1
Where you stand
We gather every account, debt and paycheck, and map your cash flow so we start from facts.
- Net worth
- Cash flow map
- Account inventory
com-
Latin: with, together
Flat-fee planning · Johns Creek, Georgia
Freedom is never a straight line. We walk it with you.
A written plan, a number you can aim for, and a CPA and CFA beside you for every turn in between. One flat fee. Never a percentage of what you've saved.
Move your cursor. It turns toward you.
-path
The road from here to financial freedom
compass
From com + passus: “to measure by pacing”
How it fits together
Four services. One path.
Every piece hands off to the next. The Journey sets your number, your IPS puts the plan in writing, Monthly Monitoring keeps you on it, and Cairn shows you where you stand.
Six sessions
The Journey
We find where you stand, what matters, and the Freedom Number that makes work optional.
Signed by both of us
Your IPS
An Investment Policy Statement with target ranges for every asset class. The plan, in writing.
$200 / month
Monthly Monitoring
Every month I check your accounts against your IPS and tell you the next step. Revisited every year.
Client portal
Cairn by Compath
All your accounts in one view, measured against your plan. Every step, marked.
See inside CairnEvery dollar has a path
See where your money actually goes.
In the Journey we map your household cash flow end to end, so every saving decision is intentional. Hover a stream to trace it.
Illustrative household. Monthly take-home of $9,000.
The advisor who measures your advisor
Run your own numbers.
Two quick instruments: what a percentage fee really costs, and a first look at your Freedom Number.
Fee measure
A fare, not a cut.
Difference over 20 years
$102,000
Annual fees at a constant asset level, before any growth. A 1% advisory fee is a common industry benchmark. Monthly Monitoring is $200 per month; the Journey is quoted separately as a fixed fee.
Freedom Number
Know your number.
Portfolio that makes work optional
$1,350,000
A first sketch only. In the Journey we refine it for taxes, inflation, timing and the accounts you actually hold.
Small steps, kept faithfully
The next step matters more than the last ten.
A free 30-minute conversation. No products to sell, no pitch.
Services
The Journey, step by step.
Six fully customized sessions, led by your questions. Scroll and walk it.
2
What matters to you
Goals, values, giving and the people you provide for. The plan serves your life, not the reverse.
- Goals
- Giving
- Family
3
Your Freedom Number
The portfolio at which work becomes optional, built from your spending, Social Security and timing.
- Freedom Number
- Social Security timing
- Gap analysis
4
The plan, in writing
We draft your Investment Policy Statement: target allocations with ranges, and the rules we will both follow.
- Risk capacity
- Asset-class ranges
- IPS draft
5
Putting it in place
Clear instructions for every account, including the workplace plans you hold yourself. You keep custody of your money.
- Trade tickets
- 401(k) changes
- Account setup
6
The road ahead
We sign the IPS together, set your monitoring cadence, and agree on what would make us change course.
- Signed IPS
- Cairn access
- Next review
Investment Policy Statement
Your plan, in writing.
Every client gets an IPS: target weights and allowed ranges for each asset class, plus the rules for rebalancing. It takes effect only when both of us sign, and we revisit it every year.
- Ranges, not guesses, for every asset class
- Written rebalancing rules
- Annual revisit and re-signing
Investment Policy StatementSample · 2027
US stocks45%
Intl stocks20%
Bonds30%
Cash5%
Client
Advisor
Monthly Monitoring
Stay on the path, month by month.
Every month I measure each account against your IPS. When something drifts out of range, you get a plain trade ticket telling you exactly what to move. Ongoing sessions are included whenever life changes.
$200per month, flat. Never a percentage of your assets.
- Monthly drift check against your ranges
- Percentage trade tickets for held-away 401(k)s
- Annual IPS revisit
- Sessions when you need them
Cairn by Compath · sample client2 classes out of range
Progress to Freedom Number68%
Intl stocks27%
Bonds23%
Trade ticket · 401(k)
Intl index fund27% → 20%
Bond index fund23% → 30%
Second opinion
Already have an advisor? Let's measure the advice.
A compass measures by pacing. I take the same approach to your current plan: what you own, what you pay, and whether it fits the goal you actually have. You leave with a written assessment, whether or not you stay with me.
- All-in fee and fund-expense audit
- Allocation against your stated goals
- A written, plain-English assessment
Sample assessment
All-in annual cost
Fund expense ratios
Fit with your goals
Diversification
Higher is costlier for cost rows, better for fit rows. Illustrative only.
What I don't do
A clear scope, so you know what you're paying for.
I don't sell insurance, annuities or funds, and I don't take commissions. I don't prepare tax returns either; I coordinate with your tax preparer so your plan and your return agree.
Product salesNone
CommissionsNone
Fee tied to your assetsNone
Tax preparationCoordinated, not prepared
Your plan, your progress and your Freedom Number, in one private place.
Every step, marked.
A cairn is the stack of stones hikers leave to mark the trail. Cairn by Compath does the same for your plan, between our conversations and every month in between.
Inside Cairn
Five tabs. One plan.
Along the bottom of Cairn are five tabs, and everything in them traces back to the plan we build in your Journey. Here is what's behind each one.
Home
Where you stand, the moment you open it.
Your Freedom Number comes first: what you've saved, how far along that puts you, and what's still to go. Below it sit Social Security for both of you, your mix against your IPS, and my latest note with your next step.
- Every account in one view, in today's dollars
- Social Security read from your own statements
- One next step, with a due date
Progress
What you saved, and what markets did with it.
Saving is the part you control, so Cairn puts it first. Each month shows what you put in beside what markets added or took away, and your return is measured against your IPS targets held in index funds.
- Time-weighted returns, so deposits don't flatter them
- Three months, this year, twelve months or since you joined
Glidepath
Try the road ahead before you walk it.
Change how much you save, when you retire or what markets do, and see when you reach your Freedom Number. The shaded band shows where 8 in 10 market paths land. Nothing you try here changes your plan.
- Your stock and bond mix glides as retirement nears
- Save a scenario to talk through at your next session
Journey
Six sessions, then a note every month.
Book time with me, see where you are in the six sessions, keep track of your tasks, and find the notes from every session and every monthly check-in in one place.
- Book or move a meeting with me yourself
- Notes from every session, kept in order
More
Everything else, one tap away.
My plan holds your signed IPS and how your Freedom Number is built. Income turns the plan into a monthly retirement paycheck. Accounts, Documents and Billing sit right beside them.
- My plan
- Income
- Accounts
- Documents
- Billing
Screens from Cairn, shown with an illustrative household. Not a real client, and not a projection.
Private by design
Your data, treated as yours.
Read-only by design
Accounts link through Plaid with read-only access. Cairn never sees or stores your bank passwords, and it cannot move money.
In Cairn: AccountsDocuments, encrypted
Statements, tax returns and your signed IPS, stored privately and encrypted. Each file opens through a link that works for one minute, only for you.
In Cairn: DocumentsSign in your way
A passkey, Google or a one-time code. Cairn is invite-only, so the only people inside are Compath clients and me.
In Cairn: Sign-in and securityCairn by Compath
Your plan, kept in view.
Every Compath client gets Cairn. Start with a free 30-minute conversation, with no products to sell.
About Compath
A companion for the whole path.
Compath is a single-advisor practice founded by Kevin Shin, CPA, CFA. It exists for families who want financial stability through discipline and sound advice.
Kevin ShinFounder & CEO
CPACertified Public Accountant
CFACFA charterholder
BBAEmory University
GAJohns Creek & Duluth area
I've spent my career in financial operations: reconciliations, wires, intercompany books, the plumbing that has to be right every single time. Along the way I earned my CPA and my CFA charter, and I started mentoring friends and families on their finances for free.
The same thing showed up every time. The families who were going to be fine weren't the clever ones or the lucky ones. They were the ones who took one good step every month and didn't stop. Most had never been told their number. Nobody had written their plan down. And many were paying a percentage of everything they'd saved for advice they couldn't measure.
Compath is the practice I wanted those families to have. A flat fee. A written plan we both sign. A number you know. And a companion who stays on the path with you, because it's never a straight line for anybody.
Kevin Shin, CPA, CFA
The name
Say it COM-path. With you on the path.
comtogether, with
+
passusa step, a pace
=
compassto measure by pacing
The word compass already holds everything we do: walking together, one step at a time, measuring as we go. Compath keeps the instrument and names the road.
The mark
The trail starts where the needle points.
Look at the O. Its needle sets a bearing, and the dotted path leaves from exactly that point. It rises and dips before it reaches the star above the H, because nobody's road to freedom is straight. The bearing holds.
Values
What keeps the bearing true.
Rooted in faith, open to everyone. You don't need to share my beliefs to be served by them.
Small steps, kept faithfully
Wealth is built by ordinary, repeated decisions. We favor discipline over timing and steadiness over excitement.
“Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much.” Luke 16:10Measure honestly
Every recommendation is checked against your plan, including mine. If something isn't working, you'll hear it from me first.
“A just balance and scales are the Lord's.” Proverbs 16:11Fees in plain sight
One flat fee, stated up front. My pay never rises because your balance did, so my advice never depends on it.
No commissions. No products. No percentage.Plans in writing
Your IPS is signed by both of us. Written rules protect you from panic and protect you from me.
“Write the vision; make it plain.” Habakkuk 2:2Walk with you
A plan is a beginning. You get a companion for the long road, through markets, job changes, babies and retirements.
“Two are better than one.” Ecclesiastes 4:9Stay in our lane
Wealth advice, done well. Taxes are prepared by tax professionals; I coordinate with them so nothing falls through.
Knowing what we don't do is part of the plan.What you can expect from me
- A written plan you understand and sign
- Straight answers, including “I don't know yet”
- The same fee whether markets rise or fall
- Your data treated as yours
What I'll ask of you
- Honesty about your spending and your goals
- Patience when markets are loud
- One next step at a time
- A call before any big decision
Take the first step
Start with a conversation.
Thirty minutes, free, with no products to sell. We'll talk about where you are and whether the Journey fits.
- Tell me a littleThe short form here. Nothing sensitive yet.
- Introductory callWe talk about your goals and I explain exactly how fees work.
- Begin the JourneySix sessions, at your pace, ending with a signed IPS.