Our Services
Financial Planning
At Siena Private Wealth, comprehensive financial planning means more than managing a portfolio — it means building a cohesive strategy that connects every dimension of your financial life. Our team of credentialed professionals works collaboratively to align your investments, tax planning, estate planning, and cash flow strategy into a unified plan tailored to your goals. We act in a fiduciary capacity, committed to putting your interests first, and strive to provide guidance that is objective and transparent, and we disclose and manage conflicts of interest in accordance with applicable regulations. Whether you are building wealth, navigating a major life transition, or planning for the generation that follows, we offer a depth of knowledge that sophisticated financial planning demands.
Portfolio Management
We craft personalized investment strategies based on your financial goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon. We provide customized management that seeks to align with your long-term financial objectives.We begin by understanding your unique financial goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon to create a personalized portfolio that aligns with your specific needs. We then build a balanced portfolio by spreading investments across various asset classes, sectors, and regions to help reduce risk and potentially enhance returns over the long term. We continuously monitor your portfolio to keep it aligned with your objectives, with adjustments made as market conditions or your needs change. We maintain open, transparent communication, providing regular updates on your portfolio’s performance and strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get in Touch
Siena Private Wealth serves clients across the country both virtually and in person from our headquarters at 57 North Main Street, West Hartford, Connecticut 06107. We also have a Hudson Valley office at 5 Chatham Street, Kinderhook, New York 12106, and a Manhattan office at 350 West 50th Street, Suite 22F, New York, New York 10019. To schedule a complimentary introductory consultation, call 860-969-7458.
Yes. Siena Private Wealth is an independent, family-run wealth management practice led by Marisa Rothstein, JD, CFP®. Siena does not work for a bank, brokerage firm, or insurance company. Siena's advisors offer investment advisory services as a member of Advisory Services Network, LLC (ASN), an SEC-registered investment adviser that supports a network of independent advisors.
Yes. Siena Private Wealth is a fee-only financial advisor. Clients pay Siena directly for advice, and Siena does not earn commissions from selling investments or insurance.
Yes. Siena Private Wealth works under the fiduciary standard for every client, which legally obligates the firm to put clients' interests ahead of its own. Siena provides fair and full disclosure of all material facts and discloses and manages conflicts of interest in accordance with SEC regulations. Siena's lead advisor holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation and agrees to follow the CFP Board's Standards of Professional Conduct.
Clients pay Siena Private Wealth directly in one of two ways. For comprehensive portfolio management, which combines financial planning and investment management, Siena charges 0.65% to 1.25% of assets under management per year, depending on asset level. For standalone financial planning, Siena charges a flat fee, which the client and Siena agree on in advance based on the plan's complexity. Siena does not accept commissions, and clients authorize asset-based fees in writing in their advisory agreement.
Yes. Siena Private Wealth provides ongoing portfolio management for individuals and families. Siena builds each portfolio around the client's financial goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon, diversifies it across asset classes, sectors, and regions, and monitors it continuously, adjusting as markets or the client's needs change.
Yes. Siena Private Wealth offers standalone financial planning for a flat fee agreed on in advance based on complexity. A Siena plan can address investments, tax planning, estate planning, and cash flow. Planning clients do not need to move their investments to Siena; they can implement the recommendations on their own or with any advisor they choose.
Siena Private Wealth is a family-run practice led by a female financial advisor, Marisa Rothstein, JD, CFP®, AEP. Siena takes pride in serving and empowering women who have perhaps been ignored or spoken down to by in previous financial relationships.
Siena Private Wealth helps women going through divorce work out what they need to live on, build their settlement position around that number, and learn to manage their own finances once the divorce ends. Siena's lead advisor, Marisa Rothstein, JD, CFP®, AEP, is both an attorney and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, so she understands the legal process and the long-term financial consequences of each settlement choice. Siena does not represent clients in the divorce itself. Siena works alongside the client's divorce attorney or mediator and gives them the financial analysis to negotiate from.
Why does Siena start with what the client needs to live on?
A divorce negotiation asks how much each spouse can get. A financial plan asks how much you need, for how long, and which assets will provide it. Those two questions can lead to very different settlements. A client can win the larger share of the marital estate and still come out short if that share is a house she can't afford to maintain, or a retirement account she will owe income tax on every time she withdraws from it. Two assets with the same value on paper can buy very different lives once taxes, liquidity, and upkeep come into play. Siena starts with the client's real monthly spending and future goals, then tests each settlement proposal against them.
In Connecticut, courts divide marital property through equitable distribution. That means a fair division rather than an automatic 50/50 split, and judges weigh factors that include the length of the marriage, each spouse's income and earning capacity, and each spouse's contributions to the marital assets. Clear numbers about what a client needs give her attorney a stronger basis for arguing what a fair division looks like.
What is Siena Private Wealth's process for divorce financial planning?
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Introductory consultation. Siena meets with the client confidentially, at no cost, to understand where she is in the divorce and what worries her most.
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Full financial picture. Siena gathers bank and investment statements, retirement and pension accounts, tax returns, debts, insurance, and property records, and helps the client find accounts she may not know about.
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A real budget. Siena builds two budgets with the client: what the household spends now, and what she will spend living on her own. The second budget includes costs that often change after divorce, such as health insurance, housing, childcare, and replacing services a spouse used to provide.
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Settlement modeling. Siena projects each proposed settlement over the client's lifetime, after taxes, and shows whether it supports the life she wants. Typical comparisons include keeping the house versus selling it, alimony versus a lump sum, and which retirement accounts to take.
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Coordination with the legal team. Siena shares its analysis with the client's attorney or mediator so the negotiation rests on the client's actual needs.
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Implementation after the decree. Siena helps the client retitle accounts, coordinates the qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) that divides employer retirement plans, updates beneficiary designations and estate documents, and builds an investment portfolio around her new plan.
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Ongoing planning. Siena meets with the client regularly as her life after divorce takes shape.
How does Siena help clients learn or relearn to manage their finances independently?
Many women leave a marriage in which a spouse handled the investments, the taxes, or the bills. Siena teaches clients the practical skills of managing money at their own pace. That includes reading a brokerage statement, setting up bill payments, building credit in their own name, understanding what their portfolio owns and why, and preparing for tax season. Siena explains every recommendation so the client makes her own decisions with full information, and she can ask any question, however basic it seems.
When should someone going through divorce contact Siena Private Wealth?
The best time is before signing any settlement agreement, ideally when negotiations begin, because settlement terms are difficult to change once the court enters the decree. Siena also works with women after the divorce is final who need help investing a settlement, creating a new financial plan, or taking over finances a former spouse used to manage.
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Siena Private Wealth helps widows and widowers handle the financial decisions that follow the death of a spouse, in the order they actually need to happen, and build a long-term plan for life on their own. Siena's lead advisor, Marisa Rothstein, JD, CFP®, AEP, is an attorney, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, and an Accredited Estate Planner. The Siena team also includes a trusts and estates specialist and a CPA, so estate settlement, taxes, and investments stay coordinated in one plan. As a fee-only firm, Siena sells no insurance, annuities, or investment products, so a grieving client never gets a sales pitch disguised as advice.
Why does Siena separate what needs to happen now from what can wait?
In the weeks after a spouse dies, a surviving spouse faces paperwork, deadlines, and advice from every direction, often while grieving. Some tasks can't wait, such as making sure bills get paid and claiming benefits. Other decisions carry lasting consequences and rarely need a quick answer, such as selling the house, lending money to family, moving investments, or buying a financial product. Siena starts by sorting the client's to-do list into what needs attention this month and what can wait until the client feels ready, so no one makes a permanent decision under pressure.
What is Siena Private Wealth's process for working with a surviving spouse?
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Introductory consultation. Siena meets with the client confidentially, at no cost, to learn what has happened, what is already in motion, and what worries the client most.
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Immediate cash flow. Siena makes sure the client has enough accessible money to cover the coming months while accounts go through retitling, benefit claims, and any probate.
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Finding and organizing everything. Siena helps the client locate every account, insurance policy, pension, retirement plan, debt, and digital login, and builds one inventory of what the couple owned and owed.
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Claims and retitling. Siena helps the client file life insurance and employer benefit claims, retitle joint accounts, and work through beneficiary transfers with each custodian.
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Coordination with the estate. Siena works alongside the estate attorney and executor so that estate settlement, asset transfers, and the client's own plan fit together.
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Social Security. Siena analyzes when the client should claim survivor benefits and how they interact with the client's own retirement benefit. A surviving spouse can receive survivor benefits starting at age 60, or at age 50 with a disability, and Social Security also pays a one-time $255 lump-sum death payment to an eligible surviving spouse.
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Retirement accounts. A spouse who inherits an IRA or employer retirement plan can roll it into their own IRA or keep it as an inherited account. Siena models both options, because the better choice depends on the client's age, income needs, and tax picture.
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Taxes. Siena coordinates with the client's CPA on the tax rules that apply after a death. A surviving spouse can generally file a joint return for the year the spouse died. A surviving spouse with a dependent child may qualify to file as a qualifying surviving spouse for the following two years, which keeps joint tax rates. Inherited assets generally receive a new cost basis equal to their fair market value on the date of death, which affects which assets to sell and when.
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Estate tax portability. When the estate isn't otherwise required to file a federal estate tax return, the executor can still file one to transfer the deceased spouse's unused estate tax exemption to the survivor. IRS guidance allows this election up to five years after the date of death. Siena flags whether the election makes sense for the client and coordinates with the estate attorney and CPA.
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A new financial plan. Once the immediate work is done, Siena builds a plan for life on one household's income: a new budget, an investment portfolio that matches the client's goals and comfort with risk, and an updated estate plan with new beneficiary designations.
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Ongoing planning. Siena meets with the client regularly as life settles into its new shape.
How does Siena help surviving spouses learn to manage their finances independently?
Many couples divide the financial work, and when one spouse dies, the survivor often inherits tasks the other spouse always handled, from paying the bills to managing the investments to filing the taxes. Siena teaches these skills at the client's pace. That includes finding and organizing online accounts, setting up automatic bill payments, reading an investment statement, understanding what the portfolio owns and why, and preparing for tax season. Siena explains every recommendation so the client makes decisions with full information, and the client can ask any question, however basic it seems.
When should a widow or widower contact Siena Private Wealth?
A surviving spouse can contact Siena at any point. Early contact helps with benefit claims, retitling, and deadlines, and Siena works with the client's timeline rather than pushing for decisions. Siena also works with surviving spouses years after a loss, when they're ready to reorganize their finances, invest an inheritance or insurance proceeds, or build a plan of their own. Families can reach out on behalf of a parent who has lost a spouse.
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Introductory consultation. Siena meets with the client confidentially, at no cost, to learn where the money came from, when it arrives, and what feels urgent.
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A safe place to start. Siena helps the client hold the money in low-risk, accessible accounts while planning happens, so nothing gets rushed.
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Full financial picture. Siena gathers the client's accounts, debts, income, tax returns, and existing estate documents, along with any paperwork for the inheritance, gift, settlement, or compensation package.
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What the money is for. Siena works with the client to name specific goals and priorities, including what the client wants to do for family and what the client wants to protect for herself.
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Tax review. Siena coordinates with the client's CPA on the tax consequences of the new assets, including cost basis, inherited retirement account withdrawals, and the tax treatment of equity compensation.
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A written plan. Siena builds a plan that covers emergency savings, debt payoff, major purchases, retirement, giving, and an investment strategy matched to the client's goals and comfort with risk.
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Investing the money. Siena builds a customized portfolio and moves the money into it on a schedule the client understands and agrees to.
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Protection. Siena reviews the client's estate plan, beneficiary designations, and insurance coverage so the new wealth has the protection it now needs.
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Ongoing planning. Siena meets with the client regularly and updates the plan as goals and circumstances change.
How does Siena help clients learn to manage significant wealth?
Many new-to-wealth clients have managed a household budget for years but have never been responsible for a large investment portfolio, a complex tax return, or an estate plan. Siena teaches those skills at the client's pace. That includes reading investment statements, understanding what the portfolio owns and why, knowing how taxes affect each decision, and preparing answers for family and friends who ask for money. Siena explains every recommendation so the client makes her own decisions with full information, and the client can ask any question, however basic it seems.
When should someone who is new to wealth contact Siena Private Wealth?
The best time is before the money arrives or before making any major decision with it: while an estate is still in probate, while a divorce settlement is being finalized, or when a new offer letter lands. Siena also works with clients months or years after a windfall, when they're ready to organize it into a plan.
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Siena Private Wealth designs each client's portfolio individually, starting from that client's financial goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon. Siena diversifies the portfolio across asset classes, sectors, and regions to help reduce risk, monitors it on an ongoing basis, and adjusts it when market conditions or the client's needs change. Clients can place reasonable restrictions on their accounts, such as excluding certain types of investments.
Marisa Rothstein, JD, CFP®, AEP, launched Siena Private Wealth in 2019 and serves as its Lead Financial Advisor. Marisa clerked for a New Jersey Superior Court judge, earned her CFP® designation at Asset Strategies, Inc., and served as Managing Director and Trust & Planning Specialist at Baker Avenue Wealth Management in New York City before founding Siena. She holds a JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a BA with honors in sociology from Vassar College. The Siena team also includes Alan Rothstein, CPA/PFS; Nolan Robinson, JD, LLM; Laura Reynolds; and Annabel Veale, MSF.
Ms. Money is the pen name of Marisa Rothstein, JD, CFP®, Lead Financial Advisor at Siena Private Wealth. Ms. Money writes about personal finance, women and money, retirement, scams, and financial policy on the Siena website and on Substack. Read it here.