Working with us follows three steps:

1. Introductory conversation. We learn your priorities and confirm whether we are a good fit.
2. Wealth and tax-aware analysis. We review your investments, tax efficiency, cash flow, and estate alignment, then deliver written recommendations and a fee proposal.
3. Implementation. We set up your strategy at an independent custodian (Charles Schwab or Axos) on your timeline and coordinate with your CPA and estate attorney.

You receive written recommendations and understand exactly what our services cost before you make any commitment.

No. Starting a new advisory relationship does not mean everything you own needs to be sold. We transfer securities in-kind, without automatic liquidation. Once your accounts arrive, we review which holdings still fit your plan. Where changes make sense, we build a phased transition that weighs taxes, transaction costs, liquidity needs, and timing.

Your accounts are held in your name at independent qualified custodians, including Charles Schwab & Co. and Axos. Fountain Wealth Partners never takes custody of client funds. The custodian holds your assets, executes transactions, and sends statements and tax documents directly to you. You keep 24/7 online access to your accounts, and we are authorized to manage them under your advisory agreement.

Accounts carry SIPC protection against custodian insolvency. SIPC does not protect against market losses.

You work directly with senior advisors, not a call center or a junior desk. The firm is led by President and owner David Fountain, CFP®, who has more than 30 years of industry experience, including work with Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, and First Horizon Advisors.

Our advisory team includes five CFP® professionals: David Fountain, Sandee Fricks, Carolyn Flournoy, Joey Hampton, and Jake McTyre. Dedicated relationship managers round out the team.

Your family's financial future should not depend on one person. With five CFP® professionals on the team, knowledge of your financial life extends beyond a single advisor. We want your spouse to know us and, when appropriate, your adult children too. That way, no one meets their advisory team for the first time during a difficult moment.

Yes, with your permission. We act as the financial quarterback for your advisory team. We share realized gain and loss reports, cost-basis schedules, and tax summaries with your CPA. We join joint planning discussions and confirm that account titling and beneficiary designations match your estate documents. We do not replace the professionals you trust. We help them work from the same financial picture.

No. We do not prepare tax returns, provide formal tax or legal advice, draft legal documents, or act as an attorney or corporate trustee. We practice tax-aware wealth planning: we identify opportunities within your financial plan and coordinate with your CPA and estate attorney, who handle the tax and legal work.

We have two offices in North Georgia:

• Alpharetta: 12600 Deerfield Parkway, Suite 100, Alpharetta, GA 30004
• Cumming: 1080 Sanders Road, Suite 300, Cumming, GA 30041

We serve families across Fulton, Forsyth, and Cherokee counties, including Alpharetta, Milton, Johns Creek, Roswell, and Cumming. You can meet with us in person or by secure video. Through our virtual wealth management practice, we also work with clients across the country.

Yes. Multi-state tax and property coordination is a core part of our national practice. We help evaluate statutory residency rules and state income tax differences, such as a move to Florida or Tennessee. We model the tax impact of a relocation before you move and coordinate directly with your CPA. Meetings happen by video, with a secure client portal for documents and account tracking.

Yes. Darcy Searl co-founded Financial Consultants Group in North Georgia in 1996. David Fountain, CFP®, became President and owner when Darcy retired from day-to-day practice. The new name reflects how far our work now extends beyond investments, into retirement, tax, estate, and family planning. The relationships, the history, and the fee-only fiduciary commitment are unchanged.

We recommend formalizing your retirement income strategy 3 to 5 years before you plan to stop working. That window allows time to build cash reserves, evaluate Roth conversions before Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) begin, and plan your move to Medicare. If you are already retired, we can still bring your accounts, income, and taxes into one coordinated plan.

We start with the dependable income you already have, such as Social Security and pensions, then determine how much your portfolio needs to provide. From there, we decide which accounts withdrawals should come from: taxable, tax-deferred, or Roth. We factor in tax brackets, Medicare IRMAA surcharge limits, RMDs, and how much cash reserve you need. We also stress-test the plan against a market decline early in retirement, when withdrawals and losses can compound each other.

Yes. We look at Social Security alongside your other assets, retirement date, spending needs, taxes, longevity, and portfolio. For married couples, we consider your spouse's benefit and what happens to household income when one spouse dies. The goal is not simply to maximize one monthly benefit, but to claim when it makes the most sense for your overall plan.

It depends on your tax picture, and we model it over a 10 to 20 year horizon before recommending anything. The best window is often the "tax valley" years between leaving work and the start of RMDs (age 73 or 75) and Social Security. Converting during lower-income years can reduce future RMDs, help manage Medicare premium surcharges, and leave your heirs a Roth IRA they can withdraw income-tax-free.

We typically favor partial conversions over several years rather than one large conversion. Each autumn, we review your year-to-date income with your CPA to set the amount, and when possible we pay the conversion tax from outside cash. A Roth conversion is a taxable event.

Your financial plan guides the portfolio, not the other way around. We build diversified portfolios around your goals, time horizon, income needs, risk tolerance, and taxes. We use both passive and active management: passive in highly efficient areas of the stock market, and experienced active managers more selectively in areas such as fixed income, credit, smaller companies, and international markets.

Depending on your needs, portfolios may include broad-market and factor-based ETFs, individual stocks, municipal and taxable bonds, international investments, and cash reserves.

Two portfolios with similar returns can produce very different after-tax results. Depending on your situation, we use asset location across taxable and retirement accounts, municipal versus taxable bond analysis, tax-loss harvesting, and careful management of appreciated or concentrated positions. We also consider gifting appreciated securities to charity and evaluate the tax impact before any significant portfolio change. All of this is coordinated with your CPA.

Yes. We work with Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), Incentive Stock Options (ISOs), Non-Qualified Stock Options (NSOs), phantom stock, and non-qualified deferred compensation. We analyze the cost basis and holding period of each position, then build a staged, multi-year diversification schedule. Where appropriate, we use structured Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. We coordinate tax brackets and Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exposure with your CPA.

Ideally 2 to 5 years before a transaction. That runway allows time to review entity structures, explore Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) eligibility, and work with estate counsel on pre-sale gifting trusts such as SLATs. We also translate potential sale prices into real, after-tax lifestyle numbers, so you know what an offer means for your family before negotiations begin.

We do not broker or value companies. Our focus is making sure your personal finances, family, and wealth are ready for the sale.

A Cash Balance Defined Benefit plan paired with a Safe Harbor 401(k) can allow qualifying high-income owners to defer $150,000 to $300,000 or more in pre-tax income each year, subject to IRS limits and plan design. Depending on your company, we may also look at 401(k) plans, profit-sharing, SIMPLE IRAs, and SEP IRAs. We handle plan coordination, asset allocation, and investment education, while plan documents and administration are coordinated with specialized ERISA plan administrators.

After a sale, millions of dollars that once had a clear job suddenly need a new plan. We help you decide how much to keep liquid, how much to invest, how much risk is appropriate, and where future income will come from. We also help weigh paying down debt, gifts to family, charitable opportunities, estate plan changes, and the taxes ahead. With your permission, we work alongside your CPA, transaction attorney, and estate attorney through the process.

Your attorney drafts the wills, trusts, and powers of attorney. Attorneys typically do not fund trusts, retitle brokerage accounts, update beneficiary designations across custodians, or model multi-year tax projections. We make sure your investment accounts, beneficiary designations, and retirement assets actually match your legal estate plan. When legal changes are needed, we coordinate directly with your attorney.

Most non-spouse beneficiaries must withdraw an inherited IRA's full balance within 10 years of the owner's death. That can push adult children into their highest tax brackets during their peak earning years. We model multi-year Roth conversion strategies and evaluate trust distribution provisions with your attorney to reduce the tax burden on your family.

In many families, one spouse leads on investments while the other focuses elsewhere. We want both spouses to understand the plan and know our team, so the surviving spouse is never left to sort out a lifetime of decisions alone. We plan ahead for what changes after the first death: income, Social Security, taxes, and which assets are immediately available. We also work with widows and surviving spouses who are taking on greater responsibility for family finances.

Yes. We model gifting scenarios to answer one question: how much can you give without compromising your own independence? For charitable goals, we may consider gifting appreciated securities, donor-advised funds, qualified charitable distributions when eligible, and charitable beneficiary designations. More advanced structures, such as charitable remainder or lead trusts, are evaluated with your legal and tax professionals. When appropriate, we also help prepare children and grandchildren for the responsibilities that come with an inheritance.

Private Wealth is designed for families whose finances involve greater complexity. That often means $5 million or more in investable assets, though fit is considered individually. These families may have trusts or other entities, closely held businesses, significant real estate, concentrated stock or executive compensation, charitable foundations, or several generations involved in decisions.

The relationship includes consolidated reporting across public, private, and trust assets, family governance and stewardship planning, and direct partner-level access. We lead coordination with your CPA and estate attorney, including an annual pre-year-end planning review.