What About Us Financial

What What About Us Financial does

What About Us Financial is a fee-only fiduciary registered investment advisor founded in 2019 by Carrie Cook, CFP®, CRPC®, and operating from a home-based office in Bellbrook, Ohio. The firm offers retail financial planning and investment management to individuals who are typically underserved by traditional advisors, explicitly targeting women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ clients, environmental activists, social justice advocates, and Gen X/Y/Z investors. It is registered to provide advisory services in Ohio and Texas, with operations supported by a small library of on-demand educational video content and a newsletter funnel.

The service catalog is built around three pricing tiers: The Planner, a monthly subscription at $150/month that bundles four annual meetings with unlimited email/phone support and a personalized financial plan; The Investor, a 1.20% AUM fee (billed quarterly) with no minimum, focused on ESG-aligned portfolio construction and rebalancing across IRAs, Solo 401k, brokerage, trust, and estate accounts; and Investor Plus, which waives the Planner fee for clients with $200,000 or more in managed assets. An In Transition Service addresses event-driven needs (job changes, divorce, retirement, loss), handling rollovers, QDROs, and estate coordination, with fees converting to the AUM model once assets are invested. No proprietary technology platform exists; client delivery runs entirely on commodity tools (Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Calendly).

The business model is a classic solo-RIA structure with no external funding, no parent company, and no disclosed institutional backing. Marketing is direct-to-consumer through content marketing, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, and XY Planning Network affiliation. Carrie Cook simultaneously serves as Founder and CCO, making the firm entirely key-person dependent. The competitive positioning rests on fiduciary standard, fee-only compensation, no-asset-minimums access, and ESG investing specialization, rather than on technology, scale, or distribution breadth.

Name

What About Us Financial

Legal name

What About Us Financial LLC

Website

https://whataboutusfinancial.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Short description

What About Us Financial is a fee-only fiduciary RIA in Bellbrook, Ohio, founded in 2019 by Carrie Cook, providing subscription-based financial planning and ESG-focused investment management to underserved communities including women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ clients, environmental activists, and younger generations in Ohio and Texas.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Investment Advisory Services

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Financial Planning–Led RIAs (FSAAACAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Values-Based/ESG & Impact-Focused RIAs (FSAAACAK), Portfolio Management–Led RIAs (Discretionary/Model-Based) (FSAAACAC), Fee-Only Advisory (FSAEAAAL)

Keywords

• Financial planning services
• Investment advisory
• ESG investing
• Retirement planning
• Fiduciary advisory

Headquarters

HQ city

Bellbrook

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel

Revenue model

1. The Planner - Monthly Subscription: Monthly subscription at $150/month with possible upfront charge. Includes four meetings over 12 months via Zoom or Teams, unlimited email/phone questions, budgeting/debt repayment templates, investment analysis of employer plans (401k, 403b, TSP, Deferred Comp, 529), personalized financial plan, and regular video/article content.
2. The Investor - AUM-based Fee: 1.20% annual fee calculated on assets under management, billed quarterly. Includes account opening (Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Rollover IRA, SEP/SIMPLE IRA, Solo 401k, Brokerage/TOD, Trust, Estate), investment selection, monitoring, and rebalancing. Focus on ESG investing. No minimum to invest.
3. Investor Plus - Combined Tier: For clients with $200,000 or more in managed assets, the monthly Planner fee is waived; client pays only the 1.20% AUM fee, receiving both services bundled.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

What About Us Financial is a fee-only registered investment advisor (RIA) providing fiduciary financial planning and investment management services to individuals. It offers a monthly subscription planning service (The Planner) and an AUM-based investment service (The Investor) focused on ESG investing, with a combined tier for higher-asset clients. The firm serves underserved communities including women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, environmental activists, and social justice champions.

Product overview

What About Us Financial is a fee-only fiduciary financial planning firm offering two primary service tiers: The Planner (monthly subscription at $150/month) and The Investor (1.20% AUM fee). Investor Plus combines both tiers for clients with $200,000+ in managed assets. An In Transition Service supports clients through major life changes like job loss, divorce, or retirement. The firm focuses on ESG investing and serves underserved communities including women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, and environmental activists. Educational video content on financial topics is provided as supplementary resources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Planner
• The Investor
• Investor Plus
• In Transition Service

Quantifiable outcome

• No minimum investable assets required
• +1 more outcomes

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• XY Planning NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember of the XY Planning Network, a network of fee-only financial advisors. Referenced through logo display on website indicating professional affiliation and network membership.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Wealthsimple: Large Canadian-headquartered digital wealth manager with strong ESG/SRI product line and low-minimum accounts. Comparable in ESG product emphasis and no/low-minimum positioning, but operates at vastly greater scale and as a fintech platform rather than an individual RIA.
• Personal Capital: Hybrid digital wealth manager combining free planning tools, dashboards, and advisor-led wealth management. Comparable in offering financial planning plus AUM-based investment services, but at a much larger scale and with a minimum-asset focus.
• Betterment: Large automated investing platform with no minimums and a flat percentage AUM fee. Competes with WAUF for the same no-minimum, younger, mass-affluent client base, though Betterment is purely robo-advice without human fiduciary planning.
• Schwab Intelligent Portfolios: Charles Schwab's robo-advisor with no minimums and no advisory fee. Represents the institutional incumbent competing for the underserved, no-minimum segment that WAUF targets, though lacking ESG-specialized planning or human fiduciary advice.

Direct peers

• Ellevest: Digital wealth management platform built primarily for women, combining financial planning with portfolio management. Directly comparable in target demographic (women-focused, inclusive) and in offering both planning-style guidance and managed investing.
• Facet Wealth: Hybrid advice platform offering flat-fee financial planning paired with investment management, targeting mass-affluent and next-generation clients without traditional asset minimums. Closely comparable in subscription-plus-AUM hybrid pricing and remote delivery model.
• XY Planning Network member firms: WAUF is itself an XYPN member; the network aggregates hundreds of fee-only, fiduciary RIAs serving younger and mass-affluent clients without high asset minimums — making other XYPN members the closest direct peers in business model, fee structure, and target demographic.

Emerging players

• GreenAlpha Advisors: RIA specializing exclusively in sustainable and ESG investing for individual and institutional clients. Comparable in ESG-first identity and fee-only model, though operates at a smaller institutional-leaning scale.
• Worth: Financial planning service originally focused on women navigating divorce and major life transitions. Comparable in serving female and life-transition clients with holistic, planning-led advice rather than pure AUM brokerage.
• OpenInvest: ESG-focused digital wealth manager offering values-aligned portfolios for individuals and advisors. Directly comparable in ESG specialization and fee-only advisory orientation, though it scales via B2B advisor partnerships rather than direct consumer RIA delivery.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/What-About-Us-Financial-100636918142408

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about What About Us Financial