We’re here to guide your entire financial life—not just the obvious decisions, but the ones most advisors never bring to the table. We work with founders through life-changing moments and stick around to make sure what they’ve created continues to grow and provide for the people who matter most.
Turn your business
into lasting
wealth.
We call our clients ‘partners’ with
the philosophy that a strong
partnership leads to better
outcomes long term.
Founder
Approach
A billion-dollar
mindset.
Too often, advisors look at the business alone. We see everything around it—your taxes, your investments, your family, and your future. We understand the decisions owners lose sleep over and bring the same strategies used in billion-dollar portfolios to help guide those decisions.
Essential Exit
Framework
We begin with your business, your capital, and the decisions in front of you. What you’ve built matters. We take the time to understand it fully, including where you want to go, before we recommend anything.
We model what’s in front of you—sell or wait, reinvest or hold. Each scenario is broken down so you can see how timing, taxes, and risk shape the outcome, and what each path means for your life and your business.
Tax strategy is applied to everything we do—first on the transaction where the bill is greatest, then across your portfolio and estate. We lead alongside our network of CPAs and T&E attorneys‚ or collaborate with your existing team.
For founders managing capital after a sale, protecting what you’ve built matters as much as growing it. We invest with institutional discipline across a broad range of asset classes, built to hold up whether markets are strong or not.
Your situation evolves and the markets shift—we track both and adjust continuously so your strategy stays aligned with your goals and your money compounds over time.
What they’re
saying.
“Because of them, I have exposure to opportunities most people don’t even know about.”
“Working with Essential was the best financial decision we made.”
“I don't need to needlessly pay taxes. They're collaborating with my tax accountant and estate attorney.”
Promise
We’re with you
for the long-run.
Founder Story
Why we started
Essential.
Nick Bartolo grew up surrounded by builders—contractors, operators, and entrepreneurs responsible for real payrolls and real people. From an early age, curiosity drove him to understand how those businesses worked and what it actually took to make them last.
After earning his MBA from USC, where he currently serves as an Advisory Board Member at the Center for Investment Studies, he spent two decades on Wall Street as a Managing Director at IVA, Senior Vice President at TCW, and earlier at Capital Group—investing across global equities and fixed income at firms that managed over $2.5 trillion on behalf of individuals, advisors, and institutions, including pension and endowment funds. A CFA, CPA, and MBA, what he saw confirmed what he already believed: founders rarely have access to the financial expertise their capital demands.
Essential was built to change that.
Nick Bartolo
Founder