a few details and we'll reply within one business day with a calendar link for a complimentary introductory call. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you — and often refer you to someone who is.