Tech professionals and founders
Firms serving equity comp specialists, pre-IPO founders, and Bay Area tech workers navigating RSUs, ISOs, and QSBS decisions.
Specialty-first · Compliance-native · Lead-focused
A design studio for fee‑only RIAs serving high-earning professionals.
Websites that amplify your referral engine instead of replacing it.
Jeremie. Systems engineer, founder of Wielden. I build websites for fee-only RIAs who want lead generation to be measurable, not decorative.
Organic growth · fee-only RIAs 9.0% 3.0% 2017 — 2026
01 — The problem
Most RIA websites are brochures. They shouldn’t be.
Between 2017 and 2026, organic growth for fee-only RIAs dropped from 9% to 3%. The referral engines that built the profession are producing less than they used to. That is not a failure of the referrals; it is the plateau every high-trust profession reaches when demand for its services outpaces its capacity to broadcast them.
The firms that continue to grow through the plateau are the ones treating their website as complementary infrastructure to their referral engine, not as a replacement for it. They surface the specialty their clients care about. They exploit the SEC Marketing Rule provisions available since November 2022. They design for conversion instead of aesthetics.
Wielden builds those websites.
02 — Who we serve
Who we work with.
We work exclusively with fee-only RIAs. Not commissioned advisors, not hybrid broker-dealers, not wirehouses. The focus is deliberate.
Physicians and their families
Firms serving attending physicians, established practitioners, and pre-retirement medical professionals with income complexity that generalists mismanage.
Other specialty practices
Fee-only firms whose specialty is clearly declared and served exclusively. If your specialty defines your book, we can help.
Note
Our sweet spot is fee-only RIAs between $50M and $500M in AUM. That is the band where the founder is still involved in the pitch decision and where a specialty-focused website generates the highest measurable lift. Firms outside that band should still start a conversation if the fit feels right.
03 — Approach
How we work.
Four phases. No aesthetic games, no scope creep, no back-and-forth on things that don’t move the business.
Week 1
Discovery
We audit the current site with a compliance-native lens. Rule 206(4)-1 obligations, specialty surfacing, conversion friction. Because fee-only RIAs are the only type of firm we work with, we start Discovery already fluent in your CCO’s language.
Week 2
Strategy
We produce a written strategy document: positioning, audience segmentation, KPIs, sitemap. Client validation is required before any design work begins.
Weeks 3–4
Design and build
Wireframes first. Two visual directions on the homepage. Full page design after validation. Development on the delivery stack that best fits your maintenance capacity.
Week 5
Launch
Staging review. CCO compliance validation. DNS migration. Handover documentation. Final invoice.
Compliance
We aim for 1 to 2 CCO review rounds instead of the 3 to 4 a generic designer typically triggers. That’s the difference between a designer who has internalized the Marketing Rule and one who is learning it on your CCO’s time.
04 — Case studies
Every RIA site problem is specific.
These three case studies show how our method applies across different firm situations. All three are concept work produced by Wielden, not commissioned engagements. Observations reflect publicly available information only.
01
KB Financial Advisors
How a strong specialty positioning can carry Marketing Rule exposure that a targeted redesign eliminates without weakening what already works. 02WealthKeel LLC
How 15 years of accumulated trust can translate into on-site conversion without changing how the firm finds clients. 03MD Wealth Management
How a firm featured in Medical Economics, Medscape, and Investopedia can update its site to match the depth of its practice. Disclosure
All three case studies represent unsolicited redesign concepts. They do not imply any client relationship with the firms featured. All observations are based on publicly available site content and SEC filings.
05 — About
Founder-led. By design.
I’m Jeremie. Before starting Wielden, I spent years as a systems engineer designing infrastructure where every component had to justify itself with metrics. I bring the same instinct to Wielden. I work exclusively with fee-only RIAs. That focus is deliberate. The SEC Marketing Rule, the fiduciary standard, and the referral-dependency problem specific to RIAs shape every design decision I make. Not aesthetics. Business.
My background means I read your Form ADV differently than a designer typically would. I map segmentation to fee structure, growth pattern to positioning, compliance friction to workflow design. The website is one output of that analysis, not the analysis itself.
Wielden is a founder-led studio. I lead every engagement from Discovery through Launch. Nothing is handed off to a junior designer. Direct accountability is the point.
06 — Engagement tiers
Fixed fees. Published. Explicit.
Three engagement tiers. Fees are fixed and published. Timeline commitments are explicit. Payment is 50 percent at signature and 50 percent at final delivery.
Essentials
$4,500
3 weeks · 2 revision rounds
- Custom design of 5 to 7 pages
- Structure copy for each page
- Calendly and contact form integration
- Handover documentation
Best for: firms with modern content but a dated wrapper. You know your positioning; you need the site to express it.
Discuss Essentials on a callMost engagements land here
Growth
$6,800
4 weeks · 3 revision rounds
Everything in Essentials, plus
- Full copywriting produced via founder interview
- Testimonials section built to SEC Marketing Rule specifications
- Specialty-specific lead magnet (guide, calculator, or decision framework)
- Analytics setup and 90-day baseline documentation
Best for: firms ready to convert their referral trust into on-site trust.
Discuss Growth on a call
Premium
$10,500
5–6 weeks · 4 revision rounds
Everything in Growth, plus
- Positioning workshop with founder
- Dedicated specialty page with conversion-rate optimization
- Nurture email sequence (3 emails)
- One month of post-launch support and iteration
- Comprehensive 15+ item audit with prioritization matrix
Best for: firms treating the redesign as growth infrastructure, not a marketing project.
Discuss Premium on a callOn CCO validation
Every Wielden engagement includes explicit checkpoints for your Chief Compliance Officer to review compliance-relevant elements before launch. The client remains responsible for final validation, but the workflow is designed to minimize CCO friction. Typical outcome: 1 to 2 review rounds instead of the 3 to 4 a generic designer triggers.
07 — FAQ
Common questions.
Answers to what fee-only RIAs typically ask before booking a call.
Every project includes explicit checkpoints for your CCO to validate compliance-relevant elements before launch. Testimonials sections are built with the four required disclosures (client status, compensation, material conflicts, specific terms) in the same visual unit as the testimonial itself. Third-party ratings are displayed with methodology and compensation notes. General prohibition claims are audited before they reach the design phase. The client remains responsible for final compliance decisions, but the workflow is designed to minimize CCO review rounds. Typical outcome: 1 to 2 rounds instead of 3 to 4.
No. Wielden works exclusively with fee-only RIAs. The specialty focus means we start engagements already fluent in the vocabulary, the compliance framework, and the business model of the firms we serve. A generic design studio spends the first two or three weeks of a project learning what QSBS is or why PSLF matters to your physician clients. We start at week one.
Two to three engagements run in parallel at any given time. If capacity is full when you reach out, we schedule discovery calls and start dates accordingly. Timeline commitments are firm once signed.
Timelines shorter than three weeks compromise the compliance review, the copywriting depth, or both. Rushed RIA websites tend to trigger longer CCO cycles at the end, which cancels the time saved earlier. If you have a hard deadline, we discuss it in Discovery and either commit to it explicitly or decline the engagement.
You do, fully. IP transfers on final payment. The site runs on infrastructure you own and control. Hosting, domain, and analytics accounts remain in your name from day one. Wielden does not hold client assets hostage as a maintenance retention tactic.
The Premium tier includes one month of post-launch support. Beyond that, ongoing engagements are handled on a project basis rather than a retainer. Most RIA sites do not need monthly design work once launched. We prefer to be honest about that rather than sell a retainer that produces less value than the invoice suggests.
The three case studies published are concept work, not commissioned engagements. Once we complete commissioned work with fee-only RIA clients, testimonials will appear here with the same disclosures we build for our clients’ sites.
Fixed fees, no hourly billing. 50 percent invoiced at contract signature, 50 percent at final delivery. Stripe or Wise, USD. Late payments accrue 1.5 percent monthly interest per the contract. Refund policy is documented in the engagement letter.
08 — Next step
Book a call.
A 30-minute discovery call to understand your firm, walk through what a redesign would look like, and confirm the fit is real. No pitch, no follow-up sequence.
Before booking, it helps to have ready
- Your current site URL, so we can look at specific observations together
- A rough sense of your timeline and priorities for a redesign
- Where your qualified inquiries come from today, and where that plateaus
If the times shown do not work, email jeremie@wielden.com directly.
Wielden works with US-based fee-only RIAs · Discovery calls are in English